Stories from here and hereafter
History
By Arun Gaur

AFTER Vasco de Gama (1498) and Affonso de Albuquerque (1510) reached India, came the Portuguese Jesuit Fathers, who were the members of the Society of Jesus founded by S. Ignatius of Loyola in 1539, with an express aim to counter the Reformation and spread the "true" faith.

Not much after the landing of the Portuguese, crossing over the mountains and deserts off the North West of India, Babu, fired by the ancestral dreams of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, initiated the process of Mughal settlement in the sub-continent with an earnest note in the first battle of Panipat (1526).

In retrospect, the arrival of these two alien powers, so different in temperament, in close proximity may appear to be quite disturbing, even alarming. History waited with bated breath for their future encounter, complicated further by the advent of other European competitors. Though the Mughals penetrated into the heart of India and the Portuguese chose to confine themselves to the coastlines, sooner or later they were bound to come into contact with each other.

They were two highly adventurous clans of the 16th century. The Mughals, in general, had political aspirations the conversion and of natives was not something they focused on. However, for the Jesuit Fathers, the primary ambition was the spread of the "true" faith while to get a political foothold was not the main concern for the Portuguese.

All this does not mean that the Muslims or the Christians were not present before the coming of these two clans. The Mughals had supplanted the Muslim rule and as far as the Christianity is concerned, there had been traditions, including that of Thomas the apostle, suggesting that possibly some form of Christianity could be traced in India much before the arrival of the 16th century Portuguese Fathers.

But the melodramatic interactions between the Central Asian Muslims and the European Christians surfaced only in the 16th century. Akbar was the first to invite the Jesuit Fathers fromGoa. The clergymen were needed to take care of the everyday needs of his European employees, for feeding his personal metaphysical probings and to counter the excessive influence of the staunch mullahs at the court. The Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri, was a bed of discussions, sometimes too hot.

Gradually,Agra became a centre of focus for various other European forces that vied with each other feverishly for a better place at the Mughal court. The political aspirants, fortune seekers, and adventurers made the life of these Jesuit Fathers more and more uncomfortable.

Though it is not easy to clearly delineate the strains of this involved drama, yet, it can be safely surmised that there is no other cemetery in North India which juxtaposes this conflict in the way the Lashkarpur cemetery at Agra does.

All are buried here — priests, politicians, soldiers, lapidaries — some with ordinary tombs and known historical background, others with elegant memorials but without any authentic historical perspective.

The oldest North Indian Christian grave is probably that of John Mildenhall — the self-styled ambassador of Queen Elizabeth.A mission that visited Akbar included Father Jerome Xavier and it ran into trouble because of the propaganda against it by this Englishman. Even Armenians began suspecting their spiritual mentors. Thus with the arrival of Mildenhall in 1603, the struggle between the English and the Portuguese commenced. He is said to have died at Ajmer in 1614.

In spite of various setbacks, intrigues and counter-intrigues, Father did not lose hope of the conversion of a Mughal king and consequently of the masses. This was never to be, though the Fathers tried to accomplish this for more than a hundred years. But their perseverance, their infinite patience and capacity to suffer was admirable. Many of them were buried in the Padres Santos Chapel located within the cemetery:Francis Corsi — Florentine (1635), Jospeh de Castro — Portuguese or Spanish (1646), Alberto D’Orville — Belgian (1662), Henry Busi — Dutch (1667), Marcus Antonius Santucci — Italian (1686) and Andreas Strobe — Bavarian (1758).

The name of the chapel is derived from the Portuguese expression meaning the "Cemetery of the Priests." But it has got another name — "the Martyrs’ Chapel" — suggesting that it was a memorial to the Fathers who were martyred in 1633. Further, it may be connected with Santucci or with Khwaja Martinus, an Armenian buried here.

Corsi was gaunt, clean-shaven, short statured, and probably fiery in temperament, with whom even Sir Thomas Roe dealt cautiously. Castro, bearded and plump, died at Lahore. D’rville was perhaps only the second European to reach Lhasa. Busi had an impressive figure and was learned in sciences. He was specifically sent to make a desirable impact on Prince Dara Shikoh who was of a similar disposition. Manucci says that he performed on himself an operation to get rid of a delirium and died consequently.

