Thuggee cult, Kali, Indian Mutiny & Co.

[dem bones]

Another oldie, but we've got a different readership these days so maybe someone will pad it out ....

This thread was suggested by a friend whose reading habits have taken a turn for the thuggee cult of late. I thought we might extend it to cover Kali and the Sepoy mutiny to give us plenty of scope. A few novels came immediately to mind: Peter Saxon's The Darkest Night, Errol Lecale's The Tigerman Of Terrahpur, Les Daniels's No Blood Spilled, Robert Bloch's Terror and Stuart James's elusive The Stranglers Of Bombay tie-in. A cursory look through some anthologies turns up the magnificently named Heron Lepper's The Thugs (Fifty Strangest Stories Ever Told, Odhams, 1937) which is offered as non-fiction and Dr. M. R. Anand's Kali (Masterpiece Of Thrills, Daily Express, n.d.) which I've tossed on the frightening 'to read' pile. I'm sure Seabury Quinn rattled off a few de Grandin's pitting the phantom fighter versus the Thugs now I think of it. Anyhow, here's some I read earlier:

Harold Markham - White Lotus Flower: During the Indian mutiny, Christina McBride is raped by six natives and left to die in her burning house as the rioters go about their orgy of death. Seta Ram, the Hindoo servant who worshipped Christina, wreaks terrible vengeance on his dead mistress's behalf. When he discovers one of the murderers dying of cholera, he slowly decapitates him and throws his head down a well. The locals are soon dropping like flies. Seta Ram proudly proclaims what he's done and is torn to pieces by the mob.
(By Daylight Only, 1929)

Rosemary Timperley: The Thug - A young woman can't help but notice a squat, lonely figure whenever she's out shopping. Despite being strangely frightened of him, she allows him to persuade her back to his house. He shows her a beautiful carpet and explains it's history - it's connected to thuggery and Kali worship. Annually, he is required to make a sacrifice ... (Pan Horror #21)

John D. Keefauver - Kali: "Terrible things give me happiness ..": Calcutta. An American tourist falls for a beautiful tour guide who lures him to the temple of her namesake. He finds himself possessed of an insatiable appetite for sacrificing goats to the Goddess, one a night for the rest of his life.
(Pan Horror #5)

G. A Henty - A Pipe Of Mystery: India, last days of the Empire. In return for saving him from a man-eating tiger, a fakir gives Harley and Simmonds a pipe to smoke which gives them a glimpse into the future. Each has a premonition of a Sepoy mutiny in which many of their companions are massacred. When the uprising really does take place a few years later, both are able to escape due to their visions and Harley is even able to rescue the beautiful woman who will become his wife. "May happily had fainted as I lifted her on to my horse - happily, because the fearful screams we heard from the various bungalows almost drove me mad, and would probably have killed her, for the poor ladies were all her intimate friends." (Richard Dalby, Chillers For Christmas, 1989)

Seabury Quinn - The Gods Of East And West: (Weird Tales, Jan. 1928) Newlywed Imogene Chetwynde is afflicted by a mysterious wasting illness and, despite his best efforts, Dr. Trowbridge holds little hope for her. De Grandin, fresh from a Medical Society dinner in New York, volunteers his services and learns that the patient's husband, Richard, a railway construction supervisor, has recently returned from India. Among several romantic gifts he picked up for his beloved, a small black statue of Kali, "dripping with blood, encircled with snakes and adorned with human skulls." Unbeknown to herself, Imogene has been prostrating herself before the idol during the night and, as she weakens, so the vampire statue drains her of body and soul! As luck would have it, one of De Grandin's fellow guests at the Med Soc bash was young Dr. John Wolf, a native American witch-doctor. De Grandin informs his friend of the situation and the man known to his people as Johnny Curly Wolf summons the Manitou to put Kali in her place.

To be honest, Quinn doesn't make as much of this clash of The Gods as he might, but then he was probably spent from putting so much into the Imogene pays homage sequence which is a real stormer and allows De Grandin and Trowbridge to play at Peeping Toms yet again.

[dem bones]

Vereker M. Hamilton, R.P.E. "Nerved with hate and passion, I struck him under the ear"

J. F. Cornish - Gascoyne's Terrible Revenge: A Story Of The Indian Mutiny (Harmsworth, Sept. 1898) "My triumph was short, for a fellow named Survur Khan ... with a cry of rage struck Miss Lindsay on the head with a club he carried, smashing her skull and covering me with her blood and brains."

Captain Philip Gascoyne of the 53rd is the lone survivor of the Cawnpore massacre of July 1857. Befriended by Namukchund, a friendly Sepoy who is ashamed of what his fellow soldiers did that day, he blacks up and infiltrates the enemy ranks with a view to vengeance:
Vengeance upon Nana Sahib, the bastard Rajah of Bithoor who gave the order to kill the women and children.
Vengeance upon Survur Khan, "the butcher of our sisters" one of whom happened to be Madge, Gascoyne's bride-to-be.
Vengeance upon as many of the cowardly, corpse-kicking, white women-snogging curs as he can possibly torture!
He gets his chance when Nana Sahib's dwindling army retreat into Nepaul ....

