Dictionary of Proper Names
Selected from Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works (1989/1996)
M
Macaulay Colman Patrick Louis (1848-1890): ICS: Financial Secretary to Govt. of Bengal & Member of the Legislative Council: went to Peking 1885: obtained Chinese Govt. passports: organized political & scientific mission to Lhasa, to open up trade, when it was suddenly stopped, in 1886, in deference to Chinese susceptibilities: Acting Chief Secretary to the Bengal Govt.: died May 9, 1890: [Buckland] This Macaulay was a superior of Bankim Chandra
Macaulay Thomas Babington, 1st Baron (1800-59): called to the Bar 1826: Commissioner for E.I. Co.’s Board of Control 1832: as its Secretary in 1833 helped carry the Bill through Parliament for renewing its Charter: as Legal Member of the Supreme Council in India, was with Gov.-Gen. Bentinck at Ootacamund June-September 1834: as head of the Law Commission shaped the Penal Code (q.v.) & Code of Criminal Procedure: framed the Minute on Education obtaining approval for it from Directors of E.I. Co in 1935: resigned & returned home in 1838: published eulogies on Clive 1840, Warren Hastings, 1841: M.P. for Edinburg 1839-47 & 1852-6: Secretary of War in the Cabinet 1839-41: supported Bill for renewal of Charter of E.I. Co. 1853: Chairman of Committee to open the ICS Entrance Exam also to Indians 1856. [Buckland] Among his most quoted edicts are: “a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India & Arabia”, “we have to educate a people who at present cannot be educated by means of their mother tongue”.
Macbeth King of Scotland (1040-57)
Macbeth one the most poetic tragedies of Shakespeare.
MacDonald, Ramsay James Ramsay (1866-1937), son of a labourer, began his career at the age of 18 as a clerk on 12/6d a week. Ten years later he joined the Labour Party & twelve years later (1906) he was elected to the Parliament & practically created the Parliamentary Labour Party. In 1909-10, he toured India in order to understand the ground realities of the Indian political situation. Among other political leaders he met Sri Aurobindo & acquainted himself with the Nationalist party’s principles & policies. On Minto-Morley’s Act of 1909 introducing separate electorates plus ‘weightage’ to benefit Mahomedans, he said, “The Mahomedan leaders are inspired by certain Anglo-Indian officials, & these officials have pulled wires at Shimla & in London, & of malice forethought sowed discord between Hindu & Mahomedan communities by showing the Muslims special favours.” In 1910, he published his memoirs of India under the title “The Awakening of India”. In 1913-14, he had lost his parliamentary seat due to his refusal to support the War-policy of Britain & was cast into the wilderness. After a second visit to India in 1913-14 he published The Government of India in 1919. In the post-war years he worked for peace in Europe & in 1922, the Labour Party re-elected him to Parliament. He stood for Parliamentary Democratic Socialism (it was what Sri Aurobindo had practically predicted in Karmayogin in 1909). In January 1924 MacDonald was elected Prime Minister & played an important part in the settlement of the long-standing dispute over war-reparations. Just before assuming the office of Prime Minister, he declared: “I hope that within a period of months rather than years there will be a new dominion added to the Commonwealth of our nations, a dominion of another race, a dominion which will find self-respect as an equal within the Commonwealth. I refer to India.” (See C.R. Das for what he & Birkenhead had hoped to usher). Unfortunately, the clarification on this made by his Secretary of State for India, Wedgewood Benn detracted a great deal from the impact Macdonald’s announcement made in India. But in 1925, barely eleven months after assuming power, his ministry fell. His second ministry formed in 1929 after Labour won the elections, was almost three years old when, in 1931, it was turned into a National Government, in which the Tories dominated the Cabinet. He presided over the three Round Table Conferences (1931-33) for settling the Govt. of India’s problem of constitutional development, fully aware that its progress depended on Indian & not the British delegates to it. But that problem was entirely eclipsed by the lethal laws of communal representation in all elections brought in by the Govt. of India Acts of 1909 & 1919 which foreclosed any agreement Indians on this issue. Fed up, Macdonald’s socialist-democratic sanskaras added the “Depressed Classes” as a party to the tussle, giving Gandhi the opening to go the whole hog by thrusting the divide & rule poison into the very genes of his India: This he achieved on September 24th, 1932, by making Malaviya sign on Hindu India’s behalf the Poona Pact with Ambedkar (representative all D.C.s). The Pact donated to the D.C.s 148 seats out of the Hindu share in provincial legislatures against the 71 allotted by Macdonald, plus reservations in all government’s services in exchange for D.C.s only registering in the Hindu electorate while having an electoral college of their own! Utterly disillusioned he incorporated this Pact in the Act of 1935 & (à la Pontius Pilate) washed his hands off the problems of India (see INC). [Based on Bhattacharya; R.C. Majumdar et al’s An Advanced History of India; Durga Das’ India-From Curzon to Nehru & After, 1969]
MacDonnell, Sir Antony Antony Patrick (1844-1925): joined ICS in Lower Bengal 1865: Revenue Secretary to Govt. of Bengal: Secretary to Govt. of India, Home Dept.: Acting Chief Commissioner of Burma 1889: Chief Commissioner Central Provinces 1891: Acting Lt.-Gov. of Bengal 1893: Member Supreme Council 1893-5: Lt.-Gov. North West Province 1895-1901: Member Council of India 1902. [Buckland]
Macedon(ia) Macedon was an ancient country north of Thessaly & bordering on the north-western Aegean, not originally a part of Greece.
Machiavelli Nicolo (1469-1527), Italian writer, statesman, Florentine patriot, political theorist, author of Il principe (see Prince, the) which advocates unscrupulous statecraft, hence ‘Machiavel’ is used for one who practises duplicity in statecraft.
Mackarness a Liberal who in 1909 introduced a bill in the British Parliament to amend the Regulation of 1818 & safeguard the liberties of the subjects in India. He also carried on an energetic campaign in the Parliament for the release of the deportees.
Mackenzie, Alexander (1842-1902): ICS 1862: appointed to Bengal Secretariat: wrote history of Govt.’s relations with tribes on N.E. frontier of Bengal: Financial Secretary, Govt. of Bengal 1877: Member Bengal Legislative Council 1877 & 1879: Home Secretary, Govt. of India 1882: Chief Commissioner of C.P. 1887, & Burma 1890: Member of Supreme Council 1895: Lt.-Gov. Bengal Dec.1895-Apr.98: released minimum possible funds for relief during famine of 1896-7 & for plague in Bengal: unstinting provisions for British businesses: imposed laws of sanitation in Calcutta harmful to natives: after retirement Chairman of India Development Co. [Buckland]
Macmillan’s Magazine published 1859-1907. Prof. Cowell (q.v.), reviewed Bankim Chandra’s Durgesh Nandini in it in 1862-64, & published it in 1865.
Macpherson James (1736-96) Scottish poet, who contributed to Gaelic studies.
McNeill, Swift John Gordon Swift McNeill (1849-1926) Irish politician, jurist, Prof. of Law, M.P. 1887-1919, & an authority on Parliamentary procedure.
McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (1866-1925), British Hegelian philosopher.
Madame Bovary chief character in Gustave Flaubert’s French novel of same name.
Madgodkar Govind Dinānāth Madgavkar [so spelt in ICS record; Madgodkar in Light to Superlight ed. A.C. Dutta; Madgaokar in CWSA]: educated in Bombay at St. Xavier’s School & College, & Elphinstone College: Passed July 1890 ICS Entrance Exam in London, stood 42nd to Sri Aurobindo’s 11th, & entered Balliol College; in Final ICS Exam of July 1892, rose to 18th rank to Sri Aurobindo’s to 37th: Asst. Commissioner, Burma: transferred in 1897 to Bombay as Asst. Collector, then Collector, then District & Sessions Judge, then Puisne Judge, Bombay High Court. [ICS Record] ― Beachcroft, of same ICS batch, began as Asst. Magistrate & Collector Bengal, then Puisne Judge in 1915, knighted on retirement – not so Madgavkar being Congressman, social worker, & nationalist. In 1902, Sri Aurobindo & Barin met him to request funds for sending Madhavrao Jādhav to Europe for military training. Madgavkar donated Rs.1,000, & with Tilak & Sri Aurobindo, also attended 1902 INC Session at Ahmedabad.
Madhavrao/ Lieutenant Madhavrao Jādhav Madhavrao Bhagawantrao Jādhav (b.1873), Sri Aurobindo’s most intimate friend at Baroda. He & his elder brother, Khāserao, agreed with his political ideas & projects &both helped him whenever possible in his political work. Another close friend & collaborator was K.G. Deshpande. Madhavrao, who was Adjutant of the Gaekwād’s Bodyguard, admitted Jatin Banerji into his squadron. Some years later, Tilak & Sri Aurobindo sent Madhavrao to India House where arrangements were made for his training on the Continent in military science & manufacture of ordnance. Later, under a recommendation from the Russian Legation (in which Tilak had some contacts) he was permitted to carry on further studies in the Swiss army. During one of its manoeuvres he saw British officers invited as observers & thought it best to hasten back to Baroda. In 1908, Madhavrao opened a fund for Sri Aurobindo’s defence in the Alipore Bomb Trial. In 1913, the Gaekwad appointed him a captain in the 2nd Regiment of his State Infantry.
Madh(o)u one of the two Daitya brothers slain by Sri Krishna.
Madhura-Kavi poet-saint, disciple of Nammalwar, one of the twelve Alwārs.
Madhva/ Madhwa (c.1199-1278), Vaishnava saint, greatest exponent Dwaita-vada.
Madhyamikā Mahayana School of Buddhism which sought a middle position between the realism of Sarvastivada, All Exists, & the idealism of Yogāchāra, Mind Only exists). While Nāgārjuna (q.v.) developed Shunya Vada, All is Void.
Madra kingdom of Mādra; Sāvitri’s father Ashwapati was a king of Mādra.
(Madras) Mail English daily started by a Brit in 1868; patronized by Anglo-Indians.
(Madras) Standard English daily; in 1915 Mrs Besant bought & named it New India.
Madras Times English daily started in 1860; merged later in Madras Mail.
Madravatie in Mahabharata, princess of Mādra, second wife of Pāndu, & mother of Nakula & Sahadeva. She was also known as Mādri(e).
Madrid became the capital of Spain in 1561, in the reign of Philip II, & developed rapidly in 18th century under the Bourbon kings. At the beginning of the Peninsular War a popular uprising against the French took place at Madrid on 2 May, 1808. Madrid played a heroic role in the Civil War of 1936-39, resisting 29 months of siege by Fascist forces of Spain, Italy & Germany led by General Franco, suffering heavy bombardments & surrendered only late in March 1939. ― José Miaja Menant (1878-1958) entered the Infantry Academy at Toledo in 1896. First posted in his native town Asturias, he was transferred to Melilla (Morocco) where he served in the Moroccan War of 1900. He rose to Major Commandant in 1911, General in 1932, when the Civil War broke out, he was stationed in Madrid. On November 6, 1936, when the duly elected Republican Govt. of Caballero evacuated the capital & moved to Valencia, executive powers for the capital were conferred upon the Junta de Defensa de Madrid, renamed Junta Delegada de Defensa de Madrid on November 31. This Junta was placed under Miaja to defend the city at all costs. He managed to halt the Fascists’ onslaught at the river Manzanares at the Battle of Madrid. As a Commander of the Central Zone, he also directed the battles of the Jarama, Guadalajara (q.v.) & Brunete. As overall commander of the People’s Republican Army, Miaja’s task was helped by the arrival of contingents of International Brigades formed by volunteers from Europe & USA. With comparatively few military professionals at their disposal, the Republic had to call on common folk to enlist in the militias organized by trade-unions which it armed. As a result Communist & Socialist organizations became de facto powers in main centres of Republican Spain. Together with the press & the radio, posters were one of their principal means of gaining support. At the front, the fascist armies made slow but steady progress. For the Republic, the conflict was more often than not a defensive war. In Republican cities, soldiers returning home were asked not to share information about the battle front, since members of the Fifth Column, as the clandestine supporters of the enemy were described by a Fascist general, were involved in informal espionage. ― On 13 December 1936, the Fascists attempted to cut the Madrid-La Coruna road to the north-east of Madrid. After suffering heavy losses the offensive was brought to an end over Christmas. On 5 January 1937, the attack was resumed. In the next four days they gained 10km of road & lost 15,000 troops while the International Brigades too suffered heavy losses. Pressed by his allies Hitler & Mussolini, Franco decided to use 30,000 Italians & 20,000 of his troops to attack Guadalajara, 40 miles NE of Madrid. By the start of 1938 Franco had already become dominant. In the Battle of Teruel which belonged to the Republicans at the beginning of the battle, fell to the Fascists in January. The Republicans recovered the city but the Fascists finally conquered it for good by February 22. On April 14, the Fascists broke through to the Mediterranean Sea during the Aragon Offensive, cutting the government-held portion of Spain in two. The government tried to sue for peace in May, but Franco demanded unconditional surrender, & the war raged on. The Republicans launched an all-out campaign from July to November to distract the Fascists from their attack on Valencia & to reconnect their territory in the Battle of the Ebro. Although the campaign was militarily successful at first, it was fatally undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in the Munich Agreement. The concession of Czechoslovakia destroyed the last vestiges of Republican morale, by ending all hope of an anti-fascist alliance with the great powers. The Republicans were eventually defeated & withdrew in November 1938. The Fascists conquered Catalonia in an inexorable whirlwind campaign during the first two months of 1939. Tarragona fell on January 14, followed by Barcelona which resisted courageously until it fell on January 26 & Girona on February 5. Five days after the fall of Girona, the last resistance in Catalonia was broken. Only Madrid & a few other strongholds remained for the government forces.
On February 27, the governments of the United Kingdom & France recognized the Franco’s regime. Now Miaja, then commander of all military forces in central & southern Spain, became increasingly concerned about the ability of the Republican Army to win the war. When Prime Minister Juan Negrin refused to negotiate a peace agreement with the Franco, Segismundo Casado, commander of the Republican Army of the Centre, Cipriano Mera, commander of the 4th Army Corps, & Julián Besteiro of the Socialist Party, established an anti-Negrin National Defence Junta. On 6th March 1939, Miaja joined the rebellion by ordering the arrests of Communists in Madrid. Negrin, about to leave for France, ordered Luis Barceló, commander of the First Corps of the Army of the Centre, to try & regain control of the capital. His troops entered Madrid & there was fierce fighting for several days in the city until Mera’s troops managed to defeat the First Corps. 12th to 25th March, Casado tried to negotiate a peace settlement with Franco who demanded an unconditional surrender. Soldiers of the Republican Army still left alive were no longer willing to fight & Franco’s Army entered Madrid virtually unopposed on 27th March. The next day, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city (the “fifth column” General Mola had mentioned in propaganda broadcasts in 1936), Madrid fell to the Fascists. Miaja fled to Valencia which had acted as the seat of the Republican government for most of the war, it fell on March 30, along with Spain’s fight for democracy, & Miaja immigrated to Mexico.
On April 1, 1939, General Franco proclaimed victory & the Church anointed him dictator for life. Perhaps among his first decrees was arrests, imprisonments, & executions of Republican defenders, among which were up to 200,000 people who were defending Madrid. Partly or mainly because this celebratory crackdowns went on until 1943, Franco could not or did not spare as many of his forces as demanded by Hitler & Mussolini in the 2nd World War. The
Siege of Madrid became an almost mythical subject in the popular imagination during the Spanish Civil War. The besieged capital of Spain, with the enemy so close, yet unable to take the city for years on end, became the subject of songs, such as Los Emboscados – a version of Si me quieres escribir, & poems like renowned poet Rafael Alberti’s Madrid, corazón de España. [Columbia Encyclopedia, 1950; Encyclopedia Brit.; Images of Revolution & War by Alexander Vergara; &c. Glimpses of Sri Aurobindo’s occult intervention in the defence of Madrid using Miaja as his instrument are found in A.B. Purani’s & Nirodbaran’s the notes of Sri Aurobindo’s talks of 1938 & 1939, esp. 14Dec.’38, 12Jan. & 7Feb.’39]
Madura Madurai was capital of the Pāṇdyās in 1st century. The Arthaśāstra mentions its fine textile products & its pearls which is why in 1311 it was sacked by Mohammedan barbarians who raped, converted, enslaved its people, destroyed their opulent temples & transported their holy sculptures to be installed into the steps of their barren holy places, the captured the booty consisted of 512 elephants, 5,000 horses, 500 maunds of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies & other jewellery. Madurai regained its magnificence after becoming part of the Hindu empire of Vijayanagaram, & later of kingdoms of Nayaks. The most celebrated of its magnificent temples is the two-in-one temple of Sundereshwara & Meenākshi. [Based on Bhattacharya]
Maecenas Gaius Cilnius (c.70-78 BC), diplomat, counsellor to the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, whose loyalty gave him considerable influence in early Imperial Rome. He was a patron & friend of Horace & Virgil.
Maeonides of Maeonia, ancient name for Lydia. Homer was said to be a Maeonide, either because he may have been born there or may have been a son of one Maeon.
Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore-Marie-Bernard (1862-1949), Belgian symbolist poet & playwright, he wrote in French & won the 1911 Nobel Prize in literature.
Magadh(a) a kingdom which finds mention from the Vedic to the Puranic texts [see SABCL 3:190-91 & 8:41, 52, 57]. Magadha is believed to have been ruled in 7th century BC by Shaisha-naga. His fifth successor was Bimbisāra who ruled during the time of Buddha & Mahāvira. Bimbisāra honoured them both while extending his kingdom by conquering Aṇga (q.v.) now Bhagalpur & entering into matrimonial relations with Koshala & Vaishāli but his son Ajātashatru conquered them both & built a fortress around which his descendent built the historical city of Pātaliputra & made it his capital. This dynasty was overthrown by Mahāpadma Nanda c.362 BC, who extended his empire from Kalinga (Odishā) on the east to the bank of Beas in Punjab. The arrogance & debauchery of Mahāpadma’s successors led to the overthrow of the Nandas in c.322 BC. However the practice of the ideals of Buddhism & Jainism inevitably brought in a decline in the military prowess & organisation & the rule of the Maurya dynasty ended with Bŗihadratha, who was killed in c.185 BC. The Gupta dynasty, that succeeded the Mauryan, restored Magadha’s power earned respect even from the southern states as far down as Kānchipūram. The present Magadha comprises of Patna & Gaya districts of Bihar (corruption of Vihāra, land of Buddhist & Jain vihāras).
