Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
principle of helping any member of the community in need
reestablish a dignified existence seem also to have continued
unchanged. But their growing wealth brought with it increased
political influence. Several Paliwals entered royal service, holding
key government positions; and there are numerous instances of
Paliwal wealth assisting the Jaisalmer maharawals, upholding royal
prestige in times of need.
All went well until the advent of the dewan Salim Singh, a
Machiavellian character who used internal dissensions in the state
after a series of weak maharawals to bolster his own power, even
proposing that the dewanship should in future be hereditary. He
tried to cement his own relationship with the vital Paliwals -
essential to the coup he no doubt had in mind by asking for the
hand of one of their daughters in marriage. As rigid proponents of
caste, regardless of rank or influence, the Brahmins snubbed him.
This aroused in Salim Singh a fury that earned him a reputation as
the incarnation of evil. He began to oppress the Paliwals by every
means at his disposal, confiscating property on the slightest pretext,
and taxing them excessively and mercilessly. Every inch as proud as
any dewan, the Paliwals met briefly and secretly to decide their
future. The next day the inhabitants of all eighty-four villages simply
walked away from their homes, farms, and businesses. They
disappeared into history. Salim Singh, it's worth noting, narrowly
avoided assassination by the succeeding maharawal, only to be
poisoned in 1824 by his own wife.
The tale of the Paliwal Brahmins remains as odd and as moving
as the villages they deserted. Most of these have been uninhabited
ever since. Looking around the empty streets, peering inside rooms
where only animals and shadows lived now, and walking through
small, exquisite temple courtyards, I noted their abundant prosperity.
For one thing, they had used a fine quality of stone and had
employed carvers skilled in working it. But everywhere, too, I
recognised the austerity of this vanished sect: No house was larger
than any other, and no secular dwelling compared remotely with
the temple's restrained and dignified grandeur. The Paliwals had
regarded each other as equals - that seemed clear, even mandatory
- but none of them had questioned the supremacy of the god under
