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Jatlt*-* ^-alU^
I
Dj not covet your Noighliour'i goods !
Do not lend, or seoJ, or coorey this Uuuk
to JAi.xvif, Ambau, Nuaaus, or eltawli>;F<;. ~^
Dkah La 1)1 !
Keep yuifr prtstly liillu lingera and scis«ur« Irom picking; nnil clipping ; and ^
though you deride tliu pkte and plates of ' iithcrs, spare mine I
[lad I bee[) utterly useleii wlien Iiired, and constantly drunk whilu serving; my Library liad been largui', :iiid my need less, «r;o — pardon tbese Iiir>t ^ !
JAMES RALPH. Jhhelhrr .in/ip'lmi.
>
I. •
4^ /c/a>^
*'
•••St
DESCRIPTION
OF THE
CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
OF THE
PEOPLE OF INDIA;
AND OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS,
RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL.
*' r
By the Abbe' J. A. DUBOIS,
MISSIONARY IN THE MYSORE.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH MANUSCRIPT.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PJ TERNOSTER'RO W.
1817.
Plrtetad bv A. Stnhtn, NwrStfwubqoift, LondoH.
V
/3- 1(^5^^^
TO THE HONOURABLE
THE COURT OF DIRECTORS
OF
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY;
BY WHOSE ACCUSTOMED LIBERALITY
AND GENEROUS ZEAL FOR THE DIFFUSION
OF B370WLEDGE,
THIS INTERESTING WORK
ON THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, UNDER THEIR PROTECTION,
HAS BEEN PROCURED AND GIVEN TO THE WORLD:
THE TRANSLATION
IS,
WITH THEIR PERMISSION^
MOST HUMBLY AND GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED.
A 2
/
/
i
(^^'
.•^
11^
f^t
ADVERTISEMENT.
JThb French Mantiscriptj of which a Translation is here offered to the Puhlicj was meditated and composed in the midst of the people whom it describes. The absolute retiretnent of the Author from European society ^ far a series of y ear s^ well qualified him for penetrating into the dark and unexplored recesses of the Indian character; but it has also veiled himself in an equal degree, from the curiosity of his readers.
The little that is knoxjon of him in this country may be collected from the
following dispatch of the Governor in Council at Fort St. George j of the
24:th December 9 1807, to the Honourable Court of Directors of the East
India Company, which they have been pleased to allow the Translator to
publish :
^* We request your reference to the Minutes noted in the margin « relative to a work which has been lately compiled by the Abbé " Dubois, a gentleman of irreproachable character, who, having escaped *< from the massacres of the French Revolution, sought refuge in India, " and has since been engaged in the zealous and pious duty of a Mis- " sionary, in the performance of which he has acquired a degree of << Aspect among both the European and native inhabitants that we " believe to have been rarely equalled in persons of his sphere. It h *^ amongst natives, however, that the time of this Missionary has been " chiefly passed, and he has availed himself of the long intercourse, to *^ compile a distinct account of the Hindoo Customs and Manners. In ^ order that you may be particularly informed of the character of th©
^'
>%
yî ADVERTISEMENT.
" work, we have inserted the following extract of a letter from Major ^" Wilks, late Acting President at Mysore, in which country the Abbé
" Dubois has chiefly resided, addressed to the Military Secretary of
". ou^ late President :
" * The Manuscript of the Abbé Dubois on Indian Casts, was
" put into my hands by the author early in the year 1806, and so
^^ far as my previous information and subsequent inquiry have
" enabled me to judge, it contains the most correct, comprehen-
" sive, and minute account extant in any European language of
" the Customs and Manners of the Hindus. Of the general
" utility of a work of this nature, I conclude that no doubt can
" be entertained. Every Englishman residing in India is inte-
'' rested in the knowledge of those peculiarities in the Indian
^^ casts which may enable him to conduct with the natives the
" ordinary intercourse of civility or business without offending
" their prejudices. These prejudices are chiefly known to Euro-
^^ peans as insulated facts, and a work which should enable us to
^ generalize our knowledge by unfolding the sources from which
" those prejudices are derived, would, as a manual for the younger
" servants of the Company, in particular, be productive of public
^^ advantages, on which it seems to be quite superfluous to enlarge.
« ' Being desirous of obtaining for the work the. advantage of
** a testimony to its merits of greater weight than any which I
^ could presume to. offer, I submitted it to the perusal of agen-
*• tleman of high literary eminence, who returned it to me with
" an eulogium which more than justified the opinion I had pre-
" viously formed, but without the permission (which had been the
" chief object of my communication) to make a public use of his " name.'
" The Manuscript was communicated to Lord William Bentinck pre-
" viously to His Lordship's departure, and Mr. Pétrie has explained
^^ in a separate Minute the reasons which prevented the subject from
" being earlier noticed. The Abbé Dubois having no means of editing
" the work at his own charge» and it being obviously of public import-»
[ ance that so useful a compilation should not be withheld» it became
■■^.
ADVERTISEMENT. ' * yjj
^^ necessary to decide on the most proper mode of effecting the publi- " cation of it.
'^ After full consideration, we decided to purchase it on account of ** the Company for the sum of two thousand pagodas, which though ^^ a moderate sum for a work which must have been attended with con- ^^ siderable labour, it was ascertained would be acceptable to the author. ^^ We beg at the same time to observe, that it is probable that this sum ^^ will be fully repaid by the sale of a publication which may be expected ^^ to excite considerable interest."
The prior conmltations of the Madras Government on this subject have been also communicated to the Translators and shew the importance that was attached to the work and the active zeal with which it was patronized. Lord William Bentinck^ afier his retirement from the Government^ in laying the Manuscript before the Governor in Councilj thus speaks of it : ^^ It is described by Sir James Mackintosh as being the most compre- ^ hensive and minute account extant, in any European language, of the ^^ Manners of the Hindoos."
It was generally understood thai Sir James Mackintosh felt his own judgment, on this occasion, confirmed by its coincidence with thai of Mr. W. Erskine of Bombay, a gentleman of distinguished talents, and conversant equally with the Mythology, Literature, Manners, and Insti- tutions of India.
My Lord William Bentinck sums up his own opinion as follows : ** The result of my own observation during my residence in India is, ^ that the Europeans generally know little or nothing of the customs ^^ and manners of the Hindoos. We are all acquainted with some pro- ^ minent marks and facts, which all who run may read; but their ^^ manner of thinking, their domestic habits and ceremonies, in which ^ circumstances a knowledge of the people consists, is I fear in great ** part wanting to us. We understand very imperfectly their language. ^ They perhaps know more of ours ; but their knowledge is by no means '^ sufficiently extensive to give a description of subjects not easily re* *^ presented by the insulated words in daily use. We do not, we can* " not, associate with the natives. We cannot see them in their houses, " and with their families. We are necessarily very much confined to
yîîî ADVERTISEMENt.
" our houses by the heat ; all our wants and business which would *< create a greater intercourse with the natives is done for us, and we " are in fact strangers in the land. I have personally found the want " of a work to which reference could be made for a just description of *^ the native opinions and manners. I am of opinion that, in a political " point of view, the information which the work of the Abbé Dubois " has to impart might be of the greatest benefit in aiding the servants <« of the government in conducting themselves more in unison with the . " customs and prejudices of the natives."
In the continuation of Major Wilks's Letter^ that gentleman^ m advan- tageously known to thé world hy his own writings^ suggests^ in liberal eri- tidsm of the Manuscript^ that, " though absolutely divested of all po- <* litical matter, it contains for example a variety of opinions on the " utility of the subdivision of the casts, on the origin of the Hindoo " system, &c. which like all speculative opinions, are liable to be ques- " tioned, and may perhaps be left to find their own supporters and " opponents, the public having only to do with the facts j and in the " general arrangement of the matter, I believe few faults or errors " will be found. But if it should be deemed expedient to divest the " work of any of the opinions to which I have adverted, the most con- " venient mode would probably be in the first instance to purchase " the manuscript.''
The work was accordingly brought over, and remained for a consider- able time in the Company s Library, accessible to the curious, until the beginning of the present year, when the translation was commenced under the sanction of the Honourable the Court of Directors, Charles Grant, Esq. M. P. being then Chairman, and Thomas Reid, Esq. Deputy Chairman of the Court. It is now submitted to the Public without any attempt to alter or improve the speculations of the Author. His candour, sincerity^ piety, and high sentiment are so uniformly conspicuous and expressive, that no danger is likely to attend any of his doctrines or the- ories. And if his zeal may at any time betray him, in argument, to conclusions apparently a little at variance, it would have been found but an ungrateful service to interrupt the reader with notes for the purpose of exposing small incongruities or in attempting to reconcile them. The
¥-•
ADVERTISEMENT. Jx
identifie portions, and whatever would require the aid of a library to compose^ will not be harshly criticised in an author undotibtedly of an ingenuous and cultivated mindj in the midst of a reserved and bigotted people^ drawing his xvhole materials from the recollections of his early studies^ and having no other resort^ as he tells us, but his Bible.
But in the great and important object of the work^ the delineation of the people and whaiever distinguishes them from other nations^ books would have been comparatively of no great avail. Little^ from that source^ could have been added to the brief though correct outline of HerodotiÂS and the few excellent inquirers and good writers of more modem times whoj during the last century, have been but little known. Here our author j following the only path that has ever yet led to any in- vention or discovery in human concerns^ has eagerly studied, collected, and arranged the phœnomena which a persevering curiosity and rigid self- denial had brought within his observation.
