The Walking Brahmin

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History is written by victors. When this happens, future generations get to learn of a one-sided past, which is, many a time, a biased one. Such is the power of the written word.

Sometimes, while sifting through the words, we come across a few delightful gems, which prove that the vanquished too, like the victors, were storytellers.

You know how it is on the internet. You start searching for 'how many minutes do I need to boil an egg' and you end up reading something on 'how to construct a nuclear reactor in your garage. During one of my forays on the internet, one thing led to another, and I stumbled upon the story of a man who had a story to tell, from more than 150 years ago.

The man was Vishnubhat Balkrishna Godse, a poor Brahmin' from Varsai village near Pen in Maharashtra, who, along with his uncle, had embarked upon a teertha yatra in 1857. Not only did he manage to survive the first war of Indian independence, but he also returned home safe and sound after three years. This was rather fortunate, considering the political upheaval going on in the country around that time. Vishnubhat had had quite an adventure, and, later on, he penned it all down, for the sake of his descendants.

His original manuscript, which ran into 297 pages, comprised two notebooks and twenty-two individual pages. It was eventually published as a Marathi book in 19073, a few years after Vishnubhat's death.

This is probably the only known instance of a document that talks about 1857 from an Indian perspective. Not only does it give us the story from the perspective of the vanquished, but it is also more reliable as it is a first-hand account of experiences and not based merely on hearsay. Thus, the value of this book, in the annals of history, is quite priceless.

What follows is a loose retelling of Vishnubhat's journey in English.

This is his-story.

**Contents and Sample Pages**