Dictionary of Proper Names
Selected from Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works (1989/1996)
G
Gabriel an archangel, Guardian Angel, in Judaism, he is in Christianity & Islam an Angel or Messenger of God.
Gades Roman name of oldest extant urban settlement in Spain, on a promontory south of the Baetis (Guadalquivir) estuary near the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar). It was a onetime rival of Phoenicia, & its wealth was derived from trade.
Gaebele Jean Henri Frederic (1860-1936) settled in Pondicherry in 1884. Senator of Upper House of France, Mayor of Pondicherry (1899 & 1908-28), he headed many local organizations. In the 1914 election to the French Chamber, he supported Bluysen. In 1918 he opposed British demand for Sri Aurobindo’s extradition.
Madame Gaebele Yvonne Robert Gaebele (1888-1974?), wife of Jean Henri’s son Robert, & a devotee of Mother who gave her the name Suvratā (who upholds her vows). As Librarian & Archivist of Pondicherry she wrote several books including Histoire de Pondichéry, published in 1960; she was also President of the Commission for Historical Monuments, President of the History Society, Laureate of the French Academy, & Chevalier de Legion d’Honeur. She returned to France in 1972.
Gaekwad (Gaikwar/ Gaekwar) gae-kaiwāri, one who fights for cow-protection, pseudonym of a Maratha Kshatriya clan of Bhare, a village in Haveli Tāluk of Pune. Around 1700, Dāmāji, one of its youngsters, joined a contingent of the Maratha army under Senāpati Khanderao Dabhāde for the Maratha king Rajaram & by the time Dabhāde died & his son Triambakrao had been appointed in his place, Dāmāji had risen to be Deputy Senāpati. His nephew Pilāji, whom he had adopted & trained, took over his command after his death. Pilāji proved a master strategist in leading raids into Gujarat & exacting tribute & by 1718 he headed a force of 300 horses. After he looted & defeated the Moghul Subā of Surat, Dabhāde rewarded him with the jāgir of Navāpur (c.100km east of Surat) in Khāndesh (q.v.). The next year, he conquered the fort of Songadh on hills just west of Navāpur, defeating the Mewāsi Bhils who held it. He settled in their tribal village of Vyārā at the foothills with his army of 1000 horses. He captured the fort of Kaira, made the Rajas of Idar & Rajpipla his tributaries & resumed his tribute-collecting raids. By 1758, he conquered the entire stretch of Kāṭhiāwād from Pālanpur in the north to Dwārkā in the west, & brought the whole of Gujarat under his control, but ignored to pay what he legally owed to his principals at Pune, thus inviting the enmity of Peshwa Bājirao. This enmity had a crippling effect upon the fortunes of the Gaikwāds & drove them into making disastrous alliances with the British which, ultimately, caused their own ruin & that of the entire Mahratta Confederacy in 1818. To add to the dynasty’s woes, Pilāji’s descendant, Malharrao Gaikwād ruined the good relations with the British that his brother Khanderao (whom he succeeded in 1870) had built; ignored the advice of his Dewan Dadabhai Naoroji to clean up the rot in his administration & brought on the worst disgrace the dynasty had ever suffered. In 1875, on a trumped up charge (the trademark of British Protective measure) of his having sanctioned the attempt to poison his predecessor Col. Phayre, Resident & Special Commissioner, General Sir R.J. Mead (1821-94) court-martialled & convicted Malharrao & Northbrook (Viceroy 1872-75) deposed & exiled him & his family to Madras! Public censure of this criminal action came not only from the people of Baroda but also the Bengali Press as noted by B.C. Pal in My Life & Times. After crushing Malharrao, Col. Robert Phayre led the Reserve Division in Afghan war 1879-80, Knight Commander of the Bath 1881: led a Division of Bombay Army 1881-6, retired 1886: General 1889: Knight Grand Cross of the Bath 1894: died in 1897 &, saluted, surely, by the Angels of the Christian Heaven! In May 1875, Khanderao’s widow Jamnābai adopted, 12 year-old Gopal, a distant relative living in Khāndesh & renamed him Sayājirao III. [Based on Fatehsingh, Sayājirao of Baroda – The Prince & the Man, 1989; Hasit Buch, Maharaja Sayājirao III, M.S. University, 1988; Karandikar; Buckland]
Galen (129-c.199 BC), Greek physician, founded Europe’s experimental physiology.
Galilean native of Galilee (northern Palestine), epithet of Jesus, also used for his apostles.
Galileo Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Italian astronomer, mathematician, physicist, he proved that the earth revolves round the sun, not vice versa as imposed by Christian theology; tried by the Inquisition & imprisoned, he was allowed to live in seclusion near Florence after he recanted his ‘blasphemy’.
Gallican ancient church of Gaul or France; also belonging to the French Roman Catholic school following Bossuet & claiming partial autonomy. The Gallicans held that the French monarch had special rights in the Roman Catholic Church in France.
Gallio, Junius Annaeus (c.5BC-65AD), who dismissed charges against St Paul.
Gallo-Lombard French-Lombard (see Lombardy)
Gandhamadan Mount Meru of Ilāvarta which bears a forest of its pristine fragrance (gandh). Gandhamadan divides Ilāvarta from Bhadrasva, to the east of Meru.
Gāndhāra(s) the kingdom of Gāndhāra straddled the river Indus. To the west of the river lay its constituency of Pushkalāvatī or Purūshapūra, abode of the Purusha. On the east of Indus was the realm of its capital Takshashilā (currently under the Bhir Mound near Saraikala, 20 miles NW of Rawalpindi). Mehrgarh, located in this region & part of the Indus Valley civilization, was, at one time, the oldest township in the world (8000 BC) excavated by archaeologists. Takshashilā was founded, according to Rāmāyana, by Rāma’s brother Bharata, & named after his son, Taksha, its first ruler. Tradition affirms, that the Mahābhārata was first recited in this city. During the Mahābhārata period, Gāndhāra was culturally & politically closely linked to India; & exchanges between the royal families of Gāndhāra & Hastināpūra were well established & intense. The natives of Gāndhāra, the Gāndharvas, are described in the Vedas as cosmic beings. They are spoken of in the Saṁhitās & later literature, such as Nāṭya Shāstra, as a jāti (race) that raised the art of music to the greatest height & refer to it as gāndharva. This made Gāndhāra a great confluence of the musical traditions of the East & the Mediterranean. ― Bharat Gupt: “The very art, thus, came to be known by the name of the region & was so called by it even in the heartland of India. This name, gāndharva, continued to be used for music for centuries to come. In the Vāyu Purana one of the nine divisions of Bhāratavarsha is called Gāndharva.” Besides early references in the Vedas, Ramayana & Mahābhārata, Gāndhāra was the locus of ancient Indian-Persian interaction of trade & culture. Gāndhāra territory was part of the regions invaded in the 6th cent. B.C. by Cyrus (c.558-530), the founder of the Achaemenian empire of Persia & began to appear prominently among the subject nations in the early inscriptions of Darius I (522-486 BC) the most illustrious among the successors of Cyrus.” The earliest epigraphic record of Indi-Persian relations is believed to be the Behistun inscription executed by the orders of the Persian Emperor Darius I which mentions the people of Gāndhāra as his subjects. Darius’s inscriptions at Hamādān, Persepolis, & Naqshi-i-Rūstum also mention this same fact. [C.H.I.–I, pp. 334-36; Sen, Old Persian Inscriptions] Greek historians who accompanied Alexander described Takshashilā as wealthy, prosperous, & well governed &, as conquerors had to rename it Taxila. Apart from early Sanskrit literature Purūshapūra is mentioned in the writings of the Greek classical historians Strabo & Arrian, & Ptolemy.
Chandragupta Maurya’s grandson Ashoka’s introduction of Buddhism into Gāndhāra developed it into a major Buddhist intellectual hub for centuries with Bamiyan (whose giant Buddhist statues were destroyed by the Taliban) becoming one of its important Buddhist cities. For three generations Takshashilā was a provincial capital of the Maurya Empire. Buddhist literature, especially the Jātakas, mentions it as a great centre of learning. Even a thousand years after Buddha, Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Fa-hsien described it as a thriving centre of Buddhism. It was a major Buddhist intellectual hub for centuries. Thousands of statues & stūpas once dominated its landscape. By the time Hiuen-Tsang visited from China, Takshashilā had been destroyed by the Kushāns; & in the 1st century, Kushān emperor Kanishka I made Purūshapūra his capital. The empire of Kanishka I & his successors were acknowledged as one of the four great Eurasian powers of their time, the others being China, Rome, & Parthia). The Kushāns further spread Buddhism to Central Asia & China, & developed Mahāyāna Buddhism & the Gāndhāra & Mathura Schools of art. The Kushāns became affluent through trade, particularly with exports to Rome. Their coins & art are witness to the tolerance & syncretism in religion & art that prevailed in the region. The Gāndhāra School incorporated many motifs from classical Roman art, but the basic iconography remained Indian. Gāndhāra & Sindh were considered parts of India since ancient times, as historian André Wink explains: “From ancient times both Makran & Sindh had been regarded as belonging to India [which] definitely did extend beyond the present provinces of Sindh & Makran, the whole of Baluchistan, part of Punjab, & the North-West Frontier Province.” The worship of Shiva as the Lord of Himalayas, the cosmic pivot, in Gāndhāra & its neighbouring countries, represented a prominent background to classical Shaivism. Wink writes: “…Quandhāra... was the religious centre of the kingdom where the cult of the Shaivite god Zun was performed on a hilltop…” ─ “…the god Zun or Zhun ’s… shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain, & still existing in the later ninth century… famous as a pilgrimage centre devoted to Zun. In China, this god’s temple became known as the temple of Su-na… worship of Zun might be related to that of the old shrine of the sun-god Āditya at Multan. In any case, the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian.” – “[A] connection of Gāndhāra with Shiva & Dūrga is now well-established. The pre-eminent character of Zun or Sun was that of a mountain god; a connection with mountains also predominates in the composite religious configuration of Shiva....” ― “Gāndhāra fell under Arab rule in the 7th century. Purūshapūra was captured by the Muslims in 988 AD. In the 10th century Gāndhāra came under the rule of the Ghaznavids. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan, then by the Turkic conqueror Timur, & then by their direct descendent Babur who built 40 giant steps up a hill, cut out of the solid limestone, leading to inscriptions recording details of his holy conquests. His grandson Akbar disinfected Purūshapūra by renaming it Peshawar. Scholars & the media seem afraid to assert that the soil of Afghanistan is historically sacred to Buddhists & Hindus, in the same manner as Jerusalem is to Jews & the Kaaba is to Muslims. Today’s infamous Bamiyan caves were once home to thousands of Buddhist monks & Hindu Rishis, who did their meditation & attained enlightenment there.”
