THE BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE OF SWAMI DAYANANDA: SOME CURRENT MISCONCEPTIONS.

 

THE BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE OF SWAMI DAYANANDA: SOME CURRENT MISCONCEPTIONS.

By Debendra Nath Mukhopadhyaya , Author of biography of Swami Dayanand.

(Reproduced from The Vedic Magazine, Feb, 1916. p.790-802)

 There are many contradictions regarding the parentage of  Swami Dayananda Saraswati, founder of Arya Samaj. The main reason for this is due to non-availability of faithful, critical and comprehensive biography of him. The Arya Samaj is a brave body and bold enough to fight in the field of theological controversy and to win its victories, but the Samaj has no literary life. The Samaj is too active to establish, as well as to organize, several new institutions but the Samaj is as inactive as possible in matters of literature. Since the foundation of the Samaj in Rajkot?, most likely in the first week of January 1875, up to this time, the Samaj, in spite of its many-sided activities, has not been able to produce a proper, elaborate, faithful account of the life of its founder. This shows that the Arya Samaj is a movement which is literally dead. 

The late Pandit Lekhram, who is recognized by the Aryan public, as the foremost historian and biographer, wrote a bulky life of the Swami ji in Urdu which the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of the Punjab published a few years ago. But the Urdu Book, I believe, contains various kinds of mistakes and errors. Especially the style observed by Pandit ji in his work, is not the proper style for writing the biography of any hero.

Among those mistakes committed by Pandit ji, I will point out here only two which I think are important, as they are connected with the birthplace and the parentage of Swami Dayananda. Pandit Lekhram has mentioned in his book that Swami Dayananda's original name was Mul Shankar and his father's name was Amba Shankar. He has advanced three pieces of evidence to prove the said statement.

Firstly he met some years before his death, one Sannyasi, namely, Gobindananda Sarsawati at Amritsar on the occasion of the Diwali festival, who told  Pandit Lekh Ram that he was the brother of Swami Dayananda who had accompanied him during his travels on the banks of the Ganges for 6 years continually, and knew that Dayananda's father's name was Amba Shankar. As far as my information goes, I can say with confidence  that there was no brother of Swami Dayananda who became a Sannyasi and took the name Gobindananda Saraswati, There was an elder brother of Swamiji who it is said died at his home at Tankara, and his next last brother, namely, Vallabji, died at an early age, after a few years of his marriage with Mogibi, a woman belonging to Kutch. There are Sannaysis and Sadhus here and there, and one of whom I saw at Surat who are very fond of describing themselves as brothers and relatives of Swamiji, with the only object, I suppose, of glorifying themselves. Those Sadhus and Sannyasis are cheats and men of worldly policy only. Pandit Lekhram was an intelligent man, undoubtedly, and how he believed this statement made by a man of no credentials on such an important point is a matter of wonder. 

Secondly, Pandit ji was told by the late Thakur of Mukunda Singh Chhaleswar and Mr. Ram das Chabbildas, Barrister-at Law, that they had heard from some Chiefs of Kathiawar who attended the Delhi Durbar of 1877, to call Swami Dayananda Mul Shankar. Thakur Mukunda Singh is now dead and gone. Mr. Ramdas Chabbildas is still living and practising at Nagpur in the Central Provinces. A few years ago I visited Nagpur and met Mr. Ramdas Chabbildas in his house and asked him about this point particularly. He totally denied it, and said that he had never heard from any man up to this time that Swamiji was originally called Mul Shankar. Mr. Ramdas has given me his written contradiction to this point in his elaborate note on the subject of Swami Dayananda and his relations with him. I wish to know how it was possible for those Kathiawar Chiefs to recognize Swami Dayananda as a man belonging to the Morvi State, and to know that his original name was Mul Shankar after a period of 32 years? Because the Swami left his home in the year 1845 and the aforesaid Darbar assembled at Delhi in 1877 under the Viceroyalty of the late Lord Lytton. I believe it is impossible for those Chiefs in Kathiawar to know Swami Dayananda in his boyhood. I understand only 2 or 3 Chiefs came to Delhi in connection with that Darbar and none of them belong to Morvi State. This shows that those Chiefs had not the least chance of making their acquaintance with the Swamiji when he was a boy at his father's house. In connection with this point I wish to say one thing more. Swami Dayananda visited Rajkot, the capital of Kathiawar, in the end of 1874, and remained there until the middle of January 1875. During this short period of his sojourn at Rajkot,  Swamiji used to deliver lectures systematically in the hall of the local Dharamsala, and many people attended his lectures and even many people from Morvi as well as from Tankara used to come to Rajkot with the object of seeing and listening to the lectures of the sacred man but none of them ever said to any one that Dayananda's original name was Mul Shankar. Of course, there is a rumour in the bazaar of Rajkot that this extraordinary man belonged to Tankara. When he was at Rajkot he was invited by Mr. Macnaughton, the Principal of the Rajkumar College at Rajkot to deliver a lecture specially for the students of his College. Swamiji accepted his invitation and delivered his lecture before the assembled young princes of Kathiawar. This incident created an occasion to meet the minor Chief of Morvi who was a student of the College. Swamiji met the young prince of the Morvi territory and talked with him for a long time, but the Morvi prince at that time or afterwards never said to any one that Dayananda's original name was Mul Shankar. For these reasons I have no hesitation to say that the information with regard to the Kathiawar Chiefs and their naming Swamiji as Mul Shankar, which Pandit Lekhram gathered from Thakur Mukunda Singh, etc., is false, fabricated, and unfounded.

