. Our troubles in Poona and the Deccan by Arthur Crawford. With numerous illus. by Horace Van Ruith . They have always been notable forintelligence and administrative ability, and number moremen of mark in their history than all other castes puttogether; but they are innately cruel—they were the lastand most bigotted supporters of Suttee (widow-burn-ing). They are vindictive, treacherous, intriguing and un-truthful, but mild, pleasing (or, rather, plausible) and cour-teous in manners. They are still, it is to be feared, asMessrs. MountstuartElphinstoneand Chaphn recorded in 1818,generally disc
. Our troubles in Poona and the Deccan by Arthur Crawford. With numerous illus. by Horace Van Ruith . They have always been notable forintelligence and administrative ability, and number moremen of mark in their history than all other castes puttogether; but they are innately cruel—they were the lastand most bigotted supporters of Suttee (widow-burn-ing). They are vindictive, treacherous, intriguing and un-truthful, but mild, pleasing (or, rather, plausible) and cour-teous in manners. They are still, it is to be feared, asMessrs. MountstuartElphinstoneand Chaphn recorded in 1818,generally discontented, and only restrained by fear frombeing treasonable and treacherous. Their best men arepassionate, like Raja Sir Dinkur Rao—their worst are smoothand plausible, like Bajee Rao, the last Peishwa, and NanaSaheb. Most Anglo-Indians, however long they may have studied 126 OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. their Chitpavvans will agree with the great missionary Rhenius,(Memoir, p. 187) that nothing is so difficult to be under-stood and fully comprehended as a (Chitpawan) THE k6nKANASTHA OR CHITPAWAN BRAHMININ HIS KONKAN HOME. Chitpawans pretend to a superiority over other Brahminsin descent as in physique and intellect, but they cannotjustify their claim. They contend that Chitpawan is syn-onymous with Chitpohle , which literally means searing of WHAT CHITPAWAN MEANS. 127 the heart, and that they thus spoke of themselves asheart-seared or heart-stricken, because the god Puresh-ram (Indra) did not grant all their prayers. The expres-sion was not thought respectful by the god, so they changedit to •chitpawan or pure-hearted, or sinners pardon-ed. Their head-quarters, now called Chiploon, was orig-inally Chitpohlna. Other Brahmins, and indeed Mahrattasgenerally, believe in a much less exalted tradition aboutthem. Chitpawan also means a dead body raised. Thelegend is interesting. The author had the good fortune,nearly forty years ago, to make the acquaint
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