[Based mainly on “How ‘Gāndhāra’ became ‘Quandhāra’ by Rajiv Malhotra, Infinity Foundation From: website rajibmalhotra.com. Mr Malhotra quotes: Bharat Gupt, “Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian – A Study of Poetics & Nātyashāstra”, D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd., New Delhi, India, 19941, pp. 21-23; André Wink, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World; Volume I – Early Medieval India & the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries, OUP, New Delhi 1999, p.144-46; John Marshall, Taxila, 3 vol. (1951, 1975); Radha Kumud Mookerjii, Ancient Indian Education. 4th ed. (1969); Malhotra adds: “For a general study of Taxila as an ancient city, see Stuart Piggott, Some Cities of Ancient India (1945); B.N. Puri, Cities of Ancient India (1966); Ahmad Hasan Dani, The Historic City of Taxila (1986); & Saifur Rahman Dar, Taxila and the Western World (1984); Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1993, Vol. 11, pp. 585-586; Vol. 9, p. 321; Vol. 6, pp. 710-711; Vol. 21, p.41, Students’ Britannica India, Vol. 2, pp. 137-138. Vol. 5, p. 121-123”; also S. Bhattacharya; R.C. Majumdar et al, Advanced History of India: 54, 61, 62, 93-94, 95-96]
Gāndhāran Buddha The Gāndhāra School of sculptures has attained a celebrity beyond its merits. There was a time when European scholars considered it as the only school in ancient India. Many still regard it as the source of all subsequent development of art in India & the Far East. The Gāndhāra sculptures have been found in the ruins of Takshashilā & in various sites in Afghanistan & West Pakistan. They consist mostly of images of Buddha & relief-sculptures representing scenes from Buddhist texts. Some technical characteristics easily distinguish them from all other specimens of Indian sculptures. In the first place, there is a tendency to mould the human body in a realistic manner with great attention to accuracy of physical details, especially the delineation of muscles & the addition of moustaches, etc. Secondly, the representation of the thick drapery with large & bold fold-lines forms a distinct characteristic. These distinguishing characteristics of Gāndhāra sculpture were undoubtedly derived from Greek art, or, to be more precise, the Hellenic art of Asia Minor & the Roman Empire. Gāndhāra art is accordingly known also as indo-Greek or Graeco-Roman. There is also, no doubt that this art owed its origin to the Greek rulers of Bactria & North-West India. But though the technique was borrowed from Greece, the art was essentially Indian in spirit, & it was solely employed to give expression to the beliefs & practices of Buddhists. With a few exceptions, no Greek story or legend, & no Greek art motif had been detected among the numerous specimens of Gāndhāra sculpture. The Gāndhāra artist had the hand of a Greek but the heart of an Indian. The most important contribution of Gāndhāra art was the evolution of an image of Buddha, perhaps an imitation of a Greek God like Apollo. Fine images of Buddha & Bodhisattva, & relief-sculptures illustrating various episodes of Buddha’s present & past lives, are remarkably executed in a kind of black stone. ― There is a striking difference between the Buddha images of Gāndhāra & those of the Indian interior. The former laid stress on accuracy of anatomical details & physical beauty, while the latter strove towards imparting a sublime & spiritual expression to the figure. The one was realistic & the other idealistic & this may be regarded as the vital difference between Western & Indian art. The Gāndhāra sculptures accordingly offer a striking contrast to what we meet elsewhere in India, viz., the smooth round features of idealised human figures, draped in transparent or semi-transparent cloth, closely fitting to the body & revealing its outline. It may be added that both the Mathurā & Gāndhāra schools of flourished under the lavish patronage of Scythian kings. [An Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al, pp.227-28]
Gāndhāri an incarnation of Mati, goddess of Wisdom. The Mahābhārata often refers to her as Gāndhāra-rāja-dūhita, as she was the only princess of Gāndhāra, but also as Saubaleyi, Saubali, Subalaja, Subalaputri, & Subalātmaja – all meaning daughter of King Subala. Similarly, Shakuni, the youngest son of Subala is called Saubala. Gāndhāri obtained a boon from Shiva to also have a hundred sons. Bhīṣma heard of this, he went to Subala & asked him to marry her to Dhṛitarāṣṭra. The belief that Subala accepted because refusing a proposal of almighty Bhīṣma meant inviting suicide, & the fact that his sister not only willingly marry the blind king but bound her eyes, led to Shakuni’s intense hatred towards Hastināpura. His hatred & scheming thus became another key factor leading to the holocaust at Kurukshetra. In the end, when all her sons & brothers had perished, heartbroken Gāndhāri blamed Sri Krishna for not employing divine powers to prevent her ruin, & by the spiritual force of her Satitwa (chastity) cursed that his entire Yādava Kūla would self-destruct, & it did come about.
Gāndharva(~i)/ Gāndharva in the Veda, Lord of hosts of Delight; in Puranas, musicians of Heaven. In Sri Aurobindo’s words, “beautiful, brave & melodious beings, the artists, musicians, poets & shining warriors of heaven” who, with Yakshas (q.v.) & Kinnaras (q.v.) form a class of beings “whose unifying characteristic is material ease, prosperity & a beautiful, happy & undisturbed self-indulgence”.
Gāndharvi in the Veda, a personified power that holds the rays of the Sun of Truth.
Gāndiva the divine bow given to Arjūna by Lord Agni with two inexhaustible quivers.
Ganen Maharaj Ganen Tagore (18847-1941), manager of Ramakrishna Mission’s Udbodhan office & its publications who, in 1909-10, as a link between Sri Aurobindo & Sister Nivedita, frequently visited Sri Aurobindo’s Karmayogin office.
Ganga Math/ Ganganath hill-temple on the Narmada, about three & a half miles from Chāndod near the ashram of Swami Brahmānanda.
Gangoly, O.C. Ordhendra Cumar Gangoly (1881-1974), as secretary of the Indian Society of Oriental Arts, he edited the Society’s journal Rupam. Honoured by several institutions like the Fine Arts Academy & the Asiatic Society, he authored books on Indian art, music & sculpture, including South Indian Bronzes.
Maharaja Ganpatrao eldest of three son of Sayājirao II succeeded his father in 1847; his brother Khanderao who succeeded him in 1856 sided with the Paramount Power in the uprising of 1857 but ran an administration which looked to the best interests of his subjects. His younger brother Malharrao, who succeeded him in 1870, mishandled the affairs of state & the Octopus deposed & exiled him on trumped charges in 1875. That year, Khanderao’s widow Jamnābai adopted a distant relative who in 1881 became Sayājirao III who employed Sri Aurobindo. [S. Bhattacharya]
Gārgi daughter of Vachaknu & wife of Yajñavalkya; her dialogues with the Rishi appear in 6th & 8th Brāhmaṇas of the 3rd chapter of Brihadāranyaka Upanishad.
Gārgya (descendant of Rishi Gārgi) the patronymic of Bālāki, who is mentioned in the second varhs’a (list of teachers) in the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad.
Garibaldi Giuseppe (1807-82), Italian patriot & soldier, a leading figure in the Risorgimento, the period (1815-70) of Italian national unification.
Gāros an indigenous people who call themselves Achik Mande or simply Achik (soil) or Mande (people). Emigrants of Tibotgre (Tibet) around 400 BC under the leadership of Jappa Jalimpa, they crossed Brahmaputra & settled in Gāro Hills. In December 1872, the tentacles of the all-mighty Octopus slithered into their land from south, east & west. Gāro spears, swords & shields confronted guns & mortars at Rongrenggre under Togan Nengminja whose heroism & courage did not save him or his warriors. Sonaram R. Sangmā tried to unify the contiguous Gāro inhabited areas to fight the invader which one of the Octopus’ ‘eye-witness’ describes: “They were bloodthirsty savages, who inhabited a tract of hills covered with almost impenetrable jungle, the climate of which was considered so deadly as to make it impossible for a white man to live there.” [Playfair, 1909:76-77]. So the benevolent Octopus ‘saved the souls & minds & bodies’ of the vulnerable with its Churches, lāthis & schools, while the stubborn few clung to their own identities, Songsarek (religion), & Dakbewal (tradition) that for centuries had ensured their all-round welfare. One of the few remaining matrilineal societies in the world, while women own the property, it is managed by the men who also govern the society & domestic affairs. Individuals take their clan titles from their mothers. Traditionally, the nokmechik (youngest daughter) inherits the property; sons leave home at puberty, are trained in the village nokpante (bachelor dormitory) where all get equal care, rights & importance; after marriage they live in the wife’s house. The Garos are the second-largest tribe in Meghalaya after the Khāsis (q.v.) & a minority in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling & West Dinajpur of West Bengal, as well as in Nagaland.
Mr Garth son of Sir Richard, member of Anglo-Indian Defence Association.
Garth, Sir Richard (1820-1903), son of Rev. Richard Garth: Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court 1875-86: knighted 1875: Privy Councillor 1889: wrote A few Plain Truths about India. In 1890, C.R. Das went to London to qualify the ICS. He failed in 1892 & sat again in 1893 & passed 43rd. That year only 42 instead of the 50 as previously announced were taken in. In his letter Sir Richard wrote to senior Mr Das he said: “I tried my best, but the fiery speeches of your son at Oldham have spoiled everything. I could not persuade the India Office.” [Buckland; Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Hemendranath Das Gupta, Builders of Modern India Series, 1960, 1969, 1977]
Garūda/ Garooda syena in the Vedas & in later texts Garūda the vāhāna (vehicle) of Lord Vishnu, he symbolises the Vedas. His five forms Satya, Suparna, Garūda, Tarkshya, & Vihageshwara represent the five vāyus (q.v.) which, mastered through Pranayama, lead to the awakening of the Kundalini Shakti. In Mahābhārata, Garūda is eldest of the 100 sons of Kashyapa’s second wife Kadru. Gārudi Vidyā is the Mantra by which he is said to protect his devotee from any snake poison. In Tamil Vaishnavism Garūda & Hanuman are resp. Periya & Siriya Thiruvadi.
Gath ancient Philistine city of Palestine, on the borders of Judah. It was the home of the biblical giant Goliath & a refuge for the David who killed the giant.
Gathina Kaushika Vedic Rishi, son of Kushika, believed to be father of Vishwāmitra who therefore is known as Gathina Vishwāmitra.
Gauḍa see Bengal.
Gaudapada 7th century commentator on some Upanishads & Sānkhyakarikal.
Gaul ancient designation for the land south & west of the Rhine, west of the Alps & north of the Pyrenees, i.e. what is presently France, Belgium, West Germany, & northern Italy. An inhabitant of this ancient, region was also called a Gaul.
Gaupāyanas / Laupāyanas four Rishi-sons of Gopa, authors of Rig-Vedic verses.
Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga, brilliantly white-bodied, epithet of Sri Chaitanya.
Gauri a name of Pārvati.
Gautama believed to a Saptarishi of the present Manvantara & author of Gautama Dharma Sutra, he was the father of Nodha, Vāmadeva & Shatānanda. Gautama is a patronymic of the rishis who descendants of Rishi Gotama; several of them are mentioned in Brihadāranyaka. The Katha Upanishad uses it for Nachiketas & his father Vaja-shravasa. The Rig-Veda refers to them as Gotamas.
Gavis(h)thira ‘steadfast in the Light’, a descendant of Atri.
Gawain nephew of King Arthur, who was a model of knightly perfection.
Gayakawādā Karandikar: Learning that the Gaikwād of Baroda proposed to dispose of his property situated in the heart of the city of Pune, Tilak had started negotiations for the purchase of the property in 1904. The amount of Rs 15,400/-, which was ascertained as the market price of the property, was paid on 28th January 1905. Friends like Khaparde, who visited Poona in February to attend the marriage ceremony of one of Tilak’s daughters, were satisfied when they learnt that the Tilak family & Tilak’s papers would soon be shifted to this new place. [Karandikar: 210-11] Thereafter the building became known as Sardar Griha.
Prof. Geddes Sir Patric Geddes (1854-1932), Scottish biologist, sociologist, town planner, & professor at Edinburgh, London, Aberdeen, St. Andrew’s, & Bombay.
Genesis relates the genesis of Israel & its people in Old Testament. For Christian missionaries, scholars & laity “Genesis narrates the primeval history of the world (sic) & the patriarchal history of the Israelite people.” [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
King George George V; George Frederick Ernest Albert (1865-1936), King of Great Britain & Ireland (1910-36). After his coronation (1911) he visited India & held a durbar at Delhi. (1) “Lord Hardinge, who succeeded Lord Minto, had been just over a year in office when he was catapulted into the imperial pomp & pageantry of King George V’s Coronation Durbar. The dazzling ceremony took place in Delhi, ‘the ancient seat of civilisation & Empire’ to which the imperial capital of India was moved from the modern metropolis of Calcutta. To mark the occasion, His Imperial Majesty announced the unsettling of the ‘settled fact’ of the partition of Bengal.” (2) “His Majesty made two famous announcements in the Durbar. One was the creation of the Presidency of Bengal under a Governor. Bihar, Orissa & Chōta Nāgpur were separated from it & formed into a Province under a Lt. Governor, while Assam was restored as a Chief-Commissionership. (Both were subsequently placed under Governors.) The other was the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. The Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, was severely criticized for recommending these measures, but time to a large extent justified his policy. Although terrorist outrages were not stamped out altogether, there was a considerable improvement in the general situation, & feelings against the British grew much less bitter. [(1) [Durga Das, India-From Curzon to Nehru & After, London, 1969; (2) R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhuri, Kalikinkar Datta, An Advanced History of India]
George George William Frederick (1738-1820), King of Great Britain & Ireland (1760-1820), a controversial & often unpopular figure.
Georgian work of an assortment of British poets of early 20th century, mostly minor poets writing conventional lyric verse of late Romantic character.
