१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

NANA SAHIB AND LAKSHMI BAI
selected with faultless taste, magnificent candelabra
studded with diamonds, beautifully carved mirrors, carved
ivory of finest workmanship, gold art works richly set with
diamonds, in short, all the luxury and taste and splendour
of the Hindu palace were to be seen there.³ The steeds
and camels of Shrimant Nana Saheb were caparisoned in
silver. Nana’s fondness for horses was well known, and
it is said that none could excel either him or Lakshmi Bai
in horsemanship. His stables were a fine collection of
splendid breeds. His special hobby was animals, and
people even from far-off parts used to come to Brahma-
varta, to see his deer and his gazelles brought from various
parts of India, his camels, and his pointers. Yet, be it
noted that, above all things, it was on his splendid col-
lection of arms that Shrimant prided himself most. It
included arms of all kinds and for all purposes,—swords
of best-tempered steel, modern long-range rifles, and big
guns of various sizes.
Immensely proud of his high birth and conscious of
his noble ancestry, Nana had quietly made up his mind
that he would either live as became that noble parentage,
or pass away from memory altogether. It is a significant
fact, that in the main hall and in a prominent place were
hung the portraits of those great and capable men who
had adorned Mahratta history.⁴ What did those faces
speak to him? What did the portrait of Chhatrapati
Shivaji say to him? What a tumult of feelings must have
arisen in his mind when he saw Baji Rao I, the Bhao of
Panipat, the youthful and regal Viswas, the wise Madhava,
and statesman Nana Farnavis, in the portraits before
him! The very consciousness that he was born in a
family which could boast of such great names, must have
been constantly impelling him to, what thoughts? Nana,
3. See Thomson’s Cawnpore. Peculiar importance attaches to
this man and his book owing to the fact that he was one of the
two men who survived the massacre at Cawnpore.
4. Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. I, page 304.
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