Māgha ancient Sanskrit poet, son of Dattaka, & author of Shishupāla-vadha.
Māghavahan a king, an ardently devoted to the Jarāsandha.
Māghavan an epithet of Indra.
Magi pl. of Magus, priestly class of ancient Media & Persia, having occult powers.
Magna Charta (Magna Carta), a document guaranteeing personal & political liberty to his subjects, issued by King John at Runnymede in 1215 under threat of civil war. It was reissued with alterations in 1216, 1217 & 1225.
Mahābhārat(a) by Vyāsa; presently comprises a lakh shlokas in 18 Parvas.
Mahaffy Robert Pentland (d.1943), contemporary of Sri Aurobindo at Cambridge, he passed the Historical Tripos in the first class. After working as a journalist for some years, he served at the Bar. During World War I he was an officer in the Army.
Mahānirvāṇa Tantra translation & commentary on this work was brought out by Arthur Avalon in 1913 under this title.
Mahar(loka)/ Mahas world of Truth discovered, according to the Taittiriya Upanishad, by Rishi Mahachamasya as the fourth Vyāhṛtis; world of Vastness; world of large consciousness; the world of the Superconscient Truth of things.
Mahatmas in Theosophy, the Masters who live chiefly in Tibet; they are perfected men whose task it is to watch over humanity & guide it on the path of evolution. Two most concerned with Theosophical Society are Moryā & Koot Hoomi (see Kuthumi).
Mahāvidyās goddesses of the Tantra system; they are ten in number: Kali, Tara, Śodaśhi, Bhuvanesvari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalāmukhi, Mātangi & Kamalātmikā. Some Tantriks believe these goddesses manifested as the ten Avatāras.
Mahāvira (c.599-527 BC) born as Vardhamana he founded Jainism, & became known as Mahāvira, the last of the 24 Tirthankaras of that spiritual system.
Mahāvishnu occurs in Ramotaratapani Upanishad where it has been used in the sense of Param Brahman. In its primal sense, it is the great Agni in whom is centred the Bhu. He is the Virāṭa Purusha (Cosmic Spirit), who as Agni pours Himself out into the forms of sun & star. He is also Prajāpati & Mātarishwan.
Mahayana Greater Vehicle, one of the two major Buddhist traditions; it is the form most adhered to in China, Korea, Japan & Tibet. It emerged in c. 1st century from the original orthodox schools (represented by the Theravadins of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos & Cambodia & generally termed Hināyāna, Lesser Vehicle) as a more liberal & innovative interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings. The Mahayanist’ ideal is to become not an Arhat (perfected saint), but a Bodhisattva.
Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030) (1) also known as Mahmūd-i Zābulī, was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire. He conquered the eastern Iranian plateau, modern Afghanistan, & the north-western Indian subcontinent from 997 to his death in 1030. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire that covered most of today's Afghanistan, eastern Iran, & Pakistan, by looting the riches & wealth from the then Indian subcontinent. ― (2) Ghazni, a fortified mountain town in Afghanistan, 78 miles south-west of Kabul, is a great trading centre. It sprang into fame in the 10th century when it became the capital of a kingdom set up by a Turk named Alpitgin who died in AD 963. The city was adorned with many buildings, wide roads, museums etc., by Alpitgin’s grandson Sultan Mahmud (997-1030). He attacked & plundered the fortress & temples of Kangra & Bhimnagar…. These successes practically made him the master of Panjab. In the following years he raided Thāneshwar, Mathura & Kanauj & received also the submission of Gwalior & Kālinjar. In 1026 he led an expedition into Kathiawar sacked the temple of Sōmanātha, broke the lingam within the temple which he defiled & destroyed & plundered all the accumulated wealth within the temple & the city. His last expedition was made in 1027 against Multan. Sultan Mahmud, who was a very capable general, was also a patron of learning & lover of art & architecture. He adorned his capital Ghazni with many beautiful edifices & useful public works like aqueducts & libraries. He annexed to his dominions the Panjab & left the rest of India bleeding & demoralised. But beautiful Ghazni was burnt to ashes during the rule of Baihrām Shah in 1151 by ‘Alā-du-din Husain of Ghur who received on this account the title of Jahan-soz (world burner). Later on it was partially restored when it became the headquarters of the kingdom ruled over by Shihabuddin Muhammad Ghuri, the first conqueror of Hindusthan & has continued till modern times to be a place of great strategic importance, though its fortifications were all destroyed by the British General Nott, in the course of the first Anglo-Afghan War (1838-42). ― (3) A former Turkish slave who founded the Ghaznavid dynasty, had been appointed by Iranian Muslims as governor of Ghazni, a town near Kandahar. Among the more important of his successors were Amir Sabuktigin & his son Mahmud who succeeded him in 997-98. Mahmud converted the Ghaznavids thus bringing Islam into the sub-continent’s local population. By 11th century, he made Ghazni the capital of the vast empire of the Ghaznavids, Afghanistan’s first Muslim dynasty. The atrocities by Mahmud of Ghazni make the Taliban’s atrocities look benign by comparison. Mahmud knew that his throne was young & poor, & saw that India, across the border, was old & rich; the conclusion was obvious. Pretending a holy zeal for destroying Hindu idolatry across the frontier with a force inspired by a pious aspiration for booty, he met the unprepared Hindus at Bhimnagar, slaughtered them, pillaged their cities, destroyed their temples, & carried away the accumulated treasures of centuries. Returning to Ghazni he astonished the ambassadors of foreign powers by displaying “jewels & un-bored pearls & rubies shinning like sparks, or like wine congealed with ice & emeralds like fresh sprigs of myrtle, & diamonds in size & weight like pomegranates”. Each winter Mahmud descended into India, filled his treasure chest with spoils, & amused his men with full freedom to pillage & kill; each spring he returned to his capital richer than before. At Mathura he took from the temple its statues of gold encrusted with precious stones, & emptied it coffers of a vast quantity of gold, silver & jewellery; he expressed his admiration for the architecture of the great shrine, judged that its duplication would cost one hundred million dinars & the labour of two hundred years, & then ordered it to be soaked with naphtha & burnt to the ground. Six years later he sacked another opulent city of northern India, Sōmanātha, killed all its fifty thousand inhabitants, & dragged its wealth to Ghazni. In the end he became, perhaps, the richest king that history has ever known…. Sometimes he spared the population of the ravaged cities, & took them home to be sold as slaves; but so great was the number of such captives that after some years no one could be found to offer more than a few schillings for a slave. Before every important engagement Mahmud knelt in prayer, & asked the blessing of God upon his arms. He reigned for a third of a century; & when he died, full of years & honours, Moslem historians ranked him greatest monarch of his time, & one of the greatest sovereigns of any age. Mahmud of Ghazni set the stage for the orgy of plunder & brutality of other Muslim invaders of India. ― (4) “Mahmud, who carried to fruition the policy of his father Sabuktigin, was undoubtedly one of the greatest military leaders the world has even seen. His cool courage, prudence, resourcefulness & other qualities make him one of the most interesting personalities in Asiatic history. In addition to his victorious expeditions in India he had to his credit two memorable campaigns against hostile Turks in the course of which he routed the hosts of Īlak Khān & the Seljuqs. Great as a warrior, the Sultan was no less eminent as a patron of arts & letters (sic). But in spite of all this, to the historians of India he appears mainly an insatiable invader. He was neither a missionary for the propagation of religion in this country nor an architect of empire. The main object of his eastern expeditions seems (sic) to have been the acquisition of the “wealth of al-Hind” & the destruction of its custodians…. From the political point of view the conquest of the Punjab by the Sultans of Ghazni was of greater importance than the establishment of Arab principalities in the lower Indus valley. The annexation of the Punjab was a measure of necessity (sic) rather than of choice (sic). Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to assume that his invasions had no permanent political results in India. He drained the wealth of the country & despoiled it of its military resources to an appalling extent. The Ghaznavid occupation of the Punjab served as the key to unlock the gates of the Indian interior…. Neither the Arabs nor the Ghaznavid Turks succeeded in adding India to the growing empire of Islam, but they paved the way for that final struggle which overwhelmed the Gangetic kingdoms some two hundred years later.” [(1) Wikipedia; (2) Bhattacharya; (3) Malhotra’s How Gāndhāra became Kandahār, 2001; (4) Dr Kalikinkar Datta in Advanced History of India, pp.267-68]
Mahdi/ Mehdi (mä’dē Arabic for “rightly guided one”). In Islamic eschatology, he is a messianic deliverer of Islam who will arise before the end of the world – before yawm al-qiyamah (the Day of Judgment or Resurrection) – as Imam, the leader of the faithful, & will rid the earth of evil, restore true religion, fill the world with justice & equity, & usher in a golden age lasting five, seven, eight, nine or nineteen years (according to differing interpretations). There is no reference to the Mahdi in the Quran, only in the Hadith, the reports & traditions of Muhammad’s teachings collected after his death. In most traditions, the Mahdi will arrive with Jesus (Isa in Islam) to defeat Masih ad-Dajjal (false Messiah). Although the concept of a Mahdi is not an essential doctrine in Sunni Islam, he is popular among both Sunni & Shia Muslims. Both agree that he will rule over the Muslims & establish justice; however, they differ extensively on his attributes & status. Throughout history, various individuals have claimed to be the Mahdi. Among those who arose in Persia & Egypt claiming to be the Mahdi, the only one who gained historic importance was Mohammad Ahmed who established the Mahdist State in Sudan in the late 19th century. [Encyclopaedia Britannica, Columbia Encyclopedia, Internet]
Mahendra a mountain range of South India, it runs from Gondwānā to Orissa.
Mahi (1) in the Veda, the goddess of the Vast Truth (Mahas); she represents the vast Word that brings us all things out of the divine source. She is the same as Bharati, but different from the Bharati of the Puranas. (2) Mahi, the river that rises in the western Vindhya Range, just south of Sardarpur in Dhar district, & flowing through Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Gujarat, enters the sea by a wide estuary beyond the old Khambhāt port after a 360-mile course.
Mahmud Shevket Pasha (1856–1913) was an Ottoman general & statesman. He was born in Baghdad, where he finished his primary education before going on to the Military Academy in Constantinople. He joined the army in 1882 as a lieutenant. He spent some time in France investigating military technology & was stationed in Crete for a while. He then returned to the Military Academy as a faculty member. He worked under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha) for a while & travelled to Germany. He was then appointed as governor of the Kosovo Vilayet, where he commanded the 3rd Army, which was later known as Hareket Ordusu (Army of Action) after its involvement in suppressing the counterrevolutionary absolutist reactionaries in the 31 March Incident. A voice recording of Mahmud Shevket Pasha speaking to rally his troops against the counterrevolutionaries in 1909 was released in by journalist Murat Bardakçı in 2012. Shevket played an important role in ending the 31 March Incident & with it, the reign of Abdul Hamid II. He served as a Grand Vizier to Mehmed V from 23 January. He was assassinated in Constantinople on 11 June 1913 in a revenge attack by a relative of the murdered Nazım Pasha. Among other things, he is credited with the creation of the Ottoman Air Force in 1911 & bringing the first automobile to Constantinople. Mahmud Shevket Pasha gave much importance to a military aviation program & as a result the Ottoman Air Force became one of the pioneering aviation institutions in the world. Though raised as a Turk, various sources claim that he may have also had Iraqi Arab, Georgian, Chechen, or Circassian ancestry.
Prophet Mahomed/ Mahomet/ Mo(u)hamma(e)d Abū al-Qāsim Muhammad (Arabic for praised) ibn Abd Allāh ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim (his clan) (c.570-632), the sole Prophet of Islam was born in Mecca in the tribe of Koraish (q.v.) which ruled Mecca. His father having died soon after he was born, he was brought up by his uncle Abu Tālib. At the age of 24 he married Khadija, a wealthy widow, & became a wealthy merchant. Fatima, their only child, later married Abu Tālib’s son Ali. At 40 Mohammed felt that he had been selected by God & had a vision in which he was commanded to preach the true religion. Thereafter throughout his life he continued to have revelations, many of which have been collected & recorded in the Koran. His fundamental teachings were: There is one God; man must submit in all to him; in this world nations have been amply punished for rejecting God’s prophets, & heaven & hell are waiting for the present generation; the world will come to an end with a great judgment. His first three converts were his first wife Khadija, his cousin Ali (Ali ibn Abi Tālib), husband of his first child Fatima, & Abu Bakr. His teaching created many enemies in Mecca but it was accepted at Yathrib, so on 16 July 622, he went to Yathrib accompanied solely by Abu Bakr; that Hegira (departure) became the first day of the Mohammedan era. Yathrib became his first kingdom & he renamed it Medina. But his relations with the Jews & Christians of Arabia became gradually worse since he had expected them to accept him as their final Prophet. The Prophet’s last favourite wife was Ayesha, daughter of Abu Bakr, in whose arms he died on 8 June, 632. Islam is theoretically, a theocracy, & its caliph the vice-regent of God. [Encylopedias Britannica & Columbia (1950)]
Sri Aurobindo: “Mahomed’s mission was necessary, else we might have ended by thinking, in the exaggeration of our efforts at self-purification, that earth was meant only for the monk & the city created as a vestibule for the desert.” ─ “When all is said, Love & Force together can save the world eventually, but not Love only or Force only. Therefore…Mahomed’s religion, where it is not stagnant, looks forward through the Imams to a Mahdi.” ― “The first four were real Khalifās. Afterwards it became a political institution. . . . In these four there was the reality of the Khilafat. They were centres of Islamic culture & had some spirituality. After that the Umayyad & other dynasties came & it became more & more religious & external. When it passed into the hands of the Turks it became a mere political institution.” [CWSA 12:444; Evening Talks…, A.B. Purani, 2007, p.268 (7th March 1924), pp.269-70 (11th March 1924)]
Mahomed Reza Khan was appointed in 1765 at the instance of the Calcutta Council of the East India Co. the Deputy Nawab of Bengal on the death of Nawab Mir Jāfar, & later Deputy Dewan of Bengal directly under the East India Company, thus ending Mohammedan rule of Bengal. He made large profits from the revenues & general administration but did not care at all for the sufferings of the people who were extremely hard hit by the famine of 1769-70 which carried off one third of the population of Bengal. Bankim Chandra therefore gave him a special place in Bengal’s history by giving his name to the villain of his novel Ananda Math.
Mahopanishad an Upanishad belonging to the Saṃvāda.
Mahratta/ Maratha No people saw through the deeply laid designs of the European adventurers, especially the English traders as did the Mahrattas, right from the time of Shivaji. While in 17th century Robertus de Nobilous successfully effected mass conversions to Christianity of even high caste Hindus in & around Madurai, while Jagat Seth & Umichand in the 18th century helped the establishment of England’s political sway in Bengal, the Mahratta country enjoyed comparative immunity from the religious & political depredations of Christianity for a long time…. The basic considerations underlying Shivaji’s administration were noted down by one of his contemporaries in the booklet Amatya-Neeti. One chapter is devoted to the commercial community contains specific warning against European traders, especially English. The need to guard against their penetration, esp. in the maritime & coastal tracts, is stated with startling emphasis. The spread of religion & the acquisition of territory as being their objectives are clearly stated. Though British rule had been established in many parts of India by 1835, the only uniformity to which the conquered territories could lay claim was their subjection to foreign rule. The year 1707, the death of Aurangzeb signalling the end of Mogul dominance, can be taken as the starting point of the rise of the Mahratta people. The Rajputs, feudatories of the Mogul since more than two generations had lost the ambition & the capacity to take over. The Sikhs had attained to a great political eminence in spite of the proximity to Delhi & Kabul, but that very fact prevented them from filling up the void. Shivaji had gradually & progressively challenged the central power of Delhi. That Aurangzeb, after Shivaji’s death, personally descended into the Deccan with the avowed purpose of crushing the Mahrattas, was an implied recognition on his part of the fact that the Mahrattas were the only rival to the Mugals. The practical aspect of the maxim ‘nothing succeeds like success’ enabled Bāji Rao I to raise the Mahratta power to the level of an all-India power with outposts like Indore & Gwalior in the north, Nagpur in the centre & Miraj & Ramdurg in the south. The history of the Mahrattas for a quarter of a century before the 3rd battle of Pāṇīpat in 1761 & for nearly a decade after that event is a record of their attempt to handle the central administration of India, not as an Imperial power, but indirectly as its agents. Historians often assert that the defeat of the Mahrattas at Pāṇīpat was responsible for the non-fulfilment of their cherished desire. A closer study of what had been happening as the Mahrattas marched victorious from Cuttack (Odishā) to Attock (district beside Peshawar known as Pathān land) would show, however, that even without the blow at Pāṇīpat, they could not have kept the ground they had covered. Shivaji’s success in establishing Swaraj in Mahārāshtra was as much due to his military genius as to the background of the general awakening & the missionary effort in Mahārāshtra. Ramdas had pithily declared that “The sword wins territories but far-sighted statesmanship alone retains what is won.” Assimilation of the conquered territories, making the people feel that it is their Raj & the establishment of an orderly administration were tasks, which the statesmanship & the missionary effort of the 18th century Mahārāshtra found too stupendous to grapple successfully. As a consequence, the Maharattas appeared to be just political upstarts & usurpers in territories which they administered.... Though the tendency of the Indian mind to welcome a total foreigner in preference to an Indian from a remoter part of the Indian continent cannot be altogether left out of account, the unpalatable fact has to be admitted that the Mahrattas could not win over, or at least reconcile, to their mission peoples in provinces, where their sword had flashed & their flag flew. Dupleix & Clive could recruit sufficient local men to their ranks for extending the sphere of their conquests. Govindpant Bundelā had, on the other hand, to report to Poona that a standing army of 20,000 Mahrattas was necessary to retain Bundelkhand in the Mahratta Empire. The prospect of any success in empire-building was thus gloomy because the Mahrattas had woefully neglected the vital cementing processes. When the dream of empire-building melted away with the death of the Peshwa Madhav Rao I in 1772, when internecine strife commenced & when there was no longer any central authority to act as a cohesive force, it is no wonder to see fissiparous tendencies raising their ugly heads once again & asserting themselves. And yet the British, by then the supreme masters of intrigues, false promises, making & reneging on treaties, could not even begin to break open the Maratha Confederacy until after the death of Nana Fadnavis in 1800. [Based on S.L. Karandikar, Lōkamānya B.G. Tilak – the Hercules & Prometheus of Modern India, Pune, 1957; S. Bhattacharya’s D.I.H.]
