At the crack of the nineteenth century, the second Anglo Maratha war broke out. After a fierce battle, the British won a decisive victory, and the Nizam of Hyderabad, who until then paid Chauth to the Marathas, became a vassal of the British empire.
A few years after that, Suriti Appiah, a resident of Hyderabad, found a job as a laškarī, doli bearer in a British military battalion. In 1813, he was transferred to Ujjain (in current day Madhya Pradesh), to carry palanquins and work as a mason.
At Ujjain, disease fell upon the populace, decimating hundreds of thousands of people, taking the young and old alike. Fever, diarrhoea and death – all came in swiftly, without warning or notice. It was one of the most devastating epidemics, unlike anything they had ever seen or heard before.
Appiah believed that the wrath of the gods was upon them. So he went to the Mahakal temple in Ujjain, known as the temple of death, seeking forgiveness and pleading the gods to restore life. In return for saving him and his family, he promised to proclaim the miracle and establish a temple with the same name in his hometown, Hyderabad.
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