August, 2008 was extremely hot and humid as usual...we drove from Delhi on the western bank of Yamuna, via Govardhan, and reached Deeg around mid-day...a dusty little town in erstwhile Bharatpur state, and a Jat stronghold under Suraj Mall in 18th century... Deeg has wonderful garden palaces with innumerable fountains and a formidable fort that protected the township once upon a time, encircled by an emerald moat and bastions fortified with massive artillery...all in all a very impressive arena for the Battle of Deeg (November / December,1804) that was part of a series known later on as second Anglo-Maratha War... About Deeg K. Natwar-Singh of Jat royal Bharatpur lineage writes: Work on the Deeg fort, gardens and palaces began in 1725, and continued till the end of the century, each ruler adding a building here, a pavillion there, altering a garden, enlarging a tank, redesigning the bastions... [K. Natwar-Singh, Maharaja Suraj Mal / 1707 - 1763, 2001, pp. 22-23] Came across one super description of Deeg in Lieutenant John Pesters diaries much later... John Pester fought in the Battle of Deeg in 1804... Two of his passages I quote below: “The Palace itself was built of fine stone, very lofty and elegant, and had a most stylish appearance; it was supported within at many places with marble pillars of an immense size, and beautifully inlaid with carnelian, agate and various other kinds of valuable stones. The rooms were forty and fifty feet in height, and eighty feet long or upwards. On the top of the Palace was a reservoir of water, which supplied the fountains immediately in front of the building; any of which could instantly be set playing by drawing certain plugs. There were numerous fountains in every part of the gardens, which were very extensive and elegantly laid out. It contained ranges of myrtle and orange trees of the finest kind I ever saw; the oranges were hardly ripe, but the men helped themselves plentifully. The walks were all paved with the same kind of stone as the Palace was built of. They were about thirty feet wide, all regularly laid out and kept in the highest possible condition. The Rajah was particularly fond of seeing and feeding fish in the ponds of his garden, and on going from one guard to another I met a soldier of the 22nd Foot with a very fine fish in his hand, just fresh from the water, and on enquiring where he had procured it and how, the answer was With a sharp-pointed bayonet, sir; thats how I catch my fish, and then pointed out to me a pond about thirty feet square only in which were nearly as many soldiers sticking fish with their bayonets.” [p. 370]; and, “My old servant managed to find me out with a bottle of claret and some cold meat, upon which Kerr, Lumsdaine and myself made a good meal on the ground, and felt much refreshed by it. We had been all the night and day after all day without a morsel to eat. About ten at night Brigadier Brown assembled the commanding officers and staff of corps on duty, and made them acquainted with his intention to attack the fort by the gateway at daylight in the morning. A proportion of us laid down on the stones, and got a little sleep. I posted a sentry of my own Company close to me, to give me immediate notice of the smallest alarm, and ordered that he should be relieved hourly.” [p. 371]...
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:10:23 +0000
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