Sri Aurobindo: The Mahrattas, perhaps the strongest & sanest race in India today, present a very peculiar & interesting type; they are south-western & blend two very different characters; fundamentally a material & practical race, a race of soldiers & politicians, they have yet caught from the Dravidians (q.v.) a deep scholastic & philosophical tinge which, along with a basic earnestness & capacity for high things, has kept them true to Hinduism, gives a certain distinction to their otherwise matter-of-fact nature & promises much for their future development. [SABCL 3:214; s/a Devagiri]
Mahratta/ Maratha See Kesari
Mahuvā a Tālukā in formerly of Baroda State. It is a port on the Gulf of Kutch.
Mainak/ Mainaac/ Mainac in Mahabharata a mountain north of Kailāsa. Personified, he is the son of Himavat (Himālaya) & Mena. When Indra clipped the wings of the mountains, Mainak is said to have been the only one who escaped, having taken refuge in the sea. According to some scholars this mountain stands in central India; according to others, near the extremity of the peninsula.
Maitrayani Upanishad an Upanishad of the Sama-Veda.
Maitreya, Akshaya Kumar (1861-1930), a lawyer of Rajshahi (Bengal), authored books on Indian history in Bengali. He came into the limelight with the publication of his books Sirāj-ud-daulah (1898) & Mir Kāsim (1906). He based himself on documents, & regularly contributed his articles to various journals.
Majumdar, Ambika Charan/ Mazumdar/ Ambica Charan (1850-1922) His father, Radha Madhab Mazumdar, being a wealthy zamindar, Ambica graduated from the Scottish Church College of Calcutta University. A lawyer by profession, an orator & an advocate of constitutional development, he joined the Indian Association founded by Bannerjea in 1876, & thereafter the INC in 1885. In 1886, he attended the 2nd annual INC held in Calcutta presided over by Naoroji. His friendship with Gokhale & Henry Cotton & fidelity to Mehta, Gokhale, & Wacha brought him the presidentship of the 1899 Bengal Provincial Conference at Burdwan. Sir John Woodburn, Lt. Governor of Bengal, awarded him the title: ‘The Grand Old Man of Faridpur’. In 1905, Ambika joined Ashwini Kumar Datta, Bhupendra Nath Basu & S.N. Bannerjea, in organising protest meetings against the partition of Bengal. In 1908, at the Madras Session of INC, he welcomed the ‘reform’ banning Nationalists & presided over the 1910 Bengal Provincial Conference. In 1915, he published “Indian National Evolution” – a survey of the origin & progress of INC. In appreciation it appointed him president of its historic session of 1916 held at Lucknow (q.v.).
[Based on Dict. of National Biography, Ed. S.P. Sen; Institute of Historical Studies, Calcutta, 1972-74]
Majumdar, Ram(achandra)/ Mazumdar Ramchandra/ Ram(a)Chandra a young man on the staff of Sri Aurobindo’s papers Karmayogin & Dharma. He informed Sri Aurobindo of his impending arrest in February 1910, & accompanied or led him to the Ganga Ghāt where Sri Aurobindo left for Chandernagore.
Makers of Italy a book by Marriot.
Malabar region on the west coast of India from Goa to the southern tip of the peninsula at Kanyākumari, now part of Kerala. The Moplahs of Malabar are a band of fanatic Muslims who have descended from the Arabs who settled here 8th or 9th century A.D & married mostly Indian wives. They had over the years acquired an unenviable notoriety for crimes perpetuated under the impulse of religious frenzy. They were responsible for 35 minor outbreaks during the Brit rule, the most terrible being the one that took place in August 1921. During the early months of 1921, excitement spread speedily from mosque to mosque, village to village. The violent speeches of the Ali brothers, the early approach of Swaraj as foretold in the non-cooperating press, the July resolutions of the Khilafat Conference all added fuel to the fire. All through July & August Khilafat meetings were held in which the Karachi resolution was fervently endorsed. Knives, swords etc. were secretly manufactured & preparations were made to the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom of Islam. On Aug 20, the District Magistrate of Calicut with the help of troops attempted to arrest certain leaders who were in the possession of arms at Tirurangadi, a severe encounter took place, which was the a signal for an immediate rebellion throughout the whole locality. Govt. property was destroyed. Europeans who did not succeed in escaping were murdered. As soon as the administration was paralyzed, the Moplahs declared that Swaraj had been established. A certain Ali Musliar was proclaimed Raja, Khilafat flags were flown, Ernad & Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms. The main brunt of the Moplah ferocity was borne, not by the Govt. but by the Hindus who constituted the majority of the population. Massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon woman were perpetuated freely till troops could arrive to restore order. (1) A statement by Kerala Provincial Congress Committee & Secretary of the Ernad Khilafat Committee & K.V. Gopal Menon says: “Their wanton & unprovoked attack on the Hindus, the all but wholesale looting of their houses in Ernad etc., the forcible conversion of Hindus in the beginning of the rebellion & the wholesale conversion of those who stuck to their homes in later stages, the brutal murder of inoffensive Hindus without the slightest reason except that they are Kāfirs or belonged to the same religion as the policemen, who entered their Tangals or entered their mosques, burning Hindu temples, the outrage on Hindu women & their forcible conversion & marriage by the Moplahs”. (2) A report dated Calicut 7/9/1921 in Times of India & another dated 6/12/1921 published in New India give details of the most horrible outrages on women which cannot be reproduced for sake of decency. (3) Sir Sankaran Nair refers to cases of men who were skinned alive or made to dig their graves before being slaughtered. [For details on the atrocities see p.362 of History & Culture of the Indian People, Bhāratīya Vidyā Bhavan, Vol.10] (4) According to the Report of the Enquiry Committee the Enquiry Committee of the Servants of India, the number of Hindus murdered was 1500, the number forcibly converted 20,000 & property looted Rs 3 crores. (5) In a heart-rending petition to Lady Reading, wife of the Viceroy, the Hindu woman of Malabar stated “Your ladyship is doubtless aware that even though our unhappy district has witnessed many Moplah outbreaks in the last one hundred years, the present rebellion is unexampled in magnitude as well as unprecedented in ferocity, pregnant woman cut to pieces & left on the roadsides & in the jungles. We remember how driven out of our native hamlets we wandered, starving & naked, the jungles & forests”. (6) To those who appealed to the Moplahs in the name of Gandhi they said, “Gandhi is a Kāfir, how can he be our leader?” (7) Said Mrs Annie Besant, “Malabar has taught what Islamic rule means & we do not want to see another specimen of Khilafat Raj in India.” By the end of 1921 the situation was under control. The govt. lost 43 troops with 126 wounded while the Moplahs lost 3,000 people. However, the Muslim leaders put the figure at 10,000 & refer to desecration of mosques, atrocities while suppressing the revolt. [“The Gentle Moplah Rebellion – An Offshoot of the Khilafat Movement – Internet; for INC session Dec.1922; for INC’s reaction to this carnage see Ahmedabad.]
Mālābāri, B.M. Bahraini Merwānji (1853-1912): educated at Surat: taught in the Parsi Proprietary School: social reformer & poet, famous for his service in the cause of Indian women, children, & education; took up journalism, purchased the Indian (or Bombay?) Spectator in 1880, edited it for more than 20 years then merged it with The Voice of India: instrumental in procuring the passage of “The Age of Consent Bill” in the Bombay legislature & in removing restrictions against remarriage of Hindu widows: translated Max Müller’s Origin & Growth of Religion 1882, Gujarat & Gujaratis 1884, The Indian Eye on English Life 1893, The Indian Problem 1894: & edited East & West 1901-12. [Buckland]
Māl(a)va The mountain territory just above the Takshashilā was occupied by the kingdoms of Uraśā & Abhisāra. To its south-east lay the twin kingdoms of the Purus or Pauravas, a people famous in the Vedic hymns. On the confines of the country of the Pauravas lay the territories of the Glaukanikoi & Kathaioi & the principality of Saubhūti was occupied by the Śibis & the Mālavas, with who were associated the Kshudrakas, while lower down the Chenab. After his underhand defeat of the formidable Puru, Alexander overran these petty principalities & tribal territories in the vicinity of the realm of the great Paurava…. The conqueror himself received a dangerous wound while storming one of the citadels of the powerful tribe of the Mālavas. At some uncertain date they moved on to Avanti & gave their name to the region which came to be called Mālavā or Mālwā with its capital at Ujjayini. Nowadays the name Mālwā is confined to the hilly tableland bounded on the south by the Vindhyan Range, but it has been extended to include the Narmadā Valley. The Mālavas had at first a republican government which was later turned into a monarchy. In the early centuries of the Christian era they passed under the rule of Śaka Satraps. In the fourth century they recognised the supremacy of Samudragupta whose son & successor, Chandragupta II annexed their territory to the Gupta Empire. It was visited by Fa-Hien in the beginning of the 5th century & its prosperity, salubrious climate & good administration profoundly impressed the Chinese pilgrim. After the collapse of the Gupta Empire, Mālwā passed under the domination of the Hunas who again were defeated by King Yashodharvarman in c.528 AD who then established his capital at Ujjayini, the famous & ancient city of the Mālavas. It was not only a sacred city of the Hindus especially due to the periodic Kumbha Melas which are especially sacred to Shaivites, but it was a centre of learning & is traditionally associated with the name of the great king Vikramāditya & his famous court poet Kālidāsa. The kingdom had turned into a settled well-governed state of Mālwā which in later times formed a part, first of the Gujarat of the Chālukya dominions & later on of the Gurjara-Pratyahāra Empire. On the fall of the latter it passed to the Paramāras from whom it was later on seized by the Tomaras. From 1305 to 1818 it passed from ‘Alā-ud-din Khalji to Dilāwar Khan Ghuri to Sultan of Gujarat to Akbar to Sindhia to the Octopus. [Based on R.C. Majumdar et al’s Advanced History of India, pp.62-65, 140; Bhattacharya: 606]
Mālaviya, Madan Mohan (1861-1946), prominent educationist & social reformer, thrice president of the Hindu Mahāsabhā. He also presided over two annual sessions of the Congress, in 1909 at Lahore & in 1918 at Delhi. His greatest achievement was the founding in 1915 of the Hindu University at Benares by raising the necessary funds from the princes & the people of India. The next year the university was joined by the Benares Central Hindu College (q.v.). Unfortunately for him & the Hindus, Malaviya was his sucked into the disastrous Poona Pact between Gandhi & Ambedkar (see Dr Ambedkar).
Mallas Mallas were one of the sixteen great nations that, shortly before the rise of Buddhism, occupied the territories from Kabul valley to the banks of the Godavari. The gana-rājya of Malla comprised present day Gorakhpur district in U.P. Its government was run by a popular assembly & elders who carried on the business of the State. In the same period, besides the best-known republic of Vrijis of Vaishāli (formed by the union of several clans including the Lichchhavis & the Jñātrikas), there existed several smaller gana-rājyas such as the Śākyas of Kapilāvastu, the Bhargas of Sumsumāra Hill, the Mauryas of Pipphalivan, etc. These republics defended themselves fiercely against the attacks of their neighbour, the expansionist Magadhan kingdom under Bimbisāra & his ambitious son Ajātashatru. About 1370 AD, Jaya-Sthitimalla, grandson-in-law of the Malla king Jayarudra (1320-26) & son-in-law of a prince of the line of Harisimha (king of Bhatgaon in Nepal), seized the throne of the Mallas & by 1382 established his authority over practically the whole of Nepal. His three sons kept the kingdom undivided. About 1426, his grandson Yakshamalla came to the throne & proved the greatest of the Malla rulers of Nepal. Yakshamalla’s mistake of partitioning the kingdom among his sons & daughters led to the rival principalities of Kathmandu & Bhatgaon, who quarrels ultimately led to the conquest of Nepal by the Gurkhās in 1768. [Majumdar et al, Advanced History…, pp. 54, 55, 57, 383]
Mallarm Stéphane (1842-98), French poet, a master of the evocative use of the French language, & a major influence on the Symbolist movement.
Mallinath a Sanskrit poet & author of commentaries on several of the great classical poems, e.g. Raghuvamsha, Meghadutam, Shishupāla-vadha.
Malory Sir Thomas (c.1470), English writer famous as author of Morte d’Arthur, the first prose account in English of the rise & fall of King Arthur & the fellowship of the Round Table. Malory’s original title The Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table was abbreviated to Morte d’Arthur by book’s printer Caxton.
Malplaquet village in northern France where in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1709, Marlborough & Eugene of Savoy won a costly victory over the French under Marshal Villars.
Malsar Malsāḍ, on the banks of Narmada where a saint named Mādhavadas lived.
Malsure, Tānāji Shivaji’s boyhood friend, who had a duel with Udaya Bhān of Kondāna Fort in which both were killed. Tānāji’s brother Suryāji took over the command of the fort & defeated the Rajputs. Kondāna was renamed Simhagadh.
Malvolio a steward in Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night.
Mamatā wife of the Rishi Uchathya & the mother of Dīrghatamas.
Mānava Dharmashāstra laws of conduct of the mental being in Manusmriti.
Manchester was the nucleus of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. “Great Britain regarded India as an agricultural reservoir & a market for British goods, which were admitted duty free. Indian manufactures were barred from England by high tariffs; native handicrafts, esp. textile weaving, were forcibly & systematically destroyed.” [Columbia Encyclopaedia, Col. Univ. Press, 1950] Pax Britannica destroyed India’s unsurpassed handicraft & textile industries & architectural abilities all too often by cutting off the artisans’ hands – some of them, according to native tradition were even walled up alive. The Pax prospered by strangling the natives’ genius by inhuman taxes, duties, & legislation, then making them pay for their own emasculation. Thus ensured, England’s Industrial Revolution, reached its peak in the 19th century with the development of its industries. The easy supply of water, power & coal for Manchester’s factories, roads, canals, railways, made Lancashire County, a commercial centre of textile trade; as a result its population density, quality & conditions of life were the worst in all England in the days when Sri Aurobindo & his brothers lived there between 1879 & 1883/84 as wards of the Drewetts.
The Manchester Guardian a daily published by John Russell Scott.
Mandalay a city on the Irrawaddy River, former capital (now chief town) of Upper Burma, & headquarters of Mandalay district & division. Tilak was interned in Mandalay Jail for six years, from 1908 to 1914. At that time Burma was a part of British India.
Mandār(a) an ancient mountain between Bhāgalpūr & Dumka, composed of one single structure unaffected by winds or weather. This proves its scriptural description as having emerged from the earth in one whole unāging piece hence Shiva’s meditation seat on earth. Kālidāsa’s Kumarasambhavam refers to footprints of Lord Vishnu on the slopes of Mandāra. The mountain is equally revered by the Jains as their 12th Tirthankara attained Nirvana here on the summit of Mandāra.
Māndavya a Brahma-rishi in Mahabharata. For killing a moth he was condemned by Yama to be impaled upon a shūli (stake). When he was put there, he resumed his meditation as though nothing had happened.
Mandhātā son of Yuvanashva, of the race of Ikshwāku, & author of a hymn in the Rig-Veda. In Mahabharata, he conquers the whole earth in a single day.
Māndukya Upanishad belongs to the Atharva-Veda.
Mānekwādā Prof Mānekrao (née Gajānan Yashwant) had started a gymnasium in mid-19th century to continue the age-old Maratha tradition of training young men in all branches of physical education. Situated in the Dāndia Bazar locality of Baroda, it trained many revolutionaries among whom the Purani brothers. When Sri Aurobindo was in Baroda in January 1908, after the Surat Congress, he gave a public speech at the Mānekwādā gymnasium besides the one he gave the Vānkāner Theatre. A.B. Purani attended that speech with his elder brother; the gymnasium movement that they then started in 1909 – inspired by Sri Aurobindo & designed by his brother Barindra, to prepare several categories of freedom fighters; the movement spread of Gujarat & is still active in imparting physical education.
Maṇgaḷ name in Indian astronomy of the fourth major planet from the sun, revolving in an orbit outside that of the earth. From the earth, it is seen as bright vermillion in colour. Vermillion was for millenniums an auspicious colour in Bhāratavarsha which is the reason for its use in religious ceremonies, in the tīkā that devout Hindu married women used to apply to their forehead, & the male offspring named Maṇgaḷ & the female Maṇgaḷā. The name is also used for the Moon & Tuesday. [cf. Mars]
Manichaeism a dualistic religion founded in the 3rd century by Mani, a Persian who had a vision in his early youth & came forward as a prophet inspired by divine revelation. The religion flourished for over two centuries.
Manicktala/ Maniktala/ Manicktolla a locality in eastern Calcutta, formerly considered a suburb of the city. The property of Sri Aurobindo, the ‘garden’ in which Barindra trained his group of revolutionaries, was situated there at 32, Murari Pukur Lane. Writes Abinash Bhattacharya: “March 1906. Our Yugāntar appeared. A few days later, after settling all his affairs in Baroda, Aurobindo-babu joined us. Our work was steadily developing into something serious & so for reasons of security & convenience Aurobindo-babu divided it up. Barin was to look after the bombs & so forth in the Muraripukur Garden…. Needless to say, this Muraripukur garden-house property – seven bighās [one hectare] of land – belonged to Aurobindo-babu’s family. It had a nice pond with steps leading down to the water, & a smaller pool. It was covered with mango, jack-fruit, coconut, betel, & bamboo trees. The one-storied house had three rooms & a verandah.” [“Sri Aurobindo” Mother India, July 2012, pp.528-39]
Manindranath/ Mani Naik follower & disciple of Motilal Roy. He played a major role in Barindra’s revolutionary work as bomb-maker. He made the bomb thrown at Lord Hardinge at Delhi on 23 December 1912 by Basanta Biswas under the direction of Rash Behari Bose. He met Sri Aurobindo on 26 December 1925 as a representative from Chandernagore in the French Indian Legislature at Pondicherry.
Manipur/ Monipur(a) (maṇi jewel + pūra city) in the Mahābhārata is where Arjūna meets & subsequently marries Chitrāngadā, daughter of king Chitravāhana.
Manipushpaca the conch-shell of Sahadeva, youngest of the Pandavas.
