APPENDIX I.
HISTORY OF THE SANNYASI REBELLION.
From Warren Hastings’ Letters in Gleig’s Memoirs.
You will hear of great disturbances committed the Sinassies, wandering Fackeers, who annually infeet the province about this time of the year, in pilgrimages to Jaggernaut, going in bodies of 1,000, and sometimes even 10,000 men. An officer of reputation (Captain Thomas) lost his life in an unequal attack upon a party of these banditti, about 3,000 of them, near Rungpore, with a small party of Pergana sepoys, which has made them more talked of than they deserve. The revenue, however, has felt the effects of their ravages in the northern districts. The new establishment of sepoys which is now forming on the plan enjoined by the Court of Directors, and the distribution of them ordered for the internal protection of the provinces, will, I hope, effectually secure them hereafter from these incursions.—Hastings to Sir George Colebrooke—dated 2nd February 1773.-Gleig’s Memoirs, Vol. I. 282.
Our own provinces have worn something of a warlike appearance this year, having been infested by a band of Senassies, who have defeated two small parties of Purgunnah sepoys (a rascally corps), and cut off the two officers who commanded them. One was Captain Thomas, whom you know. Four battalions of the brigade sepoys are now in pursuit of them, but they will not stand an engagement, and have neither camp equipage, nor even clothes, to retard their flight. Yet I hope we shall yet make an example some of them, as they are shut in by the rivers, which hey cannot pass when closely pursued.
The history of this people is curious. They inhabit, or rather possess, the country lying south of the hills of Tibbet from Canbul to China. They go mostly naked. They have neither towns, houses, nor families, but rove continually from place to place, recruiting their numbers with the healthiest children they can steal in the countries through which they pass. Thus they are the stoutest and most active men in India. Many are merchants. They are all pilgrims, and held by all castes of Gentoos in great veneration. This infatuation prevents our obtaining any intelligence of their motions, or aid from the country against them, notwithstanding very rigid orders which have been published for these purposes, insomuch that they often appear in the heart of the province as if they dropped from heaven. They are hardy, bold, and enthusiastic to a degree surpassing credit. Snch are the Senassies, the gipsies of Hindostan.
