The most beautiful trees in India are the ‘bar’ (banyan), the ‘pipal’, and the tamarind.[12] The two first are of the fig tribe, and their greatest enemies are the elephants and camels of our public establishments and public servants, who prey upon them wherever they can find them when under the protection of their masters or keepers, who, when appealed to, generally evince a very philosophical disregard to the feeling of either property or piety involved in the trespass.  It is consequently in the driest and hottest parts of the country, where the shade of these trees is most wanted, that it is least to be found; because it is there that camels thrive best, and are most kept, and it is most difficult to save such trees from their depredations.

In the evening a trooper passed our tents on his way in great haste from Meerut to Delhi, to announce the death of the poor old Begam Samru, which had taken place the day before at her little capital of Sardhana.  For five-and-twenty years had I been looking forward to the opportunity of seeing this very extraordinary woman, whose history had interested me more than that of any other character in India during my time; and I was sadly disappointed to hear of her death when within two or three stages of her capital.[13]

Notes: 

1.  January, 1836.

2.  Mr. Fox Strangways gives specimens of songs sung at wells in his learned and original book, The Music of Hindostan (Oxford, 1914, pp. 20, 21).

3.  Brij Bowla in the original edition.  The name is correctly written Birju Baula or Baura.  A legend of the rivalry between him and Tansen is given in Linguistic Survey of India, vi, 47.  His name is not included in Abul Fazl’s list of eminent musicians, or in Blochmann’s notes to it (Ain trans. i, 612), and I have not succeeded in obtaining any trustworthy information about him.  Marvellous legends of the rival singers will be found in N.I.N. & Qu. vol. v, para. 207.

4.  Abul Fazl describes Tansen as being of Gwalior, adding that ’a singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years’.  Nos. 2-5 and several others in Abul Fazl’s list of eminent musicians in Akbar’s reign are all noted as belonging to Gwalior, which evidently was the most musical of cities (Blochmann, transl.  Ain, i, 612).  Sleeman appears to have been mistaken in connecting Tansen with Patna.  But the musician must really have become a Musalman, because his tomb stands close to the south-western corner of the sepulchre at Gwalior of Muhammad Ghaus, an eminent Muslim saint.  No Hindu could have been buried in such a spot (A.S.R., vol. ii, p. 370).  According to one account Tansen died in Lahore, his body being removed to Gwalior by order of Akbar (Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, London, 1813, vol. iii, p. 32).  The leaves of the tamarind-tree overshadowing the tomb are believed to improve the voice marvellously when chewed.

Mr. Fox Strangways notes that Hindu critics hold Tansen ’principally responsible for the deterioration of Hindu music.  He is said to have falsified the rags, and two, Hindol and Megh, of the original six have disappeared since his time’ (op. cit., p. 84).