In communicating hi» stores, he generally exhibits that fervour which perhaps is inseparable from a mind conscious of imparting something before unknown. From this cause redundancies may sometimes arise; which might be easily pruned, though not perhaps without injury to the
flavour and raciness of the fruit.
«
A work on Manners and Customs is, in some measure, a book of Na^ tural History ; which, with the beauties of nature, must also describe what is unseemly and (pensive. The grossness and indecency of the Indian charaxiter under many circumstances, it xvas impossible to overlook, and it would have been dishonest to conceal. But the indignant appeals of the author to true modesty, and the veil afforded by our own language, it is not doubted, will protect the most delicate sensibility from a wound.
The author rarely appears in his own person throughout the book, but a single anecdote which we have before us, from another authentic source, will suffice to leave a pleasant impression of him on the mind : " Of the his- *^ tory and character of the author,'* Major Wilks subjoins in his Letter to the Madras Government, " I only know that he escaped from one of the " fusillades of the French Revolution, and has since lived amongst ^* the Hindoos as one of themselves ; and of the respect which his ^^ irreproachable conduct inspires it may be sufficient to state tbftt
a
•I
ADVERTISEMENT.
^^ when travelling) on his approach to a village^ the house of a ** Brahman is uniformly cleared for his reception, without interference, « and generally without communication to the officers of government^ ^< as a spontaneous mark of deference and respect.'^
London, 2àDecmb€rj 1816.
PREFACE.
X HOUGH Europeans have been in possession o£ regular and per- manent establishments amongst the people of India for more thfn three hundred years, it is wonderful to observe how little authentic in- formation they have collected respecting the various nations which inhabit that vast region.
We possess many details concerning several of the savage tribes of Africa, and also concerning the hordes of beings in the shape of man that are scattered over the vast continent of the new world ; a race apparently formed by nature, nurture, and manners^ to humble and degrade the whole of the human species. Yet a certain nation exi&its, cultivated from the earliest ages, the only one perhaps in the universe, which has never sunk into barbarism, and which, of all ancient nations, may most deserve to fix the attention of the philosopher; one which attracted the admiration of antiquity by its successful cul- tivation of the sciences and arts, and by the admirable system whicl^ it invented for the maintenance of subordination in the community as well as of good order in private life. This nation spread its renown over the whole extent of polished antiquity, compelled the most en- lightened of all people to confess its pre-eminence by alluring into its* bosom the wisest of the philosophers of Greece. These, in spite of their pride and high pretensions, felt not degraded by pursuing a long and dangerous journey into India to consult the wisdom of its Brah-
a 2
mans, who had flourished there in long succession, and to acquire from them a knowledge of the philosophy and the sciences which they had cultivated until their fame extended even into Europe. How wonderful, then, that such a nation remains almost unknown to the Europeans, who dwell in the midst of it, and who bear rule over a large portion of its soil !
The greater part of the ill-informed and often contradictory nar- ratives that have been left us by travellers and other modern authors respecting the nations of India, has deservedly, fallen into discredit and contempt. This has, in ^ great measure, been brought about by the literary associations which have been established in the country itself, consisting of a great number of persons of real judgment and learning, who have made a particular study of the language, the re- ligion, the manners, education, and domestic economy of these people. They have had access to the first sources of information, and have been able to avail themselves of numerous interesting documents, derived from sources, or drawn from records held in high and sacred estimation by the native sages of the country.
Still, though what we have yet learned with certainty, concerning the people of India is but little in comparison with what remains to be known on so interesting a subject, it is not to be concealed that all the writings and documents to be met with amongst the Hindus are unfortunately blended with the most extravagant fables ; so that there is little hope of our being able to draw from such authorities a true and connected history of the country and of the various nations that inhabit it.
Among the ancient historical works still to be found in the country, the most esteemed and the most generally known are the Ramayana^ the Bhagavata^ and the Maha-Bharaia ; but the history which these ' books give us of the epochs of the dynasties of kings, of the series of wars, of battles, and of heroes, in the various revolutions which the country has undergone, as well as what relates to the introduction of arts and sciences, are so enveloped in darkness and intermixed with in- numerable fables, each more incredible than the preceding, that the
• ••
PREFACE» Kill
most skiUul author would in vain attempt to avail himself of such faithless guides.
We shall see in the course of this work, how incredibly far the Hindus carry their love of the marvellous. Their early historians, and especially their poets, in their enthusiasm, took advantage of this disposition of the people in writing their narratives, because they well knew they could not interest their readers, or fix their attention without recounting abundance of wild and surprising adventures; and ac- cordingly they sacrificed all regard for truth to the desire of raising a name by humouring the taste of the public Succeeding writers outdid their predecessors by constantly adding to the ancient fables innume^ rable inventions still more absurd.
Now, however, the attention paid to the Eastern tongues by the many learned Europeans who reside in the country, the progress they have made in Indian literature, the successful researches they are con- tinually making into the books and other ancient remains of the nation ; together with the ample means which a liberal and enlightened government possesses for collecting together the documents furnished by many well informed individuals who labour under its direction, the encouragement and rewards which it holds out to persons of every class who have it in their power to discover authentic and interesting memo- rials : all these considerations would lead us to hope that we may at last behold the reality of Indian history through the thick clouds which still obscure it. We may at least be enabled to separate what is credible from the mass of absurdity and fable, with which the Indian authors abound ; and an able compiler may surely find sufiicient materials to construct a full and authentic history of a nation, whose undoubted antiquity, the success with which it cultivated the arts and sciences in the remotest times, the wise domestic controul which it established at its origin, through which it has to this hour maintained an admirable police, render it an object of the highest interest, in- dependently of the peculiar nature of its idolatry and superstitious rites.
But while such a work is only hoped for, I may be allowed, though incompetent for so great a task, to offer the present details, which will
/
be found to contain many interet^ing pardeulsrs that are but imperfectly known to most readers, and may even be useful to any author who shall, undertake a more methodical and comprehensive history of the Indian nations.
It was chiefly with this view that I was led to collect the numerous details of which this work is composed ; for I aim not at the rank of an author, which is neither suited to my talents nor the secluded state to which my profession confines me amongst the natives of the country.
It will be readily perceived by the reader that the arrangement of the yariojyis subjects on which I have treated, was formed before the comd^enckment bê those last revolutions by which the people of the peninsula hlk^ been delivered from the iron yoke of that long suc- cession of tyrants who oppressed them for so many ages, and before they had passed under the rule of a nation distinguished throughout the world for its beneficence, i(| moderation, its generosity, and above all, for its impartial administration of justice to all classes of people who live under its sway.
The spirit of justice and of prudence with which that nation rules the people of India who have become its subjects, and particularly the inviolable respect which she has .cc»atstantly shewn for the customs and prejudices, civil and religious, which are inherent in every district and cast, together witli the impartial protection which she extends alike to the feeble and the strong, to the Brahman and the Pariah, to the Quristian, the Mahometan and the Pagan; hare more exalted her name and established her power in the east than even her victories and her extensive conquests.
The wonderful revolution efiected of late years for the advantage of the people of the south of the peninsula has not induced me to alter the original plan of my work, where I treated of them as living under the arbitrary government of their despotic Princes.
It is a number of years since I first formed my design, in consequence of notices in the public papers calling for authentic documents re- garding these people, for the use of the historiographers of the Honourable Company engaged in writing a history of India.
II
From that period, I have employed my leisure in accumulating mar terials and authentic documents for my work. My information has been drawn from the diligent study of some of the works in greatest estimation among the Hindus^ and some detached memoirs that acci* dentally fell into my hands, the veracity of which I am well assured of by personal observation. But I am chiefly indebted to an exact and regular system of inquiry which I was enabled to maintain by a residence of between seventeen and eighteen years among the people whom I describe, and a close and familiar intercourse with persons of every cast and condition of life through the great number of districts which I have traversed.
During the long period that I remained amongst the natives, I made it my constant rule to live as they did, conforming exactly in all things to their manners, to their style of living and clothing, and even to most of their prejudices. In this way I became quite familiar with the various tribes that compose the Indian nation, and acquired the confidence of those whose aid was nK>st necessary for the puiposes of my work.
My great object was to gain authentic information ; which I here communicate in a style simple and unadorned. If, in the great variety of subjects on which I treat, I have at any time ventured to hazard aa opinion of my own, and to enter upon discussions which neither my abilities nor opportunities of investigation qualify me for, I entreat my readers not to impute such digressions to ostentatious vanity, or to any affectation of learning, in which I feel my deficiency, but merely to the desire which I entertain of -^ affording to other authors, better qualified than myself, occasional hints on subjects fit to exercise the genius of the profoundest inquirer.
The work would have been more complete and more satisfactory to most readers, if I had had the means . of referring to the ancient authors, or to their European commentators, with regard to the quota- tions I make, and the comparisons I draw between the Indians and other ancient nations as to their religious and civil customs. But here I found myself destitute of all help but what I received from my Bible, or some modern authors whom chance rather than preference
xvi PREFACE.
put into my hands; or, finally, in the imperfect traces which iny memory supplied of books I had consulted in my early years.
