Shikar 2006

[Jeana Rodia]

Followingthe formation of the Indian Empire in 1857, the British Government, who took over the administration of India and the various Indian armed services from the HEIC, began to set up vast game preserves in many parts of the sub-continent, often in states under the control of native rulers. These preserves, sometimes divided up into a number of dedicated shooting beats and equipped with luxurious lodges and bungalows, were then set aside for the use of native rulers and their guests, military personnel, and visiting dignitaries from Great Britain and other parts of the empire.

Aware of the need to conserve Indian game species for the benefit of sportsmen, the British administration gradually introduced legislation controlling shooting seasons and bag restrictions in certain areas, culminating in the Indian Game Protection Act of 1912. In addition, virtually every state had its own subsidiary regulations requiring sportsmen to purchase shooting licences, protecting sacred birds such as the peacock, and operating vermin bounty systems whereby any person who killed wild dogs, wolves, leopards and other predatory creatures could claim a cash payment upon production of the skins to the secretary of the local Game Preservation Department.

For example, when King George V visited Nepal for a 10-day big game shooting expedition in the Chitawan Valley in December, 1911, as part of his Coronation Durbar tour of India, more than 14,000 men were involved, including suites of courtiers and diplomats, beaters and attendants, with around 600 elephants being employed for transport purposes. Two shooting camps were set up 50 miles apart, connected by specially cut roadways through jungle and forest, each with an electrically lit bungalow with dining facilities to accommodate the King and his entourage. Support services available at both camps included taxidermists, a field hospital, a laundry, post offices, stables, chauffeured motor cars, mechanics etc. The total bag taken on the expedition amounted to 39 tigers (21 being killed by King George), 18 rhinoceros and 4 bears!

The more impecunious sportsmen such as junior army officers or middle-class civil servants rarely took part in large-scale big game hunts unless extremely well connected. Instead, they shot snipe on the numerous areas of bog found in many parts of India, rode out with the Madras, the Ootacamund, the Peshawar Vale or one of the other British style hunts in pursuit of the fox or the jackal, or fished for Indian trout, mahseer or tengara, all of which could be caught in rivers and streams throughout the Indian sub-continent.

Some impressive bags of game were taken by sportsmen in India during the period of the British Raj. For example, the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, and a party of Guns shooting at Sariska in 1929 accounted for a bag of 10,000 imperial sand grouse; in 1938, the Maharaja of Jaipur and a number of guests brought down a total of 4,273 wildfowl on a specially created area of wetland at Keoladeo Ghana; while on an un-specified date during the late-Victorian period, Mr Lionel Inglis, a well known sportsman, shot a leopard in Kashmir measuring 9' 1", believed to be an all-time record length for a leopard.

Not surprisingly, a thriving sporting press flourished in India throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, producing the Indian Field and various other periodicals devoted to the pursuit of shikar. Numerous books were published on the subject also, as well as several annual handbooks, including the Hoghunters Annual, which ran from 1928 until 1939, and the Indian Field Shikar Book, an indispensable guide which gave in-depth information about every species of bird, beast or fish to be found on the sub-continent, and contained lists of game regulations for each state.

Shikar continued to be a popular pastime amongst members of the British armed forces and civil service based in India right up until the nation was granted independence in 1947. Thereafter, many species of big game suffered at the hands of farmers who wanted to protect their crops and poachers who were out to profit from the sale of animal by-products such as elephant tusks. Sadly, today, despite the intervention of the World Wildlife Fund and associated conservation organisations, numbers of tigers and various other animals formerly preserved and hunted by sportsmen are now perilously low.

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Above are the words made by unscrambling S H I K A R (AHIKRS).Our unscramble word finder was able to unscramble these letters using various methods to generate 82 words! Having a unscramble tool like ours under your belt will help you in ALL word scramble games!

How is this helpful? Well, it shows you the anagrams of shikar scrambled in different ways and helps you recognize the set of letters more easily. It will help you the next time these letters, S H I K A R come up in a word scramble game.

SHAIKRASKHIRSKAIHRKIASHRHAISKRHAIKSRHISKARAHISKRIASHKRKIHSARKSAIHRHASIKRHISAKRAKHSIRASIKHRSHAKIRAHSKIRASHKIRKAIHSRKHIASRSKAHIRASKIHRHSKIARISHKARISAKHRKISHARHSIKARHKASIRISHAKRSKHAIRAISKHRHSKAIRAKIHSRKSAHIRIHSKARIHKSARHIKASRIKASHRAKSHIRHASKIRKHSAIRIAHSKR

Gurudwara Shikar Ghat Sahib is a beautiful piece of architecture perched on a low hill near the bank of Godavari river, with high wooded hills in the background. Its distance from Sachkand Sri Hazur Sahib is about six kilometers. A bridge was constructed by kar-seva and built over the river Godavari.

A legend is associated with this shrine, too. It is said that Guru Gobind Singh ji came here following the chase (shikar) and killed a rabbit which in a former birth had been Bhai Mula, who belonged to Sialkot (now in Pakistan). He had once accompanied Guru Nanak Dev ji during his travels. Once when Guru Nanak Dev ji went to visit him, Mula avoided the Guru and hid himself for fear that the Guru might take him away on another long journey. Sensing this Guru Nanak Dev ji went away, but such is the travesty of fate that Mula died soon after of snakebite. His repentant soul had since been wandering in different sub-human bodies until, Guru Gobind Singh ji emancipated it by the touch of his arrow.

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