Thirdly, in the course of the investigation regarding the facts connected with the life of the Swamiji, Pandit Lekhram visited Morvi, Tankara, and Mitana. At Tankara he met one gentleman, namely, Kurberji Kanji who was Tahsildar of Tankara at that time and who gave the information to Lekhram that one of his uncles-a distant relative of his-whose name was Mul Shankar and who left home in the Samvat 1903 and afterwards became a Sanyasi, took the name of Dayananda Saraswati. Pandit Lekhram took the information as infallible truth and without hesitation narrated in his biography of Dayananda, that Dayananda's original name was Mul Shankar and he was a man of Morvi. But the thing is that Kuberji Kanji's family belonged to Yajur Vedi Audichya while Swami Dayanand belonged to Sam Vedi Audichya. I enquired this matter particularly in Morvi as well as in Tankara and I have been told by many respectable Brahmins of both the places that the man who was a relative of Kuberji Kanji was the son of Pitambar Panda and was a bad man and left home for bad purposes. Pandit Lekhram was so careless as to accept the statement made by Kuberji Kanji as true. In Morvi city there is one Prem Shankar Kuberji, B. A., who is the son of Kuberji Kanji, who told me that this was a great mistake on the part of his father to inform Pandit Lekhram that Pitambar Panda's son and Swamji Dayananda were the same man. It is as certain as possible that Dayananda was an inhabitant of Tankara and not of Morvi or Mitana. In order to prove this statement I take the liberty of Publishing below a correspondence made by one gentleman  of Tankara on the subject. This correspondence was addressed to the Secretary of the Arya Pratinidhi of Bombay and I have been able to gather it from one gentleman at Rajkot in the course of my last tour to Kathiawar. A copy of the correspondence is attached herewith.

Some facts about Swami Dayanand Saraswati.

22nd September, 1911.

To

THE SECRETARY,

Namaste.

ARYA PRATINIDHI SABHA.

I herewith place before you some facts about Swamiji, which I have come across during my inquiries. Some people in the course of their investigations have found out that the reason why all the information about Swami's life is not forthcoming is that the Brahmin inhabitants of the village of Tankara, most of whom live by Yajman Vritti think that if they throw any light on the life of Swamiji, or reveal any facts about him, the Arya Samajists preachers will come there and deliver religious lectures, and thus they will be undone when they will destroy the faith which the people have in their teachings. Therefore they have resolved not to furnish any information about Swamiji and plead ignorance whenever questioned and the people scrupulously act up to it. The gentleman who has communicated this fact to me is an inhabitant of Tankara and is at present practising medicine in Mandal. He himself was formerly of the same resolution but on being artfully questioned gave out some facts. He interrogated me as to what I wished to know about Swamiji and then distinctly observed that it would be better, if I offered any reward to the person willing to communicate any fact about him, and that only under the stimulus of such a temptation could I hope to get any information. Now I leave it to you what course you should adopt. In the course of conversation, he communicated to me the following facts based on inferences, which you may verify by your own independent inquiries.