Manmohan (Ghose) (1869-1924), known in the family as Mano, was just eight or nine, when his elder brother Beno (Benoy Bhūshan) & his younger brother, Auro, were admitted to the Loreto Convent School at Darjeeling. As his daughter Lotika later put it, “In the shadow of the Himalayas, in the sight of the wonderful snow-capped peaks, even in their native land the children were brought up in alien surroundings.” In 1879, Dr Ghose transplanted the three brothers in Manchester in the care of Mr Drewett in the hope that at least one of them would get into the Indian Civil Service. Manmohan & his elder brother Benoy were admitted to the prestigious Manchester Grammar School in 1881. When Mr Drewett left for Australia he left them in his mother’s care, & they moved to London. In May 1884, the first year St. Paul’s took in any Jewish or non-white boys, Manmohan & his two brothers took its entrance exam; in September, he was admitted as a paying scholar & Sri Aurobindo elected to one of the 23 vacant Foundation Scholarships. At St Paul’s Manmohan became close friends with his classmate Laurence Binyon, bonding over their love for the Classics & Matthew Arnold. He also became friendly with Binyon’s cousin Stephen Phillips & Oscar Wilde whom he met at the Fitzroy Street settlement. After the three brothers were thrown out of her house by Mr Drewett’s mother (in 1885/1886) for not respecting Moses during their catechism classes at home, they were given shelter by James Cotton. In July 1887, while in Upper 8th Form at St. Paul’s, Manmohan won an open Classical Scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, & left St. Paul’s. Next July Binyon joined Manmohan at Oxford where he went up on winning an open Classical scholarship to Trinity College. The yearly £80 that Manmohan’s scholarship provided (the same amount as received by Sri Aurobindo from his scholarship) proved too little for his life-style for he preferred a rich social life & wrote to his father for funds promising to try for an appointment in the British Museum. Actually, he had grown so enamoured of English poetry & England herself that he yearned to settle there. In a letter to Binyon, he wrote that though his father wanted to see him return as a barrister “a thing which is quite distasteful to my nature”, but he had consented to his staying back but, opposing the idea of giving up his scholarship in the prospect of getting the Museum appointment, had promised him in his letter: “I will try my best to give you a year or two at the University where you can learn Sanskrit, & improve your classics, get facility in writing & speaking & make interests & form friends. When you have done that it will be easier for you not only to get an appointment in the Museum but to ensure a rapidity to your promotion. Perhaps if you can do that & have a home for your brother & sister in London they will have excellent facilities for education.” We don’t know what effect Dr. Ghose’s letters had on Benoy, but Manmohan’s poetic nature, not to forget his love of everything English, recoiled from accepting the ideal. “I must leave my unhappy nation to her own woes”, he had confided in Binyon, “she will go the way she is destined.... I shall bury myself in poetry simply & solely.” ― Manmohan passed from Christ Church with 2nd Class Classics Moderations in 1889, & collaborated with Binyon, Phillips & Arthur Shearly Cripps (who later became a Christian poet-missionary abroad) on Primavera an anthology of poems published by Blackwell, Oxford, in 1890. While James Cotton reviewed it in Academy, Wilde reviewed it in the Pall Mall Gazette with the remark that “Ghose may some day bind India to us by other methods than those of commerce & military strength.” Since he had also befriended many members of the ‘Rhymers’ Club’ such as Lionel Johnson (q.v.) & Ernest Dowson, he was invited by Dowson to contribute to The Book of the Rhymers Club that was published in 1892, but he was unable to share the cost of the expenses. For the same reason, he could not but ‘stay back’ in London even after the death of his father in December 1892. It was Benoy who, after returning to India sometime in September 1894, sent him the fare for his passage back to India. Manmohan returned to India in 1893, & took a series of teaching posts at Patna, Bankipore, & Calcutta. In 1897, he was appointed Assistant Professor at Dacca College & full Professor in 1901. But neither of them put their heart into what their father had expected of them, namely, helping their two youngest siblings; that responsibility, along with helping others in the family, fell to Sri Aurobindo. ― In 1908-09, ruffians of British CID harassed this blameless anglophile no end solely on a whimsical letter by Arthur Wood (see St Paul’s School) then an ICS goon in Bombay Presidency, to its HQ in Shimla accusing Manmohan rather than babyish Aurobindo of leading the revolutionary bunch arraigned in the Alipore Bomb Trial. ― After the death of his wife, Mālati Banerjee in 1918, his health deteriorated & he aged prematurely. For 30 years Ghose had cherished the dream of returning to England. Until the end, says Binyon, Manmohan’s “delight was in European literature…; blinded, broken in health, & prematurely aged, he…continued to compose poetry, & he looked forward to accomplishing a cherished dream of returning to England, the beloved nurse of his youth. His passage with his daughter Lotika was taken for a date in March 1924, but after a short illness he died on January 4th. As he lay dying Lear & Macbeth were read to him at his own desire.” His daughter left for London & met Laurence Binyon, who helped her edit Songs of love & death, which was published in 1926 with an “Introductory Memoir” by Binyon, by Basil Blackwell, Oxford. A reader of Manmohan’s Love Songs & Elegies & Songs of Love & Death, G. Simpson felt, “would readily take them as the work of an English poet trained in the classical tradition”. [Published Works: With Laurence Binyon, Arthur Shearly Cripps & Stephen Phillips: Poems, by Four Authors (Stephen Phillips, Laurence Binyon, Manmohan Ghose, & Arthur S. Cripps) Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1890; Love-Songs & Elegies, in the Elkine Mathews Shilling Garland series, 9 (April 1898); with Binyon, Image, Coleridge, Victor Plarr, & Romney Green in The Garland of New Poetry by Various Writers, London: E. Mathews, 1898; Songs of Love & Death, ed. with introduction by Laurence Binyon, 3rd Ed., Calcutta Univ., 1968; Collected Poems, ed. by Lotika Ghose in 4 vols. (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1970-77; Selected Poems, ed. by Lotika Ghose (New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1974). Reviews: Oscar Wilde, Pall Mall Gazette, 24 May 1890 (Primavera); Athenaeum, 24 May 1890; (Primavera) J. A. Symonds, Academy, 9 August 1890 (Primavera); Hobby Horse, 5, 1890 (Primavera); Queen, 10 Jan 1891; J. Freeman, London Mercury, April 1926 (Songs of Love & Death)]
Mān Singh of the Tanwar dynasty of the Rājputs of Gwalior, ruled from 1486 to 1517. A brilliant general, until the end of his life, Raja Mān Singh maintained the independence of his kingdom, holding his ground against the Mohammedan rulers of Jaunpur & Mālwā as well as against the Sultans of Delhi. He & his queen, Mriga-naini (fawn-eyed) developed Gwalior as a great centre of the fine arts, most notably the Gwalior Gharānā of music. Mān Singh also built a magnificent palace with its equally magnificent great gate on the eastern face of the hill. [See Jahangir to compare this Mān Singh with the Mān Singh of Amber]
Mantharā in Ramayana, a petty-minded hunch-back, princess Kaikeyi’s ayah who managed Kaikeyi’s mind resulting in the death of King Dasharatha, a 14-year exile for Rama, Sītā & Lakshman’s, & Kaikeyi’s estrangement from her only son, her shame, misery & self-hatred.
Mantuan Virgil who was born near Mantua, capital of Mantua, Lombardy, Italy.
Manubhai former secretary of Sayājirao, who when Dewan created the Bāpat Case.
Manu(s)/ Manu Vaivaswata/ Manou Manu (man the thinker, the mental being) from which came the Vedic word manyamānāh, the thinkers of the word, & manyu, temperament, emotive mind. Manu, as the progenitor of mankind, is the first of the ten Prajāpatis created by Brahmā. According to tradition, Manu incarnates 14 times in each Kalpa (one fourteenth of a day of Brahmā) & each of these fourteen is called a Manu. The period for which a Manu manifests & holds sway on earth is called a manvantara, an evolutionary cycle. Each Manvantara consists of a varying number of chatur yugas – there are not less than 4,320,000 years in each Chaturyuga. In each Yuga, a Veda-Vyāsa appears, formulates that Yuga’s Veda (Eternal Knowledge) & organises it in four chief parts. 28 Chaturyugas have so far transpired. Manu, as the first Prajāpati, is always swayambhuva, self-manifested. To him is ascribed the Mānava-dharma-shāstra or Manusmriti or Manu Samhita. The Manu of the present Kalpa or aeon (the seventh according to the Vishnu Purana), is named Vaivasvata (q.v.), son of Vivasvata, the Sun. The legend of the fish & the deluge is connected with this Manu. In Vishnu Purana, Vaivasvata, also known as Sraddhadeva or Satyavrata, was the king of Dravida before the great flood. He was warned of the flood by the Matsya (fish) avatar of Vishnu, & built a boat that carried the Vedas, Manu’s family & the Sapta-Rishis to safety, helped by Matsya. Manu, the first Prajāpati, says Sri Aurobindo, is different from the four eternal Manus (chatvāro-manavāh) “the spiritual Fathers of every human mind & body”, who are in themselves are beyond this manifest universe, “for the active nature of the Godhead is fourfold & humanity expresses this nature in its fourfold character... from them are all these living creatures in the world; ...these Manus are in themselves perpetual mental becomings of the supreme Soul & born out of his spiritual transcendence into cosmic Nature.” [SABCL 13]
The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland poem by Yeats.
Mārā in Buddhism, the Evil One who tempts men to indulge their passions.
The Mahratta/ Maratha See The Kesari
Maratha Confederacy was created in 1730s by the 2nd Peshwa Bāji Rao I during the reign of Chhatrapati Shahu, the grandson of Shivaji. It became a necessity, partly due the rapid expansion of Maratha dominions in the north as well as the south under his military & administrative leadership & partly due to the opposition to his leadership by the Kshatriya section led by Senāpati Dabhāde & supported by the ambitions of his deputies, especially the Pilāji Gaekwad eager to carve a kingdom of his own. Bājirao had to depend, therefore, on the loyal support of his adherents with proven military capacity. He thus put large areas under the control of his lieutenants of whom the chief were Raghuji Bhonsle, Ranoji Sindhia, Malhar Rao Holkar, & Dāmāji Gaekwad thus creating the Confederacy which carried his victorious arms to Delhi & even into the Punjab. The confederacy which began to crack after the passing of his son Bālāji Bāji Rao in 1761 thanks to the machinations of the British octopus was somehow held together by Nana Fadnavis until his death in 1800. Then began the Anglo-Maratha Wars: European ‘historians’ & their Indian clones titled them ‘The Maratha Wars’ to protect the angelic image of their prime instigator was the rapacious Octopus. The excuse for the first (1775-82) was protecting the ambition of Raghunath (Raghoba), the 2nd son of Bāji Rao I, to succeed his elder brother Bālāji Bāji Rao as Peshwa. Raghoba had failed to prevent the accession of Bālāji’s son Mādhava Rao followed by that of Mādhava’s brother, Narayan Rao. So he got Narayan Rao murdered & declared himself Peshwa in 1773, but was opposed by a strong party led by Nana Fadnavis. The latter’s stand was reinforced in 1774 by the birth of Narayan Rao’s posthumous son named Madhav Rao Narayan whom they declared Peshwa. Down but not out, Raghoba invited the Octopus at the family table – thus was ignited the First Anglo-Maratha War which got stuck in an impasse. Enter the Sindhia who, like the proverbial monkey, helped himself to an ample reward. Then, frightened by the jealousies & intrigues among the Sindhia, the Holkar, Raghoba cowardly son, Bāji Rao II (Peshwa since 1796) ran to the Octopus bringing about the 2nd War (1803-05) which ended with the Octopus reducing the Bhonsle, the Holkar & the Sindhia to its subsidiaries. All the four regretted their stupidity & in 1817, Bāji Rao II ignited the 3rd & most degrading War which threw the Peshwaship along with the entire Maratha Confederacy into the trash can of history. By 1819 the Octopus reigned supreme over the peninsula & by 1835 over the entire subcontinent by devouring Punjab & Sind at the opportune time. [Vide Bhattacharya &Karandikar]
Marconi Guglielmo (1874-1937), Italian physicist & electrical engineer who developed the use of radio waves as a practical means of communication. In 1895 he sent long-wave signals over a distance of a mile, & in 1901 received in Newfoundland the first transatlantic signals sent out by his station in Cornwall, thus making the discovery that radio waves can bend around the spherically shaped earth. Marconi received, jointly with K.R. Braun, the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Marichi a Prajāpati; chief of Maruts, he married Kala, mother of Rishi Kashyapa.
Mariolatry worship of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.
Mārkandeya Purana narrated by Rishi Mārkandeya, son of Rishi Mrikandu, in about 9,000 verses; Chandipātha is an episode of this Purana.
Marlboro’ John Churchill (1650-1722), 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general & statesman, one of the great military commanders of history.
Marlowe Christopher (1564-93), English dramatist & poet. Among the Elizabethan dramatists, he was second only to Shakespeare.
Marpessa (1) daughter of Euenus, son of Ares. Idas, who was an Argonaut, won Marpessa as his bride, but she was carried off by Apollo. Zeus intervened & offered her a choice between the two. She chose Idas. (2) Narrative poem by Stephen Phillips.
Marriot author of Makers of Italy.
Marriot, Charles contributed an article on the work of J.D. Ferguson (q.v.), to the 2nd No. of the magazine Shama’a, which was reviewed by Sri Aurobindo in Arya.
Mars Roman deity, later god of War. In literature & art he is hardly distinguished from the Greek Aries. Fourth major planet from the sun, revolving in an orbit outside that of the earth, it is glaring red in colour. (cf. Maṇgaḷ above.)
Marsyas the piper of Celaena in Phrygia, who challenged Apollo to a musical contest. It was agreed that the victor should treat the loser as he wished. The victory was with difficulty adjudged by the Muses in favour of Apollo. He thereupon tied Marsyas to a tree & flayed him alive.
Mārtanda the eighth son of Adīti, the mother of the gods, whom she casts away from her, & became the black, dark, lost, or hidden Sun.
Martineau Governor of Pondicherry (July 1910-June 1911); a supporter of Bluysen in the election to the French Chamber in 1914, & himself a candidate in 1920.
Martund Mārtanda (an epithet of Shiva) Rajput prince belonging to the Ghelote clan to which also belonged Mahārāṇā Pratāp of Chittodgadh [s/a Mewār]
Martyaloka Bhūr lōka as the world of mortals.
Marut(s) the storm-gods, who hold a very prominent place in the Vedas & are represented as friends & allies of Indra. The Maruts are Life-Powers & Thought-Powers. Their numbers vary according to the forms in which they manifest.
King Marutta/ Maroutta descendant of Manu Vaivaswata, who performed the first Ashwamedha yajña, & became known as a Chakravarti(n) Rājā, Emperor Etymologically, chakravarti means ‘wheels that can go anywhere’; hence a Chakravartin Raja is one whose horse-driven chariots (i.e. on Chakras, wheels), had driven unchallenged in all four directions thus defeating all the surrounding kings.
Marwaris or Mārwādi was a term originally used for everyone who belonged to Mārwād as well as their language. Over time that term became restricted to certain trading communities within that region’s Baniā ethnic category. They have been a highly successful as traders & investors in various businesses. Their migration became increasingly divergent following the decline in wars between Rajput kingdoms, which they financed, & the decreasing of their influence over North Indian caravan trading routes that resulted from the British hiring them. The commercial & legal frameworks that this new alliance assured them brought them greater wealth, safety, & influence than what their connections with the Rajput & Moghul had done. There were particularly significant population shifts of this community to Bombay in 1835-50 & Calcutta from the 1870s, as well as to Madras.
Mary/ Virgin Mary/ the Virgin Mother of Jesus, worshipped in the Catholic Christian Church since the apostolic age, & a favourite subject in art, music & literature. “…above, on a plane within us…called heaven by the ancient mystics, the Lord & the Jīva stand together revealed as of one essence of being, the Father & the Son…the Divine Being & the divine Man who comes forth from Him born of the higher divine Nature, the virgin Mother, parā prakṛti, parā māyā, into the lower or human nature. In the Buddhist legend the name of the mother of Buddha makes the symbolism clear; in the Christian the symbol seems to have been attached by a familiar mythopoeic process to the human mother of Jesus of Nazareth.” [SABCL Vol.13:153-54]
Queen Mary Victoria Mary of Teck (1867-1953), consort of King George V of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, crowned with him in 1911.
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary Stuart (1542-87), controversial Scottish queen, who was put to death by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England, who considered Mary a threat to her throne. Mary’s tragic history has made her one of the most popular heroines of romance.
Masefield John (1878-1967), playwright & novelist; 15th poet laureate of England.
Maskelyne John Nevil (1839-1917), English magician who influenced the development of European magic. Trained as a watchmaker, he became famous in 1865 when he exposed the Davenport Brothers as fraudulent spiritualists.
Masonic the Masonic Fraternity, an oath-bound fraternal order, originally deriving from the medieval fraternity of operative stonemasons. It has no central authority, being divided into more than 100 grand autonomous jurisdictions; its Indian Lodge was formed in 1730 in Bengal.
Massis, Henri (1886-1970), editor-in-chief of Revue universelle (founded in April 1920) & author of La défense de 1’Occident.
Mātaris(h)wan / Mātarisvan Vedic Vāyu (q.v.); as Prāṇa, he extends himself in Matter & vivifies it; he brought down / produced Agni for the Bhrigus’ Yajñas.
Mathura/ Mothura on the right bank of the Yamuna, was connected with the life of Sri Krishna along with Gōkula & Vrindāvana, hence became centres of his followers’ pilgrimage. Mathurā’s strategic location, linked it to various trade routes going westwards to West Asia & the Roman Empire, northwards, via Takshashilā, Pushkalāvatī & Purūshapūra to Central Asia & the Silk Route, & eastwards to China, ensured its position as a centre of trade & a meeting point for varied cultures. During the time of Buddha, it was a major metropolis & the capital of the Surasena kingdom – one of the 16 Mahā janapadas of the period. Its economy & arts flourished during the rule of the Kushāns, Kanishka, Huvishka, & Vasishka; & under the Mauryas & Guptās. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked the city, destroyed temples & plundered its wealth in about 1020, as did Aurangzeb in 1670. In 18th century Mathura became the capital of the Jat king Suraj Mal, hence sacked by Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1757; regained by the Marathas it was sacked or saved or civilised by Pax Britannica.
Matsya(s) King Virāṭa’s capital Mahābhārata, its people were called Matsyas, & he himself was styled Matsya.
S.S. Mauretania Mauretania was a Roman enclave in NW Africa. [S.S. = Steam Ship]
Maurois André, pen-name of Emile Herzog (1885-1967), French biographer, novelist & essayist. His Ariel (1923), life of Shelley, established his fame.
The Maurya(s) Chandragupta Maurya 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 was succeeded by his son Ashōka who was succeeded by his son Kuṇāla who had six sons who succeeded him one after the other. The youngest, inefficient Bṛihadratha was deposed by his commander-in-chief Pushyamitra. There were thus altogether ten kings in the Maurya dynasty which ruled for 137 years (324 to 187 BC). The Mauryan Empire that stretched from the borders of Persia to Bengal was twice as large as Rome under Marcus Aurelius (see Caracalla).
