THE STATION. 57
heir born of the body. His choice fell upon an indi- vidual who, according to some, was the son of a Poonah corn-merchant, while others say that he was born in great poverty at a miserable village in the vicinity of Bombay. The name of this man was Seereek Dhoondoo Punth: but the execration of mankind has found his cluster of titles too long for use, and prefers the more familiar appellation of “the Nana.”
Bajee Rao died in 1851, and the heir forthwith put m a demand for the continuance of the pension which the Company had granted to his adopted father.* The claim was disallowed, and the Nana,
- To give the Nana his due, we must not forget that his was no
fancied grievance. We must read his story by the light thrown on Oriental customs and habits of thought by an Englishman imbued throughout his nature with the spirit of the East. Before the name of Nana Sahib was heard of in this country, Mr. Urquhart had already written as follows concerning the Hindoo system of adoption :
‘Tt may well be tmagined how incomprehensible was such a ‘system to western conquerors—what difficulties it occasioned them “when they sought to do right—what facilities it afforded them “when they intended to do wrong! It may well be imagined how,
- ‘in the one case and in the other, the heart of a whole people could
“be sickened with disgust, or aroused in indignation, by acts which ‘presented to the dispassionate or conscientious observer or judge “at home no character of offence.
‘‘Of this we have an instance in the case of the late Raja of “ Sattara, the deprivation of whose property vitiated his adoption, ‘Cand consequently, according to his belief and that of his fellow- “countrymen, consigned his soul to eternal damnation.* The
- The “ Raja of Sattara” is no other than Bajee Rao.