I hope my readers will be indulgent to me in this particular, and attribute the inaccuracies they will discover in my references, and the imperfect parallels I sometimes attempt to draw, to my exclusion during so many years from every resource but what my limited under- standing could supply.
In my description of the Indian casts, I must be imderstood to have in view chiefly those that people the southern provinces of the peninsula, within the Krishna. It is not unlikely that the habits and customs on this side of that river may differ from those beyond it, or that the provinces of the north may have some peculiar to themselves.
The religious and civil regulations which I describe in this work form a general bond of social union among the Hindus in the south of the peninsula ; and nearly the whole of them are of indis- pensable observance.
But there are also many other rules peculiar to eachseveral cast,t people, and district. Indeed there is no tribe of Hindus that has not, in addition to the general rules of the society^ some domestic usages peculiar to itself. Some have customs that are merely local and followed only by a few. A perfect acquaintance with such customs is not to bè attained, because they differ in every part, and are brought to no standard by the natives themselves.
A more interesting and a more useful study than that of the peculiar usages of the casts, would be to trace the various nations that people the vast empire of India; for, although these nations are all united together by the bf^nds of the same religion, and also by those of the same education, as far as good behaviour and decent intercourse in society go, yet great differences appear amongst them, in language as well as in character, in manners, inclinations, and habits. A good observer will remark, under all general points of resemblance, as much difference between a Tamul and a Telinga ; between a Canara and a Mahrata, as one would perceive in Europe between an Englishmaq 9Xià a Frenchman, an Italian and a German.
PREFACE. |^yî{
*•
There are some cotlntries in India peopled from time immemorial by different nations^ who5 though mixed together in the same province and even in the same district, still preserve their distinct language, character, and national spirit On the Malabar coast, for example, within a space of forty or fifty leagues from north to south, fix)m Telichery to Qnore or to Nagara, there are no less than five different nations peopling that small territory ; and all of them appear to have been settled there upwards of a thousand years. These five nations are the Nairs^ or Naimarsy the Kurga or Kvdagu^ the Tuluvu, the Kaunguni^ and the Canada. These are not merely names of casts, as might be supposed, but they distinguish five different nations, each of which is divided, like all other Indian nations, into a variety of casts ; and although these five races dwell in the same district, each has its peculiar language, by which it is as much discriminated as by its national customs, spirit, and character.
In every country of the peninsula great numbers of foreign families are to be found whose ancestors had been obliged to emigrate thither, in times of trouble or famine, firom their native land, and to esta- blish themselves amongst strangers. This species of emigration is very common in all the countries of India ; but what is most re- markable is, that in a foreign land, th^se emigrants preserve firom generation to generation their own language and national peculiarities. Many instances might be pointed out of such foreign families settled four or five hundred ytears in the district they now inhabit, without approximating in the least to the manners, fashions, or eVfen to the language of the nation where they have been for so many generations naturalized. They still preserve the remembrance of their origin, and keep up the ceremonies, the usages of the land where their ancestors lirere bom, without ever receivirtg any tincture of the particular habits of the country where they live.
Under all the circumstances that have been mentioned, there is nothing to be seen but the most absolute toleration amongst the aboriginal inhabitants of every district ; and so long as the stranger settled amongst them conforms to the accustomed rules of decorum, each may follow his own national customs, preserve his native language
b
xvîii PREFACE.
in his family, and in all things follow the usages bf his ancestoi», with- out any man attempting to find fault with the singularity of his manner of living.
The facility of intercourse which the Europeans now enjoy with the different nations which people the peninsula of India, will no doubt soon afford us interesting details on the various subjects which do not fall within the scope of this work, and which indeed would require the labour of more than one author.
In attempting a description of the Indian casts, and of the customs and usages which unite them together, I have been most solicitous to pourtray that discriminating peculiarity, which though the most curious of all, is still the least understood. Those who have visited India will appreciate the difficulty of holding any communication with the Brahmans. They know the vast distance at which this class hold^ itself from the rest of the community. They know their hatred and sovereign contempt for all stratigers, but particularly for Europeans, their close reserve and their jealous caution to prevent the mysteries of their religion, or of their science, or even of their domestic discipline from being divulged to other men.
By various means I surmounted many of the obstacles which have effectually opposed other authors in this career. If my details on the Brahmans and the other casts of Hindus, are not in general so full as many readers would desire, and as I myself would have expected, if I could have had all the aid I required, I have. yet the vanity to think they will appear interesting, and even satisfactory to many readers who have learned nothing on the subject but from ill-inform€|d authors.
I have subjoined to the whole an Appendix, containing a brief ac- count of the sect of the Jainas, of their doctrines, the principal points of their religion, and their peculiar customs. Other writers possessing more information than I do, will hereafler instruct us more fully con- cerning this interesting sect of Hindus, and particularly respecting their religious worship, which probably, at one time, was that of all Asia, from Siberia to Cape Comorin, north to south; and from the Caspian to the Gulf of Kamtchatka, from west to east } and which
u
PREFACE. xîx
was probably one of the earliest kinds of idolatry which appeared on the earthj^ at the time when men, forgetting the idea of 'their Creator, dçifîed the stars, the elements, and other striking objects, and even mortals like themselves ; fashioning images to preserve their memory . by clothing them with a visible form.
b 2
CONTENTS.
PART I.
GENERAL VIEW OF SOCIETY IN INDIA.
CHAP. I.
1
Division aud Subdivision of Casts. — Distinction of Right Hand and Left
CHAP. IL
Advantages resulting from die Division ot Casts
* • * •
Pdge 1
IS
CHAP. IIL
Expulsion from the Cast
24
CHAP. IV.
Restoration to the Cast
CHAR V.
Antiquity and Origin of the Casts
38
•
32
CHAP. VI.
The fiEibulous Origin of the Brahmans. — On their Name and original Founders.' Conjectures on their real Origin .....
S5
CHAP. VIL
Of the dififarent Kinds oi Brahmans
47
XXÎi CONTENTS.
CHAR VIII.
Of the sects of Vishnu and Siva,— Causes of the Opposition of the ordmary Brahmans to the Vishnu Brahmans and other Sectaries ... Page 51
CHAP. IX. Of the Gurus or Priests of India - - - - - 64
CHAP. X. Of the Purohitas or Masters of the Ceremonies - - - - 78
CHAP. XL Of the Mantras or Forms of Prayer - - - . .77
CHAP. XII.
Of the Ceremonies practised over the Brahman Women when brought to bed, and on Infants of tender Age -----..84
PART IL
OF THE FOUR STAGES IN LIFE OF THE BRAHMANS.
CHAR I. State of, the Brahmachari - - - - - - 91
CHAP. II.
Of the conduct expected from the Brahmachari, and the rights he acquires by receiving the Cord -...-..- loo
CHAP. III.
Of the exactness with which a young Brahman must shun external Defilement, and the different Practices in this respect - - - - 108
CHAP. IV.
Of the interior Defilement of the Body; of the Abstinence of the Brahmans, and the particular horror of the Hindus for the flesh of the Cow - - -115
CONTENTS. xxiu
CHAR V. Of the Defilement of the soul, and the Remedies used to effiice it - Page 124
CHAP. VI.
Conjectures respecting the Origin of the rites of the Brahmans concerning Unclean-
ness and Purity « - - - - - - - 128
CHAP. VIL Of Marriage among the Brahmans - - . - . 132
CHAP. VIII.
4
Of the second Degree of Brahmans ; that of Orihastha, and the duties which it imposes --.-..\.- 147
CHAP. IX. The Triple Prajrer of the Brahmans - ... « 154
CHAP. X. Of the Fasts and Festivals of the Brahmans ..... I6O
CHAP. XL
Of certain prohibited sorts of food amongst the Brahmans ; and thdr secret and nocturnal sacrifices - - * . -. - - 167
CHAP. XIL The different Avocations of the Brahmans • . - « . 174
CHAP. XIIL
Of the Toleration of the Brahmans in Religion, and their Bigotry in Politicid
Affidrs.-^ Their Contempt of Strangers - - - - 179
CHAP. XIV. Of the Manners of the Brahmans - - * - - - - 189
CHAP. XV.
Of the exterior Qualities of the Brahmans and other Hindus ; their bodily and
mental Weakness; of their Language, their Dress, and their Houses - •198
XXiv CONTENTS.
CHAP. XVL
Of the Rules of Politeness in use amoDgtheBrahioani and other HindnSd'-^Of their
Visits and Presents - - - - . Page 207
CHAR XVIL
Oi the Decorations worn by the Hindus, and the different Emblems with which
they adorn their Persons ------- 213
CHAP. XVIIL Of the married Brahman Women; their Dress and Ornaments - - 217
CHAP. XIX. ïhe State of Widowhood.— Second Marriages not permitted - - - 224
CHAP. XX. Rules and Precepts for the conduct of Married Women -. - - - 229
CHAP. XXI. Of the custom of Women allowing thetnselves to be Burned with the Corpses of th&r
Husbands
236
CHAP. XXII. Of Adoption among the Bralnhans and other Hindus - - - - 248
CHAP. XXIII. Partition of Property in certain Cases ----- 253
CHAP. XXIV. Of the Literature of the Brahmans and particularly their Poetry - - 258
CHAP. XXV.
The Epistolary Style of the Brahmans . . - . . 269
CHAP. XXVI. On the Hindu Ij[and- Writing - . - . . 274*
CONTENTS.
zsv
CHAP. XXVII. Death and Obsequies of the Brahmans . . «
CHAP. xxvm.
