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The proposers again urged that the entire gathering, and the body,
while wrapped in flame, might at least be photographed. This, though
not objected to, was declared as fruitless, for a photo of the deceased
already existed, and those who were really anxious to derive a lesson
from the fate of the young man could do so by a contemplation of the
facts of his life. The procession started at about half past ten. The
crowd had now swelled up to about seven hundred men. It passed
through the
Shah Almi Bazar
and kept increasing with its progress. The
shops on both sides of the Bazar were lined with men, who, while
admiring the appropriateness of the
bhajans
and Veda Mantras sung
and recited by the Samaj
bhaprimaudli
and the boys of the D.A.V.
Boarding House, expressed sincere and genuine regret that so able a
man, so great a Sanskrit scholar, should have been cut off at the age of
twenty five! Flowers were profusely rained on the bier from the house
tops throughout the Bazar. When after full two hours, after necessary
halts, the bier emerged into the open plain, the procession numbered
at least one thousand men. It was far past twelve, very nearly it was
one, when the body was desposited in the cremation ground. After
the
Vedi
had been prepared according to stated rules and pyre made,
the body was cremated in strict accordance with letter of the law. The
samagri —
ghee and all burnt with the body—was worth about sixty
rupees. After the body had been fairly consumed, a short prayer, suited
to the occasion, was offered by Lala Hans Raj and then the people left
the burning ground with the view to bathe and to return to their
homes."
Note by the Editor (Dr. Ram Prakash)
1. Master Daya Ram later on became Secretary of the Arya Samaj, Multan.
2. Daya Ram gave hiln three books viz. Isis Unveiled, India in Greece and
Bible in India, written by Madame Blavatsky, Pocock and M.L. Jacolliat
respectively. Pocock traces the origin of all Greek geographical names
to Sanskrit Indian names; and whereby he infers the colonisation of
Greece by the Indians. Similarly, rich tributes are paid to the glorious
past of India by Jacolliat in the Bible in India.
3. His memory was fantastic. He could repeat a long list of totally
disconnected names by heart in the same order in which it had been
read to him only for once. (Lajpat Rai, Life and Work of Pandit Guru
Datta Vidyarthi, p. 10; Ram Prakash, Pandit Guru Datta Vidyarthi, p.13).