Maurya Administration: The Kauṭilya Arthaśāstra declares that “whatever pleases himself the king shall not consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he shall consider as good”. The king’s powers were extensive. He took part in war as well as in the administration of justice. While listening to causes he did not suffer himself to be interrupted even though the time arrived for the massage of his limbs. Appointments to the most important offices were made by the ruler himself; he also often laid down the broad lines of policy & issued rescripts & codes of regulation (śāsana, dharmaniyama) for the guidance of his officers & the people. Control was maintained over the most distant officials by an army of secret reporters & itinerant judges, & communication with them was kept up by a network of roads marked with pillars at every 1830 to 2217 metres.
Administration: There was the Parishad or the Mantri Parishad, council of advisers, specially consulted in times of emergency. The empire was divided it into provinces subdivided into Pradeśas or Āhāras, Vishayas, districts. Each Janapada was placed under a viceroy or governor who was either a prince of the blood or an official of the crown. There were also bodies Nikāya of trained officials who looked after the ordinary affairs of the realm. In the inscriptions of Asoka refer to Rajukas & Prādeśikas charged with the welfare of the Janapadas, provinces, & Pradeśas, Mahāmātras charged with Nagara Viyohālaka, administration of cities, & sundry other matters, & a host of minor officials including Yukta, clerks & Lipikāra, scribes. The chief amongst the eighteen tīrthas (highest officers) were the Mantrin, Purōhita, Yuvarāja, & Senāpati. Another important class of officials mentioned in Arthaśāstra are the Adhyakshas, superintendents, in charge of the various departments of the state. Officials were appointed irrespective of caste, creed or race – Vaishyas & even Yavanas given the highest offices, at least in the province of Saurāshtra or Kāṭhiāwād. It may be thought that the all-embracing activities of the Maurya Empire left little room for popular initiative or self-government. Nevertheless, it is a fact that autonomous communities did exist in Maurya India as did self-governed cities. Important affairs of the metropolis itself were conducted by a commission of thirty members, divided into six boards of five members each [that] looked after the mechanical arts, foreign residents, registration of births & deaths, sales, exchanges, weights & measures, supervision of manufactured articles, & collection of tithes of sales. Officers in charge of the city, Nagara-Adhyakshas, Nigama-pradhāna, find mention in Indian literature. The Nagaraka or the Town Prefect was a distinct official. The Empire was divided it into provinces subdivided into Pradeśas or Āhāras, Vishayas, districts. The assumption of the title Raja by local rulers, & the grant of autonomy to the Rajukas in the days of Asoka, ultimately let loose centrifugal forces which must have helped in the dismemberment of the empire. In the early Maurya period, however, efficient control over the provincial governors was maintained in several ways. With the princely viceroys were associated a number of Mahāmātras who received orders from the sovereign. The work of erring Mahāmātras in certain areas was supervised by special officers sent periodically from the metropolis. There was, besides, a host of Paṭivedaka, secret emissaries of the central govt. who enquired into & superintended all that went on in India & made reports to the emperor. Asoka gave special directions to the reporters that they were to report to him the affairs of the people at any time anywhere whatever he be engaged in. ― Greek writers refer to judges who listened to the cases of foreigners. Petty cases in villages were doubtless decided by the headman & the village elders. Asoka seems to have introduced many reforms in judicial administration & procedure. While preserving a certain amount of uniformity he is said to have allowed considerable discretion to the Rajukas so they could discharge their duties unperturbed. Greek writers testify to the severity of the penal code & Ashōka admits in some of his inscriptions that in Kalinga individuals suffered from arbitrary imprisonment & torture. To check maladministration in this & other outlying areas the emperor or his viceroys sent forth in rotation every five or three years such officers as were of mild & temperate disposition & regardful of the sanctity of life.
Armed Forces: were led by the emperor himself. It was only in the days of the last Maurya emperor Bṛihadratha that we find the Senāpati (Pushyamitra q.v.), overshadowing the king & transferring to himself the allegiance of the troops. The protection of the king’s person was entrusted to an Amazonian bodyguard of armed women. The fighting forces were under the supervision of a governing body of thirty divided into six boards of five members each. Each of these boards was responsible for one of the following: navy, transport & commissariat, infantry, cavalry, chariots, & elephants.
Industry: One committee of the municipal board of Pātaliputra was entrusted with the supervision of manufactured articles. – Greek writers make pointed reference to the manufacture of arms & agricultural implements & the building of ships mainly for the purposes of river navigation. Strabo speaks of dresses worked in gold & adorned with precious stones & also flowered robes made of fine muslin worn by wealthy classes, & umbrellas used by their attendants. Indian muslin was exported in large quantities to the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. Muslins of the finest sorts were then called Gangetic & were produced in the valley of the lower Ganges. The fame of Eastern Bengal & the Gangetic delta for its white & soft dūkūla is also vouched for by the Arthaśāstra. The fabric produced in Northern Bengal was black & as smooth as the surface of a gem. Muslins in great quantity were also exported from several market towns in South India. North-West India was famous for its cotton cloth & silk yarn. The weaving industry gave employment to hundreds of helpless women, & special arrangements were made for those who did not stir out of their houses. Weavers & other craftsmen were organised into economic corporations called Śreṇīs. Śreṇīs or guilds were very much in evidence during this period. Records of the Śatavāhana period refer to guilds of weavers, braziers, oil-millers, bamboo-workers, corn-dealers, & of artisans fabricating hydraulic engines. These guilds served the purpose of banks.
Trade & navigation: Kings as well as independent cities depended to a large extent on the tribute paid by the peasantry, but a considerable portion of the state revenues came from traders…. Maurya India had direct relations with Syria, Egypt, & other countries of the Hellenistic West. There was a considerable body of foreign residents in the metropolis whose affairs were looked after by a special board of municipal commissioners. These foreigners could not all have been diplomatists. Some of them were in all probability traders. As early as 1st century BC contact was established between India & the Roman Empire. In the early centuries of the Christian era we have epigraphic as well as literary references to intercourse with China, the Hellenic world, Sri Lanka & Farther India…. Classical writers bear testimony to the activity & daring of the Indian navigators. One writer narrates how, in the reign of Euergetes II (145-116 BC), an Indian was brought to the king by the coast guard of the Arabian Gulf. 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 India 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. Eudoxus of Cyzicus was one of those sent. He brought back with him aromatics & precious stones. Another writer relates that a present was given by the king of Suevi to a pro-consul of Gaul, consisting of some Indians who, sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by the storms into Germany. 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. As early as the 4th century BC the municipal authorities of Pātaliputra had to constitute a special board to superintend trade & commerce. Its members had charge of weights & measures & saw that products in their seasons were sold with an official stamp. In the 1st century AD trade between India & the West was greatly facilitated when the pilot Hippalus discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean. The splendid river system of northern India rendered transport comparatively easy in this area. The Maurya government built ships & let them out on hire for the transport of merchandise. Communication was more difficult in South India, where vast tracts were without roads & good had to be carried with difficulty by wagons from Paithan & Tagara to the port of Bharuch.
The chief sources of revenue from villages mentioned in an inscription of Asoka are the Bhāga & the Bali. The bhāga was the king’s share of the produce of the soil, which was normally fixed at one-sixth, though in special cases it was raised to one-fourth or reduced to one-eighth. Bali is explained by commentators as an extra impost levied on special tracts for the subsistence of certain officials…. Taxes on land were collected by…who measured the land & superintended the irrigation works. Other state-dues included cattle from herdsmen & tribute & prescribed services from those engaged in trades. In urban areas the main sources of revenue were birth & death taxes, fines & tithes on sales. The distinction between taxes levied in rāshtra (rural) & durga (fortified) areas is indicated in the Arthaśāstra, which refers to the samāhartṛi & the sannidhatṛi (high revenue functionaries). No such officials are mentioned in the known Maurya inscriptions. A considerable part of the revenue was spent on the army. The artisans, too, according to Diodoros, received maintenance from the imperial exchequers. They made armour for the troops & constructed implements for husbandmen & others. The services of some of them must been requisitioned for the city of Pātaliputra, & the splendid palaces which excelled in magnificence the stately regal edifices of Susa & Ecbatana. To them we owe also the splendid monoliths & other monuments of the time of Asoka. ― Herdsmen & hunters received an allowance of grain from the state in return for clearing the land of wild beasts & fowls. Another class that benefited from the royal bounty were the philosophers, among whom were included the Brāhmaṇas (Hindu sadhus) as well as the Śramaṇas (Jain & Buddhist ascetics). Vast sums were also spent 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 Yavanarāj Tushāspa in the days of Asoka. Roads furnished with milestones had already been constructed by the officials of Chandragupta. These were provided with shady groves & wells by Asoka who built hospitals all living creatures. 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.
Literature: It is difficult to assign any extant Indian work definitely to the Maurya age. Three works, Kauṭilya Arthaśāstra, Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu & Buddhist Kathā vatthu, are traditionally attributed to personages who are said to have flourished in the Maurya period. A considerable body of literature is presupposed by Patanjali, usually regarded as a contemporary of Pushyamitra. The Mānavadharma Shāstra which mentions the Yavanas, Śakas, Pāradas, & Pahlavas among Kshatriya clans which were degraded for non-observance of sacred rites & neglect of Brāhmaṇas may also be assigned to this period; as also the composition of the Mahābhāśya of Patanjali, an exposition of the aphorisms of Pāṇini. Another grammatical work, the Kātantra or Kalāpaka of Sarvavarman, is traditionally assigned to the Śatavāhana period. To the same age probably belongs the Brihad Kathā of Guṇāḍhya. The Gāthā Saptashati attributed to Hāla, a Śatavāhana king, bears the signs of a much later work. The epoch of the Kushāns produced the great work of Ashwaghosha, poet, dramatist, & philosopher. Among other celebrities of the period mention may be made of Charaka, Sushruta, Nāgārjuna, Kumāralatā, & possibly Ᾱryadeva. The Pāli Buddhist canon is said to have been reduced to writing in the 1st century BC. The celebrated work known as the Milindapaṅho (Menander’s questions) is also regarded as a product of the period under review. Some scholars believe that the astronomical work of Garga, the Paumachariya of Vimalasūri, portions of Divya-avadāna, as well as the Lalitāvistāra & the Sad-dharma puṇḍarīka are also to be assigned to this period.
Games & Recreation: Inscriptions of Mauryan-Scythian era refer frequently to utsava & samāja, festivities & gatherings…. Dancing, singing, & instrumental music must have formed an important part of all festivities. Samājas were often held in honour of a god or goddess. A prominent feature of some of these assemblies was wrestling, & combats of men & animals often leading to bloodshed which was why emperor Asoka issued an edict forbidding certain types of samājas “in which he saw much offence”…. Patanjali mentions dramatic representations of actual incidents mentioned in the plays. He also refers to the popularity of Granthikas fortune-tellers at these samājas. Dice & its vices were also part of these gatherings. Buddhist writers refer to games on board with eight or ten rows of squares from which chess play ultimately evolved. The Jaina Sūtrakridāṅga makes explicit mention of ashṭapāda (chess), a game that must have become very popular by the time of Bāṇa’s Harsha-charita & Ratnākara’s Haravijaya (9th century work).
In the post-Maurya period…the ruler still considered it to be his duty to please his people. The official machinery of the Ashōkan age continued to function at least in those parts of India that did not come under Greek or Scythian domination. Artha Vidyā (science of governance) was now regularly studied & its influence seen in epigraphic references to education of princes, insistence on prescribed qualification for appointment to high offices, classification of ministers, measures taken to secure the welfare of the citizens both in urban & rural areas, & abstention from oppressive imposition of vexatious taxes like Kara (extra cess), Vishṭi (forced labour) & Praṇaya (benevolence) in addition to the customary Bali (tribute), Sulka (duty), & Bhāga (king’s share of all produce). Innovations in administration were, however, introduced in north-west India, the territory that was ruled by successive dynasties of foreign conquerors. One of the most important changes related to the provincial governments. The system of govt. by hereditary officials with the Persian title of Satrap was introduced in Takshashilā, Mathurā, Ujjain & a few other places, & we have references even to functionaries with Greek titles of meridarch & strategos…. The influence of strategos (military governors) is clearly seen in the appointment by Śatavāhana kings of district officials styled mahā Senāpati. In spite of the prevalence of military rule in certain areas the old self-governing institutions did not wholly perish. Nigama sabhā (town councils) & nagarākshadarśa (city judges) are mentioned in several records & these correspond to the municipal commission & the nagara Viyohālaka of the Maurya period. The affairs of the village continued to be controlled by the village functionaries led by the head-man. The village assembly afforded a field for cooperation between kings & villagers. [Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al, pp. 92-93, 94, 96, 119-23, 128, 129, 131, 134, 135, 248]
Mayo Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-72), 6th Earl of Mayo: got his degree of LL.D at Trinity College, Dublin: to Russia 1845, wrote St. Petersburg & Moscow: M.P. 1847-67 successively for Kildare, Colerain & Cockermouth: Chief Secretary for Ireland in 3 administrations from 1852, 1858, & 1866, made Knight of St. Patrick: Viceroy of India on Jan. 12, 1869, to Feb. 8, 1872: attended the durbar of Sher Ali, Emir of Afghanistan, at Ambālā in March 1869 & bullied him into establishing relations satisfactory to Britain: preferred inveigling “influence” in neighbouring Asian States than attempting it with Muhammedan Persia: established Mayo College in Ajmer & ordered native princes & chiefs to send their sons to be brainwashed at their expense by professionals chosen by the Viceroy – Mayo’s shrewdness was proved when Northbrook (Viceroy 1872-76) indulged 12-year old Sayājirao by leaving him in his own milieu in charge of Elliot, a minor ICS officer, who tutored & helped him grow into an un-uprootable thorn in London’s side: reorganised Govt.’s Depts. of Education, Land Revenue, Agriculture, Revenues & Commerce, Public Works, Railways, Irrigation, Forests, Ports to exploit the native labourers & clerks to the maximum on minimum wages for which earned great praise from H.R.H. Duke of Edinburg who visited India in 1869-70: added the vicious Section 124-A to Macaulay’s Indian Penal Code 1871 to suppress the Wahhabis in Bihar: His personality, his great presence, his genial & dignified bearing, impressed all who came in contact with him. The Lushai military expedition took place in 1871-72, but otherwise India was at peace.... His loss was regretted by all classes in India, not a single native had any sympathy with the murderer of Chief Justice Norman of Calcutta High Court who threw out the plea of habeas corpus on behalf of the Wahhabi leader Amir Khan arrested under Regulation III of 1818, or with Sher Ali, a prisoner in Andamans, who murdered Mayo in on 8 Feb. 1872. [Good old Buckland] ― These two murders helped much “to strengthen out infant patriotic sentiment by a new sense of wrong against our British masters”. [B.C. Pal, Memories of My Life & Times pp. 269-79]
Mayo, Miss Katherine Mayo (1867-1940): American political writer. Supporting the claim that America belonged to descendants of white Anglo-Saxons of England, she advocated American White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Nativism, opposed non-white & Catholic immigration to USA & emancipated African-Americans & questioned the Philippine Declaration of Independence passed by US Govt. on racist & religious grounds. In 1927, published her tract Mother India attacking Hindu society & culture for its treatment of women & lowers castes, & describing Hindus as uncivilised & dirty given to masturbation, rape, homosexuality, prostitution, venereal diseases, early sexual intercourse leading to premature maternity, & hence not deserving freedom from British rule. Her book was welcomed & propagated by racists & imperialists in Britain & America, & her claims were published by the British Indian authorities as a counter-measure to growing sympathies for the Indian freedom movement. In response to Mayo’s book an Indian-American Dalip Singh Saund wrote My Mother India. As late as 1940s, Mayo’s tract was the prescribed text on India & Indians for cadets at West Point, U.S. Military Academy, as found by Dr. Kunzru, a veteran legislator of India, when he visited that academy. [Durga Das, India-From Curzon to Nehru & After, London, 1969]
Mazarul Haq (1866-1930), presided over 1915 Bombay session of Muslim League.
Mazzini Giuseppe (1805-72), Italian revolutionary, thinker, writer, an outstanding figure of Risorgimento (1815-70), the period of national unification. His relations with Cavour (q.v.), who also strove for Italian unification, were strained because Cavour relied on French help & Mazzini on popular national revolution.
Mecca birthplace of Prophet Mahomed & currently capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia, it is located 45 miles inland from the Red Sea port of Jidda.
Medea princess of Colchis, famous for her knowledge of sorcery. She is the chief figure in plays by Euripides, Seneca, Corneille & others.
Medea a tragedy (431 BC) by Euripides.
Mede(s) native(s) of Media, the north-western part of ancient Iran.
Medh(y)atithi Kaṇwa Vedic Rishi author of many hymns.
Medusa most famous of the three Gorgon sisters. When a most beautiful woman, she offended Athena who changed her hair into snakes & made her face so hideous that all who looked at her were turned to stone. She was slain by Perseus.
Megāsthenes (c.350– c.290 BC) a Greek explorer historian of Asia Minor, whom, around 302 BC, Seleucus I Nikator sent him as his ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya of Magadha, who ruled from Pātaliputra. Megāsthenes travelled over north & north-eastern India for about four years. His Indica became the firm basis of Europe’s ‘authoritative knowledge’ of India.
Meges nephew of Odysseus, he commanded the Epean contingent against Troy.
Meghaduta(m) / Meghadut lyric by Kālidāsa.
Meghnad-Badh Bengali epic poem (1861) by Michael Madhusudan.
Mehsāna c.39 kms north of Kadi, c.42km east of Vijāpur, & c.24km NW of Gujāria. Mehsāna replaced Kadi as the HQ of that prānt of Baroda State after the Kadi episode in 1890s [s/a Baroda & Sayājirao Gaekwād]
Mehta, Sir Pherozshah Pherozshah Merwānji (1845-1915): B.A. 1864: called to the bar 1868; Municipal Commissioner of Bombay Corporation 1873, & its Chairman 1884-5: Additional Member of the Legislative Council of the Governor of Bombay: presided over the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1890: employed by the Govt. as prosecutor in the Bāpat Case in 1895 but resigned on realising the Case was indeed foisted by the Resident & Dewan of Baroda: elected representative of the non-official members of the Bombay Legislative Council to the Governor-General’s Legislative Council: awarded C.I.E. in 1895 & K.C.I.E. in 1904: admitted in 1907 by Morley to his Advisory Council of Notables: founded The Bombay Chronicle 1913. [Buckland & other sources]
Melanchthon, Philipp (1497-1560), humanist, reformer, theologian & educator; author of the Confession of Augsburg of the Lutheran Church. Though he helped to lead the evangelical cause after Luther’s death (1546), his ironic actions were viewed by many as betrayals, & his reputation was tarnished by several controversies.
