APPENDIX I
HISTORY OF
THE SANNYASI REBELLION
From Warren Hasting's Letters in Gleig's Memoirs.
You will hear of great disturbances committed by Sannyasis, or wandering Fakirs, who annually infest the Province, about this time of the year, in pilgrimages to Jaggannath, going in bodies of 1000 and sometimes even 10,000 men. An officer of reputation (Captain Thomas) lost his life in an unequal attack upon a party of these banditti, about 3000 of them, near Rangapore, with a small party of Pergona Sepoys, which has made them more talked of than they deserve. The Revenue, however, has felt the effects of their ravages in the Northern Districts. The new establishment of sepoys which is now forming on the plan enjoined by the Court of Directors and distribution of them ordered for the internal protection of the provinces, will I hope effectually secure them hereafter from these incursions.--Hastings to Sir George Colebrooke—dated 2nd February 1773—Gleig's Memoirs, Vol. 1, 282.
Our own provinces have worn something of a warlike appearance this year, having been infested by a band of Sannyasis, who have defeated two small partiess of Purgunna Sepoys (a rascally corps)