The Cerononies practised by the Brahmans for the Dead, after the Obsequies
Page 286
294
CHAP. XXIX.
Of the Third Condition of the Brahmans, that of Vanaprastha or Inhabitants of the
Desart ---... 309
CHAP. XXX.
Rules of the Vanaprasthas
S07
CHAP. XXXI. Of the Sacrifices of the Anchoret Brahmans; particularly the Yajna
SIS
CHAP. XXXII.
Of the Giants, the Adversaries of the Anchorets
SJ9
CHAP. XXXIII.
Opinions of the Hindu Philosophers on the Nature of God, of the Different Beings in the Univers and particularly the Soul . ,. ^ . 328
CHAP. XXXIV. On the Influence of Penitence in purifying the Soul ; and on Purification by Fire 929
CHAP. XXXV. Of the Learning of the Solitary Brahmans and of the Epoch of the Flood
S84
CHAP. XXXVI.
Of the Magic practised by the Vanaprastha Brahmans, and still in use among the
Hmdus - - . - * - - S41
CHAP. XXXVII.
Of Sannyasi, the Fourth State of the Brahmans : the Manner of Inauguration and the Rules ----- ^ ^
S50
Xxvi CONTENTS.
CHAR xxxvm.
The TariouB Duties of the Sannyasi, particularly ContJempkdon - - Page S55
CHAP. XXXIX.
Of the Funerals of the Sannyafli Brahmans - ^ - - 362
PART III.
RELIGION.
CHAP. I. The Origin of the Trimurti, and the Primitive Idolatry of the Hindus - - 367
CHAP. II. Tlie principal Festivals of the Hindus, particularly that of the Pongol or Sankranti S82
CHAP. III. Of the Temples of the Hindus and the Ceremonies there practised - - S9S
CHAP. IV. Ofthe principal Divinities of India ..... 429
CHAP. V. Of the Worship of Animals, and that of the Bhutas or Malevolent Beings • 445
CHAP. VI. Ofthe Pariahs and other Inferior Casts of EQndus ... 454
CHAP. VII.
Of the Metempsychosis. The Hindus the Inventors of the Doctrine, Causes and Number of the Transmigrations. Of the Pains of Hell and their Duration. Abodes of Bliss - . . . - . 477
CHAP. VIIL Exercise of Justice^ Civil and Criminal «..«.. 493
CONTENTS.
XXVU
Ofthe Hindu Fables
CHAR IX.
Page 502
Hindu Tales
CHAP. X.
508
Of the Military System of India
CHAR XL
530
APPENDIX.
On the Sect of the Jainas and the Principal Differences between them and the Brahmans .......
549
DESCRIPTION
OF
THE PEOPLE OP INDIA.
PART I.
GENERAL VIEW OF SOCIETY IN INDIA.
CHAP. I.
DIVISION AND SUBDIVISION OF CASTS. — DISTINCTION OF RIGHT HAND AND LEFT.
I
X HE word Cast is a Portuguese term, which has been adopted by Europeans in general, to denote the different classes or tribes into which the people of India are divided. The most ordinary partition, and at the same time the most ancient, is that which arranges them in four principal tribes. The first and most distinguished of all is that of Brahmana or the Brahmans : the second in rank is that of Kàhairiya or Rajas : the third the Vaisya or merchants and cultivators^ and the last that of Sudras or cultivators subordinate to the others.
Each of these four principal tribes is subdivided into several more, of which it is difficult to determine the number and the sort ; for this division varies in the different countries, and several casts known in one province do not appear in another.
Among the Brahmans, for example, there is one for each Vedur. They admit also of several subdivisions among them, which prevent them from making a close union with each other in many cases, and particularly in that of marriage*
B
2 DIVISION Oî CASTS.
Hie tribe of Rajas and that of Merchants are likewise split into many divisions and subdivisions : but the tribe of Sudras is that - in which they are multiplied most of all. I have never found any man in the provinces where I have lived, able to fix with precision on the number and the species of them, although it is often, and indeed proverbially repeated, that there are eighteen chief subdivisions, and one hundred and eight others.
The most numerous of the four principal tribes, then, is that of the Sudras or cultivators, and I think it no exaggeration to reckon them to amount at least to five sixths of the population of India.
Most of the professions, and almost all the trades, with the arts and employments which are indispensable to civilized society, belong to the tribe of the Sudras: and. as, by the prejudices, of the country, no cast and no individual can be of two trades, a particular tribe being ex- clusively sbt apart for each occupation and each trade, so it is not surprising that the divisions and subdivisions of the casts should be so exceedingly numerous in this tribe, or that it should stand so high in point of number in the general scale of society.
But there are several casts of cultivators not known but in particular countries. Of those elsewhere unknown, the country of Tamul appears to me to have the most subdivisions. There are not nearly so many even in the Decan, nor in the Mysore, nor on the coast of Malabar. In none of those parts have I found any casts- correspond- ing to those in the territory of Tamul, known in their • dialect, under the names of Matideli, Agambadèya, Nattaman, Udyan, Totiyar, Ventu#en, Valeyen, Upiliyen, and several others.
It is to be observed however, that the tribes of the Sudras, to which those employments belong, which are every where indispensable, must necessarily be found in all the countries, under the different appellations used in their respective tongues. The most considerable of the casts that are universally spread are the following. The Herdsmen who keep the cows ; the Shepherds who tend the sheep ; the Weavei^s ; the Panchalas^ meaning the five cftsts of artizans, which comprehend the carpenters, goldsmithi, blacksmiths, stone-cutters, founders, and in general all workers in metals ; the Barbers ; and the Utartmsj whose
DIVISION OF CASTS'. 3
chief employment is to excavate tanks» repair their banks, erect mud walls, and the like.
These last kinds of labom*, with some others, being equally required in all places, the casts which exercise them, and upon whom they are exclusively imposed, are of course found in every country. These employment» descend from &ther to son, from one generation to an*^ other ; and in no case can the son renounce the cast of his father or take up a profession different from that of his ancestors.
The casts which we have enumerated belong entiœly to the tribe of the Sudras : but the several casts of the cultivators take precedence of the rest and look down with contempt on the tribes of tradesmen and labourers.
In some districts, casts ara to be seen that cannot be metVith else- where, and which are to be distinguished from all others by singular peculiarities.
I am not aware, for example, that the very remarkable cast of Nai^ mars or Nairsj in which the women enjoy a plurality of husbands, is to be found any where but in the forests of the coast of Malabar.
The cast of Calarisj or Robbers, who exercise their profession with* out disguise, as their birthright, is found but rarely beyond the Marava^ a territory bordering on the fishing coast The princes of this little state belong to the tribe and profession of Robbers^ and conceive their calling no way discreditable to themselves or their tribe, as having legitimately descended to them by right of inheritance. So far from shrinking at the appellation, if one of them be asked who he is, he will coolly answer that he is a robber. Indeed the tribe is accounted one of the most distinguished among the Sudras, in the province of Madura^ - where it flourishes.
There is another cast in the same province, called the Totiyars^ in which brothers, uncles, nephews and other kindred, when married^ enjoy the wives in . common.
*In the east of the Mysore there is a tribe known by the name of MoTM-Hokula Makiduj in which when a mother gives her eldest daughter in marriage, she herself is forced to submit to the amputation of the two middle fingers of the right hand, as high as the second
B 2
V
4 DIVISION OF CASTS.
joint ; and, if the mother of the bride be dead, the bridegroom's mothec must submit to the cruel ceremony.
. In many other districts there are casts famous for practices no less irrational than those we have mentioned.
. In general it may be remarked that, in addition to those customs and ceremonies, civil and religious, which are constant and invariable^ and unite the whole race in things essential, there is no tribe that does not exhibit some particular and local varieties of its own by which it is discriminated from the rest. Some distinguish themselves by the cut and colour of their clothes, some by the manner in whidi they put them on. Others are remarkable for some particular shape of their trintets, and others for the arrangement of them on different parts of the body, in particular modes. In some yom will observe certain pecu- liar forms in celebrating the ceremonies of marriage or of mourning ; and in others the decorations and the flags of various colours which are their distinction on similar occasions.
Extravagant, however, as many of their modes and customs are, they never draw down from casts of the most opposite habits and fashions the least appearance of contempt or dislike. Upon this point there is, through the whole of India, the most perfect toleration, as long as the general and universally respected laws of good behaviour are not infringed". - With this exception every tribe may freely and without molestation follow its own domestic course, and practice all its pçculiar
rites.
There are, however, certain customs to be noticed in some districts, which though they are universally practised amongst them, are so de- cidedly contrary to the laws of decency and propriety observed in other countries, that they cannot be alluded to without feelings of disgust and even of horror. It will scarcely be credited that the invariable practice amongst the greater number of the casts of the whole of the South of the Mysore, subjects the women to what, in other parts, would be considered the foul indignity of attending upon all .visitors and strangers, as well as those of the family, when they go forth upon: the call of nature. The female waits, and, when; it is time, she advances with her bason of water, performs her task of ablution»
II
DIVISION OF CASTS. 5
and withdraws with the air of having well acquitted herself in a grace- ful accomplishment.