Georgics didactic poem of 2,188 hexameter lines in four books by Virgil.
Germanicus Germanicus Caesar (15BC-19AD), popular Roman general.
Gethsemane olive grove near east of Jerusalem.
Ghadge, Tārā Bai daughter of Khanderao Gaekwād & Mahārāni Jamnābai she was born in July 1871. She had been taking carriage allowance without keeping any carriage. Sayājirao came to know of this in 1903, & fined the officers concerned. [Hasit H. Buch’s Maharaja Sayājirao III, M.S. Univ., Baroda, 1988; Karandikar; Fatehsingh Rao Gaekwād’s Sayājirao..., 1989]
Ghatotkacha son of Bhīma & Hidimbā, who saved Arjūna by fighting so devastatingly that Duryodhana ordered Karṇa to kill him with Indra’s inescapable missile. Karṇa was unwilling, as he had obtained it from Indra to kill Arjūna & knew that he could use it only once.
Ghōra descendant of Aṇgiras, mentioned as a teacher in the Kauṣītakī Brāhmaṇa & in the Chhandogya Upanishad, where he is the teacher of Krishna, son of Devaki.
Ghoshal, Saralā (Devi) (9 Sept.1872–18 Aug.1945), daughter of Jānakinātha Ghosal (one of the earliest secretaries of the Bengal Congress) & Swarnakumari Devi (first woman novelist of Bengali literature) who was the daughter of Debendranath Tagore. Saralā Devi had passed her University Entrance examination in 1886 & B.A. (English literature) at Calcutta University receiving the Padmāvati Gold Medal & maintained links with the revolutionary Suhrid Samiti of Mymensingh. ― Saralā-devi: “At the Benares Congress of 1905, I & my husband (Chaudhuri Rambhuj Datta, q.v.) were putting up in tents. One morning we were taken by surprise by a call from Lōkamānya Tilak. He walked up with a friend…. On leaving us the Lōkamānya went round the grounds calling on several other persons. Unlike many a National leader filled with overweening egotism & self-importance he never felt too proud to show regard & esteem to compatriots of whatever school of thought or following they might be.” [For her complete reminiscence on Tilak see Tilak] ― In 1920 Nov-Dec 1920, Saralā Devi interviewed Sri Aurobindo (see Khilāfat Agitation). She met Sri Aurobindo again between 1921 & 1926, with Colonel Joshua Wedgewood, a member of the British Parliament. [Purani, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 2007]
Ghose, A.K. Ashwini Kumar Ghose (b.1880), leader of the Bengali labour movement.
Ghose, Barindra Kumar/ Barin (1880-1959), Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother, born at Croydon, England. He passed the entrance examination from Deoghar School & First Year Arts from Dacca University. Around 1902 he went to stay with Sri Aurobindo at Baroda. Here he became filled with the urge to prepare the country for a revolutionary movement for freedom from British subjection. The scheme of Bhawāni Mandir was mainly his idea, &, though it did not materialize, Barindra tried to establish something like it on a small scale in Manicktolla Gardens near Calcutta. (See Bhattacharya Abinash). Early in 1908 the police came to know of his activities & in May he & many others were arrested & tried in Alipore Bomb Case. He was awarded the death sentence by the Sessions Judge but the Appellate Court reduced it to life-imprisonment. Released from the Andamans in 1920, he worked for Sri Aurobindo in Bengal, & lived in Pondicherry from 1923 to Dec.25, 1929.
Ghose, Biren (b.1840) joined Barindra’s group at the Manicktolla Garden; tried with them in the Alipore Bomb Trial & convicted, he was acquitted at the Sessions Court.
Ghose, Hemendra Prasad (1876-1962), employed on the editorial staff of Bande Mataram; he later worked for various journals while continuing with Bāsumati.
Ghose, Kali Prasanna (1843-1910), scholar of Bengali, Sanskrit, English, European history, psychology: editor of Bāndhava: conferred titles Rai Bahadur & Vidyāsāgara.
Ghose, K.D. Dr Krishna Dhan Ghose (1844-92), father of Sri Aurobindo, was a successful & popular physician in the Bengal Civil Medical Service. Manmohan to Laurence Binyon on 28 July, 1887: “We have no family relation to Lalmohan Ghose whatever, but his brother, who bears the same name as myself is a great friend of my father’. All the Ghoses came originally from the Punjab on the Afghan border. The word means ‘fame’, & they were a tribe of the proud warrior caste. But our family has sadly come down; the family house or palace, a very noble building, I believe, not far from Calcutta, is quite in ruins. My father when a boy, was very poor, living almost entirely by the charity of friends; & it is only thro’ his superhuman perseverance that we have to some degree retrieved ourselves.” [The Life of Sri Aurobindo, “Childhood & Education”, 1958, p.11-12] ― Krishnadhan had a meritorious school & college career. He passed the Entrance Examination of the Calcutta University from the local school in 1858 & then proceeded to the Calcutta Medical College. In 1864 he married Swarnalata, eldest daughter of Rishi Rajnarayan Bose; went to UK in 1869 & returned in 1871 with a further degree in Medicine from Aberdeen University (see Scotland) & with the conviction that India could transform herself overnight if possible into another Britain. ― “The majority of Britons at home have very little appreciation of what that intangible yet amazingly real & valuable export – the British Way of Life – means to colonial people; & they seem to give little thought to the fantastic phenomenon of races so very different from themselves in pigmentation, & widely scattered geographically, assiduously identifying themselves with British loyalties, beliefs & traditions…. The ties which bind the coloured Colonies to Britain are strong…. By dint of careful saving or through hard-won scholarships many of them arrive in Britain to be educated in the Arts & Sciences & the varied processes of legislative & administrative government. They come, bolstered by a firm, conditioned belief that Britain & the British stand for all that is best in both Christian & Democratic terms; in their naïveté they ascribe these high principles to all Britons, without exception.” [E.R. Braithwaite, “To Sir, With Love”, Penguin, New York, 1987, pp.39-41]
Appointed Civil Medical Officer of Rungpur, Dr Ghose proved a sympathetic & effective physician & health officer, a selfless philanthropist extremely generous to the poor & earned the love & respect of the people as well as the esteem of the local officials due to which he could take a prominent part in Rungpur’s civic life. In 1883, vexed & alarmed at his immense popularity & indispensable assistance, the new magistrate had him transferred to Bankura & within a year again to Khulna, where he spent the rest of his life. Neither his wife’s madness, nor seclusion from neighbours & relatives, nor the inevitable betrayal by British ‘friends’ who had imparted their habit of solace in drink, were the root cause of his death. Brajendranath De, the Magistrate-Collector of Khulna & a close friend of Dr. Ghose writes: “He believed up to the very end that his son had been admitted into the ICS, & was in fact coming out to India. He, in fact, took a month’s leave (4th September to 25th October) to go & meet him in Bombay & bring him back in triumph, but he could not get any definite news as to when he was coming out & returned from Bombay in a very depressed frame of mind. Sometime after he returned to Khulna, he was informed by his bankers, the Grindlay & Co., that Sri Aurobindo was arriving on S.S. Roumania which was to leave Liverpool in October from England in 1892. Early in December, the doctor sent a cable asking Grindlay’s when the ship was to berth at Bombay. However, the Roumania was wrecked on 27th October in heavy weather off the coast of Portugal with hardly any survivors. Dr. Ghose, misinformed by the Grindlay that Sri Aurobindo was on board, died on hearing the news. It was after getting a reply telegram from Grindlay of this disaster that he expired with the name “Arā” on his lips. According to Sarojini, he was on the point of getting into his tandem one evening when the reply telegram arrived. After reading the message he put one foot on the footboard &, while raising his other foot, fell down. He was carried indoors & placed on his bed. .... I had to take the body to the cremation grounds. The whole town poured in at the cremation ground to have a last look at its beloved doctor.” On 15th December, Amrita Bazar Patrika published a detailed obituary. On the 17th, Sir S.N. Banerjee’s The Bengalee published its obituary: “...If Rungpur is a healthier place now than it was twenty years ago, the result is due in no small degree to the efforts of the late Dr. Ghose. He was at one time a candidate for the Health Officership of Calcutta & would have been appointed to that office, but that his dark skin was against him.” In 1909, B.C. Pal offered his homage: “The rich blamed him for his reckless-ness; the man of the world condemned him for his absolute lack of prudence.... But the poor, the widow, & the orphan loved him for his selfless pity, & his soulful benevolence.”
Ghose, Lalmoha(u)n (1849-1909), brother of the Manmohan in whose house Sri Aurobindo was born; he was a barrister of Calcutta High Court. Since 1882, the Bengal Press had repeatedly insisted on convening a national conference of educated Indians (see Bannerjea S.N.) along with the idea of education the British public on the eve of general elections to the Parliament found support in other provinces of India. The Bengal group of orators that proceeded to England early in 1885 was reinforced by addition of Chandāvarkar from Bombay & Ramaswamy Mudaliar from Madras. In his speech delivered in England in May, Lalmohan said, “You have given us western education only to show how bitterly we have been wronged in the past, what unjust & offensive distinctions still prevail & what pledges still remain unfulfilled.... The country is ruled by an oligarchy, demoralised by irresponsible power, a selfish & unscrupulous community who are for ever snatching the cup from the very lips of the natives of India. The members of the Civil Service have so cunningly shuffled the political cards that all the trumps & picture cards remain in the hands of the dealer, & the natives of India are nothing but pariahs & outcastes in the land of their birth.” [The Times of India, 4th June, 1885] He was elected president of the 1903 Madras Session of the Congress. He translated Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bengali epic Meghanādavadha kāvya into English.
Ghose, Manmohan (1844-96), born in an old Kāyastha family in Vikrampur, district Dacca: son of Ram Lochan Ghose, a Subordinate Judge & friend of Raja Rammohan Roy, with whose views he sympathised: educated at the Krishnagar Collegiate School & Presidency College, Calcutta: founded Indian Mirror as a fortnightly 1861 which edited till March 1862: went to England in 1862, stood for the ICS Exam in London 1864 & 1865 but failed: called to the Bar 1866: joined Calcutta High Court as first Indian barrister: delivered series of lectures against the Open Competitive Examinations in London for the ICS: sent to England as delegate from Bengal to speak on Indian questions, 1885: visited England again in 1887, 1890, 1895 sometimes with family: very successful as barrister: became Secretary of the Bethune College 1873: a leader of the Moderates in Calcutta, & a supporter of Pherozshah Mehta: strong advocate of separation of judicial & executive functions of District Officers: Fellow of Calcutta University. [Buckland] A close friend Dr. K.D. Ghose; it was in his house that Sri Aurobindo was born.
Ghose, Motilal (1847-1922), an influential journalist, neither Moderate nor Nationalist. Although educated at home & without university qualifications, he became one of the most respected writers in the Bengali press. He was for many years an editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika [s/a Tilak].
Ghose, N.N. Nāgendra Nath Ghose (1854-1909), principal of Metropolitan College, Calcutta, & editor of the weekly Indian Nation.
Ghose, Rash Behari (1845-1921), lawyer of Calcutta High Court, stooge of Pherozshah & Gokhale made president of the Congress sessions at Surat & Madras in 1908. Jawaharlal Nehru: Sir R.B. Ghose, who for some unknown reason took a fancy to me, gave me a lot of advice. .... I rather liked him...father & I were once his guests at Simla….in 1918, I think.... Among the friends he invited for dinner was old Mr Khaparde...they belonged to rival schools of politics. .... After dinner K began criticising Mr Gokhale saying he had been a British agent... RB shouted that Gokhale had been the best of men & a particular friend of his.... Mr Khaparde began praising Tilak as a truly great man, a wonderful person, a saint. “A saint!” retorted RB, “I hate saints, I want to have nothing to do with them.” [Autobiography] ― Peter Heehs: …1908 & 1909 had been a disaster for the Extremists & for Indian nationalism in general…. G.K. Gokhale was in the viceroy’s good graces; Rāshbehari Ghose became his cat’s-paw. Elected president of the Moderates-Only-Congress, Rāshbehari met with Lord Minto, who convinced him to run Congress (sic) ‘in conformity with ideas as to which he & I might agree’. At the 1908 national session, Rāshbehari proclaimed from the presidential chair, “When in the fullness of time the people have outgrown the present system of administration they might hope for the extension to India of the colonial form of self-government – though, as he reminded his listeners, this ideal can only be realised in the distant future.” [Lives…, CUP, 2008]
Ghose, Shishir of Jessore, arrested at the Manicktolla Garden & tried in the Alipore Bomb Case. The sentence of transportation for 10 years by the Sessions Court was reduced to rigorous imprisonment for 5 years after an appeal to the High Court.