Swami Dayanand was by caste an Udichya Brahmin and belonged originally to the village of Tankara. His father held the office of Kamdar or Wahiwatdar (Local Administrator of the village). At this time, the village was under the farm of Moroba Pant alias Bhau Saheb. Also his father built a temple dedicated to Mahadeo Kuberji in Tankara, or at any rate contributed to the expenses of the repairing work of the temple. Another important fact to be noticed is that the officiating priest of the temple Rawal Popatlal Kalianji owns and enjoys some lands attached thereto. It is said that Bhoga Rawal, the father of Kalianji Rawal, was the son of the daughter of the sister of Swami Dayanand.    After the flight of Swami Dayanand his father nominated  his daughter as his heir  because he had no direct heir and on the latter's demise the succession went to her daughter's son that is Bhoga Rawal. After Bogha Rawal came his son Kalianji, and then his son (the present) Popatlal succeeded to the estate.

The Swami's father had many Yajmans whose names are recorded in a Book which lies at present in Haryana with Jani Ambaram Kevalram, formerly a Wahiwatdar of Paddhari, and by consulting which, it is possible to get more information.

The gentleman who has communicated these facts to me is by name Harishanker, who is an inhabitant of Tankara. He heard all this information from his elder uncle who is of an old age. Harishanker observed that Popatlal himself had told him that he was a relative of the Swami. The information about the book of the names of Yajmans is also narrated by Popatlal. Thus it is possible that more information may come out on further investigations. But the inhabitants of the village look with disfavour with  the Arya Samajists, and it is only by offering some inducements that we may hope to get any further information particularly about the book of the names of the Yajmans. Lala Munshiramji, the founder of the Haridwar Gurukul, had written one letter to Vaidya Harishanker requesting him to give any information he may have had about the Swami, but the latter, fearing his elders, made no reply. The information which I have been able to put before I owe him  is very scanty. As far as I could judge from their talk it is possible to get the information only under the stimulus of an inducement.

Yours sincerely,

(Sd.) GANPATI KESHAORAM SHARMA.

Besides the evidence stated in the above correspondence I have half a dozen pieces of evidence at least at my command to establish this fact that Swami Dayananda Saraswati took his birth on the soil of Tankara and not at any other place.

Now I will say something about the second blunder committed by Pandit Lekhram in his Urdu Biography regarding the father of the Swamiji. He said that Daynanda's father's name was Amba Shankar while Daynanda's father was Karsanji Lalji Tribari. Karsanji was his father and Lalji was his grandfather. His family belonged to Sambedi Udichya and Dalavya Gotra. The family was known as the Tribari family, because Tribari was the surname of the family. Tribari means one, whose forefathers used to read 3 Vedas.

Any gentleman, if he is a critical student of History, and if he reads the autobiography of Swami Dayananda carefully, and critically, will be able to ascertain who was his father. Because Dayananda has given three indications regarding his father in the autobiography. He said that his father was a banker. Secondly, a zemindar or landlord, and thirdly, a high officer in the State. These three things may be taken as clues given by the Swami himself to trace out who was his father. I shall now try to prove by and by that Karsanji Lalji Tribari was a banker, a zemindar and also he used to hold an important office in the Darbar.

There is a Brahmin, namely, Popat Kalyanji Rawal at Tankara, who is the only surviving relative of Karsanji's family. Popat Rawal's father was Kalyanji, Kalyanji's father was Boga and Boga's father was Mongolji, That Mongolji was the son-in-law of Karsanji as he was married with the elder sister of Dayananda whose name was Prembai. During my second visit to Tankara I was able to find one old worn out record kept in Popat Rawal's house. This record was an account book concerned with the money lending business conducted by Karsanji. The perusal of this old record will prove clearly that Karsanji Tribari had a good banking house at Tankara. Besides, it is a fact known to the old people of Tankara that Karsanji Lalji was a banker.