. The use of intoxicating liquors, which is rigorously forbidden by all the good casts in other parts, is permitted by the inhabitants of the forests and mountains on the coast of Malabar. There, the best casts of Sudras quaff, openly -and without shame, the arrack and toddy ; and wives and children follow the example. £ach inhabitant in those parts has his toddy dealer, who regularly brings him the daily supply, and takes in return an equivalent in com when the harvest comes round. But a practice so opposite to all the notions of decency and virtue, en- tertained in the other districts, exposes these unhappy people to the opprobrium and scorn of the whole nation.
The Brahmans and Lingamists, who inhabit these districts, are pro* hibited from the use of toddy or arrack under the penalty of exclusion from their cast or sect. But they supply the defect by opium, the use of which is universally interdicted, but not held so much in detestation as that of the toddy and other inebriating liquors.
The inhabitants of these inoist and unwholsome countries no doubt have perceived that the. moderate use of spirits and opium is necessary for the preservation of their health, by correcting the noxious vapours they are constantly obliged to inhale. Nothing indeed but absolute necessity could have overcome the shame and the remorse of breaking down one of the most venerable barriers of Hindu civilization. . There are likewise certain usages purely religious, which are observed only by particular casts, or in particular territories. For example, it i^ but in the districts on the west of the Mysore that I have observed Mon- day in every week kept nearly in the same manner as Sunday is among Christians. On that day the inhabitants abstain from labour, and parti- cularly from that which requires the use of oxen aiid kine, and from tillage. It is a day of rest for their cattle rather than for themselves* It is consecrated to Baswa or the Bull, and set apart for the special worship of that deity.
This practice however does not subsist- universally excepting in the dis- tricts where the Lingamists, the followers of Siva rule. That sect pay- ing more particular homage to the Bull than the other Hindus, ke^ up
g DIVISION OF CASTS.
in the districts- where they predominate the strict observance of the day which they have consecrated to their divinity, and compel the othet casts to respect it also, by making it a day of rest to their cattle.
Independently of the divisions and subdivisions common to all the casts, 'and the migration from one tribe into another through all India, a farther distinction arises from one family making alliajice with an* other. This distinction is still more to be attended to in the case of intermarriage. For the Hindus of good casts avoid as much as they can any new alliance, and the heads of families use their utmost endear- vours to disuse of their children amongst families with whom they are already connected either by consanguinity or affinity. Marriages- are 4nore easily contracted in proportion as the parties are more nearly re* lated. A widower re*marries with the sister of his former wife : the unde espouses his ùiece, and the cousin his cousin. Persons so related possess an exclusive privilege to intermarry, upon the ground of such relationship : and, if they choose, they can prevent any other union, and enforce their own preferable right. But there is one singular exception from the rule ; for the uncle will take to wife his sister's daughter, but by no means his brother^s : the children of a brother will intermarry with those of the sister, but not the children of two brothers or of two sisters.
This distinction is invariably kept up through all the casts, from the Brahman to the Pariah. And however remote the persons related are from the original stocky^ so long as the memory is preserved of their springing from the same root, although in the fiftieth generation, or in the twentieth degree of relationship, the male line retains its right in aU cases to connect itself with the female ; but never can the children of the male line intermarry with each other, nor those of the female line unite.
Agreeably to this distinction, a custom has arisen, which, as far as I know, is peculiar to the^Brahmans. They are all supposed to know the Gotram or root from whence they spring ; that is to say, they know who was the ancient Muni or devotee from whom they descend ; and in order to avoid intermixture with a daughter or descendant of this original stock they find a reason for marrying into a different Gotram. t The Hindus who cannot form a suitable connection among their rela- tions are still bound to marry in their own cast» and even in that branch
DIVISION OF CASTS. 7,
of it^ to which they belong. In no case will any pretext avail them for contracting a marriage with à stranger. Neither can the Sudra casts of a country form an alliance with the Gollovahron TaltigUj although these two casts make but one^ which is that of the herdsmen differ- ently denominated in the respective dialects. The HoktUorJilakiila;^ Canara^ will on no account marry with the Valyalar Tamtdsy although these two casts differ only in name : and the case is the same with other tribes.
The most distinguished amongst the four great tribes into which the Hindus were originally separated by their first legislators^ is that of the Brahmans, as we • have already observed. The next are the Rajas. The superiority of rank is more contested between the Sudras or Culti- vators and the Vaisya or Merchants. But the precedency seems to be universally denied to the latter excepting in the Hindu books, where they are uniformly placed before the Sudras. This cast, however, in all the transactions of life hold themselves high above the^ Vaisya, and consider themselves entitled in most cases to shew their superiority over them by demonstrations of contempt
The Brahmans however do not hold the highest rank in society un- disputed. The PanchaUts or five casts of artisans who have been already mentioned, obstinately refuse, in several districts, to acknowledge the superiority of the Brahmans, although these five casts themselves are considered to be of very low rank among the Sudras, and are held in great contempt. And the Brahman ascendancy is still more warmly disputed by the Jainas^ of whom we shall speak hereafter.
With regard to the particular subdivisions of the tribes, it would be difiicult to determine which exceed the rest in dignity, because some ^ casts which are decried in one part are firequently esteemed in another according ifo they conduct themselves with propriety, or exercise the more reputable employments. Or if it should happen that the prince of *a district belongs to a particular cast, although otherwise of the least consideration, it rises to distinction, and all its members partake in the lustre of its chief.
After all, the public opinion' is the only sure ground of superiority among the casts ; and a very slight acquaintance with the customs of
g DIVISION OF CASTS.
a province, and wîth its inhabitants will suffice for fixing the statioil which each cast hss acquired by common consent . In general, it will be found that the tribes which are most attentive to propriety of demeanour, in the rigid sense in which it is understood by Hindus ; who are constant in their ablutions ; who abstain from animal food ; who are exact in the rules prescribed for family alliance ; whose wives are the most recluse, and most vindictively punished when they err ; those who most resolutely maintain, the customs and privileges of their order : such are the casts that are reputed the most noble.
Of all the Hindus, the Brahmans stride the most to keep up the feeling of outward and inward purity. Hence their ablutions are most firequent, and their abstinence moBt rigorous, not only firom all kinds of food that has had the principle of life, but even firom many of the simpler productions of nature which their superstitious pre- judices lead them to consider as impure or capable of communicating defilement It is chiefly this unfailing .sentiment of propriety which raises that high cast into the respect and reverence which they enjoy in the world.
Amongst the different tribes of the Sudras, on the other hand, those who allow to widows the privilege of marrying again, are- con- sidered as beneath the other tribes, and have almost sunk into con- tempt Excepting the tribe of the Pariahs^ 1 hardly could name one where such marriages could be openly celebrated or obtain the countenance of the cast
The division into casts is the paramount distinction amongst the Hindus ; but there is still another division j that of Sects. The two best known, are those of Siva and Vishnu. These two great sects are subdivided into a vast number of subordinate ones, whibh shall be afterwards, considered.
TTiere are several casts, too, that may be distinguished by certain symbols or marks which they assume* and exhibit in some way peculiar to each. It is in this way that the Brahmans of the North of the peninsula, called Uirasa Brahrnanaj are recognized in public, by a perpendicular line which they draw on the middle of the forehead with
DISTINCTION OF RIGHT HAND AND LKPÎR 9
a paste made of sandal-wood. The Brahmans of the fanning provinces are known by a line or stripe horizontally drawn on the same part, while those in the souths being for the most part attached to the sect of Vishnu, take for their mark the figure called Naman, which will be described hereafter.
Of the four great tribes, the three first, namely, the Brahmans^ the Rajas^ and the Merchants^ distinguish themselves, firom the various casts of Sudras by a narrow belt of thread, which they always wear suspended firom the left shoulder to the opposite haunch like a sash. But being borne also by the Jainas and even by the Panchalas, or five casts of artisans, the mark is rather equivocal.
From what has been said it will appear after all that the name of a cast foriQs its best discrimination. The tribes of Israel were so distin* guished. The names of several of the Hindu tribes have a known meaning ; but in general they are so ancient that it is now impossible to trace the meaning, if they ever had any.
There is another division of the different tribes still more general than those that have been yet mentioned. It is that of RighUhand and of Left-hand. It appears to be but a recent invention, as it is not men- tioned in any of the ancient books of the country ; and I have been assured that it is almost unknown in the north, and is indeed confined to a part of the southern provinces.
But although there is reason to think that this distinction of righU hand and left never entered into the contemplation of the wise men who gave laws to the Hindus, yet they have affi)rded us no stronger proof of their sagacity than in conceiving the division of the people into several casts.
This particular distinction, however, which we have alluded to, by whomsoever invented, has turned out to be the most banefiil that could- have been imagined for the tranquillity of the state, and the most inju- rious to the peace of the citizens. It has proved the perpetual fountain of disturbance and . insurrections amongst the people, and a continued principle of endless jealousy and animosity amongst all the members of the community.
20 DISTINCTION OF RIGHT HAND AND LEFT,
The greater number of the Hmdu casts belong either to the left-hand or to the right The first division consists of the whole tribe of the Vaist/a^ of the Panchala^ or five casts of artisans, and of some other mean tribes of the Sudras. This hand also includes the most infamous of aU casts, that of the Cobblers or Chakilij who are reckoned to be its principal support.