Meleager epigrammatist of Gadara (now Jordan); he compiled the first Greek Anthology of epigrams, containing poems, his own & of fifty other poets.
Memphis capital of Lower Egypt, & centre of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC). It was south of the Nile Delta, near modern Cairo.
Mena Queen of Himavat or Himalaya, mother of Umā (Pārvati), & Mainak.
Menaka/ Menaca apsarā sent to seduce the sage Vishwāmitra; succeeding in this mission she became the mother of Shakuntalā.
Menander (342-292 BC), Athenian dramatist considered the supreme poet of Greek New Comedy, the last flowering of Athenian stage comedy.
Menelaus younger brother of Agamemnon, king of Sparta & husband of Helen. Menelaus led the Spartan contingent against Troy.
Menelik Menelik II (1844-1913), emperor of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). He expanded the empire almost to its present borders & also modernised it.
Menes first ruler of the first dynasty of unified Egypt; he joined Upper & Lower Egypt in a centralized monarchy. Tradition attributes to him also the founding of the capital, Memphis.
Mentana village in Italy where French & papal forces defeated Garibaldi 1867.
Meredith, George (1828-1909), English poet & novelist, he did not receive wide recognition until the publication of Diana of the Crossways (1885).
Meriones Greek chieftain of Crete who joined Idomeneus in Trojan War.
Meru/ Uttara Meru also called Sumeru. In ancient India, Meru was the centre of the seven continents [see India], around it revolved all the planets, & on it was situated Swarga.
Messalina Valeria (c. 22-48), third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius I, notorious for licentious behaviour & instigating murderous court intrigues. He her put to death.
Messiah one who would be sent by God to restore Israel & reign righteously. ‘Christ’ is Greek for Messiah. The common idea of Jesus’ time was that the Messiah should reign in glory as an earthly king. Christianity’s expectation of the second coming of Jesus is similar to the Jewish belief in the Messianic advent.
Metternich Clemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar (1773-1859), Fürst von Metternich, Austrian statesman, a champion of conservative principles. The period 1815 to 1848 has been called the Age of Metternich, for during this time he was not only master of Austria but also the chief arbiter of Europe. He was the principal statesman of the so-called Holy Alliance (q.v.).
Metternich’s system depended upon political & religious censorship, espionage, & the suppression of revolutionary & nationalist movements.
Mewār Mewāḍ covers the present Rajasthan State’s districts of Bhilwāra, Chittodgadh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Jhālawar’s Pirwāra tehsil, present Madhya Pradesh’s districts of Neemuch & Mandsaur, & some parts of present Gujarat State. Mewār’s original name was Med(a)pat(a) or Medipat(a) which lay with the Aravalli Range (see entry ‘India’) to the NW, Ajmer to the north, the Hadoti region of Rajasthan to the east, Gujarat to the south, Mālwā in Madhya Pradesh to the SE. The northern & eastern portions of Mewār were made up of an elevated plateau drained by the Bedach & Banās Rivers & its tributaries, which empty into the Chambal, a tributary of the Yamuna River. The hilly southern & western part divides the Banās & its tributaries & the headwaters of Sabarmati, Mahi, & their tributaries which drain into the Gulf of Khambhāt through Gujarat state. It is in this part that is located the great Chittodgadh, the most celebrated of its fortresses, believed to have been originally built by the Pāndavas during the year their vow demanded they live undercover, while the town of Chittor around it is believed to have been founded by Jāts of the Jatri gōtra. Tradition traces the rise of Mewār Rājya from the time of emperor Harshavardhana (ruled 606-47); its earliest known rulers, the Paramāra kings of the Mōri dynasty traced their lineage to Chandragupta Maurya (reigned c.321-c.297BC). Mewār was successively ruled by Kshatriyas of Mōri, Guhilot, Parihāra, & Sisodia dynasties who fought often until their last breath, the Arabs invading from west & north-west, & the Afghāns & Türks from north & north-west. King Chitrāngad Mōri fortified Chittodgadh (see Chitore) which to this day stands almost as he had built it – almost, because it had to be rebuilt from the almost rubble that Akbar the Great, considered the first democratic secular ruler of India, had reduced it in 1568 out of sheer spite.
The Guhilot dynasty, named after its founder Guhil (as he was born in a Guhā, cave) ruled from Nāgda which was c.30km west of Chittor & c.19km north of Udaipur. Guhil was succeeded by Bhōja, Mahendra I, Nāgāditya, Shilāditya II (c.646 AD), Aparājīta (661), Mahendra II, & Kālabhōja better known as Bāppā who moved their capital to Chitore in 734. All subsequent rulers of Mewār trace their lineage to Bāppā Rāwal, i.e., the Guhilot clan. Some of the most cited of Bāppā’s successors are: (1) Khomān who succeeded in forming an alliance of all Rajput chieftains & kings in western India, to fight the hordes of Jihādies sent by the Caliph. They are said to have succeeded in killing or routing all of them by 812 AD. This led to a time of peace until Md. Ghazni came into the picture. Prince Khomān was immortalised by his people in the form of the popular greeting used on meeting each other: Khomān-ghaṇi or Khamma-ghaṇi. (2) Rāo or Rāṇā Ratan Singh who ascended the throne in 1302. For his fate at the hands of ‘Alā-ud-din Khilji in 1303 see entry Chitore. (3) Rāṇā Hammīr (1326–1364): Following an invasion by the Delhi sultanate at the turn of the 13th century, the ruling Guhilot clan had been displaced from Mewār. The victorious Khilji sultans assigned the newly conquered territory of Mewār to the administration of Maldeva, ruler of the nearby state of Jhālore, who had allied with them during the recent war. In a bid to reconcile & co-opt the natives of the land to his rule, Maldeva arranged for the marriage of his widowed daughter Sungari with Hammīr, the scion of an impoverished cadet branch of the erstwhile ruling dynasty. Hammīr regained control of the region, re-established the dynasty, & became the first of his dynasty to use the royal title ‘Rāṇā’. Hammīr also became the progenitor of the Sisodia clan, a branch of the Guhilot clan, to which every succeeding Mahārāṇā of Mewār has belonged. Rāṇā Hammīr Singh re-established the state of Mewār in 1326 AD by engineering a coup d’état against his father-in-law. The dynasty thus founded by Hammīr, who was descended in direct patrilineage from Bāppā Rāwal, came to be known as Sisodia after Sisoda, the mountain village whence Hammīr hailed. (4) Rāṇā Kumbhakarṇa or Kumbha (ruled 1433–1468): Son of Rāṇā Mokal Singh (grandson of Rāṇā Hammīr who recaptured Chittor from Muslim clutches & established the second Guhilot dynasty in 1335) & his wife Saubhāgya Devi, a daughter of Jaitamal Śankhlā, the Paramāra chief of Raṇakot in Mārwār. Kumbha ascended the throne after his father was murdered by his two uncles who, not finding any support from the people ran away. A whole year from November 1442 Mahmud Khalji the sultan of Mālwā initiated a series of battles with Mewār. He captured & then lost some forts, failing against Chittōre, & finally withdrew. Thereupon the Rāṇā built a 37 meter, 9-storey Kīrti-Stambha for which the prahasti (edict) was written by the scholar Atri & his son Mahesha. In 1456, insulted by the betrayal by Shams Khan of Nagaur, Kumbha captured Nagaur as well as Kasili, Khandela & Sakambhari. He not only defended Mewār successfully against in the resulting attacks by the combined forces of Mālwā’s Mahmud & Gujarat’s Qutb-ud-din Ahmad Shah II by recapturing whatever territories they managed to bite off but also expanded his territories. Rāṇā Kumbha then set about building 32 forts to strengthen the defence of Mewār, taking up the total number of its forts to 84. His Kumbhalgarh, though inferior to Chittodgadh, the chief citadel of Mewār , is the highest in all Rajasthan at 1075 m above sea level with a 38 km wall around it that is believed to be second in length only the Wall of China. He also built the famous temple of Rāṇakpūr. He sponsored poet Kahana Vyāsa who wrote Ekling-Mahātmya (panegyric on Lord Shiva Ekling). Himself a writer, poet, & musician of repute, was a great patron of arts: He wrote Suṇgīta-raj, the Rasika-priya (commentary on Gita-Govinda), the Sūda-prabandha, & the Kāmaraj-ratisāra, as well two books of music Suṇgīta-ratnākara (ocean of Music) & Suṇgīta-krama-deepikā (neither is extant), propagated the traditions of ancient Hindu classical Music. Mahārāṇā Kumbha was killed while he was offering prayers to Lord Shiva. His 35-year rule was Mewār’s golden period. (5) Rāṇā Raimal or Rayamal (1473–1509): He is often overlooked due to his reign being interposed between two notable rulers. Mahārāṇā Raimal came to power by defeating his patricide predecessor, Udaya Singh I in battles at Jawar, Darimpur & Pangarh. Early in Raimal’s reign, Ghiyās Shāh of Mālwā attacked Chittor unsuccessfully. Soon after this, his general, Zafar Khān attacked Mewār & was defeated at Mandalgarh & Khairabad. By marrying Sringardevi (daughter of Rao Jodha), Raimal ended the conflict with the Rathores. During Raimal’s reign, Raisingh Toda & Ajmer were recaptured. Raimal also strengthened the state of Mewār & repaired the temple of Eklingji in Chittor. The last years of Raimal’s rule were marked by conflict between his sons with Prince Saṇga (Saṇgrām) having to flee Chittor. The oldest sons, Prithvirāj & Jagmal were both killed. At this difficult juncture, the Rāṇā was informed that Saṇga was still alive & in hiding. Raimal summoned Saṇga (Saṇgrām) back to Chittor & died soon afterwards. (6) Rāṇā Saṇga (1509-27 q.v.); (7) Rāṇā Udai Singh II (1537-72, see Udaipur); (8) Rāṇā Pratap Singh (1545-97); (9) Rāṇā Amar Singh I surrendered himself & Mewār to the Moghuls in 1615; (10) Mahārāṇā Bhupal Singh, placed on the throne in 1930 by British India, died a lay citizen of ‘our’ India in 1955.
Mexican war after the overthrow of the dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910, Mexico came under the grip of a civil war. Francisco Madero, who had led the uprising against Diaz, was assassinated by Huerta. Huerta established a reactionary regime & revolution broke out in 1913 under the leadership of Carranza, Francisco Villa, & Emiliano Zapata. Huerta was also involved in diplomatic troubles with President Wilson of the USA which invaded Mexico. Huerta resigned (1914) & fled. Carranza’s Constitutionalist army began to splinter.
Michael Grand Duke Michael Romanov was anointed Czar when his brother ‘abdicated’ at the ‘request’ of top-ranking generals in 1917, apparently on 17th March. Next day Michael too ‘abdicated’. The Romanovs had ruled Russia since 1613.
Michelangelo/ Angelo / Michael Angelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), Italian painter, sculptor, architect, & poet of the European Renaissance.
Mikado See Shinto.
Mill John Stuart (1806-73), English philosopher, political economist, & exponent of Utilitarianism (inherited from Jeremy Bentham), whose works contain the major strands of 19th-century philosophy, logic, & economic thought.
Milton John (1608-74), English poet, whose 19 English & five Italian sonnets are considered greatest ever written, but his Paradise Lost has made famous.
Mime Antique a kind of farcical drama among Greeks & Romans, characterized by mimicry of familiar types of character.
Mimnermus (c.630 BC), Greek elegiac poet of Colophon. Only fragments of his poetry survive. His love poems are marked by tenderness & melancholy sentiment.
Minerva Roman goddess of handicrafts, the professions, the arts, & later, of war; commonly identified with the Greek Athena.
Minos a just king of Crete, son of Zeus & Europa. Idomeneus was his grandson.
Lord Minto Gilbert John Murray Kynynmond Elliot (1845-1914), 4th Earl of Minto (1891-1914): Eton & Trinity College, Cambridge: Scots Guards 1857-70: Paris during Communist outbreak 1871: correspondent The Morning Post 1874: with Carlist Army in Biscay & Navarre: with Turkish Army in the Russo-Turkish war 1877: at bombardment of Nikopolis & the crossing of Danube: with Lord Roberts in Afghan war 1878-9: Pvt Secretary to Lord Roberts on his mission to the Cape 1881: volunteered as Captain in Mounted Infantry in Egypt 1882: Military Secretary to Lord Lansdowne when Gov.-Gen of Canada 1883-5: Chief of Staff to General Middleton while quelling the Riel rebellion in N.W. Canada 1885: Gov.-General of Canada 1898-1904: Viceroy & Gov.-Gen of India 1905 to 1910. Though often in conflict with John Morley, the Secretary of State for India, he was all for creating an eternal enmity between Hindus & Muslims & collaborated fully in manufacturing the Indian Councils Act of 1909 which achieved this goal without a glitch. Lady Minto claimed that the introduction of separates electorates for Muslims & Hindus in the elections to central & provincial legislatures was proposed to Minto by the great liberal politician Gokhale, but Dr Majumdar prefers the recorded fact that that proposal emanated from the Muslim delegation that met Minto along with an assurance of being treated on par with the Hindu majority due to the political importance of their community to & the ‘service’ they rendered, but does note that “we know from an entry in Lady Minto’s diary of 1st October 1906” that Lord Minto conceded both these demands, which “was jubilantly hailed by British officialdom as ‘nothing less than the pulling back of 62 millions of people from joining the ranks of seditious opposition’. Even the great Liberal statesman Lord Morley, adds Dr Majumdar, supported this ingenious device of ‘separate electorate’ & ‘weightage’ which was virtually a stab in the back of Indian Nationalism. Ramsay MacDonald, who later became the Prime Minister of Britain, correctly diagnosed the situation when he observed that ‘the Mahomedan leaders are inspired by certain Anglo-Indian officials, & these officials have pulled wires at Shimla & in London, & of malice aforethought sowed discord between Hindu & Mahomedan communities by showing special the Muslims special .’” Back in England Minto was made Justice of Peace for having established ‘permanent peace’ between the two communities. [Based on Buckland & Majumdar et al.’s Advanced History…: 715, 730, 921-22, 979]
Mir Jāfar / Mirzafar (1691-1765), Jāfar Ali Khan was brought up in the family of Aliverdi Khan the Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar & Orissa: Aliverdi inveigled & murdered the Mahratta general & had to cede Orissa to them, then helped the Brits defeat the Maharattas; after Jāfar saved him from the Maharattas made him his commander in chief, but left his throne to his grandson Sirāj-ud-daula: Jāfar entered into conspiracy with the Brits & did not throw the Nawab’s army to protect him from Clive’s attack, got him murdered: Clive installed him as Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar & Orissa in June 1757: in 1759 he intrigued with the Dutch to expel the English & was deposed by the English in 1760 & his son-in-law, Mir Kāsim installed: but Mir Kāsim refused the Brits absolute power of his commercial interests & kow-tow to every passing Brit in service of the E.I. Co. so he was deposed in 1763 Mir Jāfar was restored as Nawab & died Jan 1765: Kāsim went to war with the Brits whom he defeated twice & avenged their treacherous treatment of his men by cornering & butchering 50 of them & wounding 100 others: he found shelter with Nawab of Oudh & then the Rāṇā of Rohilkhand, then in Jodhpur, then in service of Emperor Shah Alam of Delhi; he died in 1777. [Buckland’s pp. 10-11, 292, humanised]
Mirabai was born in Chittodgadh (see Chitore); her integral surrender to Lord Krishna was epitomized by her final disappearance in His temple in Dwārkā.
Maganbhai: “I always go to bed with the Mother’s name on my lips,” reminisced a disciple of Sri Aurobindo & the Mother. “One night the Mother came. She took my hand & we started to climb a dark & very high mountain. On the way we met many Rishis & bhaktas at different heights. The Mother simply looked at them & went up very rapidly. Halfway we met a young woman clad in white, standing with folded hands. For the first time Mother spoke the word ‘Mira’, the name of the 14th century saint….” [“The Grace of the Mother” in Breath of Grace, 1972]
Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Victor Riqueti (1749-91), Comte de Mirabeau, French revolutionist & statesman, one of the greatest figures in the National Assembly, the body that governed France during the early phases of the French Revolution. “Mirabeau initiated, Danton inspired, Robespierre slew, Napoleon fulfilled”, Mirabeau “was the pure Egoist” [SABCL 17: 378, 379].
Miriam original name of Christianity’s Virgin Mary.
Les Miserables famous French novel (1862) by Victor Hugo.
Misracayshie an apsarā.
Mithila also called Videha after King Vidhia who ruled over it. The name Mithila was sometimes also applied to the capital of the country.
Mithra Zoroastrian war-god born of a rock & armed at birth with a knife & a torch; he later became known as the creator of life, the giver of rain, & sunlight.
Mitra one of the Ādityas; associated with Vedic Varuna, he is the all-embracing harmony of the Truth, the Friend of all beings, & therefore, the Lord of Love. As the spirit of the day he is sometimes given solar characteristics in which aspect he resembles Zoroastrian Mithra.
Mitra, Dinabandhu Rai Bahadur (1830-73): educated at Hare School & the Hindu College, while still a student contributed Bengali articles to Vidyasāgar’s Saṃbad Pravākar: posted as Patna’s Postmaster 1855: Inspector of Post Offices in Orissa 1857 & then Nadia & Dacca: at Dacca published his novel Neel Darpan (the Mirror of Indigo) which was translated into English in 1860 under the superintendence of Rev. James Long of Church Missionary Society: Supernumerary Inspecting Postmaster of Calcutta 1870: accompanied Viceroy Mayo’s Lushai expedition (1871-72) as Superintendent of Postal Intelligence: made Rai Bahadur 1872. [Buckland]
Mitra, Dwarakānath (1833-74): son of a Law Agent practising in the Hugli Courts: educated at Hugli & Presidency Colleges: Fellow of Calcutta University: joined Calcutta bar as a Pleader in 1856, & when the High Court was established, distinguished himself in arguing the famous Rent case of 1865 before a full bench of 15 High Court Judges: made Govt. Pleader & promoted to the High Court Bench in 1867: retired 1874: studied Comte in original French & corresponded with some eminent European Positivists. [Buckland] ― A leading believer in the atheist Religion of Humanity as founded by the Positivist Auguste Comte, he was convinced that only the system of education introduced by Macaulay & imposed by the British Govt. could civilise his native Hindu brethren.
