Another story from a different text

TENSING RODRIGUES

This is another story of peopling of Konkan from a different source; but the connections with ‘Sahyadrikhand’ are unmistakable. In his ‘Legends of The Konkan’, Crawford narrates a folk tale read out to him by an old Chitpavan Bhat from Chiplun, which inter alia describes the peopling of Konkan. [Crawford, 1909: Legends of The Konkan, 25] The first to arrive were the dhangars (herdsmen) of the ghatmala. Every year, they came with their buffaloes and penetrated further till they overran the ‘payeen ghauts’ (foot hills). Beyond that was the paradise: mighty rivers, magnificent forests of every kind of valuable timber, trees laden with delicious fruits, a coastline fringed with coconut palms, lush forage on every hillside and wild rice growing in all the valleys. Those that returned to their upland homes gave marvelous accounts of their new discovery. Attracted by these tales, the hardy mhar of the Dekkhan ventured to explore. They built their huts walled with split bamboos and red clay, and roofed them with woven coconut palms. They hired bands of cultivators from above the ghats, sudra by caste, to till the land lying all around. Vaishya followed them and carried the produce up-ghat on bullock carts driven by brinjaris (gypsies) from the far east Dekkhan. The kshatrya from across the ghats came thereafter. But, with the exception of a few Brahmins occasionally summoned by the ryots to officiate at religious ceremonies; none of the bramhan ventured to make their permanent residence in Konkan. [Crawford, 1909:25]

The story begins with the sea receding from what was to be the Konkan coast. And the subsequent influx of residents from across the ghats. The first to arrive were the herdsmen who came to graze their buffaloes; they were followed by ‘hired cultivators’, whom the old Bhat calls ‘sudra’. And then the ‘vaishya’. Crawford follows the ‘chatur varna’ order. But the most interesting statement is “with the exception of a few Brahmins occasionally summoned by the ryots to officiate at religious ceremonies, none of the brahmins ventured to make their permanent residence in Konkan.” So till this point we do not see any sign of ‘saraswat’; the “few Brahmins occasionally summoned by the ryots to officiate at religious ceremonies” are clearly ‘deshasth’ from across the ghats.

During Crawford’s 20 years’ tenure in the Southern Konkan as assistant collector and magistrate, district collector and magistrate, and finally as commissioner of the Southern Division of the Bombay Presidency, his duties necessitated his camping for weeks at a stretch at Chiplun, one of the most important towns in the Ratnagiri District. Early in his service, he made the acquaintance there of one Raghoba Mahadewrao, a famous Bhutt, there residing, a Chitpavan Brahmin, who was nearly 60 years of age and possessed such a collection of ancient Sanscrit ‘shloks’ and tattered manuscripts ‘as would be worth their weight in gold to the Royal Asiatic or any Public Library’.

The second of three Pothis, writes Crawford, contained fragments of a work entitled ‘The SyadriKhind’ (presumably ‘Sahyadrikhand’), clandestinely printed about the middle of the 18th century. [Crawford, 1909: 23] The first related to the conquest of the Konkan from the sea by Pareshram; the second dealt with the origin of the twice-born or Chitpavan Brahmins during the period when they were, as Pareshram (presumably Parshuram) had promised, immortal for years. The third poem relates how these immortals sacrilegiously demanded from the god a guarantee that they would never die, how they tried to hoax the deity and how Pareshram punished the sect by summarily cancelling their privilege.

It is not very well known why this particular work ‘The SyadriKhind’ was detested by the other Brahmins unless, indeed, because it included the Sarasvat version of the Chitpavan origin. Chitpavans deny that the Saraswat (Shenoysor Shenvis) have any sort of claim to Bramhanism, alleging slanderously that the latter were descendants from a low-caste girl who was ravished by a Brahmin while engaged in making fuel cakes from ‘shenn’ (cow dung). The ‘Shenvis from the Sarasvati River region in Kathiawad’ retaliated by alleging that Chitpavans were not miraculously created by Parshuram from the spume of the ocean as they claim to have been, pointing to the fact that Chitpavan has at least two meanings–one: ‘pure hearted or sinners pardoned’ and two: ‘a dead body raised from the pyre’ – they insisted that the latter was the true description of Chitpavan origin. Shenvis, admitting that Chitpavans were in a sense miraculously ‘twice-born’, created by Parshuram; insisted that, as a matter of fact, when the deity visited the Konkan first after it had become habitable, he was somewhat at a loss from whence to people the country, till Samudra in revenge for his defeat by Parshuram, derisively cast upon the beach of the River Vashishti, the corpses of certain Arab sailors, which Parshuram then proceeded to resuscitate! Small wonder then that the Chitpavan Peshvas loathed the Shenvi version of their origin, and made the possession of a copy of the ‘Sahyadrikhandan’ an offence punishable by death. So that as late as 1814 Peshwa Bajirao disgraced and ruined a respectable Deshast Bramhan of Wai, who had incautiously shown a copy of the obnoxious pamphlet to some friends, who betrayed him.

“The whole of the hard won Konkan was still but sparsely populated when Shri Pareshram, then in distant Burmah, received constant reports from the birds of the air, that it were well that his godship should visit the region he had won from Samudra, which sadly lacked governing and guiding, especially a guiding
priesthood.”

A crowd of the aborigines came out to meet the god brothers, worshipping them. Half-naked, with matted locks, nearly black were they, and their women and children following them at a distance, were as abject in look as they were. Shri Pareshram accosted them “Where are your gods? Where are your temples? Where are your priests?”

The trembling creatures cried “We have neither gods, nor temples, nor priests! We beseech thee to be our God henceforth and protect us. Oh Shri Pareshram we know thee now! Thou didst win this Konkan from Samudra! Thou art he who should come. The Deshast Bramhans, when they come sometimes to perform ceremonies for heavy fees, declare that thou hast deserted thy kingdom! Leave us not, thy people, we beseech thee! Give us priests of our own! Teach us to pray, Deoba!”

Pareshram was deeply moved by this appeal. He despatched Luxman forthwith to the sea-shore, telling him to gather and bring back with him in earthen jars some of the spume or dried foam of the ocean. This was soon done. Pareshram, poured it out and shook it over the ground around him; when, behold, a goodly band of handsome young men, fair in complexion, with green grey eyes, clad in saffron coloured robes, arose miraculously from the ground and prostrated themselves before him crying ‘Jai ! Shri Pareshram – Pareshram Deo ki jai!”

“Shri Pareshram addressed these holy ones, and blessing them said, “Be ye for ever my chelas! Ye are, with the aid of these poor people, to build a shrine to me on yonder hill. Ye are to be the spiritual guides of the Konkani people, to teach them and to protect them from other gods. To you I give thesesat malas and sat talaws (seven meadows of rich soil and seven lakes) from which to irrigate them. Obey mybehests religiously, honestly, and ye shall never die like those Deshast Bramhans who have neglected and oppressed these my poor people. My spirit will always be at my shrine to appeal to. We shall often visit it unknown to you and all men”.

‘Legends of The Konkan’ is clearly and naturally the Chitpavan story.