Ghose, Shishir Kumar (1840-1911), prominent as editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika (1868-93), he later spread Vaishnavism as editor of Hindu Spiritual Magazine.
The Ghost perhaps Blake’s The Ghost of Abel, a short dramatic dialogue (1822).
Gibbon Edward (1737-94), English historian, whose major work was The History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88).
Gifford William (1756-1826), first editor of The Quarterly Review of London.
Gilbert Sir William Schwenk (1836-1911), playwright & humourist, collaborated with Arthur Sullivan (q.v.) in the “Savoy Operas”.
Gispati Kāvyatirtha (d.1926), an associate of Kali Prasanna Kāvya-vishārada, he started the Calcutta Sanskrit Sahitya Parishad. In 1909, he accompanied Sri Aurobindo on some of his political tours in Bengal.
Gitānjali collection of Rabindranath’s Bengali songs, translated by him into English; he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
Gita-rahasya Srimad Bhagavadgita Rahasya/ Karmayoga Shāstra written by Tilak in exile (1908-14), published in 1915 & translated into many languages.
Gladstone William Ewart (1809-98) who dominated the Liberal Party of England from 1868 till 1894 was prime minister four times, 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, & 1892-94. Opposed to the expansionist policy of the Conservatives which had led to the two Afghan wars, he appointed Lord Ripon as Viceroy in 1880. In 1888, Gladstone won over the INC by declaring: “It will not do for us to treat with contempt or even with indifference the rising aspirations of this great people.” In 1892, he passed Indian Councils Act which the INC claimed “yielded part-ly” to its 7-year old prayer for “reform & reconstruction” of the Imperial & Provincial Councils. Sri Aurobindo tried, again in vain, to warn INC that what Gladstone had actually yielded was “a loaf of plaster-of-Paris” with an assurance that his Govt. “would do its best to make plaster-of-Paris taste exactly like wheat.” But INC never stopped fawning over Gladstone, thanks to Eardley Norton having charmed them at its 10th annual session (1894) by quoting Gladstone’s statement of the Press Law: “Suddenly in the dark, in the privacy of the Council Chamber, I believe in answer to a telegram, without the knowledge of Parliament, without the knowledge of the country, a law [Lytton’s Vernacular Press Act] was passed totally extinguishing the freedom of the Native Press. I think a law such as that is a disgrace to the British Empire.” [Vide SABCL’s New Lamps for Old; S. Bhattacharya; P. Sitāramayyā’s History of the I.N.C., Vol. I, (1885-1935); & R.C. Majumdar’s Freedom Movement of India, Vol. X-II: 398]
Gnossus Cnossus or Knossus, city of ancient Crete near its north coast.
Godāvarie Dakshīna Gungā, second longest river after Gungā, she rises at Nāshik beside the temple to Triambakeshwara Shiva built over one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, 80 km from the Arabian Sea. She then flows east for 1,465 kilometres (910 miles) until she splits into two watercourses that widen into a large river delta & flow into the Bay of Bengal a few miles above Machilipatnam. Godāvari drains Mahārāshtra (48.6%), Telingāna (18.8%), Andhra Pradesh (4.5%), Chhattisgarh (10.9%), Madhya Pradesh (10.0%), Odishā (5.7%) & Karnataka (1.4%) through her network of tributaries which, put together, account for 24.2% of the total basin area with an annual average water inflow of nearly 110 billion cubic metres. Measuring up to 312,812 km square or 120,777 sq. miles (which is nearly one-tenth of the area of India & is greater than the areas of England & Ireland put together) it forms the third largest drainage basin (after Gungā & Indus) in the Indian subcontinent. All along her banks are places of pilgrimage for thousands of years.
Godiva Lady Godiva (c.1040-80), Anglo-Saxon gentlewoman famous for her legendary ride while nude through Coventry, Warwickshire. She was wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia & Lord of Coventry, with whom she founded & endowed a monastery.
The Great Gods “are in origin & essence permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother, the Ādya Shakti; in their cosmic action they are Powers & Personalities, each with an independent cosmic standing, function & work in the universe. They are not impersonal entities but cosmic Personalities; although they can & do ordinarily veil themselves behind the movement of impersonal forces. But while in the overmind & the triple world they appear as independent beings, they return in the Supermind into the One & stand there united in a single harmonious action as multiple personalities of the One Person, the Divine Purushottama.” – “The overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses & large extensions of space & time & relation, globally; it creates & acts in the same way – it is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators. Only, each creates in his own way; he sees all but sees all from his own viewpoint. There is not the absolute supramental harmony & certitude. These, inadequately expressed, are some of the differences.” ― “Any godhead can descend by emanation to the physical plane & associate himself with the evolu-tion of a human being with whose line of manifestation he is in affinity. But these are things which cannot be very easily understood by the mind, because the mind has too rigid an idea of personality – the difficulty only disappears when one enters into a more flexible consciousness above where one is nearer to the experience of One in all & All in one.” ― “There are no planes of manifestation without forms – for without form creation or manifestation cannot be complete. But the supraphysical planes are not bound to the forms like the physical. The forms there are expressive, not determinative…. As to the gods, man can build forms which they will accept but these forms too are inspired into man's mind from the planes to which the god belongs. All creation has the two sides, the formed and the formless, – the gods too are formless and yet have forms, but a godhead can take many forms, here Maheshwari, there Pallas Athene. Maheshwari herself has many forms in her lesser manifestation, Durga, Uma, Pārvati, Chandi, etc. The gods are not limited to human forms – man also has not always seen them in human forms only.” [SABCL 22:383-84; 24:1154; 22:385; 22:389]
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832), poet, thinker, dramatist, novelist, & scientist.
Gokhale, Gopal Krishna (1866-1915); (1) S.L. Karandikar: Gokhale was born in a Maratha Brahmin family at Kolhapur. In 1882, when Tilak (1856-1920) was on trial in Barve defamation case, Gokhale was one of the students of Kolhapur who staged a play to raise funds for his defence. The Sārvajanik Sabhā was started in 1867 by M.G. Ranade, Gokhale, Tilak, & other leading social reformists of Pune to act as bridge between Govt. & people. Gokhale, its Secretary since 1891 resigned at its annual meeting on 14 August 1896 as a first step towards starting the Deccan Sabhā with Ranade that October, filling it with pensioners dependent on Govt. doles. The two Sabhā’s remained at loggerheads on the question of loyalty to the Govt. The real master-mind behind the creation of Deccan Sabhā, the Govt., derecognised the Tilak-led Sārvajanik Sabhā as ‘public body’ in 1897 in the middle of the unprecedented calamity [famine plus perilous plague plus homicidal Brit Plague Commissioners] that had hit Bombay presidency & most severely Pune (see Rand below). [Lōkamānya B.G. Tilak – The Hercules & Prometheus of Modern India, 1957:98, 132-34]
(2) P. Sitāramayyā: When in 1896 Gandhi visited Poona...he saw Lōkamānya Tilak &, on his advice, Gokhale as well. Gandhi’s estimate of the two is worth recalling. Tilak appeared to him like the Himalayas – great & lofty – but unapproachable, while Gokhale appeared like the Holy Ganges in which he could confidently take a plunge. Tilak & Gokhale were both Mahārāshtrian… belonged to the same Chitpāvan sect…. But their temperaments were widely different from each other…. G’s plan was to improve the existing constitution; T’s was to reconstruct it. G had necessarily to work with the bureaucracy; T had necessarily to fight it. G stood for co-operation wherever possible & opposition wherever necessary; T inclined towards a policy of obstruction. G’s prime concern was with the administration & its improvement; T’s supreme consideration was the Nation & it’s upbuilding. G’s ideal was love & sacrifice; T’s was service & suffering. G’s methods sought to win the foreigner, T’s to replace him. G depended upon others’ help, T upon self-help. G looked to the classes & the intelligentsia, T to the masses & the millions. G’s arena was the Council Chamber; T’s forum was the village mandapa. G’s medium of expression was English; T’s was Marathi. G’s objective was Self-Government for which the people had to fit themselves by answering the tests prescribed by the English; T’s objective was Swaraj which is the birth right of every Indian & which he shall have without let or hindrance from the foreigner. G was on the level with his age; T was in advance of his times. [The History of the Indian National Congress, P. Sitāramayyā, 1935, Reprinted 1946: p.99.]