Mitra, Kishori Chand (1822-73): educated at Hare School & the Hindu College: Assistant Secretary to the Asiatic Society of William Jones: Deputy Magistrate 1846, rose to Junior Magistrate but was dismissed for criticising Govt. in his writings: joined politics & conducted a newspaper until his health failed, contributed regularly to the Calcutta Review, wrote a biography of Dwarakānath Tagore, founded a Social Reform Association. [Buckland] ― Advocate of Western education, & politically a Moderate, he had a colourful & varied career, beginning as a clerk & ending as the editor of Indian Field.
Mitra/ Mitter, Krishna Kumar (1852-1937), Sri Aurobindo’s Mesho (mother’s sister’s husband). He was the editor of Sanjibani, & a prominent leader in the anti-partition agitation. He played a conspicuous role in developing the volunteer movement & was closely connected with the Anushilan Samiti of Calcutta. Krishna Kumar was one of the nine leaders deported from Bengal in December 1908.
Mitra, Kumudini (1878-1943) daughter of Krishna Kumar Mitra; after her marriage with Probodh Chandra Basu-Mullik, known as Kumudini Basu. She was the editor of Suprabhat (1907-14) & Bangalakshmi (1925-27); she wrote several books, including Sikher Balidan (The Sacrifice of the Sikh), to teach martyrdom to young Bengal.
Mitra, P. Pramathanath Mitra (1853-1910), a well-known barrister who practised at the Calcutta High Court & made his mark in the field of criminal law. He was one of the prominent leaders of the new nationalist movement in Bengal. When Sri Aurobindo tried to unite the scattered activities of the various revolutionary groups in Bengal under a single organization, it was P. Mitra whom he envisaged as the leader of the organization. Pramathanath was a disciple of Yogi Bejoy Goswami, & was also greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda.
Mitra, Rajendra Lal (1822-91): Scholar & antiquarian: belonged to a respectable Śūdra family: educated in Calcutta at English schools & Calcutta Medical College: studied Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, French & German: Asst. Secretary & Librarian of Bengal Asiatic Society 1844: Director Ward’s Institution 1856-80: D.L. of Calcutta Univ., 1875: contributed 114 articles to Journal of Asiatic Society of which some republished in two volumes under title Indo-Aryans, wrote Antiquities of Orissa, Buddha Gaya, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal (1882): wrote largely for Hindu Patriot often inspiring its policy: President of Asiatic Society of Bengal 1885: prominent in INC session 1886: Member Calcutta Corporation: Vice-President & President of British Indian Association: Rai Bahadur 1877: C.I.E. 1878: Raja 1888: The Most Learned Hindu of his time: his 128 volumes of writings showed his research, scholarship, erudition, hence given special pension for services to Literature & Archaeology: his name is well known to antiquarians & savants in every part of the world. [Buckland]
Mitter, Justice Saroda Charan (1848-1917): B.A. & M.A. at Calcutta Univ.: Premchand Roychand Scholar 1871: Bachelor of Law 1873: practised in Calcutta High Court 1874: High Court Judge 1903-4: wrote a law book on the Land Laws of Bengal: Known for his social work & sympathy for nationalists. [Buckland]
Mnemosyne Greek personification of memory (from which comes the science of Mnemonics). Daughter of Uranus & Gaea & mother of the nine Muses by Zeus.
Modern Love cycle of poems (1862) by George Meredith.
The Modern Review English monthly magazine founded by Rāmānanda Chatterjee (q.v.) in 1907 at Allahabad. In 1908 it was shifted to Calcutta. Old volumes of this magazine are still prized as valuable works of reference & source material for research on the Indian struggle for freedom.
Moghul/ Mogul/ Mughal Arabic & Persian form of Mongol. It is conventionally used to describe the Muslim dynasty that ruled the larger part of India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. The dynasty of India was founded by Babur (1483-1530), descendant on his father’s side of Timur-i-lang & on his mother’s side of Genghis Khan, who conquered & ruled Delhi from 1526. “Babur,” says Dr Kalikinkar Datta, “thus laid the foundation of a new Turkish dominion (the so-called Mughuls really belonged to a branch of the Turks named after Chaghātai, the second son of Chenghīz Khān, who came to possess Central Asia & Turkestan).” [An Advanced History of India, RC Majumdar et al, 1973-1974] But it was his grandson Akbar who founded the Mogul Empire & is credited with attempting to inaugurate a secular government & a humane national religion for which he tried to abolish the obligatory brutal taxes & outrages on Hindus. But Shah Jahan reinstated these taxes & Aurangzeb wholeheartedly re-enforced the taxes & the outrages. The year 1707, the death of Aurangzeb signalled the end of Mogul dominance.
“The Rajputs who had strongly resisted Islam up to the 16th cent were exhausted before the beginning of the next century. Such of their strength as had survived had made an alliance with the Mugals. In spite of Rāṇā Pratap & the Haldighat, more than two generations of Rajputs had been brought up as feudatories of the Mugals. This race, once so virile had, had, therefore, at this critical stage of history, neither the ambition nor the capacity to rise to any prominence. The Sikhs in the Punjab had also resisted the power of the Mugals.... During the declining years of the Mugal power, the Sikhs attained to a political eminence which, if we consider their position as the only non-Muslim power midway between the Muslim powers at Delhi & Kabul, cannot be lightly dismissed. But, so long as the Mugal power at Delhi was somewhat strong, the very proximity of the Sikhs to the seat of the central authority acts as a handicap, which prevented them from rising to the stature of even a remote rival to that authority. This historical fact, coupled with their geographical position, made it impossible for the Sikhs to aspire to fill the void created by Aurangzeb’s death in 1707. The year 1707, can be taken as the starting point of the rise of Mahratta people.” [S.L. Karandikar]
The Moghul Empire ended when the lead British army that had taken over the Ridge overlooking Delhi on 8th June 1857, reinforced by, among other forces, Sikh contingents, blew up the Kashmir Gate of Delhi on 14th September 1857, captured the city & the palace after six days’ desperate fighting, & diligently sacked it. The Bombay Telegraph reported: “All the city people found within the walls when our troops entered were bayoneted on the spot; & the number was considerable as you may suppose when I tell you that in some houses 40 or 50 persons were hiding.” Wrote poet Ghalib, an eyewitness, “Here there is a vast ocean of blood before me, God alone knows what more I have still to behold.” The celebrated Lt. Hodson, creator & commander of Hobson’s Horse composed of blood-thirsty mercenaries, arrested Emperor Bahadur Shah II at the tomb of Humāyūn along with his sons & grandsons. Persuading himself that the princes were guilty of murdering unarmed English non-combatants & women, & would be soon be rescued by a huge mob, he shot them all – no attempt made by any ‘mob’ to save them & the charges against the princes were never proved by any evidence. And for such heroic Christian deeds, Lt. William Stephen Raikes Hodson (1821-1858), son of reverend George Hodson, ‘educated’ at Rugby & Cambridge, who was ‘martyred’ at the siege & capture of Lucknow, received this accolade from Buckland: “His character & actions have been the subject of controversy but the testimony to his brilliant qualities of his bravery, energy, coolness, is universal. Lord Napier of Magdala, a contemporary & present, was always fully convinced of his honour & integrity.” The Octopus deported the noble poet Bahadur Shah II to Rangoon where this sacrificial victim died in 1862.
Moitra, Herambachandra (1857-1938), principal of City College, Calcutta for about 30 years. Calcutta University awarded him the Griffith Memorial Prize for his research on Emerson. He edited The Indian Messenger, the organ of the Brahmo Samāj, & toured Europe & America as a lecturer for the Samāj.
Moli鑽e pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Poquelin (1622-73), French dramatist, actor, & master of comedy. He was eventually acclaimed as one of the greatest of French writers. In 1673 Molière collapsed on the stage during an early performance as the lead actor of his new play Le malade imaginaire, & died the same night.
Moloch Canaanite god of fire, to whom children were offered in sacrifice.
Moloy a mountain range in southern part of the Western Ghats. It abounds in sandal trees.
Mommsen Theodor (1817-1903), German historian, his History of Rome (1854-56), earned him the 1902 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Momus or Momos, ancient god of fault-finding; in Hesiod as the son of Nyx, Night.
Monarch of the Glen a prominent species of deer in Scotland.
Monastir also known as Bitola; southernmost city of Macedonia, Yugoslavia, a few miles from the Greek frontier. It is a Greek-founded settlement taken by the Turks in 1382. In the Balkan Wars (1912-13) it was taken by the Serbs.
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms proposed in 1918 jointly by Secretary of State Edwin Montagu, Viceroy Chelmsford. They provided for an elected majority in all legislatures but kept the control over revenue & police in British hands. These reforms were introduced in the form of the Government of India Act of 1919.
Moor in English usage Moroccans & sometimes former Muslims of Spain, of mixed Arab, Spanish, & Berber origins, who subsequently settled in North Africa between 11th & 17th centuries. Modern Mauritanians are also sometimes referred to as Moors.
Moore Arthur Moore was one of the editors of the Statesman of Calcutta.
Morley, John/ Honest John/ Archangel John (1838-1923) known in English history as Archangel of English Liberalism for Britain: failed in election to Parliament from the Blackburn by-election in 1869 & also from City of Westminster in 1880: wrote to Auberon Herbert: “I am afraid that I do not agree with you as to paternal government. I am no partisan of a policy of incessant meddling with individual freedom, but I do strongly believe that in so populous a society as ours now is, you may well have a certain protection thrown over classes of men & women who are unable to protect themselves”: elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne in February 1883: prominent Gladstonian Liberal, declared in 1885: “I am a cautious Whig by temperament, I am a Liberal by training, & I am a thorough Radical by observation & experience.” After Joseph Chamberlain came out in favour of Tariff Reform in 1903, Morley defended Free Trade, claiming protectionism was conducive to social distress, political corruption & political unrest: Secretary of State for India end of 1905 under Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman: conspicuous in May 1907 & afterwards for his firmness in sanctioning extreme measures for dealing with first symptoms of revolutionary outbreaks & sedition, though strongly opposed by some in his party for belying his democratic principles: Campbell-Bannerman resigned in 1908 & H.H. Asquith became P.M. & transferred Morley to House of Lords as Viscount of Blackburn but let him continue as Secretary of State until 1910. The Govt. of India Act 1909 established an election system by the ingenious device of ‘separate electorate’ & ‘weightage’ favouring Mahomedans thus casting the seed of dismemberment of its Indian Empire: retired, 1914.
On the Morley-Minto Reforms (1909), he said in the House of Lords on 17th December 1908: “If could be said that this chapter of reforms led directly or necessarily to the establishment of a parliamentary system in India, I, for one, would have nothing at all to do with it.”…as the authors of the Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, 1918, observed, “The Reforms of 1909 afforded no answer & could afford no answer, to Indian political problems… Responsibility is the savour of popular government, & that savour the present councils wholly lack.” The Indian Press Act of 1910 laid down heavy fines & forfeiture of press for seditious publications, which were defined in such wide terms as to include almost any independent criticism of the Govt. Books, newspapers, or other documents containing “prohibited” matter were to be forfeited. The public life was thoroughly stifled by imposing restrictions on public meetings & press, & rendering impartial justice almost impossible. The Govt. also prosecuted quite a large number of persons, the punishments inflicted being almost always severe & in many cases vindictive. Even Morley, characterized the sentences as ‘indefensible’, ‘outrageous’ & ‘monstrous’. [Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al: 907, 909, 911, 946, 977-9]
Mormons members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith in New York, on the basis of the Book of Mormon.
Morning Leader British journal published during 1907.
Morpheus Greek god: son of Sleep & a creature of the Night: brought dreams of human forms; his brothers, Ikelos & Phobetor brought dreams of beasts & inanimate objects resp.
Morris, William (1834-96), English designer, craftsman, poet, & socialist; he revolutionized Victorian taste.
Morte d’Arthur a poem by Tennyson, published in his collection Poems (1842).
Moses (14th -13th cent BC) the greatest lawgiver of Israel, he led his people out of bondage in Egypt to the edge of Canaan. God promulgated the Law through Moses, not only the Ten Commandments & the criminal code, but the whole liturgical law as well. The Law he promulgated is called the Mosaic Law. “The power to observe law rigidly is the basis of freedom; therefore in most disciplines the soul has to endure & fulfil the law in its lower members before it can rise to the perfect freedom of its divine being. Those disciplines which begin with freedom are only for the mighty ones who are naturally free or in former lives have founded their freedom.” ― “The double law of sin & virtue is imposed on us because we have not that ideal life & knowledge within, which guides the soul spontaneously & infallibly to its self-fulfilment. The law of sin & virtue ceases for us when the sun of God shines upon the soul in truth & love with its unveiled splendour. Moses is replaced by Christ, the Shāstra by the Veda.” [SABCL 17:98-99]
Moslem League All-India Muslim League, an organization for protecting, upholding & promoting the political interests of Indian Muslims, founded in 1906 by Nawab Salim-Ullāh of Dacca at the instance of Lord Minto who needed a powerful counterpoise to the Congress. [Bhattacharya]
The Mother to Her Son one of the longer poems of Sri Aurobindo based on a passage in the Udyoga-parva of the Mahābhārata, containing the conversation of Vidula (q.v.) with her son Sanjaya. ‘The Mother’ here stands for ‘Mother India’ & ‘her son’ for the true patriot. To implant the authentic nationalist spirit in the youth of India, he published it in his Bande Mataram on 9 June 1907. The poem was a timely warning to Pherozshah Mehta, Gokhale & their army of spineless ‘patriots’, of how their petty squabble with the Nationalists was hurting the prospects of uniting against the bloodsucker’s of Mother India. But that very year, like the historical Karaṇdeva (see Curran) who surrendered Gujarat in 1892, to its deadly enemies, the Moderates surrendered themselves to the Octopus at the Surat Congress. [See “The Slaying of the Congress” in Sri Aurobindo’s Bande Mataram, s/a Bāji Prabhou]
Mrigalanch(h)an epithet of Chandra for bearing stains/spots like a Mriga (deer).
Mrinalinee/ Mrinalini Bankim Chandra’s novel set in the first Muslim invasion of Bengal.
Mrinalini (Devi) (1887-1918) was born in Meherpore, a village near Jessore. She was married to Sri Aurobindo on 30 April 1901. According to her father, she “evinced no exceptional abilities or tendencies in her childhood, indeed at no stage of her life”. After Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Pondicherry in 1910, Mrinalini spent the rest her life with her parents at Shillong & Ranchi. Though educated at Brahmo School & surrounded by Brahmo friends, Mrinalini Devi took no special interest in the Brahmo movement. The whole religious bent of the later years of her life was towards Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa & Swami Vivekananda. Once, when she desired to receive Diksha from one of the Sannyasins of the Ramakrishna Mission, Bhupal babu wrote to Sri Aurobindo for the necessary permission but the latter in reply advised her not to receive initiation from anyone else & he assured him that he would send her all the spiritual help she needed. In February 1914, when Saurin was going to Bengal with Moni & Nolini, he asked Sri Aurobindo, “I shall meet Mrinalini. What shall I tell her?” Sri Aurobindo quietly replied, “I shall be glad if you can manage to bring her here.” Saurin was stunned & touched by this spontaneous request, made as it was during difficult economic conditions. At a time when rice was becoming too expensive, Sri Aurobindo had said, “Eat less food.” Once there was no money to buy provisions. There was only some rice, chillies, oil & salt. Sri Aurobindo said it was enough. The chillies were fried in oil & mixed with cooked rice & salt – & that was a full meal! The same day financial help came from a friend. Despite such hardships, Sri Aurobindo still wanted Mrinalini to come to Pondicherry. Unfortunately the three had to hasten back in September owing to the outbreak of the War & could not arrange to bring Mrinalini. ― In 1918, Bhupal babu, decided to take Mrinalini to Pondicherry. Since the Govt. finally granted permission he brought her to Girish babu’s residence in Calcutta. But she fell a victim to the scourge of influenza which was raging everywhere. The mental agony that she had kept suppressed for years exploded during the illness in her delirium, particularly the nightmarish scene of Sri Aurobindo’s arrest on 2 May 1908. After a week’s illness she passed away on 17 December. For some time before she passed away, she had been selling her ornaments & giving away the proceeds in charity & what remained unsold, she left with her friend Sudhira Bose, at the time Lady Superintendent of the Sister Nivedita School. Soon after Mrinālini’s death Sudhira sold off the ornaments & the whole of the proceeds, some two thousand rupees was, with Sri Aurobindo's permission, made over to the Ramakrishna Mission & constituted an endowment named after Mrinalini, out of the interest of which a girl student is maintained at the Sister Nivedita School. ─ During her illness, notes historian Prof Vishwanath, a rumour went round that Sri Aurobindo was coming to see her. CID agents watched the house round the clock so as to arrest him when he turned up. “There was a mention in her horoscope that her 32nd year would be critical”, writes her sister Shaibalini; “Sri Aurobindo knew it & wanted us to remind him about it when she turned 32. But all of us forgot except my mother. She was at that time in Ranchi. Hearing about the illness she hastened to Calcutta but Mrinalini passed away within half an hour of her arrival. When she learnt that we had not informed Sri Aurobindo, a telegram was sent to him. On reading it, Sri Aurobindo said, ‘Too late!’ My cousin Saurin who was there at the time wrote to my mother: ‘Today I saw tears in the eyes of your stone-hearted son-in-law. With the telegram in one hand, he sat still & tears were in his eyes.’ Sri Aurobindo also told him that Mrinālini’s soul had come to him soon after her death. Also a photo of Mrinalini that was on the mantle-piece is said to have fallen. Mrinalini had a small box full of letters received from Sri Aurobindo. She desired that the box should be drowned in the Ganges after her death.” [A.B. Purani’s Life of Sri Aurobindo, 1978; Shailendra Nath Basu, Sri Aurobinder Sohodhormini Mrinalini Debir ShmritiKotha, 1917, p.17; Nirodbaran, Mrinalini Devi, Sri Mira Trust, 1988:19-21; K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar’s Sri Aurobindo p.365fn; P. Heehs’ A&R, Dec. 1978:209]
Mrityunjaya ‘death-conquering’ epithet of Lord Shiva.
Mudgala Vedic Rishi, name borne by several sages. There is one in Mahabharata.