The right-hand has, among its partisans, the most distinguished casts of the Sudras. That of the Pariah forms its strongest bulwark, as a proof of which they still glory in the title of Valangay Mongattar^ or friends of the Right-hand.
The fiercest opposition arises out of this separation ; and of all the contests to which the people are accustomed, the battles between the two Hands always produce the greatest alarm and the severest evil.
The Brahmans, the Pariahs, and several tribes of the Sudras are con- sidered neutral, and enjoying all the privileges and honours attached to both Handsj they take no part with either. These neutral casts are fi:e- quently called upon to arbitrate in the fierce disputes* between the two parties of the Hands.
The opposition between the Right-hand and the Left-hand arises from certain privileges to which they both lay claim; and when any encroachment is made by either it is instantly followed by tumults which firequçntly spread over whole provinces, accompanied with every excess, and generally with bloody contests. Gentlest of all creatures, timid under all other circumstances, here only the Hindu seems to change his nature. There is no danger that he fears to encounter in maintaining what he terms his right, and rather than yield it he is ready to make any sacrifice, and even to hazard his life.
I have repeatedly witnessed instances of these popular insurrections excited by the disputes between the two Hands^ and pushed to such an extreme of fury that the presence of a military force under arms had no effect to quiet them, nor even to allay their clamours, or stop their out- rageous course in what they conceive the rightful cause.
I have known instances of attempts made by the magistrates to sooth these uproars by remonstrances and other means of conciliation, and when these have produced no effect they have been obliged to resort to
DISTINCTION OF RIGHT HAND AND LEFT. Jl
measures of compulsion. Some shots of musquetry would then be tried, but neither this nor the certainty of its being followed up with stronger measures, has the slightest effect in abating their insolence. Even when an overwhelming military force has fully put them down, it is only for the moment ; and whenever an opportunity occurs they are instantly up again, without reflecting on the evils they formerly suf- fered, or shewing the smallest tendency to moderate their impetuous violence.
Such are the excesses to which the timid, the peaceable Hindu, sometimes abandons himself; whilst his bloody contests spring out of motives which, to an European at least, would appear frivolous and trifling. Perhaps the sole» cause of the contest is about his right to wear pantoufles ; or whether he may parade in a palanquin or on horse^ back, on the day of his marriage. Sometimes it is the privilege of being escorted by armed men ; sometimes that of having a trumpet sounding before him, or the distinction of being accompanied by the country music at public ceremonies. Perhaps it is the ambition of having flags of certain colours, or with the resemblances of certain deities displayed about his person on such great occasions. These are some of the im- portant privileges, amongst many others not less so, in asserting which the Indians do not scruple occasionally to shed each other's blood.
.As it not unfrequently happens that one of the Hands makes an attack on the privileges of the other : this occasions a quarrel which soon spreads and becomes general, unless it be appeased at its com- mencement by the prudence or the vigour of the magistrate.
I may perhaps be thought to have said quite enough of the effects of this direful distinction of right-hand and left But I may be permitted to relate one instance at which I myself was present The dispute was Wween the cast of Pariahs and the Cobblers, or Chakili, and produced such dreadful consequences through the whole district where it hap- pened, that many of the peaceable inhabitants had begun to remove their effects and to leave their villages for a place of greater safety, with the same feelings as when the éountry sees an impending invasion of a Mahrata army, and with the same dread of savage treatment. Fortu- nately in this instance, matters did not come to an extremity, aa the
c 2
12 DISTINCTION OF RIGHT HAND AND LEFT.
principal inhabitants of the district seasonably came forward to mediate between these vulgar casts, and were just in time, by good management, to disband the armed ranks on both sides that only waited the signal of battle.
One would not easily guess the cause of this dreadful commotion. It arose forsooth from a Chakili, at a public festival, sticking red flowers in his turban, which the Pariahs insisted that none of his cast had a right to wear.
( 13 )
CHAP. n.
■
ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM THE DIVISION OF CASTS.
X HERE are many persons that have thought so little about the genius and character of the different nations that people the earth'; of the influence of education, of religion, of climate, of food, upon their manners, desires, and customs ; that they are astonished how beings radically of the same nature and of the same feelings, should so exceedingly differ from each other. Such men are trammelled by the prejudices of education. They can see nothing well ordered but in the police of their own country. Every thing there being in good method» they desire to put all nations of the earth on the same footing; and whatever does not fall within their limits, is denounced by them as barbarous or ridiculous. They will not consider that, though the nature of man is universally the same, it is nevertheless subject to be . modified by the circumstances of the country, by the climate, the education and prejudices incident to each people; and that the rules laid down and followed in one nation would be sub* versive of another.
I have heard many individuals, otherwise of great judgment, so full of the prejudices they had brought with them from Europe, as ta decide most erroneously (according to my opinion) on the subject of the division of the.Hindus into casts. This distinction appeared to them, not only as not promoting the good of society, but also as ridiculous» and calculated merely to oppress the members of the state and to dis* unite them.
For my part, having been in a situation to observe the character of the Hindus, and having lived amongst them for many years, Mi>&
II • '
14 ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM
brother and a friend, I have formed an opinion upon this subject altogether opposite. I consider the institution of casts amongst the Hindu nations as the happiest effort of their legislation ; and I am well convinced that if the people of India never sunk into a state of barbarism, and if, when almost all Europe was plunged in that dreary gulf, India kept up her head, preserved and extended the sciences, the arts and civilization ; it is wholly to the djbstinction of casts that she is indebted for that high celebrity.
To establish the justice of this opinion, it is only necessary to cast our eyes on the various races of men who live under the same latitude with the Hindus, and to consider what they have always been, and what they now are, whilst their natural dispositions are not yet corrected and purified by the benign influence of the revealed religion. Let us reflect on the condition of the nations most con- tiguous to them both in the peninsula and beyond the Ganges, as far even as China. Her temperate climate, indeed, and a government particularly adapted to the genius of a people that has no resemblance to any other on earth, have produced the same effect as the division of casts has operated on the Hindus.
In reflecting on this subject, I have found out no cause that can have prevented the Hindus from falling into the barbarous state in which all the nations bordering on them, as well as almost all others that are spread over the globe under the torrid zone, remain, unless it be the division into casts; which, by assigning to every individual in the state his profession and employment, by perpetuating the system from, father to son, from generation to generation, prevents the possibility of any member of the state or his descendants giving up the condition o( pursuit which the law has assigned him for any other. This has been the ruling, and perhaps the only means that the most clear-sighted prudence could invent to maintain civilization amongst a race formed with such natural dispositions as the Hindus are.
We have it in our power to form some judgment of what the Hindus would degenerate to, if the restraint of the division, the rules and the police of casts were abolished, by considering what the
THE DIVISION OF CASTS. ] 5
Pariahs of India are ; who, being exempt from all restrictions of honour and shame, which so strongly infhience the other casts, can freely and without reserve abandon themselves to their natural pro- pensities.
Every man who carefully considers the character and conduct of such a class of men as this, being the most numerous of all, I think will agree with me, that a state consisting intirely of such members could not long endure, and could not fail to decline very quickly into the worst degree of barbarism. For my own part, who know the inclinations and sentiments of this species of men, I am persuaded that a nation of .Pariahs, left to themselves, would speedily become worse than the hordes of cannibals that wander in the desarts of Africa, and would soon fall to the devouring of each other.
I am no less convinced, that the Hindus if they were not restrained within the bounds of decorum and of subordination by means of the casts, which assign to every man his employment, and by regu- lations of police suited to each individual ; but were without any curb fit to check them, or any motive for applying one, would soon become what the Pariahs are, or worse ; and the whole nation sinking of course into the most fearful anarchy, Jndia, from the most polished of all countries, would become the most barbarous of any upon earth.
The legislators of India, whoever they may have been, were far too wise and too well acquainted with the nature and disposition of the peo- ple for whom they prescribed, to leave to the discretion or fancy of every individual, in what manner the sciences were to be cultivated, as well as the various professibns, and the different arts and trades .necessary to maintain the existence of a state.
They set out from that grand principle which has been recognised by all the ancient legislators, that no man is to be permitted to be useless to the commonwealth. But they saw, at the same time, that the people for whom they acted were naturally so indolent, and that this propen- sity was so greatly aggravated by the climate, that unless every indivi- dual had a profession or employment rigidly imposed, the state coidd not exist, but must quickly tumble into the most deplorable anarchy, and end in savage barbarism.
Ig ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM
Those legislators, being also well aware of the danger of all innova^ tions in matters political or spiritual, and being desirous to establish durable and inviolable rules for the different casts into which they di- vided the Hindu people, could find no surer basis of an orderly govern- ment than the two grand foundations of religion and. policy.
Accordingly w^ find hardly any of their civil observances that are not combined with some religious mixture, either as the motive or the object. Every thing, in short, is blended with superstition ; whether it be the manner of salutation, the mode of dress, the shape and colour of the clothes, the placing of their trinkets and other ornaments, the manner of erectipg their houses and other buildings ; the side where the fire place is to stand, or where the household utensils ; and even the rules of civility and politeness which they are called on to observe.
I have been closely viewing their customs and observances for more than fifteen years, and I have scarcely remarked aniy one, however simple or indifferent, or, I may add, indecent, that had not something religious either for its motive or end.
It is thus that the Hindus hold all their customs as sacred and indis- pensable, because being united with religion they partake of its sacred and inviolable quality.