As you'd expect, the going is grim, especially after Gascoyne betrays a number of mutineers, decimating Sahib's already depleted force in the process. Also, he somehow conveniently acquires a pet panther for the last few chapters, and you can bet he puts it to good use.

Seabury Quinn - The Vengeance Of India: Trowbridge is saddened and mystified by the sudden death of the beautiful eighteen-year-old Ramalha Drigo, to all intents and purposes a perfectly robust young woman. De Grandin, back from Brazil (his destination at the conclusion of The Isle Of Missing Ships) advises him to write "unknown" against cause of death and sets about investigating.. In less time than it takes to tell, he has it all figured out - Ramalha isn't dead, she's been hypnotised by a pair of Hindoos still sore at the British for that nasty execution by cannon business during the Sepoy mutiny. They've zombified Ramalha for the sins of her grandfather who fought on the side of the empire. Ramalhu duly breaks out of her grave but De Grandin intercepts her before she can kill her father. The Hindoos are fatally wounded in a shoot out with the police, though not before the fiendishly clever Frenchman does his bit to cause an international incident! Not top notch De Grandin but the suspected "grave-robbing" is handled with aplomb and you get the sense Quinn was enjoying himself.

[dem bones]

John Martin - Goddess Of Vengeance: (Mysteries Weird & Strange, July 1953). "In the glow, the image of Kali, Goddess of vengeance, of murder, of blood, of killing for the sake of killing, cast inscrutable cruel eyes over the dark-robed celebrants before her."

One of whom is George Trowbridge. Like the others, he has prospered financially from joining the Crooked Circle, but the whims of the Goddess are a constant source of concern. Tonight in the temple Trowbridge is forced to witness the torture murder of a follower who dared disobey Kali's command that he butcher his wife. Trowbridge realises that some day he too will be required to surrender his most precious possession, his baby son, unless ..... he exposes the Circle to the police!

Alas, the punishment for treachery is harshest of all.

[dem bones]

"The temple had become a playground for monkeys. How easy it would be to remove the necklace of blood-red stones"

Jon Arfstrom

Garnett Radcliffe - The Vengeance Of Kali Mai: (Weird Tales, May 1953). No Goddess of Destruction was going to keep him from the fabulous necklace a certain lady had demanded. Bonda the dancer taunts Kenneth Shand that she will only be his if he gifts her "the Bo necklace." Shand learns from Dr. Erskine, missionary and antiquarian, that the priceless necklace hangs around the neck of a bronze idol in a temple in the Baruti jungle. Only a tiny, ancient monk - and Kali herself - stand in his way ...

Garnett Radcliffe - The Finger Of Kali: (Ghosts & Goblins: Uncanny Tales For Hardened Readers, 1938). Similar theme, different protagonist(s), similar outcome. I prefer the later story for it's mechanical contraption and supernatural kiss off but both are fun.

[andydecker]

I recently re-read Peter Saxon's The Darkest Night and was surprised how non PC this has become. Holy Kali, Batman.

Quite good was M.J.Carter's The Strangler Vine, a historical crime novel about India. It inspired me to buy two non-fiction books about the Indian Mutinity. Fascinating stuff.

[dem bones]

Artist unattributed, from Fifty Strangest Stories Ever Told, 1937.

Taylor, Captain Meadows. CONFESSIONS OF A THUG. 3 vols. Bentley. 1839.
This sensational—indeed gruesome—story of murder and violence in India was written by a man intimately familiar with native life and character. But for his military duties, Meadows Taylor would probably have become Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity, a post given to Sir William Sleeman in February 1839. The 'Confessions' are genuine, being those of a Thug who confessed to seven hundred murders, and the entire novel is based on the author's personal observation and experience. The curious are recommended to Taylor's admirable autobiography, The Story of My Life (1877).

Victorian Fiction: An Exhibition of Original Editions (Cambridge University Press, 1947)

Alexander Faust [Harry Altshuler] - The Witch In The Fog: (Weird Tales, Sept. 1938). A brief tale of thuggee - and a beautiful English girl. Elise Mayrines returns to London intent on murdering Blenheim Oranger, the conniving swine who sold her to a sadistic Indian Prince. She is armed with a grey silk handkerchief, which doesn't sound very intimidating but is lethal as a swinging chainsaw in the hands of a Kali worshipper. But it looks like Elise may have to wait her turn in a queue, as Oranger is also under threat from the pair of jailbirds he fitted up following a jewel raid. Asian sorcery prevails.