Secondly, Karsanji Tribari was a zemindar as he had a large landed property in the village of Keshia belonging to the Jamnagore territory. Although Karsanji was not the owner of the whole village of Keshia, the major portion of it belonged to him. Some portions of the Keshia land were given by him to his two brothers-in-law as dowries in Haryana, a village in Jamnagore State. I have visited Haryana and met some members of those brothers-in-law's families, who are all enjoying the Keshia lands up to this time. Some portions of the Keshia property were bestowed by Karsanji to provide his widow daughter-in-law Mogibi, the wife of his last son Vallabji, and some portions also were given to his son-in-law Mongolji Rawal at Tankara, whose only surviving descendant the above-named Popat Rawal is still enjoying the lands in Keshia. There is a documentary proof kept in the Jamnagore Revenue Commissioner's office the perusal of which will convince the reader that those large landed properties in Keshia of Karsanji were granted to his forefathers by several Jam-Sahebs as well as by other Jagirdars. I have taken a copy of this document and kept it with me. Also it is known to the elderly people in Dhrol State as well as in the vicinity of Joria Bunder that Karsanji Tribari was the landlord of Keshia.

Thirdly, I shall have to prove that Karsanji Tribari was a State officer. Before doing this I will cite one incident which occurred in one of the villages under the jurisdiction of the Tankara Taluka in the Morvi State. It is as follows:

Most likely in the Sambat year of 1869, some Miana people of Malia went to Kagdori, a village belonging to the Tankara Taluka, with the view of creating disturbance and plundering the property of the people.  Nagar Nirbhay Shankar, the Fouzdar of Tankara and Karsanji Lalji Tribari both came to Kagdori.  Nirbhay Shankar was beaten so severely by those Mianas that he died within two or three days and Karsanji was captured and dragged to Malia and detained there for some time.

In former times, I mean before the introduction of the Jamabandi settlement in the year of 1827-1828 by Colonel Walker, the well-known British Resident at Baroda, there existed a good deal of animosity and hostility between the two States-Malia and Morvi. The Malia authorities used to exercise their force-generally by sending Mianas the notorious outlaws in Kathiawar to harass the Morvi people and to capture specially their high officers of the State. So the Morvi authorities used to exercise their power and to arrest the big officers of the Malia State and to imprison them for a short time. This was a practice observed systematically by both the States. Karsanji Tribari's going to Kagdori with the Tankara Fouzdar with the object of putting down; the Miana raid and to establish peace there and his arrest by those Mianas who took him to Malia for imprisonment proves the fact that Karsanji Tribari could not be but a big officer in the Tankara Taluka under Morvi. Except this fact there is more evidence on the subject and the aforesaid correspondence of a Tankara gentleman also says that Dayananda's father held the office of "Karmad or Wahiwaldar of the village"

It is said by some elderly people at Tankara that the father Swami Dayananda was the same Brahmin who owned the temple of Kinbernathji Mahadeb and also who was a banker and a zemindar and used to hold important office in Tankara during the time of Meral Narayan Bhow, the great banker of Baroda, and it can be said safely and without hesitation that there was no other Brahmin in Tankara with those indications and distinctions as told by Swami Dayananda in his autobiography except Karsanji Lalji Tribari. I met one Shastri at Dhrol who told me spontaneously "Babuji why are you bothering your head so much about Swami Dayananda's father? It is known to the elderly people belonging to this side of Kathiawar that Dayananda was the son of Karsanji Lalji Tribari."

I have seen the house of Karsanji Lalji Tribari which is still in existence just a few yards west of the Darbargarh of Tankara and talked with some of the members of the family of Prembai, the elder sister of the Swamiji, and out of my profound admiration for the Swamiji I took one handful of dust from the compound of the house.

I have shown clearly in the above lines that Pandit Lekhram has committed a great mistake in mentioning that Dayananda was a Morvi man and that his original name was Mul Shankar and father's name Amba Shankar. It is a pity for the Arya Samaj movement that these mistakes are being easily copied by those different irresponsible writers of the biographies of the Swamiji, either in English or in Urdu, who take the Panditji's book as the only basis of their respective works without making any independent researches. Not only this-those mistakes and blunders are being spread far and wide by some careless preachers of the movement. 

Mistakes and errors are going on in the name of founder of the Arya Samaj, not only committed by Pandit Lekhram but a book named Dayananda Digbiojoy Mahakavya written and lately published by one good Sanskrit speaking preacher of the Samaj contains various sorts of falsehoods and fabrications regarding the Swamiji. As the Sankarbijoy and Sanker Dighijoy Kabyas are bringing disgrace to the sacred name of Sankracharya, so the Dayananda Digbiojoy Mahakavya. I believe, will bring disgrace and dishonor to the glorious name of the great Swamiji after the lapse of 25 or 30 years hence.