This contrivance of dividing the people intp different casts or tribes, did not exclusively belong to the Hindu legislators. The wisest and most celebrated man of ancient times, Moses, availed himself of the same institution for managing an intractable and rebellious race.
The same distinction of casts existed amongst the Egyptians as amongst the Hindus ; and in both, the trade or employment was im- mutable from father to son, and no man, in either country, could exer- cise two professions.
There was this dffiference, however, between the Egyptians and the people of India, that amongst the former, all employments, to the very lowest, were held equally in esteem, and it would have been highly censurable in any man to treat contemptuously persons in any trade that contributed to the general good : whereas, amongst the Hindus, there are certain employments to which prejudice or perhaps more powerful reasons have attached such ignominy, that those who practise
THE DIVISION OF CASTS. jiy
them are universally despised and looked down upon by the casts that move in a higher sphere.
It must be remarked, however, that the four great employments without which a civilized state could not exist, namely the soldier, the agriculturist, the merchant, and the weaver, are held in honour through India. All casts, from the Pariah up to the Brahman, may exercise any one of the three first without disgrace ; and even the last is not despised by the better casts amongst the Sudras.
This same division of the people into tribes which we observe among the Hindus, subsists to the present time among the Arabs, and probably may have been common to all nations in ancient times.
Several other ancient legislators seem to have employed the division of the people into tribes as the groundwork of the civilization which they wished to introduce. Cecrops divided the people of Athens into four tribes or classes, which were afterwards subdivided into ten more. The great legislator Solon respected this' division, and confirmed it in many particulars.
Numa Fompilius saw no better method of quieting the jealousies and- animosities which subsisted amongst the people whom he governed, composed chiefly of Romans and Sabines, than the division of the whole into classes or casts. This division had the desired efiect; and those two communities when combined into one national mass forgot their discordant interests and thought no longer but of what concerned the cast or class.
Those who were admirers of this plan of dividing a people into tribes could not but perceive that in proportion as the distinction into classes is firmly established in any society, so much the more- completely may order and good arrangement be introduced amongst them, together with the facility of directing them and the preservation of good morals.
And in truth it is the influence of this artificial order, and the separa- tion into ca^ts amongst the Hindus, which make the whole tribe feel the faults of one member as reflecting disgrace on the rest as long aa they remain unpunished. The cast is thus obliged to take justice into it§ own hands, for the purpose of avenging its honour and to restrain ipdthin the bounds of good orde; all the individuals that compose iU
J8 ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM
For every cast has its ancient customs, agreeably to which, like the patriarchs of old, it can inflict the severest punishment iipon the guilty.
Thus, in several tribes, adultery is punished with death. Young women and widows who allow themselves to be seduced, and the seducers also, sufier the same punishment.
The magnificent temple of Canjavaran^ in the Camatic, an immense structure, is said to have been erected at the charge of a very wealthy Brahman who was convicted of intercourse with a woman of the tribe of the Pariahs. His own cast condemned him to expiate his crime by this enormous sacrifice; although it was not inflicted so much to punish the crime as the meanness of condescending to «o unworthy a partner.
There are many other faults of a scandalous nature on which the cast has a right to determine, and not only against the perpetrator but all those who may have been his abettors : so that it may be affirmed that it is the influence of custom in the cast that preserves morality among the Hindus, represses their vices, and prevents the nation fi^om sinking into barbarism.
The good police and the wise sentiments inculcated on the greater number of the tribes, form not only a powerful rampart to keep up the Hindu nation in a state of civilization, but serve to counterbalance in a certain degree the evil -effects which a religion that encourages vice and the depravity of morals by all its ceremonies would certainly occasion, if it were not counteracted by the sentiment of the people.
In India, where the Princes live in extreme indolence, and take little pains to make their people happy by the reign of justice and good morals, there are no other means of attaining this end and of preserving good order but by the authority and customs of the casts. The worst of it is that in many cases this authority is not sufficiently extensive, while in many others it is employed in animadverting upon transgres- -àions of fi*ivolous rites rather than in extirpating real crimes, for which a culpable indulgence is too fi-equently shewn.
This authority of the casts likewise forms a defence against the abuses which despotic princes* are «eady to commit Sometimes one may see
THE DIVISION OF CASTS. 1^
the traders through a whole canton shutting up their shops, the farmers abandoning their labours in the field, the different workmen and arti- sans quitting their booths, by an order from the cast, in consequence of some deep insult which it had suffered from a governor or some other person in office.
The labours of society continue at a stand until the indignity is re- paired or the injustice atoned for, or at least till the offended cast has come to an accommodation with the persons in power.
Another important advantage arising from the division into casts is the continuation of families, and of that species of nobility peculiar to the Hindus, which consists in never contaminating its blood with any foreign mixture. Each individual must unite only with one of his own family, or at least of the cast from which he sprung. In India the re^ proach will not hold, which is so oflen made in Europe, of families becoming debased and degenerate by unsuitable and ignoble connect tions. A Hindu of a good cast, without pedigree or any other tables of genealogy but the fact of his being bom of the cast, can point back* ward to his extraction for two thousand years, if he pleases, without fear of contradiction or the slightest suspicion of a blot in his pedigree. He may also, with no other recommendation than that of being a member of the cast, and in spite of poverty, aspire to advancement ; and wherever he goes he will be better received and more courted for an alliance than others in easier circumstances, but of blood less pure.
There are some districts and tribes, undoubtedly, where the purity of alliances is not so narrowly scrutinized. But this laxity is considered as derogatory, and as an open violation of propriety ; and it is so uni- versally condemned that those who are guilty of it conceal it as far as they are able, that they may avoid the public shame it would bring upon them.
I might be justified in asserting farther, that it is by the division of casts that the arts are preserved in India ; and there is no reason to doubt that they would arrive at perfection there, if the avarice of the rulers did not restrain the progress of the people.
J> 2
£0 ADVANTAGES RESULTING IHOM
It was with this view that the £g3rptians were so strictly divided intb tribes, because (as Bossuet observes) their wise legislators perceived tha( by such means all the arts and trades would arrive at perfection ; and that a person would learn to do that well which he had always had before his eyes, and which he had been constantly practising from his infancy.
This high perfection in art and manufacture would undoubtedly be attained by a people so patient and industrious as the Hindus, if it were not perpetually checked by that avarice of * their great men which I have before alluded to. For as soon as it is known that an artist of great skill exists in any district, he is immediately carried off to the palace of the ruler, where he is shut up for life and compelled to toil without remission and with little recompense.
This practice, which is common through all the provinces of India that are subject to princes, cannot fail to extinguish all industry and to deaden emulation. It may therefore be considered as the principal and perhaps the only cause which has kept the Hindu people so far be- hind other nations whom they have for so many ages preceded in civilization : for their artists and workmen are endowed with dexterity and industry, perhaps in a superior degree to the Europeans.
In the countries that are under the government of Europeans, where the workmen are paid according to their merits, I have seen many articles of furniture executed by the natives so exquisitely that they would have been ornamental in the most elegant mansion. Yet no other tools were employed in the manufacture but a hatchet, a saw, and ti plane, of so rude construction, that a European artisan could not have used them.
In those parts» I have known travelling goldsmiths, who, with no im- plements but what they carried in their moveable booth, consisting of a small anvil, a crucible, two or three hammers, and files, would execute with so simple an apparatus, toys aà neat and well finished as any that could be brought from distant countries at a great expence. To what perfection might not such men arrive, if they were instructed from their infancy under fit masters^ instead of being guided by. the simple dictates of nature ?
THE DIVISION OF CASTS.
^
In order to form a proper idea of what the Hindus are capable of, in arts and manufactures, if their natural industry were properly en- couraged, it is only necessary to go into the work-shop of one of their weavers, or painters on cloth, and to attend . minutely to the humble -machinery with which they execute those beautiful muslins and match- less cloths which are every where admired, and constitute the finery of Europe. In performing those ingenious labours, the workman em- ploys his feet as much as his hands.
On the other hand, the weaving loom, the whole apparatus for spinning the thread before it is woven, and all the utensils necessary for his trade, are so few and simple, that altogether they form no heavy ioad for a man to carry ; and it is no uncommon thing to see one d^ those artisans who manufacture the splendid works we have mentioned, moving fi-om one village to another, bearing on his back every thing that is necessary for commencing his work the moment he arrives.
Their paintings on cloth, which are not less admired than their worics of the loom, are performed with means as little complicated. Tliree or four bamboos to stretch the cloth, two or three pencils to apply the colours, a few bits of a broken dish to hold the paints, and a piece of stone to grind them, are the only implements of the cloth painter.
I will now venture one political reflection on the advantages produced .by the division into casts. In India, paternal authority is but little respected ; and the parents, partaking of the indolence so prevalent over all* the country, are at little pains to inspire into their children that filial reverence which is the greatest blessing in a family, by pre- serving the subordination necessary for domestic peace and tranquUlityi The afiection and attachment between brothers and sisters, never very ardent, almost entirely disappears as soon as they are married* AAer that event, they scarcely ever meet, unless it be to quarreL
The ties of blood and relationship are thus too feeble to afford that strict union, and that feeling of mutual support which . are required in a civilized state. It became necessary therefore to unite them into great corporations, where the members have à commod interest in supporting and defending one another*. And» ..to malœ
^ ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM
this system effectual, it was requisite that the connection which bound them together, should be so intimate and strong as that nothing Can possibly dissolve it
This is precisely the object which the ancient legislators of India have attained by the establishment of the different casts. They have thus acquired a title to glory without example in the annals of the world ; for .their work has endured even to oiu: days, for thousands of years, and has remained almost without change through the succession of ages and the revolutions of empires. Often have the Hindus sub- mitted to a foreign yoke, and have been subdued by people of different manners and customs. But the endeavours of their conquerors to impose upon them their own modes have uniformly failed, and have scarcely left the slightest trace behind them.