Mudholkar Rao Bahadur Raghūnath Narasimha (1857-1921), “the leading Moderate politician of the Berars (q.v.)... one of the chief opponents of the new Nationalism.” [SABCL Vol.1, p.352] In 1912, he was appointed him president of the 27th annual INC jamboree at Bankipore (Patna) in Bihar. From his presidential heights he declared that the ideal of the Congress was a united & self-governing India, an India in which differing creeds should live in harmony & in which life should be spiritualised. He…reminded the Congress that social advance & moral & spiritual regeneration must accompany political growth.” [M.V. Ramana Rao, A Short History of the Indian National Congress, S. Chand & Co., 1959, with foreword by Indira Gandhi]
Mudrārākshasa ‘Seal of Rākshasa’, Sanskrit play by Vishakhadatta (c.320-510).
Mughdabodh Sanskrit grammar by Bōpadeva towards the end of the 13th century.
Mukherji, Justice one of those admitted in 1907 by Morley to his Advisory Council of Notables, a high-paying dove-cote for confirmed loyalists.
Mukherji, S(h)ambhunath Shambhu Chandra Mukherji (1839-94): educated at the Oriental Seminary & the Hindu Metropolitan College: joined the Hindu Patriot as sub-editor but was virtual editor (1858-60) due to the ill-health of its editor (see Kristodas Pal): editor of Samāchār Hindustani 1862-63: Asst. Secretary to Tālukdārs’ Association, Lucknow: Dewan to Nawab Nizam of Murshidabad 1864: sole editor Hindoo Patriot 1866-72: conducted Mukherji’s Magazine 1872-76: started English weekly Reis & Rayyet 1882: befriended by Viceroy Dufferin 1888: Fellow of Calcutta University 1890: wrote On the Causes of the Mutiny, Mr Wilson, Lord Canning & the Income Tax, The Career of an Indian Princess, The Prince in India & to India, The Empire is Peace, Baroda Coup d’Etat; in 1887 book of travels in Bengal. [Buckland]
Mukherji, Satish (Chandra) (1865-1948) was appointed translator of Calcutta High Court by Justice Dwārkā Nath Mitra, a leading believer in the Religion of Humanity founded by Positivist Auguste Comte. Inspired by Ishwar Chandra Vidyāsāgara, when a student Satish & his friend Kāliprasād Chandra (later Swami Abhedananda) along with their classmate Narendra Datta (later Swami Vivekananda), attended the lectures by Pandit S. Tarka Chudamani on Śhad-Darshana (six schools of Philosophy) at the Albert Hall, presided over by Bankim Chandra Chatterji. After his M.A. from Presidency College in 1886 & B.L. in 1890, he enrolled as pleader of the Calcutta High Court. In 1887, he was appointed a Lecturer in history & economics in the Berhampore College. In September 1893, he was initiated by Bejoykrishna Goswami, & went to Benares to practice Goswami’s teaching. Later he came in contact with Ashwinikumar Datta, Sivanath Sastri, Bipin Chandra Pal, Brajendranath Seal, Asutosh Mukherjee (his class-friend), Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, & Raja Subodh Mullick. In 1897 he founded the Dawn magazine as an organ of Indian Nationalism & edited it until 1913. In 1902 he organised the “Dawn Society” of culture, to protest against the Report of the Indian Universities Commission set up by Curzon, representing the inadequate university education imposed by the Government to fabricate clerks for the merchant offices. “The cry for thorough overhauling of the whole system of University education was in the air.” The Dawn Society was a training ground of youths & a nursery of patriotism. Among its active members were Sister Nivedita, Jatin Mukherjee, Rajendra Prasad (first President of India), Haran Chakladar, Radhakumud Mukherjee, Kishorimohan Gupta (principal, Daulatpur College), Atulya Chatterjee, Rabindra Narayan Ghosh, Benoykumar Sarkar, all future celebrities. One day, Satish Chandra heard an inner voice uttering firmly: “God exists” which led him to lay emphasis on the study of Hindu life, thought & faith. In 1906, he joined Subodh Chandra Mullick in forming the National Council of Education & became a lecturer in the Bengal National College. In 1907, after Sri Aurobindo’s resignation on 2 August 1907, Satish Chandra took over as principal. In 1914, he settled in Varanasi & died there.
Mukherji, U.N. Upendra Nath Mukherji (1868-1919), journalist, & publisher of books on religion, including Hindu Somājer Itihāsh, works of Kālidāsa, etc. He founded Bāsumati Sahitya Mandir, Calcutta, to make cheap editions of the works of famous Bengali writers available to the general public.
Mukūnda the Deliverer, epithet of Vishnu & Krishna.
Mukāndaram (Chakravarti) (b.1547), Bengali poet for whose Kavikankan Chandi (Chandimangal), Bengalis honour him with the title of “Kavikankan”.
Mulhausen German spelling of Mulhouse, an industrial town of NE France on the plain of Alsace between the Vosges & the Jura Mountains. It passed to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War (1871). On 8 August 1914 the French occupied it without resistance. On the ninth the Germans gave battle, drove the French & reoccupied on the tenth. In 1918, after Germany was defeated in the War it came back to France.
M・ler, Max Friedrich Maximilian (1823-1900): son of Wilhelm Müller: born at Dessau: educated at Leipzig Ph.D. 1843: translated Hitōpadesha, 1843: studied under Bopp Francis (1791-1867) studied under Windishchmann, the celebrated Oriental scholar & Schelling at Berlin & under Burnouf Eugene (1801-52) at Paris: came to England 1846: commissioned by the Directors of E.I. Company to edit the Sanskrit classic, the Rig-Veda, with Sayānā’s commentary: lived at Oxford from 1848: Deputy &, in 1854, substantive Taylorian Professor of European Languages: Curator of the Bodleian 1856: Fellow of All Souls’ 1858: wrote History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature 1859: wrote The Science of Languages & other works on languages: first Professor of Comparative Philology 1868: made researches in mythology & the comparative study of religions: his Hibbert lectures on the Origin & Growth of Religion 1878: edited from 1875 the series of Sacred Books of the East, 51 volumes of translations of Oriental religious works: wrote India, what it can teach us? 1883: literary adviser to Oxford University on Indian subjects 1877-98: a leading member of Oriental congresses & President of the International Congress of Orientalists 1892.” Otto von Böhtlingk & Rudolf von Röth (q.v.) published the first Sanskrit-German 7-volume lexicon in 1855-57. [Buckland] ― “Müller Max was the greatest Orientalist of his days…. Besides his Rig Veda, his essays, collected under the title of Chips from a German Workshop, History of Sanskrit Literature (1859), Sacred Books of the East, Science of Language & Introduction to the Science of Religion (1878), started the studies in Comparative Philology, established affinities between the Celtic languages & Aryan languages like Sanskrit & Persian & helped Europe to learn of the greatness of the literary & cultural achievements of the Indian Hindus.” [Bhattacharya] ― Srinivasachari had provided Sri Aurobindo two volumes of Max Müller’s edition as well as a copy of Sayānā’s commentaries. Kolhātkar (q.v.) who was sometimes present used to say that the Vedas were the childish prattle of humanity in its infancy. Sri Aurobindo used to say that it all depended upon the mental attitude of the student...for a serious reader, the more he dives into them the greater will be the truths he will discover [P. Heehs’ A&R, Apr.1994] ― “Vedic Rishis ought surely to have known something about their own religion, more, let us hope, than Röth or Max Müller....” Sri Aurobindo [SABCL 17:339]
Mullick, Nirod cousin of Subodh Chandra Mullick (q.v.) who like him was the principal financial supporter of Bande Mataram.
Mulli(c)k, Subodh (Chandra) (1879-1920), one of Sri Aurobindo’s staunchest friends & closest colleagues in political as well as revolutionary work for which he earned the title of “Raja”. He was one the nine nationalists deported in 1908.
Mullick, S.K. Probably Dr. Sarat Kumar Mullick (1870-1924), the first to demand a Bengali company in the Bengal Regiment & the Bengal Territorial Force.
Mullik, Manmatha Chandra (1853-1922), barrister of Calcutta, related to Raja Subodh Chandra. Married an Englishwoman in 1899: settled in England: contested twice as a Liberal candidate in the British Parliamentary elections.
Mundaka Upanishad/ Moondaca an Upanishad of Atharva-Veda.
Mundaquinie (Mandakini) an arm of the Ganga flowing through Kedārnāth, Garhwal. Sri Aurobindo called it “the Ganges of the gods, in heaven”. [SABCL 27: 159]
Dr Munje Balkrishna Shivaram Munje (1872-1948) of Nagpur, one of Khaparde’s most prominent lieutenants in the early days of Nationalist agitation. In 1920 he came to Pondicherry as a guest of Sri Aurobindo.
Munro William (1818-80): entered the 39th Regiment 1834: spent many years in India: fought at Maharajpur, Dec.1843, severely wounded: fought in the Crimean war, in Canada, Bermuda: made General in 1878: a learned botanist, he was an authority of grasses: wrote papers in Journals of learned Societies, timber of Bengal, grasses, etc. [Buckland; was this Munro the Bengal Presidency Commissioner when Bankim Chandra was a deputy magistrate in 1860s?]
Lālā Munshiram later Swami Shraddhānanda (1856-1926), Arya Samāj leader of Punjab: founded Gurukūla Kāngri (near Hardwar), which later acquired the status of a university: assassinated when ill in bed by a Muslim fanatic who pretended to have come to nurse him. [See Shraddhānanda’s reminiscences of Tilak]
Murari one who killed the demon Mura, epithet of Sri Krishna.
Lālā Murlidhar (d.1920), poet & politician of Ambālā. An advocate by profession, the Govt. conferred on him the title of Rai Bahadur.
Murry, Middleton John Middleton Murry (1889-1957), his romantic & biographical approach to literature defied prevalent tendencies among fellow British critics.
Muruland in Mahābhārata, an ancient country ruled by Bhāga Datta.
The Muses daughters of Zeus & Mnemosyne who preside over Arts & Sciences. Their worship spread from Thracia & Pieria into Boetia, where they dwelt on Mt. Helicon, with its sacred fountains of Aganippe & Hippocrene. Mt. Parnassus & its Castilian Spring were also sacred to them. Libations of water or milk & honey were offered to them. Originally three, they were later spoken of as nine.
Musset Louis-Charles-Alfred de Musset (1810-57), one of the most distinguished poets & playwrights of the French Romantic movement.
Mussolini Benito (Amilcare Andrea) (1883-1945), Italian prime minister (1922-43), the first of Europe’s Fascist dictators. He ruled Italy for more than twenty years & led his nation to defeat in World War II.
Mustafa Kamil (Pasha) (1874-1908) son of an Egyptian army officer: trained as a lawyer at the French law school in Cairo & the Law Faculty at the University of Toulouse in France: supported Egypt’s Khedive, Abbas Hilmi II, who strongly opposed the United Kingdom’s occupation of Egypt & Sudan: sought co-operation with France & the Ottoman Empire: realising its folly appealed mainly to fellow Egyptians to end of the British occupation: called on Khedive Abbas to grant constitutional government to his subjects. In 1900, Kamil founded the newspaper Al-Liwa’ (The Standard) & a boys’ school open to Egyptian Muslims, Christians, & Jews. His cause was strengthened by the Dinshawäy Incident in June 1906 in which four peasants were hastily tried & hanged for having assaulted uniformed British officers who were shooting pigeons in their village. He was supported strongly by Mohammad Farid, prominent member of Egypt & Sudan’s aristocracy. With Farid’s assistance, Kamil founded the National Party in December 1907, two months before his death. His funeral was the occasion for a massive demonstration of popular grief. Farid, who spent his last penny supporting the country’s national liberation movement, became the leader of the National Party after Kamil’s death. Kamil is remembered as a fervent Egyptian nationalist, & an articulate advocate of Egyptian independence. The current Egyptian national anthem (Bilady) is thought to have been inspired by one of Mustafa Kamil’s speeches: “If I weren’t an Egyptian, I would have wished to be an Egyptian.”
The Mutiny Karandikar: Though British rule had been established in many parts of India by 1835, the only uniformity to which the conquered territories could lay claim was their common subjection to foreign rule…. As the English rulers gradually turned their attention to Sind & the Punjab, the growing confidence emboldened them to annex territories, who independence they had recognised earlier for political reasons. Dalhousie’s ‘Doctrine of Lapse’ & the uprising of 1857 are…cause & effect. …. That Doctrine decreed: If a native kingdom lacks a natural heir or can be ‘proved’ to be ‘misgoverned’, it becomes British property with the adopted bearing all the expenses of British occupation. This filled native kings with justifiable dread, while dependents of dispossessed rulers were reduced to penury, distress & bitterness. ─ The uprising was the first organised challenge to British rule in India, which held the country in its tentacles like an octopus. That Nana Sahib Peshwa (adopted son of Peshwa Bāji Rao II), Tātyā Tope & Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi supplied the leadership was bur natural, looking to the political consciousness among the Mahrattas. The Muslim aristocracy in north India (esp. Oudh, see also Justice Prinsep) had gradually realised that, along with the Emperor of Delhi, it had been reduced to impotence…. [They] secretly & successfully spread disaffection far & wide. It was, however, mainly the Indian personnel of the Army which formed the spearhead of the challenge.
Bhattacharya: The native sepoys who formed four-fifth of the British army’s foot-soldiers (fodder) were paid far less than just recruited Brit squaddies; & even with far more expertise & experience the blacks were rarely promoted while the whites got quick promotions; on expeditions to distant lands, the blacks lugged their arms & duffels at their own expense, not so the whites; the senior-most blacks had to kowtow the lowest-ranking whites. The last straw to both Muslim & Hindu sepoys is believed to have been the deliberately pork-greased cartridges which insulted their religious practices. That led to the first flash of the rebellion on 10 May 1857 at Meerut – sepoy Mangaḷ Pandey killed the gloating white officer & was immediately shot dead. That day the rebels captured Delhi, the next day they declared the old Moghul Bahadur Shah II its emperor. In the next two months rebellions sprang up all over Oudh, in Rohilkhand under Lakshmi Bai, & in places in Rājputāna, Gwalior, Bareilly, Lucknow, Benares, Kanpur. Fissures began when Nana Sahib was declared Peshwa. The Muslims aimed for a restoration of Mohammedan rule under the Moghul; the Hindus wanted the restoration of the Maratha Empire under the Peshwa.”
Karandikar: The uprising was not a national revolt on a mass scale. The Indian soldiers were disaffected but fresh recruitment had not become possible. Mr A.O. Hume (q.v.), the founder of the Indian National Congress, was a district Collector in U.P. in 1857. That he disguised himself & prudently betook himself to a place of safety had been recorded by himself [Statement before the Public Service Commission, 1886, quoted in Modern Review, January 1913, p.28]. The active help of the townspeople helped him along the way.
Buckland: Against scores of brutal veteran generals on the British side there were only Tātyā Tope & Rani Lakshmi Bai who were capable of planning & leading troops into battles. Tātyā “has been described as the only rebel leader who showed a real genius for war. Tātyā… evaded pursuit for 10 months in Central India, Rājputāna & Bundelkhand…was caught in the jungles on April 7, 9 [humiliated & tortured undoubtedly] & executed on the 18th.”
Karandikar: The Punjab, just set on its feet on the way of an orderly administration, refused to fall in line with the rest of India. One reason for this unwillingness was the inability of the Sikhs to forget the indignities which their illustrious Gurus were subjected to by the Islamic power at Delhi. “The loot of Delhi was a day-dream with the followers of Guru Govind & Banda” remarks Major B.D. Basu, who further quotes the following extract [from Rise of the Christian Power in India, Vol. V. Pp.380-81] from a letter of Sir John Lawrence to Sir Frederic Curries, in 1858: “Under the mercy of God, the loyalty & contentment of the people of Punjab has saved India. Had the Punjab gone, we must have been ruined.” This tendency of every province & people to go its own way was a legacy of the past. It continued even after 1857, &, it is doubtful whether it has quite disappeared even yet. The Gurkhās had their own grievances against the Nawab of Oudh & chose to stand aloof…. The Mahratta leadership in the uprising, though consistent with the political tradition of Mahārāshtra, was restricted to a limited circle. The so-called aristocratic class in Mahārāshtra had, between 1818 & 1858, been dislodged from its leadership & had been reduced to…political pensioners. Unable & unwilling to face the stern realities of the new situation, economically degraded & subservient to the new rulers, this class was hardly capable of supplying the leadership which Mahārāshtra needed. It was the good fortune of the British power in India that during to period of consolidation, it had two such able, astute & far-seeing generals & statesmen as Mountstuart Elphinstone & Sir Thomas Munroe, the former in Bombay & the latter in Madras. Both of them had joined the E.I. Co. before the close of the 18th century & continued to serve till the close of the 19th. Just as Elphinstone developed a sort of regard for the enemy he had conquered & a genuine love for the people around him, so also had Munroe. The success of these administrators in popularising British rule south of Narmada was responsible in some measure for the feeble response to the south to the uprising of 1857.
Kalikinkar Datta: The Revolt failed owing to: (1) Their military equipment was inferior, e.g. their muzzle-loaders were out-ranged by the new invented breech-loaders, (2) with control over a widespread telegraph & postal system the British obtained fast information of the latest situation on all fronts & modified the course of their actions accordingly, (3) the English had secured the loyalty of most of the feudatory chiefs, with the exception of the Rani of Jhansi, the Begum of Oudh & some minor chiefs, apart from invaluable assistance from Dinkar Rao of Gwalior, Salar Jang of Hyderabad, Jang Bahādur of Nepal, & the Sikhs. The Afghan ruler remained friendly (as he would in the 1914-18 War in Europe, (4) the insurgents could not unstinted & universal support of the masses in most parts of India, (5) there was no carefully concerted general plane or a strong central organisation.
Bhattacharya suggests, for further reading, Holmes, T.R.’s History of the Indian Mutiny; Malleson’s History of the Sepoy War; Sen, S.N.’s Eighteen Fifty-seven; Majumdar, R.C.’s History of the Freedom Movement, volume I, part vii; Sāvarkar, V.D.’s War of Independence.
[Karandikar; Bhattacharya; Buckland; An Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al, 1973-1974]
My Master as I Saw Him The Master as I Saw Him by Sister Nivedita (q.v.).
Mycenae Greek city in Argolis, six miles from Argos & nine from the sea: one of the chief centres of the Aegean world in later 2nd millennium BC (see Agamemnon)
Myrmidon(s) Greek tribe of Thessaly which colonized the island of Aegina; Zeus had turned them into men from ants to repopulate Aegina, his son Aeacus’ kingdom after an epidemic of plague. In the Trojan War they fought for Achilles.
Myrtilla shrub with shiny evergreen leaves & white scented flowers sacred to Venus.
Mysian of Mysia in NW Asia Minor, facing Lesbos; it was not a political unit.