David A. Riley - Hanuman: (Trevor Kennedy [ed.], Phantasmagoria #16, 2020: A Grim God's Vengeance, 2021). Man who betrayed fellow thuggee's in previous life, pays the price — again — in this.

[helrunar]

Mike Dash, who has written a number of historical books aimed at the popular trade market, made more widely known the view of several historians of the later 20th century and more recent times that the idea of Thuggee as an organized Kali cult was largely a fiction promoted by officers of the British Raj. Haven't read the book but it sounds interesting:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/1037359.Thug

It would seem from the work of some other recent investigators that some of the Thug groups did have a religious devotion to Bhavanii, "the Lady," which was how they addressed their Goddess. 

History is always a very complex mansion to explore. 

H.

[humgoo]

Nov 18, 2021 18:37:55 GMT helrunar said:

Mike Dash, who has written a number of historical books aimed at the popular trade market, made more widely known the view of several historians of the later 20th century and more recent times that the idea of Thuggee as an organized Kali cult was largely a fiction promoted by officers of the British Raj.

I read that book years ago, but only remember that the research is meticulous (digging into old archives etc). Is he the same Mike Dash who writes for Fortean Times?

[helrunar]

Hi Humgoo,

He writes on a lot of topics--wouldn't be surprised if he wrote for the FT (it's probably over a decade since I last saw an issue of that mag). He's a professional writer, but has a PhD.

cheers, Hel

[dem bones]

Nov 18, 2021 18:46:24 GMT humgoo said:

Nov 18, 2021 18:37:55 GMT helrunar said:

Mike Dash, who has written a number of historical books aimed at the popular trade market, made more widely known the view of several historians of the later 20th century and more recent times that the idea of Thuggee as an organized Kali cult was largely a fiction promoted by officers of the British Raj.

I read that book years ago, but only remember that the research is meticulous (digging into old archives etc). Is he the same Mike Dash who writes for Fortean Times?

The very same.

Never, EVER mention Peter Haining's The Life and Bizarre Crimes of Spring-heeled Jack to that man.

[helrunar]

Sir, do you dare to asseverate that Mr Haining's monograph fails to reflect that implacably British devotion to faultless scholarly accuracy exemplified in every word this man committed to paper??

The audacity, sir! The audacity!

Harrumphing, H.

[Dr Strange]

Nov 18, 2021 18:46:24 GMT humgoo said:

I read that book years ago, but only remember that the research is meticulous (digging into old archives etc).

Ha... me too! I think I only picked up (from a second-hand bookshop) because I had already read his Borderlands (1997), which is my all-time favourite Fortean book.

[andydecker]

Nov 18, 2021 20:36:28 GMT Dr Strange said:

Nov 18, 2021 18:46:24 GMT humgoo said:

I read that book years ago, but only remember that the research is meticulous (digging into old archives etc).

Ha... me too! I think I only picked up (from a second-hand bookshop) because I had already read his Borderlands (1997), which is my all-time favourite Fortean book.

This sits since ages on my wish list. But as I never finished The Indian Mutiny by Saul David I put it a bit further down.

[dem bones]

Michael & Mollie Hardwick - Ghosts of the Mutiny: (John Canning [ed.], 50 Great Ghost Stories, 1966: Robert Adams [e], Phantom Regiments, 1990). Christmas, circa 1890. Since the Palace at Hisar came under British control, Colonel Robinson has found it impossible to retain servants once they've met a few of the resident ghosts. During the rebellion, the Rajah offered sanctuary to a party of white civilians, only to have them butchered by his soldiers. He also trained elephants to trample surplus wives.

Also featured, Mrs Torres nightmare premonition of her daughter's horrible murder by Sepoys, and how a ghost intervened to save Captain X's wife at Meerut.

James Grant - The Veiled Portrait: (London Society, Christmas 1874: Strange Secrets Told by A. Conan Doyle & Others. 1889). ... is that of Constance, the girl Major Sidney Warren's married in secret, only to abandon when a more financially attractive package came his way. Constance eventually hunted her bigamist husband and family down at Meerut on the eve of the massacre.

[dem bones]

Reginald Cleaver: "I looked closer, and saw that it was the head of a man buried in the ground up to his neck. The rider went past like a flash, but the lance only just touched the white forehead. "

Barbara Bingley (with acknowledgments to John Fane) - The Watcher at Kalipur: (Illustrated London News, 24 Nov. 1928, "Christmas number"). Tells of the strange experience of an English officer at a deserted jungle station presided over by Ma Kali, goddess of death and revenge. A vision of a "Mutiny" tragedy. Several years on from the Sepoy uprising, an English captain witnesses a spectral re-enactment of a murder when his pony goes lame near the long abandoned ruins of a British garrison. It was here beside the shrine to Kali that a young officer was butchered by rebels in May 1857 while his wife and baby were escorted to "safety" in Cawnpore.