For the common pilgrim, the journey to Kashi was not easy. The roads were uneven, there were thick forests and mountains, great rivers to cross, and innumerable dangers from wild animals or dacoits who came in swarms of hundreds and swooped down on a group of travellers, merely looting them if they were fortunate, and killing them if they resisted. These dangers meant that a large group had to be accompanied by a fairly large number of armed men who might be able to stave off such attacks. The pilgrims were both men and women, often elderly, besides mendicants and Gosavis who travelled from place to place. There were bullock carts and palanquins and horses that the pilgrims used, however, there was still a large number that walked.
It was not a short journey either. The period after the Dussehra festival was chosen as the favourable one, since the weather was better, and often, if one was fortunate, one could be sheltered by a Maratha army travelling north. It was difficult for an army to shake off the highly motivated pilgrims from following them. The travelling Banjaras who brought their Bazars along to feed these armies – literally a city on the move – made it a little bit easier for the pilgrims too to accomplish the Kashi-Yatra.
It is recorded that after obtaining the grant-notifications of Swarajya and Chauth for the six Subas of the Deccan in 1719, Balaji Vishwanath Peshwa visited Varanasi on his return journey from Delhi to Satara, and was taken to the three chief places of pilgrimage by one Bhikambhat Vaze. Fifteen years later, around 1734, when Bajirao made his mark north of the Narmada, Narayan Dikshit-Patankar, a Guru of the Peshwa and his brother Chimaji Appa, left for Kashi. A house was found for him by Sadashiv Naik, a prominent banker who stayed in Kashi. Nanasaheb Peshwa too considered Narayan Dikshit as his Guru. Innumerable letters through the eighteenth century testify to the wide-ranging activities of this Dikshit-Patankar family.
Narayan Dikshit himself is said to have died around 1747, at the age of nearly a hundred years. To this day, one can find a lane in the old city of Kashi named ‘Narayan Dikshit Lane’. His son Vasudeo remained the Peshwa’s confidante throughout Nanasaheb’s years.
A few months after Narayan Dikshit went to Kashi, he was followed by the Peshwa’s mother Radhabai who passed through Udaipur, Jaipur, Mathura, and Prayag before reaching Kashi. She was accompanied by her son-in-law Abaji Naik Joshi, whose father was Sadashiv Naik of Kashi. Radhabai’s pilgrimage was not just of religious importance. During her journey, she was greeted at the palaces of the Rajput rulers with great respect and hosted like the mother of an important king. In Udaipur and Jaipur, matters of diplomatic import were also discussed and proposals exchanged on how the Mughal power was to be tackled. The discussions held at this time led to Bajirao’s visit to Jaipur and Udaipur the following year.
From Jaipur, Radhabai was escorted till Mathura by Sawai Jaisingh’s own officials and from there onwards the journey was accomplished with the protection offered by Mohammed Khan Bangash, who was the Subedar of the Mughal province of Allahabad. Bangash himself had been defeated by Bajirao a few years ago at Jaitpur in Bundelkhand but given safe passage on assurance that he would not attack Bundelkhand again. Bangash said, “Bajirao’s mother is like my mother,” and escorted her to Prayag and onwards to Kashi. During the time she spent there, she scrupulously avoided getting into local disputes but gave donations to the local people and places of worship.
Kashi was a city that had a large number of Brahmins, called the Gangaputra, whose livelihood depended on the pilgrims visiting the city. These Brahmins of the north, also called the Panch-Gauda were the chief priests of the city until the end of the seventeenth century. In early eighteenth century a large number of Brahmins from the south began to migrate to Kashi and perform religious rituals for the pilgrims coming from the Deccan. The south Indian Brahmins, called Panch-Dravid, from Andhra, Telanga, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat / Rajasthan, over time became rivals of the Gangaputra Brahmins. Matters went before local courts and before the Qazi of Varanasi, who first ruled in favour of the Panch-Dravid. Two years later, the two sects of Brahmins resolved that the rituals by the river will be performed by the Gangaputra Brahmins only.
From the year 1730, Sadashiv Naik built many buildings and Ghats in Kashi from funds sent to him by Bajirao Peshwa. Three more Ghats were planned, however, local rivalries created obstacles in the path. Until 1735, Naik writes that he had built and completed two Ghats – the Dashashwamedh and the Manikarnika. The Dashashwamedh Ghat was built for a saint named Advaitanand Swami. There was no permission to build at the Panchaganga Ghat, so Naik created a garden, where two thousand pilgrims could have food at one time.
To be continued…
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