Untold lives blog

The Raja of Mandvi  died on 19 October 1838 as a result of a fireworks accident.  Waje Singh was watching a display of fireworks during the Diwali festival when a few sparks fell on some gunpowder.   The resulting explosion killed two people on the spot and gravely injured ten others including the Raja.  He was one of six victims to die the following day.

 
Illuminations and fireworks round Mr. Donnithorne's park at Fatehgarh from 'Views by Seeta Ram from Agra to Barrackpore Vol. X' produced for Lord Moira by Sita Ram between 1814-15. Online Gallery  

This catastrophe opened the door to a succession crisis.  At the time of his death, the Raja had no acknowledged heir.  He had declared a boy born in September 1837 to his estranged wife Dhunkoonverbah illegitimate and ‘spuriously procured’.  After his death, Dhunkoonverbah  made representations to the British to recognise her son as heir to the throne of Mandvi.

Matters were further complicated when on 6 November 1838 the Raja’s  mother wrote to East India Company agent George Lettsom Elliot announcing the birth of a son to the Raja’s younger widow Jallah. Elliot was instructed by the Company’s Bombay Government to institute an immediate enquiry to establish whether the legitimacy of this birth was beyond doubt.  If suspicious he was to enlist the help of one of the medical officers at Surat.

Elliot’s report and copies of the evidence he gathered cover more than 200 pages. He examined 50 witnesses on the respective claims of the two widows. He decided to reject the claims of Dhunkoonverbah, stating that her character had been ‘open to much suspicion’ during her husband’s lifetime. She had been publicly disgraced and punished with the loss of her nose for ‘criminal intercourse’.  Her ‘paramour’ had suffered a painful death.  Dhunkoonverbah had fled the Raja’s protection and become 'a wanderer thro' the country'.  Elliot decided on balance to believe testimony that she had purchased the child whom she said was her son. Letters from the late Raja disclaiming all connection to any offspring Dhunkoonverbah might have were also taken into account.

Turning to consider the legitimacy of Jallah’s son, Elliot provided the Government with witness statements about the birth and the recording of the child’s nativity by an astrologer.  He recalled a letter sent by the late Raja inviting him to a celebration of his wife’s seventh month of pregnancy.  An Indian apothecary verified that Jallah had given birth and had 'an ample supply of nourishment' for the child.  Elliot commented that examination by a European surgeon would have been ‘repugnant’ to the Rani.

Having considered Elliot’s detailed submission, the Bombay Government decided to recognise the posthumous son born to Jallah in 1838 as the rightful heir.  Affairs of state were to be administered during his minority by a manager nominated by the British Government. However the child died on 13 December 1839 and the direct line of succession in Mandvi became extinct. The state was then annexed to the British territories in India.

Margaret Makepeace
India Office Records

Further reading:
IOR/F/4/1857/78803 Oct 1838-Jun 1840 (NB the widows’ names appear with many variant spellings in the documents.)