In the Mughal procession of kings, the sons generally rebelled against their fathers.So the missionaries’ support to either of them had to be cautious and calculated. Akbar was their brightest hope (even today there is a church at Agra called Akbari church).After Akbar, their work became increasingly difficult. Though during Jehangir’s reign, Father Emmanuel Pinherio succeeded in forestalling William Hawkins who came with letters from James, the relationship between the Portuguese and the Mughals became quite strained in 1613, due to the seizure of a ship by the Portuguese. Later, Shahjehan attacked Hugli and Portuguese prisoners were hauled to Agra. After that, the influence of the Fathers gradually came to an end.

The tussle between the different European interests at the court sometimes took a comical turn.When one of Paul Canning’s men impressed Jehangir with his cornet playing, the Jesuits answered with a Neapolitan juggler. This political rivalry spilled over into other matters so much so that when a man in the Canning’s entourage was interred in this cemetery, his body was dug up by the Jesuits and buried on the highway. Perhaps, with the king’s intervention, as one story tells, the body was dug up again from the highway and again buried in the cemetery. Canning too got his burial here.

Jeronimo Veroneo’s grave (1640) is simple. He was an Italian jeweller connected with the designing of the Taj or at least of its gold curtains, according to some claimants. He died at Lahore.

Walter Balthazzar Reinhardt, infamous for slaughtering more than a hundred English prisoners at Patna, was probably a German adventurer.It is alleged that he joined and deserted alternatingly almost everyone — British,French,Jats, Mughals and many others. Subsequently, he married a Muslim lady who turned to Christianity and earned some fame later as Samru Begum. It is also said that because of his dark deeds Reinhardt became notorious as "sombre," that got corrupted into "Samru."

Some of the recent writers have contested this impression of the man. Their version gives his character a romantic tinge. If indeed he was a villain, he was no worse than many other English East India Company’s officials. It is also possible that he himself change his name to "Somer" after his native village "Simmern." His complexion and his dark mysterious nature that appeared to be an epitome of cruelty to many rumour-mongers stung with jealousy encouraged the fixation of his name as "Sombre."

Though pronounced to be the Butcher of Patna, he turned out to be quite an enigma.Rising from obscurity, he raised his own army, perhaps the only army in India that countered successfully the English forces, offered his services to various kings all over India, became famous for his square battle formations and remained practically undefeated throughout his career. Ultimately, he became the Governor of Agra, procured honours from Shah Alam and was known as the Victorious Commander and Triumphant of the State. At his demise, there was no priest present as the Jesuit Fathers had already departed by that time. Initially buried in his Begum’s garden, later on his mortal remains were shifted to the present mausoleum in the presence of a priest who came from Bombay. The inscription on General Sombre’s tomb (1778) is deep and finely cut.A bird’s broken egg-shells and feathers are scattered on his grave-stone and there are numerous bird-droppings filling the crevices among letters.

The tombs of Enaetmussy Burgoin (1817) and that of Francis Fllis Merchant (1868) are rent to each other. Nothing much is known about them though the structures are quite prominent.Particularly, the Merchant’s tomb has fine floral cutting in the red sand stone. Parrots seem to be the favourite birds either of Merchant or of the stone-cutter.

The most striking edifice that dwarfs every other tomb is that of Colonel John William Hessing (1803).He served in the army of Mahadji Sindhia and fought in many crucial battles, including that with Ismael Begh, in the latter half of the 18th century, and ultimately retired to Agra as the commander of the fort. His sons and daughters continued to reside at Agra. They had accumulated enormous wealth like many other Englishmen and contributed generously to the erection of the tomb of their father.

Built in swarthy stone, it is similar to the Taj. The twin-stairway leads to the first storey that also has the Deridan family gravestones. This family fromPondicherry seems to have been very well connected. We know that its four ladies were married to eminent persons — Perron (French), John Hessing (Dutch), Sutherland (Scot), and J.B. Filose. This is how the European adventurers of different nationalities congregated to float new families at a place thousands of miles away from their motherland.