Had Swami Dayananda been living in those days, he would have been the first man to come forward to put down the publication of this Mahakavya at once.

Perhaps it is known to the Indian reading public that nearly 20 years ago a book was published in England written either by a Theosophist or by a secularist to prove that Jesus of Nazareth came from Jerusalem to Tibet to learn some occult science at the feet of a Lama Guru, and after practicing the science for some years he went to the holy city of Benares to acquire the wisdom of the holy Brahmins. After the publication of this book the whole Christian world became so excited as to crush the book down, and scholars like Professor Max Muller came forward to contradict those false and fabricated statements published in the book. The book disappeared shortly and it is now out of print. On the contrary, the Arya Samaj is slumbering about the publication of the above named Mahakavya. These things show that in the Samaj there is neither the spirit of historical research, nor the taste of making important things, historically correct.

The movement which is not backed up by good, sound and healthy literature, dies. The movement in which there are no literary men and students of critical history of high order-the movement which is without the knowledge of comparative study of religions, the movement which is not acquainted with the history of the rise and development of the different creeds of the world, I believe, is not potent enough to conquer the modern critical scientific and sceptic world.

For these reasons the Arya Samaj movement is so unpopular in Maharashtra, Madras and Bengal.

The facts and information's which I have given in the above few lines regarding the birthplace and parentage of the Swamiji will prove sufficiently how critically and minutely I have tried to collect materials of the life of the founder of the Samaj. To verify the truth of an insignificant fact connected with the life of the Swamiji I had to go from Agra to Indore twice. In this way I have spent nearly fifteen years, and I have been able to gather heaps of materials, interesting and important. The proposed critical and comprehensive biography of the Swamiji may be divided into 2 or 3 volumes. I have left no stone unturned to collect even the minutest details regarding the life of the Swamiji. I have visited Kathiawar, the province of the Swamiji, 4 times. Nearly one thousand rupees have been spent to meet the expenses of railway fares and Bullock cart hires. Some noble minded Political Agents, Residents, and some members of the Bombay Secretariat, were so kind as to introduce me to some of the Chiefs of Kathiawar and of Rajputana from whom I collected the sum above mentioned, to meet my expenses. I have not received any material help from the Arya Samaj except one or two. My labour and sacrifice in this cause, I am sorry to say, have not been appreciated by the Samajists. Some say I am not an Arya Samajist so I should not be encouraged, but I can't find any better Arya Samajist than myself in the whole Arya Samaj world, and a greater admirer of the Swamiji for whom I have taken so much trouble for nearly 15 years. The first and systematic biography of Dayananda was written by myself and was published before the publication of Pandit Lekhram's biography in Urdu. Besides this I have written and published two more booklets-one named 'Dayananda the Ideal Reformer and the other named 'The Autobiography of Swami Dayananda in Bengali." The first book has been translated and published in Gujarati and is being sold in the Bombay Presidency-the second book also has been translated and published in Gujarati. Besides these I have written three or four booklets mainly devoted to the principles of reform originated by the Swamiji, but these exist now in manuscript form and I have no money to publish them. Also the manuscript of an elaborate life of Swami Virjanand, the great Guru of the great Dayananda is ready. Money is wanting to publish this also. It is unnecessary to mention that I was the first man in the superstitious province of Bengal to make the public appreciate the principles and doctrines of Swami Dayananda Saraswati. A good amount of money will be required to publish the proposed critical and comprehensive biography of the Swamiji including those few booklets. If I can get the amount of rupees two thousand I may go on with those publications easily. Is there any sincere admirer and true follower of the Swamiji who may come forward to lend his material support to this cause? However I am thankful to God that He has enabled me to trace out the birth place and the father's name of the Swamiji. These things were full of mystery. I took a vow in secret that I would do my best, cost what it would, to unearth these mysterious things which Swamiji had never disclosed to any one in his life.

The present condition of my health does not permit me to go further as I have been attacked with paralysis that has made me bed-ridden for the last 6 months. Of course, I am now better and under treatment. If any reader of the article wishes to correspond with me on this subject, he is always welcome and may write on the following address.

DEBENDRANATH MUKHERJI, C/o Post Master, Burdwan, (Bengal)