(3) S.L. Karandikar: In March in 1897, a Royal Commission was set up in London under Lord Welby’s chairmanship to enquire into the condition of Indian finance. Messrs D.E. Wacha & Gokhale were invited to present their evidence. In his submission, Gokhale also noted that “the financial loss entailed by the practical monopoly by Europeans of the higher branches of the services in India is not represented by [their] salaries only. .... There is a moral evil which, if anything, is even greater. A kind of dwarfing or stunting of the Indian race is going on under the present system.... The full height to which our manhood is capable of rising can never be reached by us under the present system. The moral elevation which every self-governing people feel cannot be felt by us.” A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, eager to correct English public opinion on the Ganeshkhind murders (see Rand), interviewed Gokhale who had prolonged his stay in England. Relying on letters he had received from responsible gentlemen of Pune, Gokhale, in the course of the interview with the paper, attributed the tragedy to the unpopular plague-administration in Poona. He added that women had been humiliated in open streets & that soldiers on duty had violated some of them, one of whom had committed suicide. This interview set a fresh storm blowing. As angry questions were tabled in the Parliament, relying on the information he received from his officers in Bombay the Secretary of State stated in Parliament that the allegations made by Gokhale were unwarranted & unfounded. The entire English Press indulged in a campaign of condemning Gokhale who had returned to India. Deciding to save Gokhale, Tilak complained publicly in the Kesari that out of our nearly 300 complaints submitted to him, Rand had investigated hardly two or three. Tilak went on to invite the erstwhile complainants to record their complaints anew & send them on to him. His editorial in the Kesari on 6th July 1897 was dangerously outspoken: “Persons in seats of power must absolutely guard themselves against the charge of vindictiveness.”.... Gokhale’s bold statements published by Manchester Guardian, the storm in England that followed, Tilak’s open sympathy for Gokhale, the certainty that if left free Tilak was likely to see Gokhale immediately after his return & was sure to persuade him not to tender an apology, & that would prevent even Gokhale’s humiliation – these steps logically led to his arrest. Barely an hour before his arrest on 27th July at 10 pm, Justice Ranade sent a messenger inviting him to meet him. Ranade had that morning received a letter from Motilal Ghose, the Calcutta journalist, requesting him to intervene & get Gokhale & Tilak to tender apologies to the Govt. But Tilak’s refusal to apologise provoked Govt. to prosecute him vindictively in Tai-Maharaj case. That was the period Saralā Devi Chaudhurani had her meeting with Tilak…. Prof Gokhale landed in Bombay on 30th July, 1897. Mr Vincent, the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, saw him even before he had landed & the two held consultations for a long time. Gokhale tried to ascertain whether any of his friends would substantiate his statements in their letters to him & help him to face the situation boldly. Finding that they were unwilling to run that risk, he decided to tender an unqualified apology to Lord Sandhurst. An extract of his letter of apology: “I also feel most keenly that while a few Englishmen at last in the country have been not only just but even generous in judging me, I have been much less than just to their countrymen, the soldiers, engaged in the plague operations & have made, grave, unwarranted charges against them.... I once more tender an unqualified apology to H.E. the Governor, to the members of the Plague Committee & to the soldiers engaged in plague operations.” [Opus Cited]
(4) Prof. S. Bhattacharya: Gokhale began his career as a Professor of History & Economics at Fergusson College, Poona; he became a member of the Bombay Legislative Council in 1902 & was then elected to represent its non-official members in the Viceregal Legislature. In 1905 he founded at Poona the Servants of India Society who took vows of poverty & life-long service to their country in a religious spirit. [A Dictionary of Indian History, University of Calcutta, 1972, pp.396-97]
(5) R.C. Majumdar: How the policy of the Moderates was influenced by Morley, is very clearly revealed in the following extract from a letter by Morley to Minto, dated August 2, 1906: “Yesterday I had my fifth & final talk with Gokhale.... ‘For reasonable reforms in your direction,’ I said to him, ‘there is now an unexampled chance. You have a Viceroy entirely friendly to them; you have a Secretary of State in whom the Cabinet, the House of Commons, the press of both parties, & that small portion of the public that ever troubles its head about India, reposes a considerable degree of confidence. The important & influential Civil Service will go with the Viceroy. What situation could be more hopeful? Only one thing can spoil it: the perversity & unreason in your friends. If they keep up the fuss in Eastern Bengal they will only make it hard, even impossible, for Government to move a step.... If your speakers or your newspapers set to work to belittle what we do, to clamour for the impossible, then all will go wrong....’ He professed to acquiesce very cordially in all this & assured me that immediately after my Budget speech he had written off to his friends in India & pitched a most friendly & hopeful note.” It is important to note that when Gokhale agreed ‘cordially’ to remove the only obstacles to reforms by putting down the Extremists, he could have no illusion as to the British policy towards India. In course of that very talk Morley had already plainly told him, in respect of his ultimate hope of India’s attaining the status of a self-governing colony, “that for many a long day to come – long beyond the short space of time that may be left to me – this was a mere dream.” ― That the Moderates rallied round the Govt. even with this knowledge explains the basic difference between them & the Extremists.... Gokhale’s tacit agreement with Morley explains the strong opposition of the Moderates to the resolution in the Congress session of 1906 supporting the Boycott advocated by the Extremists. It also explains the sudden outburst of bitter controversy between the Moderates & the Extremists after the Congress Session of 1906 & its continuance throughout the year 1907.... ― Later, after a second Deputation, Minto wrote to Morley: “Gokhale was very reasonable. He passed of course for increased representation & amendments to the Budget, on the ground that there is at present an utter want of reality in the Budget discussions. He asked for two Native Members on the Viceroy’s Council & three on the Secretary of State’s. He says that the whole younger generation of India is going over to the extremists’ side; that they are quite unreasonable & attracted by the idea of getting rid of British rule, which is the doctrine preached to them: that the glamour of the British Raj, which in the old days fascinated the people, has departed, & that the only way to recover our moral control is to do something that will appeal to the Native imagination. ― After all this it is difficult to believe that the invisible hands of Morley & Minto did not pull the strings from behind the scene when the great split between the Moderates & the Extremists took place at the Surat session of the Congress. It would not be unreasonable to infer from what has been said above about the Surat Congress, that the Moderates deliberately provoked a quarrel with the Extremists & threw away every reasonable chance of compromise. This is fully supported by the following extract from the letter of Morley to Minto, dated 31 October, 1907: “One of the most interesting things that have come my way this week is a letter from Gokhale, dated October 11. The one absorbing question, he says, is how the split in Congress, now apparently inevitable, is to be averted.... A party manager, or for that matter any politician aspiring to be leader, should never whine. Gokhale is always whining.... Now, if I were in Gokhale’s shoes I should insist on quietly making terms with the bureaucracy on the basis of Order plus Reforms. If he would have the sense to see what is to be gained by this line, the ‘split’ when it comes should do him no harm, because it would set him free to fix his aims on reasonable things, where he might get out of us sixty or seventy per cent of what he might ask for. ― The first annual session of the Muslim League was held at Karachi on 29Dec.1907. The choice of the site was an indication of the new nationalism which was growing among the Muslims, &, as in the case of the Hindus, it was based on religion & historical traditions of past glory & greatness. Karachi, the chief town of Sindh, was chosen because, as a League publication put it, “Sindh is that pious place in India, where Muhammad Bin Qasim came first, with the torch of religion & the gift of Hadis. No other place could appeal to our elders.” More significant still was the remark of the President: “If a handful of men under a boy could teach Kalima to the territory of Sindh & promulgate the law of true shariat of God & His Rasul, can seven crores of Mussalmans not make their social & political life pleasant?” Like the Congress the Muslim League appointed its British Committee in England under the Presidentship of Syed Ameer Ali. During the discussion of the Morley-Minto reform proposals, the League put its whole in favour of Morley. By holding up the bogey of Muslim League Minto succeeded in stifling the voice of Morley. A very small section of the Muslims raised their voice in favour of Joint Electorate, but it was drowned amidst the vociferous cry of the overwhelming majority. [History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol. II, pp. 214-7, 330-31]
(6) Extract from Tilak’s article “The Country’s Misfortune” in his Kesari of 12th May 1908: …it is indisputable that two innocent white ladies having fallen victims to a bomb at Muzaffarpur.... However, the desire of the people gradually to obtain the rights of Swarājya is growing stronger & stronger. If they do not get rights by degrees, as desired by them, then some people at least out of the subject population, being filled with indignation or exasperation, will not fail to embark upon the commission of improper or horrible deeds recklessly. The Hon. Mr Gokhale himself had…given a hint of this very kind to our Government in presence of the Viceroy Minto....
(7) S. Bhattacharya: In the enlarged Viceregal Legislature set up in 1910 Gokhale was the commanding figure & became the most effective critic of the Govt. He specialised as a critic of Indian official finance & was particularly brilliant in his handling of the annual budgets. He sponsored a bill for compulsory primary education which was rejected on account of the opposition of the Govt. of the day. [Opus Cited]
(8) B.R. Nanda: Jinnah was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly in 1909, & in 1910 elected from a Mohammedan constituency in Bombay Presidency (under Morley-Minto’s Constitutional Reforms Act of 1909) to Viceroy’s Central Legislative Council. There he met his second mentor Gokhale by then the 2nd most powerful Congress leader. They conferred with Dadabhai, Viṭhaldās Patel, Sassoon David, & Mazhar-ul-Haq “the desirability of organisation & division of work in the Council” among themselves. Besides Jinnah, veteran Nawab Syed Mohammad Bahadur from Madras, Bhupendra Nath Basu from Bengal, R.N. Mudholkar from Berar, & Sachchidananda Sinha & M.M. Malaviya from U.P., shared Gokhale’s political outlook. Gokhale’s high regard for Jinnah’s integrity, intellect & moderation is reflected in the sobriquet he coined for him, “best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”. Jinnah was among those who mourned the death of Gokhale. …. Encouraged by the British who “realised that the pendulum had swung too far in favour of the Muslim”, the Aga Khan & Gokhale decided to hold a Hindu-Muslim conference “to do something to mitigate the antagonism between the two communities” & “discuss the questions in which they might loyally work together”. The conference was held at Bombay on 1 January, 1911, with William Wedderburn in the chair. Attended by about a hundred delegates (about 40 of them Muslim delegates from the League), it appointed a committee to resolve contentious issues such as communal representations, Urdu-Hindi, cow killing, music before mosques & became “the precursor of the many ‘unity conferences’ which were to follow during the next 30 years”. The same month, in the Imperial Council, Gokhale opposed Mālaviyā’s resolution to correct the communal imbalance in the Act of 1909, pleading with his “Hindu brethren to make the best of the situation in the larger interest of the country”. In April, Gokhale asked members of his Servants of India Society “to devote themselves to…the promotion of harmony between Hindus & Muhammedans”. [Gokhale: The Indian Moderates & the British Raj, OUP, Delhi, 1979:283, 358, 378, 471, 368-70, 379]
(9) R.C. Majumdar: After the reforms of 1909, the Hindu leaders believed that as the Muslims had now secured all that they wanted, they would be in a mood to come to an amicable settlement with the Hindus. Accordingly, a Hindu-Muslim Conference met at Allahabad on 1 January 1911, attended by about 60 Hindus & 40 Muslims. It achieved nothing of importance. The oft-repeated public declaration of Hindu leaders, that no political progress was possible in India without an understanding between the Hindus & Muslims, had an inevitable tendency to raise the Muslim demands higher & higher. When Gokhale asked the Allahabad Conference to remember that the Muslim fears of being dominated by the Hindu majority should not be lightly treated, he put his seal of approval on all that the Aligarh Movement stood for in politics. But the most significant was an utterance of Gandhi, reported in the Indian Review of October, 1909. He said: “As a man of truth I honestly believe that Hindus should yield up to the Mahommedans what the latter desire & that they should rejoice in so doing. We can expect unity only if such mutual large-heartedness is displayed.” The first sentence is one of those pro-Muslim sayings which bore the special trademark of Gandhi & did incalculable harm to the Hindu-Muslim unity by putting a premium on Muslim intransigence. It was repeated in 1947, when Gandhi made the proposal, which astounded even his devoted followers that Jinnah should be supreme ruler in India with a cabinet of his own choice, which might consist of only Muslim ministers. The word ‘mutual’ in the second sentence is meaningless, as Gandhi never dared make similar request to the Muslims & they never showed the slightest intention of doing any such foolish thing. Gandhi’s attitude did not change even after the creation of Pakistan. [Opus Cited Vol. II: 330-31]
(10) M.V. Ramana Rao: “The Congress run by the Moderate element, after the Surat split, the Nationalists remaining aloof, had not been able to keep pace with the movement for ampler freedom for which psychological forces had been released by the war…. The Congress had to be revivified & reunited by fresh leadership…. The old guard represented by Naoroji, Gokhale, Pherozshah Mehta, Surendra Nath Bonnerjea, Rash Behari Ghose, Bhupendra Nath Basu, Pt. Madan Mohan Mālaviya, & others… had either retired or had become too weak…. The atmosphere was congenial for a new & vigorous leadership & Tilak who had just been released from prison & Annie Besant… provided that leadership. [Throughout] 1915, attempts were made, specially, to bring about a rapprochement between the Moderates… & Lōk. Tilak & his nationalist adherents…. But he could not be admitted to the Congress under the Constitution unless he subscribed to Article I, which defined the goal of the Congress as Colonial Self-Government. The election of delegates was exclusively controlled by Moderate Associations which subscribed to this creed. Tilak was not amenable to joining… through the goodwill of Moderates. He wanted an enlargement of the scope of election & a change in the creed to enable him & his friends to come into the Congress. The Congress Secretary, N. Subba Rao & Mrs Besant made serious attempts, meeting Gokhale & Mehta both of whom had not agreed to amend the constitution, to enable the re-entry of Tilak & his compeers…. [M.V. Ramana Rao (official in Indira’s AICC), A Short History of the Indian National Congress, S. Chand & Co., 1959; pp.67-69]
(11) S. Bhattacharya: Gokhale’s last public duty was to serve as a Member of the Indian Public Service Commission (1912-15) which recommended a substantial increase in the Indian personnel in the Services. His death in 1915 greatly weakened the constitutional party in India. He was one of the best of the old school of Congress politicians before the age of non-cooperation. [Opus Cited]
(12) M.V. Ramana Rao: The Congress met in Bombay in Dec 1915, Sir S.P. Sinha presiding… condolences over the deaths of G.K. Gokhale, P.M Mehta, Sir Henry Cotton & Keir Hardie.… The A.I.C.C. was asked to frame a scheme of reforms & programmes of continuous work, educative & propagandist, & to confer with the Committee of the All-India Muslim League for the same purpose [the result was the Lucknow Pact ]... two noteworthy features of that Bombay Session…. One was the defeat of Mahatma Gandhi at the Subjects Committee election.... The second was the amendment of the Constitution suitably to enable Tilak & his party to be elected delegates to the Congress.” [Opus Cited]
Golāb Singh (d.1857) led the negotiations of the Treaty of Lahore (1846), by which Kashmir with its dependencies was ceded to the British who handed Kashmir over to him for one million pound sterling & gave him the powerless title of Maharaja.
Goldsmith Oliver (17307-74), British poet, essayist, dramatist & novelist.
Gōlōka Gō is spiritual light. Gōlōka is the spiritual plane of the light of the divine consciousness created by Sri Krishna. Vishnu’s Vaikuntha & Sri Krishna’s Gōlōka are both such states which they grant souls who possess spontaneous, pure, devotion.
