destroyed every thing. If the Indigo lessen in quantity, I shall sell your houses and indemnify myself; thou arrant coward, hellish knave!
Gopi. Sir, we are like butcher's dogs: we fill our bellies with the intestines. Had you, Sir, taken the Indigo from the ryots in the very same way as the (Mahajans) factors take the corn from their debtors, then the Indigo Factories would never have suffered such disgrace; there would have been no necessity for an overseer and the khalasis, and the people would never have reproached me with saying "Cursed Gopi! Cursed Gopi!"
Wood. Thou art blind, thou hast no eyes.
Enter an Umadar (an Apprentice).
I have seen with my own eyes (applying his hand to his own eyes) the Mahajans go to the ricefield, and quarrel with the ryots (their debtors). Ask this person.
Apprentice. Honored Sir, I can give many examples of that. The ryots say, it is through the grace of the Indigo Planters only that we are preserved from the hands of the Mahajans.
Gopi. (Aside, to the Apprentice.) My child, it is vain flattery. No employment is vacant now. (To Mr. Wood) It is true that the Mahajans go to the rice-fields and dispute with the ryots; but if your Honor had been acquainted with the mysterious intention of the Mahajans in going to the fields and raising disputes, you would never have compared with the going of the Mahajans to the fields, the punishment of the poor with Shamchand resembling the tortures which Lakhman, the son of Sumitra, suffered by the Sacti-sela,[1]—while they are without food.
- ↑ Lakhman was the brother of Rama. When they were gone to make war with Ravana of Lunka, (Ceylon) in a certain battle Lakhman suffered very much by the Sacti-sela (the name of a superior engine in a battle).