Gonds an aboriginal tribe which currently are found in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, & Orissa; they are said to exceed three million in number. Gondwānā (see India) or the original kingdom of Gonds was believed to be the northern portion of present Madhya Pradesh; it was also called Garha-Katanga. In course of time they became recognised as Rajputs. The Chandella kings of modern Bundelkhand were probably originally Gonds. Rani Durgāvati of Gondwānā is known as one of the most illustrious rulers in the history of India. She was a daughter of Kirāṭ Raj, the Chandella King of Mahobā & Kālinjar who was killed when Sher Shah (q.v.) besieged the fort of Kālinjar in 1545. Durgāvati was married to Raja Dalpat Sa of Garha Mandala (Gondwānā) in about 1545 but became a widow with a minor son, named Veer Narayan. She carried on the administration of the kingdom & maintained its integrity against both Raj Bahadur of Mālwā & the Afghans of Bengal. In 1564 Akbar sent his general Asaf Khan to make an entirely unprovoked invasion of Rāṇi Durgāvati’s kingdom. The Rāṇi, accompanied by her son, Veer Narayan, opposed the Mogul army of 50,000 men & fought with them a two-day’ battle at Narhi near the capital. One the second day her son was wounded & had to be escorted out of the battle-field to safety by a body of the Rani’s troops. The withdrawal of this escort had so weakened the Rani’s army that it was soon overpowered. The Rani herself was wounded by two arrows, stabbed herself to death & thus escaped the disgrace of capture. Her death was immediately followed by the advance of the Moguls upon her capital at Chauragadh where her gallant son, Veer Narayan, though wounded, offered a stout resistance, but was defeated & killed & the kingdom passed under the control of Akbar. The rich spoils in the form of jewels, gold & silver, coined & uncoined, & one thousand elephants taken by Asaf Khan bore testimony to the efficiency of Rani Durgāvati as a ruler. [S. Bhattacharya: 332-3, 398]
Gordian ‘Gordian knot’ a proverbial term for a problem solvable only by drastic action. When on his march through Anatolia, Macedonian Alexander reached Gordium, capital of Phrygia; he was shown the chariot of the founder of the city, King Gordius, with its yoke lashed to the pole by means of a knot with its end hidden. In the popular account, he cut the knot through with his sword; but in an earlier version, he found the ends by cutting into the knot or by drawing out the pole.
Gorgias Gorgias of Leontini (c. 483-c. 376 BC), Greek sophist & rhetorician, formulator of a nihilistic philosophy. His three propositions were: nothing exists; if anything does exist, it cannot be known; if it can be known, the knowledge of it cannot be communicated.
Gorgon Homer spoke of a single Gorgon – a monster of the underworld. The Greek poet Hesiod increased the number to three – Sthens (the Mighty), Euryale (the Ear Springer), & Medusa (the Queen). Attic tradition regarded the Gorgon as a monster produced by Ge, the goddess Earth, to aid her sons against the gods.
Gorhe, Sakhārām Dādāji (1833-1910) member of Abhinava Bhārat (see Sāvarkar) unit of Nāshik; the sentence of Rigorous Imprisonment killed him in jail.
Gorst, Sir Eldon John Eldon Gorst (1835-1916): Under Secretary of State for India 1886-91: Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1891-2: Vice-President of the Council of Education 1895-1902: M.P. for Cambridge & Chatham 1866-92: M.P. for Cambridge University 1892-1906. [Buckland]
Gosse Sir Edmund (1849-1928), translator, literary historian, introduced Ibsen & other continental writers to English readers.
Goswami, Bijoy (1841-99), Yogi & social reformer: guru of Satish Mukherji & other Bengali political workers & leaders. As a student he had joined the Brahmo Samāj, but after taking up Yoga, he reverted to traditional Hinduism.
Goswami, Srish (1891-1958) disciple of Sri Aurobindo from 1922; ran the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in 1930s; spent his last two years in Pondicherry Ashram.
Gotama (Rāhugaṇa) Vedic Rishi, connected with Aṇgirāsa. As a descendant of Rāhugaṇa, he wrote one hymn of the Rig-Veda, & is mentioned in the Shatapatha Brāhmaṇa as a Purōhita, contemporary of Janaka & Yajñavalkya.
Dr Gough probably, Archibald Edward Gough, author of The Philosophy of the Upanishads & Ancient Indian Metaphysics, 2nd Edition in 1891. An Islamophobic, appointed principal of Calcutta Madrasa; his book is based on a series of articles contributed by him to Calcutta Review (October 1876 to April 1880).
Gould, Jay (1836-92), American capitalist, made his millions as railroad mogul.
Govinda “who makes us attain Light or World of Light” – Sri Krishna.
Govinda-das (1537-1612), Vaishnava poet of Mādhava Padāvali& Karṇāmrita.
Govind(a) (Singh), Guru/ Guru Govinda (1666-1708), the tenth & last Guru of the Sikhs, who succeeded his father Tegh Bahadur in 1675. His sayings were later collected & formed a supplementary grantha to the Ādi Grantha Sahib compiled by Guru Arjan Singh (1581-1606). Guru Govinda retained the old theology but altered the whole genius of the Sikh brotherhood & turned the Sikhs from a passive religious group into a dynamic socio-political body & a military power. He instituted the ceremony of pahul consisting chiefly of drinking consecrated sweetened water stirred with a sword or dagger followed by the partaking of Prasād made of flour, sugar, & butter intended to break the bonds of caste. The brotherhood so constituted was called the Khālsā (Pure) & every member bore the title of Singh (lion). He also required the brotherhood to abjure from tobacco & wear kesh (long hair & beard), kaṇga (comb), Kucchā (underwear), Kadā (iron bangle) & Kirpān (dagger). He fought many battles against the Moguls even after losing his two sons who were most cruelly killed by Wazir Khan, the faujdār (general) of Sirhind. In the war of succession that erupted on Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 among his sons, Govinda Singh supported the second son Mu’azzam who, after killing his brothers & ascending the throne, assumed the name Bahadur Shah I or Shah Alam (8th Mogul emperor). The next year Guru Govinda Singh was murdered at Nander in the Deccan by an Afghan. Out of reverence for him the Sikh community abolished the office of Guru. [See Sikhism/ Sikhs]
Gracchus, Tiberius Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (c.163-133 BC), Roman social reformer. He stood for the tribunal of the people in 133 BC as an avowed reformer, & was elected. On his election he immediately proposed & succeeded in passing the Sempronian Law to redistribute the public lands which the rich had taken over.
Graces three daughters of Zeus & Eurynome: Euphrosyne (Joyfulness), Aglaia (Brightness), & Thalia (Bloom). They were personifications of beauty & charm.
Graiae three daughters of Phorcys & Ceto, & sisters of the Gorgons, born grey-haired from birth with only one eye & one tooth between them. Perseus contrived to steal their eye & made them tell him the way to the Gorgons; in another account, he threw away the eye & left them blind & unable to help the Gorgons.
Grammarian’s Funeral poem by Browning.
Grand Monarque Louis XIV of France (1638-1715), symbol of absolute monarchy.
Grand Trunk Road constructed (1540-45) by Sher Shah extending about 3000 miles from Sonārgaon in eastern Bengal to Sindhu; the Moghul viceroy of Bengal extended it to Chittagong in 1666. It still connects Calcutta to Amritsar.
Gray Thomas (1716-71), famous for his An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, finished after years of revision in 1750.
The Great Illusion the best-known work of Sir Norman Angell.
Greece/ Greek/ Grecian By 327-26 BCE, Greece & India had been in more or less close contact with each other. The philosophy of Pythagoras, who taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, was derived from the Sāṅkhya system of Indian philosophy. There are records to show that an Indian philosopher met Socrates (469-399 BC) at Athens & had philosophical discussions with him. Plato (427-347 BC) was familiar with the characteristic Indian philosophical doctrine of Karma. Hellenic rulers & statesmen listened with respectful attention to Indian sages. The school of Greek philosophy expounded by the Eleatics & by the Thales could have originated only in close contact between Indian & Greek philosophers of the pre-Alexandrine period (see Mauryas). ― Chandragupta received Megāsthenes as an ambassador of Macedonia. His son Bindusāra was eager to secure the services of a Greek sophist but the laws of that country didn’t permit him. Bindusāra’s son Ashoka’s Hellenistic contemporaries were Antiochos (II of Theos of Syria, c.261-246 BC), Ptolemy (II, Philadelphos of Egypt, 285-247 BC), Magas (of Cyrene, c.300-258 BC), & Alexander (of Epirus, 272-239 BC, or, as some say, of Corinth, 252-244 BC). He established friendly relations with the Greek kings of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, & Epirus. The Mauryans spent large sums also on irrigation works of public utility. The most famous of these works of the early Maurya period is the Sudarshana lake of Kāṭhiāwād, constructed by Pushyagupta the Vaishya, an officer of Chandragupta, & provided by supplemental channels by the Greek Tushāspa in the days of Asoka. Indeed there were so many Greeks amongst his subjects in Afghanistan that Aśoka issued for their edification a bilingual inscription in Greek & Aramaic which has been found near the city renamed Qandahar by its Islamic conquerors. Ashōka also established philanthropic institutions in the realms of some if these princes; & Buddhism doubtless made some progress in western Asia & influenced later sects like the Manicheans. Classical Greek writers bear testimony to the activity & daring of the Indian navigators. One writer narrates how, in the reign of Euergetes II (145-116 BC) in Egypt, an Indian was brought to the king by his coast guard. They reported that they had found him in a ship alone & half dead. He spoke a language which they could not understand. He was taught the Greek tongue & then he related how he had started from the coast of Bharuch in bay of Khambhāt, but lost his course & reached Egypt alone. All his companions had perished from hunger. If he were restored to his country he would point out to those sent with him the route by sea to India. One of those sent with the Indian was Eudoxus of Cyzicus who brought back with him aromatics & precious stones. Another writer relates that a present was given by the king of Suevi (Surat?) to a pro-consul of Gaul though a group of Indians who, sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by the storms into Germany.
During the Mauryan-Scythian era, 325 BC to 3rd century CE, India was in intimate contact with the Graeco-Roman world. Ambassadors were exchanged, & Indian philosophers, traders & adventurers were to be found in the intellectual circles of Athens & in the markets of Alexandria. There was a considerable body of foreign residents, some of whom undoubtedly traders, in Pātaliputra whose affairs were looked after by a special board of municipal commissioners. Sweet wines & dried figs of the West were eagerly sought by a Maurya king in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century AD presents for the king Bharuch, which was one of the greatest marts in the East, included costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing & the choicest ointments. The Westerners on their part imported articles of luxury including the fine muslins of the lower Gangetic region. Pliny bears testimony to the vast sums of money sent to India in payment for these commodities. ― It was during this period that the Greeks in India came into close cultural contact with Indians & as a result many of them were converted not only to Buddhism but also to Hinduism. Menander became a Buddhist. In the 2nd century BC, Heliodoros, son of Diya (Dion) & a native of Takshashilā then ruled by the Bactrian Antialkidas, was sent as its ambassador to the court of the Śuṅga king Kāshiputra Bhagabhadra of Vidisha where he converted to Vaishnavism & set up a Garūda-dwaja (monolithic pillar) in honour of Sri Krishna as Vāsudeva, Lord of the Gods. All this is recorded on the pillar which also shows Heliodoros was well-versed in the Bhāgwata Purāṇa. Some time after the death of Ashōka north-western India was conquered by Greeks who ruled up to its conquest by the Kushāns in 1st century CE. It was also during this period that the Gāndhāran School of Art. The Greeks in India gave in art & coinage & took in philosophy, religion, mathematics & other sciences. Greek meridarchs (titles of high officers) are mentioned in Kharoshṭhī (Persian) inscriptions as establishing Buddhist relics & Vihāras. Indian cultural influence on the Greeks of Egypt has been traced in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. With the fall of the Mauryas…the Greeks of Syria & Bactria renewed their incursions. The Greek king, Antiochos of Syria, penetrated into the Gāndhāra valley & established a powerful kingdom in Gāndhāra & other places. His son followed it up by conquest of Śākala (north-central Punjab) & lower Sindhu valley. A later king Menander who apparently belonged to the house of Demetrios (son of Euthydemos, king of Bactria) besieged Sāketa (identified with modern Sialkot) in Madhya-deśa & is said crossed beyond the river Beas, & Madhyamikā near Chittor, & threatened Pātaliputra itself. In c.185 BC, the last of the Mauryas, Bŗihadratha, having proved incapable of stemming these incursions, was deposed by his commander in chief, Pushyamitra who inaugurated a new dynasty ruling Magadha. The Pushyamitras were succeeded in the north by the Guptās who inaugurated the great Gupta Empire.
In the 1st century AD trade between India & the West was greatly facilitated when the pilot Hippalus, living in Egypt, discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean along the coasts of the Red Sea & the Arabian Sea, & recorded a minute account of his experiences in a book called The Periplus of the Erytharean Sea. We learn from this book that there was active trade between India & the western countries. There were important harbours on the coast such as Barbarike, Barygaza, Muziris, Nelcynda, Bakarai, Korkai, & Puhar, & ships built & fitted up by Indians sailed from these ports with their merchandise which consisted, among other things, of pearls, precious stones, spices, unguents, & fine cotton cloths called muslins. ― We also learn from Hippalus’ The Periplus of the Erytharean Sea that Indians settled in some islands of Socotra had a colony of Indian merchants. The account of the Periplus is supplemented by later writers. Pliny, e.g., complains that for the purchase of luxurious articles Rome pays every year a million sesterces to India. The statement of Pliny is corroborated by the actual discovery of a large number of Roman coins in India. This is further proved by the missions sent to Roman emperors. The trade with Rome & other western countries was carried through the important port of Alexandria where goods carried by sea up the Red Sea were transported either by land or by boats through the canals of the Nile. There was also a land route which ran through Persia & along the shores of the Caspian, to Syria & Asia Minor. This route became familiar after the invasion of Alexander. Both the land & the sea routes came under the control of the Arabs when they rose to power in the 7th century AD. [S. Bhattacharya: 405-06; Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al: 98, 107-14, 129-31, 202-04, 135-36, 393]
Green probably, Matthew Green (1696-1737), author of The Spleen, a poem in praise of the simple contemplative life as a cure for boredom.
Grey the counsel for the prosecution in the Patiala Case (c. 1910), which was really aimed at destroying the Arya Samāj.
Grey, Sir Edward (1862-1933), 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon: Foreign Secretary (1905-16), his comment on the World War I became proverbial: “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life.”
Grihya Sutras scriptures dealing with the rules for the conduct of domestic rites & the personal sacraments, extending from birth to marriage.
Guadalajara is 40 miles NE of Madrid. The Battle of Guadalajara took place between 8th & 23rd March 1937. It saw the People’s Republican Army (EPR) under the overall command of General José Miaja Menant stationed at Madrid, defeat the Fascist forces of Mussolini & Franco attempting to encircle Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. Though EPR had repulsed the third offensive of the Fascist forces on Madrid, its forces were defeated at the battle of the Jarama River, inspiring the Fascist supremo Franco to continue with a fourth offensive aimed at closing the pincer around Madrid. Franco’s chief ally Mussolini endorsed the operation & committed Italian units to it. The Italian commander planned to surround Madrid’s defences from the north-west. After joining Franco’s corps ‘Madrid’ on the Jarama River, he would execute the main assault on Madrid. Franco’s division ‘Soria’ was present but played no part in the first five days of fighting. The main attack on Madrid began in the 25 km-wide pass at Guadalajara-Alcalá de Henares. This region was well suited for an advance, as there were five roads of high quality running through it. Three other roads in the area led to Guadalajara, allowing for the possibility of capturing this town as well. Franco’s forces had 35,000 soldiers, 222 artillery pieces, 108 L3/33 & L3/35 tankettes, 32 armoured cars, 3,685 motor vehicles, & 60 Fiat CR.32 fighter planes. The Italian tankettes & armoured cars were organized as the Tank & Armoured Cars Group & the Italian aircraft were organized into the Legionary Air Force. No defensive works had been constructed in the Guadalajara region, because EPR’s Army Staff was sure that the next Fascist offensive would come from the south, & regarded the region as a peaceful part of the front. Hence EPR’s presence in that region consisted only of its 12th Division under Colonel Lacalle. He had under his command 10,000 soldiers with only 5,900 rifles, 85 machine guns, & 15 artillery pieces. One company of (Russian) T-26 light tanks were also sent to reinforce the 12th. The Fascist forces involved were primarily the Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (CTV) which took Guadalajara on 8th & began moving rapidly towards Madrid. Four days later the Republican Army with Soviet tanks counter-attacked. This offensive was halted by 11 March. Between 12 March & 14 March, renewed Italian attacks were supported by Franco’s units. These were halted too. On 15 March, EPR prepared a counter-offensive which was launched on 18 March & had routed the Fascists by 23 March.
The Battle of Guadalajara was an important strategic victory of the EPR. Herbert Matthews claimed in the New York Times that Guadalajara was “to Fascism what the defeat at Bailén had been to Napoleon”. The British press heaped scorn on this “new Caporetto” – alluding to a great Italian defeat in the First World War – while former British prime minister David Lloyd George wrote mockingly of the “Italian skedaddle,” infuriating Mussolini. The Italian CTV lost some 3,000 men (Franco’s losses were marginal) & a considerable number of light tanks. In addition, the EPR captured sizeable quantities of badly-needed materiel & equipment, including 35 artillery pieces, 85 machine guns, & 67 vehicles. Strategically, its victory prevented the encirclement of Madrid, ending Franco’s hopes of crushing the Republic with a decisive strike at its capital. Above all, Guadalajara was a setback to Italian morale & a loss of prestige for Italy’s fascist regime…. If Republican confidence soared, there was no corresponding loss of morale in Franco’s circles, which regarded the Italian expeditionary force with some contempt. German officers in Salamanca (q.v.) sneered that even “Jews” & “Communists” – as the International Brigades were stereotyped – could beat the Italians…. Franco’s soldiers began singing popular Italian tunes with lyrical changes mocking the defeated of CTV. The minimal success of the Italian offensive demonstrated the vulnerability of massed armoured advances in unfavourable terrain & against a coherent infantry defence. The French General Staff concluded that mechanized troops were not the decisive element of modern warfare & continued to shape their military doctrine accordingly. A notable exception to this view was Charles de Gaulle. The Germans escaped this conclusion by incorrectly dismissing the Guadalajara failure being the product of leadership & planning. In truth, both views had some merit: armoured forces were largely ineffective against prepared defences organized in depth; in adverse weather, & without proper air support, the result was disaster (Italian strategists failed to consider these variables). But the German assessment incorrectly noted the deficiencies in Italian weaponry, planning, & organization that contributed to their defeat at Guadalajara. In particular, their vehicles & tanks had lacked the technical quality & their leaders the determination necessary to effect the violent breakthroughs characteristic of later German blitzkrieg tactics. [Based on article on July2017, by Editors Ency. Britannica; Images of Revolution & War by Alexander Vergara, & other sources]
Gudakesha ‘master or conqueror of sleep or lethargy’ epithet of Arjūna.
Gudrun sister of Gunner & wife of Sigurd & after Sigurd’s death, of Atli.
Guhā, Anāth Bandhu (1847-1927), nationalist lawyer & leader of Mymensingh.
Guhā, Manoranjan Thākurtā (1858-1919), prominent leader of anti-Partition movement in 1905-06 in Barisal, Calcutta, etc., & gave financial support to Barindra’s revolutionary group, hence qualified to be one of the nine Bengali Nationalists deported in December 1908.
Guhaka/ Guhyaka king of Nishādhas or Bhils, who helped exiled Lord Rāma.
Gujarat The name is said to be derived from the Gurjara-Pratihāras (q.v.) who settled in the region in early 5th century. By 8th century their kingdom had spread north into Rājputāna & south into Madhya Pradesh. Tradition says in 746 their king Vanarāj Chawdā built Aṇhīlpūr Pātaṇ at the centre of his kingdom as his capital which gradually became a vast & prosperous kingdom. However, just as eminent Jain astrologers had predicted soon after the capital was built, it was wiped out in 1297. Currently (1866) it is known just as Pātaṇ or Kadi-Pātaṇ (see Kadi). Except for the marble stones dug out of some areas outside what may have been its impregnable fortress, few signs exist of its underground ponds, wells, lakes, temples, palaces etc. thanks to devastation inflicted by the greed, hatred, religious bigotry of invaders. [KG]The immense wealth of Gujarat, due particularly to active commerce through the rich ports of Khambhāt, Surat, & Bharūch (see Greeks), drew waves on waves of Islamic jihadis. In 1024 Mahmud Ghazni sacked the temple of Sōmanātha. Bhīmadeva I, the Chālukya-Solanki king had failed to bar his route to it, but after the barbarian was gone, he built a temple of stone in place of the former temple of brick & wood, his general, Vimal Shah, build the magnificent Jaina temple at Ᾱbu. Other edifices were raised by Bhīmadeva’s successors, most by Siddharāja Jaisingh & Kumārapāla. Mūlarāja II Solanki & Vīrādhavala Vāghela successfully repelled all jihadi incursions in their time. Two ministers of Vīrādhavala, Vastupāla & Tejapāla constructed temples at Śhatruṅjaya, Gīrnār, & Ᾱbu. King Arjūna even endowed a mosque erected by a Muslim ship-owner of Ormuz, & provided for the expenses of certain Shiite festivals. He further laid down that under the management of the Muslim community of Sōmanātha any surplus was to be made over to Mecca & Medina. ― Md. Ghuri/Ghori invaded in AD 1178, but was routed by Mūlarāja or Vīrādhavala. But in 1297 when Gujarat was ruled by the Solanki-Vāghela Rāi Karṇadeva II, ‘Alā-ud-din Khalji the Turkish-Afghān (Sūltān of Delhi after murdering his uncle who brought him up, being a fatherless child, as his favourite son) vandalised the kingdom down to its bones, & carried away Queen Kamalā Devi to his Harem. The usual policy of the Sultans was clearly sketched by ‘Alā-ud-din, who required his advisers to draw up ‘rules & regulations for grinding down the Hindus, & for depriving them of that wealth & property which fosters disaffection & rebellion’. Half of the gross produce of the soil was collected by the Delhi Sultanate through its governors – while native Hindu rulers had taken one-sixth. “No Hindu (says a Moslem historian) could hold up his head, & in their houses no sign of gold or silver… or of any superfluity was to be seen… Blows, confinement in the stocks, imprisonment & chains, were all employed to enforce payment.” [see India ― In 1361-62, Md. Tughluq’s successor, resumed the task of conquering Sindh, which he had been abandoned on the death of Md. bin Tughluq. He marched towards Tattah, the capital of the Jāms of Sindh, with 90,000 cavalry, many infantry regiments, 480 elephants, & 5,000 boats. Jām Bābaniya, met him with an army of 20,000 cavalry & 400,000 infantry. The Delhi army suffered greatly, owing to the outbreak of famine & an epizootic disease, which carried off about three-quarters of it. Intending to gather fresh reinforcements, the Sultan retreated to Gujarāt. But, misled by his guides, he lost his way in the Rann of Cutch…. In 1401, Zafar Khan…appointed governor of the province in 1391 by Md. Shah Tughluq assumed independence. After his death in 1411, his grandson Ahmad Shah ascended the throne (see Ahmadābād). [AHI] ― [Among Ahmad Shah’s successors the most eulogized by ‘our’ secular historians are] Mahmud Beghdo (ruled 1459-1511) & Bahadur Shāh (1526-37). They also added to the territories & glory of Gujarat…. Confusion prevailed in Gujarat after the murder of Bahadur Shāh [inviting annexation by Akbar in 1572-73; the Marathas conquered it c.1730; & the Octopus in 1818]…. In the widest sense Gujarat includes the whole compact area where Gujarati language is spoken, i.e., Ahmadābād, Bharuch, Pancha Mahal, Khaira & Surat districts in the old state of Bombay, the main territories of the former Baroda state & the states of Saurāshtra & Cutch.” [DIH] ― The amalgamation of exotic & indigenous architectural styles [in Islamic buildings in Hindustan] was possible owing to certain factors. The Muslims had of necessity to employ Hindu craftsmen & sculptors, who were naturally guided in their work by the existing art traditions of their country. Further, in the earlier period of Muslim invasions, mosques were constructed out of the materials [=rubble] of Hindu & Jain temples, & sometimes the temples themselves were only modified (sic) to some extent to suit the requirements of the conquerors [which dictated their being pulverized & shards of their sacred Murties imbedded in the entrance steps of holy Islamic structures]. The province of Gujarat also witnessed the growth of a beautiful style of Islamic architecture. A splendid indigenous style had already flourished there before the coming of the Muslims, & the buildings of the conquerors bear unmistakable signs of the influence of that style…. Thus we find the use of fine wood-carving & also delicate stone lattices & ornaments in the buildings of the new city of Ahmadābād which was constructed by Ahmad Shāh during AD 1411-1441, out of the ruins of temples & buildings…. In the numerous buildings, mosques & tombs, built in Gujarāt since the accession of the Ahmad Shāhi rulers, the tradition of the old Indian art was modified (sic) in certain respects according to the requirements…of Islam.” [AHI] [KG = Karan Gehlot – the Last Rajput King of Gujarat by Nandashankar Tulajāshankar Mehta, first published in 1866; 10th Ed., 1934, reprinted 1986, 2007, 2009; AHI = An Advanced History of India by RC Majumdar et al, 3rd Ed., MacMillan India, 1973-1974, pp.172, 175, 269, 321-2; DIH = Dictionary of Indian History, S. Bhattacharya, Calcutta Univ.; 2nd Ed. 1972; pp. 59-60, 407-08]
Gujāria Gojāria, now an important town in Mehsāna district of Gujarat, was in Sri Aurobindo’s time a village in Vijāpur Tālukā, c.22km SW of Vijāpur town, c.20 km SW of Pilvai, all part of Baroda State’s Kadi district. All four are now in Mehsāna. Gojāria, c.88 kms SW of Idar, was also involved in the Pilvai affair [see Sayājirao Gaekwad]
Gujarāti an English journal published from Bombay by the Moderates.
Golāb Bano case Extracts from The Methods of the Indian Police in the 20th Century (1910) by Justice Frederic Mackarness, M.A. (Oxford), Barrister at Law, Ex-MP, County Court Judge, London Circuit, 50 Sussex, since 1911:―
“But I must mention one other case in the Punjab, in which the alleged torture was of a more atrocious kind, & the conduct of the Executive of the most unsatisfactory character…. The Chief Court: A woman named Gulāb Bāno was convicted early in 1908, upon her own confession, of poisoning her husband, & sentenced by Mr Kennedy, the Sessions Judge, with illicit concurrence of three Indian assessors, to be hanged. She appealed to the Chief Court at Lahore, consisting of Mr Justice Robertson & Mr Justice Rattigan, who in December of that year, set aside the conviction on the ground that the confession was most probably extorted by outrage of the most horrible kind inflicted on the woman by the Police. The Judges exhorted the Executive in earnest language to ‘institute a most stark Judicial Inquiry’ into the conduct of the police. Nevertheless, for nine months the world heard nothing, & the police continued in the service of the Govt. At the end of that time appeared a ‘Resolution’ by the Govt. of the Punjab completely discrediting the views, both of the Judges & of the prison doctor, who examined the woman, & completely exonerating the police. The ‘Resolution’ purports to be the result of a secret enquiry. But no one knows by whom it was held, except that it was by the police. No one knows who was examined, except that none of the police implicated were cross-examined…. Parliament has received little information on the subject. ― The Alleged Torture: Here is the horrible story of what the police did to the woman, in the very words of the Official ‘Resolution’: On the evening of June 7th she complained to the matron of the jail that the police had maltreated her. The hospital attendant was summoned, & to him Gulāb Bāno (the woman) made a statement to the following effect: ‘I was hung to the roof by the police (Superintendent & two head constables) in my village during the investigation, with a rope in my legs, & a baton smeared with green chillies was thrust up my anal opening.’ The matter was reported the next day to the Civil Surgeon, who examined the woman & found that she was suffering from fever, & was in a weak state. He ordered her to be prepared for examination, & next morning examined her, & found her, to use his own words, ‘terribly inflamed & ulcerated, a condition which, in my opinion, could only have been caused by an assault similar to that described by the prisoner’! He subsequently added that ‘the assault might have been committed on or about May 12th (the date given by the woman), but more probably about June 2nd.’ …. To the District Judge the woman gave a ‘Very clear & detailed account” of how the police had first beat & kicked her with the object of making her confess, then tied a rope round her feet & suspended her from a rafter of the roof. Then (so the official account runs) ‘a police baton, smeared with red peppers, was thrust into her rectum.’ She described minutely how the red pepper was ground, mixed with water, & applied to the baton, & what part each of the police concerned took in the proceedings. Under this agony she confessed to having poisoned her husband…. She retracted the confession on June 7th, first to the matron of the jail & then to the hospital assistant & the civil surgeon, & on the 10th formally before the district magistrate. Nevertheless, she was committed by him for trial, & convicted & sentenced to be hanged by the Sessions Judge. How could this possibly come about? ― Death of the Woman: The acquittal of, & the order for, the discharge of the woman dated from December 12th, 1908. Then comes a deplorable & impressive fact. The poor woman ‘died of fever on January 10th at the village of Ganda Kass, Police Station Pindi Gheb,’ to quote the official account. But the extraordinary thing is that though she died within a few weeks of the delivery of the Chief Court’s judgment, yet no one in India, or here [London], seems to have been made acquainted with the fact of her death until about October, 1909. During the intervening nine months the Govt. ‘enquiry’ went slowly & silently on. Frequent questions were asked in Parliament with no result…. At last came an elaborate decision by the Lieutenant-Governor to the effect that the police were entirely innocent. But not one word was said to convey to the world that the most important witness, namely, the poor woman herself, had not been examined, & had been dead for nine months. Was there any enquiry as to how her fever was caused, any medical report, or any inquest? ― Judges’ Reply to the Executive: As soon as the Govt. decision appeared the Judges took the almost unprecedented course of saying that they would formally reply to it in open court. Accordingly, on November 20th, 1909, at Lahore, they read a long & carefully prepared ‘order’ recapitulating in full detail the grounds on which they had made the grave reflections upon the police. They again asserted that they did not in any way prejudice the case against the police, but that their suspicions still remained. They laid stress upon the fact that for three or four days the poor woman was taken by the police away from the jail without any warrant, & ‘was returned to jail in a deplorable condition!’ At the end of this ‘order’ they announced that they proposed to append to their original judgment, the following ‘rider: No enquiry, such as was suggested by us as desirable in our judgment of December 12th, 1908, into the conduct of the police in regard to this case has been made by the Executive Authorities, but his Honour, the Lieutenant-Governor, has called for a memorandum from the Superintendent of Police concerned, & has considered that & the following note of the Deputy Inspector-General, & the medical opinion by Colonel Cunningham, & the papers submitted to him; & after considering these papers & those of the incomplete enquiry made before the trial, [the Lt-Governor] has come to the conclusion that the injuries from which Gulāb Bāno was suffering on June 5th were not caused by the police, & also that the omission to call Head Constable Abdulla as a witness was not due to any intention to suppress evidence favourable to the accused. The Judges had found that this Head Constable could have given evidence of the utmost importance in favour of the woman, but was not put into the box by the police. ― How the Police Were Exonerated: What is the salient fact that emerges from this unique judicial pronouncement? That in spite of the earnest warning of the Judges in December, 1908, that the evidence against the police of what can only he described as fiendish cruelty was prima facie such as to call for searching enquiry by the Executive, no such enquiry at all has ever been held, hut that the Police have been completely white-washed, simply on the strength of a secret memoranda by the superior officers of the very men directly affected by the strictures of the Judges. Nay, more. Not only as to the truth of the allegations of torture made against the Police, but as to the value & relevancy of evidence to be called, the Lieutenant-Governor & his policemen openly set aside the opinion of the highest court in the province. Still worse: the clear evidence of the experienced prison doctor who examined the poor woman, & found her injuries to be exactly in accordance with her story, is discarded by the Governor in favour of a theoretical opinion given more than a year afterwards by a medical professor in Lahore. And it is with this that Parliament & the public are expected to be satisfied…. As for the Judges, the Executive thus deals with them: ‘If your lordships find yourselves unable to concur in his decision, the Lieutenant-Governor regrets that it should be so, but so far as the Govt. is concerned, the decision is a final one, & as such has been communicated to the Head of the Police.’ Such is the respect shown by the Executive in India for the highest court in the Province. [Extracts from a booklet by Hindustan Gadar Office, San Francisco, 1915, Pages 16-21, which reproduced The Methods of the Indian Police…. in full]
Gungōtri / Gungotry Gaumukh; located at 3100 meters above sea level, it is the source of the Bhāgirathie that meets Alacanandā, another headstream of the Gungā, at Devaprayāg, after which point the combined flow becomes the Gungā proper. The origin of Gaumukh is a glacier located 19 km away from the Gangōtri temple, the Himalayan mountain shrine which is located about 31° North & 79° east. The present temple was built by Commander Amar Singh Thāpa early 18th century.
Gupta(s) a dynasty that reigned from Magadha an empire extending over northern, central, & western India from the early 4th to the late 5th century. (See Mauryas)
Gupta, Īśvara Chandra (1812-59), the first literary historian & critic of Bengali literature. He assembled young talents around him, thus paving the way for a new Bengali literature. His satirical poems are products of his humorous nature. He edited Saṃvāda Prabhākar, & two other short-lived papers.
Gupta, K.G. Krishna Gobind Gupta, ICS, appointed in 1871 as magistrate & collector, Secretary to Board of Revenue in May 1890, Commissioner of Excise in 1893; & reappointed member of the Board of Revenue for 1905-06; in 1908 Morley nominated him to his India Council in Whitehall as one of two Hindu Indians.
Gupta, Mahendranath (1854-1932) a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna better known as “M” & next only to Swami Vivekananda. He recorded in Bengali The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, first published in the 5-volume Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathāmrita.
Gwalior kingdom & its capital ruled by the Sindhias from 1771 up to 1947. Legend has a prince named Suraj Sen of Kachwāha clan who, losing his way while hunting in the forest, reached a hill where he met sage Gwālipa. The sage took him to a nearby pond & on drinking the water of the pond, the deadly leprosy disease from which Suraj Sen was suffering was completely cured. Overjoyed, Suraj Sen desired to give something to the sage in return as a token of appreciation. The sage accepted his offer & asked him to fortify the hill in order to protect other sages from the wild animals. Suraj Sen established a fort that was named Gwalior in the memory of sage Gwālipa. His capital in the plains below was therefore named Gwalior…. The Kachwāha Rajputs were defeated by Toramāna (q.v.) the Huna (q.v.). In the 9th century, Gwalior belonged to the Gurjara-Pratihāra king Bhōja (q.v.) of Kanauj; followed by the Tughlaq, the Slav, the Tomār, & last the Tanwar Rajputs who held it from 1398 to 1518. The most famous Tanwar king was Raja Mann Singh (ruled 1486-1517) who built its magnificent palace with its great gate. Under the patronage of his queen Mriga-naini (fawn-eyed) Gwalior grew & still is a preeminent centre of Classical music; among its early exponents was the famous Tānsen. Gwalior gained new dimensions from poets, musicians, & saints who contributed to making it renowned throughout the country. In 1731 Bājirao I ousted the Mughal intruders who had snatched Gwalior in 1528. Rāṇoji Sindhia (1726-50), Bājirao’s trusted general, made Gwalior his headquarters after Bājirao acquired parts of Mālwā. Rāṇoji’s descendent Mādhava (Madhoji) Sindhia made the city the capital of his kingdom in 1771. Gwalior state was roughly divided into the Gwalior or Northern section, & the Mālwā section. Gwalior was then bounded on the north, northeast, & northwest by the Chambal River, which separated it from the native states of Dholpur, Karauli, & Jaipur in the Rājputāna Agency; on the east by the British districts of Jalaun & Jhansi in the United Provinces, & by Saugor District in the Central Provinces; on the south by the states of Bhopal, Khilchipur, & Rājgarh, & by the Sironj Pargānā of Tonk State; & on the west by the states of Jhālāwar, Tonk, & Kotāh in the Rājputāna Agency. In 1857, Rāṇi Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi sought shelter at Gwalior fort. Not willing to lose his kingdom, Jayājirao Sindhia remained loyal to British (see Scindia where Jayājirao mentions this incident to Sayājirao) but let his army led by Tātyā Tope fight the British army [see The Mutiny].