The authority maintained by the casts has every where preserved their duration. This authority in some cases is very large, extend- ing, as we have already observed, to the punishment of death. A few years ago, in a district through which I was passing, a man of the tribe of Rajaputras, put his own daughter to death, with the approbation of the people of his cast, and the chief men of the place where he resided. His son would have shared the same fate if he had not made his escape ; but no person imputed any blame to the Rajaputra.
There are several other offences, real or imaginary, which the casts have the power of punishing capitally.
A Pariah who should disguise his real cast, and, mixing with the Brahmans or even with the Sudras, should dare to eat with them or touch their food, would be in danger of losing his life. He would be overwhelmed with blows on the spot, if he were discovered. But a capital punishment, inflicted under such circumstances, would not be considered as a judicial act, but rather as proceeding from an imme- diate feeling of indignation, as a burst of zeal or noble fanaticism ; of which we have some examples in the history of the Jews.
But, though the punishment of death is authorised in certain cases by some of the casts, it is inflicted but seldom. Ignominious punish- ments are more common ; such as shaving the heads of lewd women.
THE DIVISION OP CASTS. 23
Sometimes the criminals are forced to stand for several hours in presence of the chiefs of the cast assembled, with a basket on their heads filled with earth ; sometimes they are set upon an ass with their face towards the tail. On some occasions their faces are smeared with cowdung ; or the cord is stripped from those who have the right to wear it. At times they are expelled from the tribe ; or some other mark of ignominy is inflicted.
« •.
( 24 )
CHAP. III.
EXPULSION . 1?R0M THE CAST.
CJF all sorts of punishment, the most severe to a Hindu is that of being cut off and excluded from his cast. The right of inflicting it belongs to the Gurus of whom we shall afterwards speak ; or, where there are none, it is assumed by the chiefs belonging to the body. These may generally be found in every district of moderate extent, and recourse is had to theiti in all cases relating to the police of the cast Hiey are assisted in their office by the elders or principal men of the place where they are consulted.
Expulsion from the cast, which is the penalty inflicted on those who are guilty of infringing the accustomed rules, or of any other offence which would bring disgrace on the tribe, if it remained unavenged, is in truth an insupportable punishment. It is a kind of civil excommu- nication, which debars the unhappy object of it from all intercourse whatever with his fellow creatures. He is a man, as it were, dead to the world. He is no longer in the society of men. By losing his cast, the Hindu is bereft of friends and relations, and often of wife and children, who will rather forsake him than share in his miserable lot. No one dares to eat with him, or even to pour him out a drop of water. If he has marriageable daughters they are shunned. No other girls can be approached by his sons. Wherever he appears, he is scorned and pointed at as an outcast. If he sinks under the grievous curse, his body is suffered to rot on the place where he dies.
Even if, in losing his cast, he could descend into an inferior one, the evil would be less. But he has no such resource. A Sudra, little scrupulous as he is about honour or delicacy, would scorn to give his
II
EXPULSION FROM THE CAST. 25
daughter in marriage even to a Brahman thus degraded. If he cannot re-establish himself in his own cast, he must sink into the infamous tribe of the Pariah, or mix with persons whose cast is equivocal. Of this sort there is no scarcity wherever the Europeans abound. But, unhappy is he who trusts to this resource. A Hindu of cast may be dishonest and a cheat ; but a Hindu without cast has always the re^ . putation of a rogue.
The exclusion from the cast is frequently put in force without much ceremony; sometimes even out of hatred or caprice. These cases happen when individuals, from whatever motive, refuse, in whole or for the greater part, to assist at the marriages or funerals of any one of their relations or friends, or to invite, on ''such occasions of their own, those * that have a right to be present. Persons excluded in this way never fail to commence proceedings against those who have offered them the insult, demanding reparation for their wounded honour. Such instances are commonly terminated by arbitration, and in that case the exclusion is not attended with the hateful and ruinous consequences before de- scribed.
It is not necessary that offences against the usages of the cast should be either intentional or of great magnitude. It happened to my know- ledge not long ago that some Brahmans who live in my neighbourhood! having been convicted of eating at a public entertainment with a Sudrat disguised as a Brahman, were all ejected from the cast,^ and did not re^ gain admission into it without undergoing an infinite number of cere-» monies both troublesome and expensive.
I witnessed an example of this kind more unpleasant than what I have alluded to."^ In the cast of the I^eyars, the parents of two families had met and determined on the union of a young man and girl of their number. The usual presents were offered to the young woman, and other ceremonies performed which are equivalent to betrothing among us. After these proceedings, the young mail died, before the time ap» pointed for accomplishing the marriage. Afier his death, the parents of the girl, who was still very young, married her to another. This was against the rules of the cast, which condemn the betrothed girl to remain in a stat;e of widowhood^ although the husband for whom she
2S EXPULSION FROM THE CAST.
was destined dies before marriage. Accordingly all who had assisted at the ceremony or who had been present at it, were cat off from the cast, and no one would afterwards form any connection with them. Long after this happened, I have seen some of the individuals^ ad- vanced in age, who remained in a solitary state for this reason alone.
Another incident of this kind occurs to me, which was rather of a more serious complexion than the preceding* Eleven Brahmans, in travelling, having passed through a country desolated by war, arrived at length, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, at a village, which, contrary to their expectation, they found deserted. They had brought with them a small portion of rice, but they could find nothing to boil- it in but the vessels that were in the house of the washer^man of the village. To Brahmans, even to touch them would have been a defilement alraort impossible to efi&ce. But being pressed with hunger they bound one another to secrecy by an oath, and then boiled their ' rice, in one of the pots, whidi they had previously washed a hundred times.' One of them alone abstained from the repast, and as soon as they reached their home, he accused the other ten before the chief Brahmans of the town. The rumour quickly spread. An assembly is held. The delinquents are summoned, and compelled to appear. They had been already ap- prised of the difficulty in which they were likely to be involved } and when called upon ta answer the charge, they unanimously pro- tested, as they had previously concerted, that it was the accuser only that was guilty of the fault which he had laid to their charge. Which side was to be believed? Was the testimony of one man to be taken against that often? The result was, that the ten Brahmans were declared innocent, and the accyser, being found guilty, was expelled with igno- miny from the tribe by the chiefs, who though they could scarcely doubt of his innocence, yet could not help being offended with the dis- closure he made. •
From what has been savl» it will no longer be surprising that the Hindus should be as much attached to their casts as the gentry of Eu- rope are to their rank. Prone to abusive altercation, they use the most unmeasured language to each other, and instantly forget it : but if one
EXPULSION FROM THE CAST. 27
should say of another that he was. a man out of cast» it would be an in- jury that could admit of no pardon.
From this attachment to cast arises that which they entertain for their customs, which may be said to constitute their whole police. It is an attachment which is often more powerîul than the desire of life ; and in certain cases death would appear the lighter evil ; as, for ex- . ample, in eating food dressed by the Pariahs. I have seen examples of this feeling; and if I have met with still more instances of the contrary, these were at least concealed.
Upon the same principle, we are to account for the hatred and con- tempt which the Hindus bear to all other nations and particularly the Europeans. These from being but little acquainted with the usages of the natives, or out of carelessness, openly violate them upon a^ occa- sions. They never shew the smallest desire to conciliate the regard of the people among whom they live, by making any sacrifice to their pre- judices. But what the Hindu conceives to be the greatest indignity is their taking Pariahs for their servants, or keying women of that abo- minable cast The proud Hindu, on observing this, immediately concludes, as his habits and education lead him to do, that master and servant, husband and wife are all of one tribe, and that all Euro- peans are of the vile cast of the Pariah ; because, according to their notions, Pariahs alone would edmit other Pariahs into their service. Their principles, however, do not hinder them, upon this point, to act with the lowest submission when their interest requires it
£ 2
( 28 )
CHAP. IV.
RESTORATION TO THE CAST.
XIlFTER exclusion from the cast, the individual may be reinstated, in several cases. When the exclusion has proceeded from his relations, the culprit, after gaining the principal members, prostrates himself in à humble posture before his kindred assembled on the ocpasion. He then submits to the severe rebukes which they seldom fail to admini- ster, or to the blowa and other corporal chastisement to which he is sometimes exposed, or discharges the fine to which he may be con- demned ; and, aitet shedding tears of contrition, and making solemn promises to efface, by his future good conduct, the infamous stain of hia expulsion from the cast, he makes the Sashtangam^ or prostration of the eight members, before the assembly. This being completed, he is declared fit to be reinstated in his tribe.
f m
As we shall often have occasion to make mention of the Sashtangam in the course of this work, it is now proper to give a definition of the word. It signifies literally with the eight members of the body; because when it is performed, the feet, the knees, the belly, the stomach, the head, and the arms must touch the ground. This is the greatest mark of reverence that can be given. It is used nowhere but in the presence of those to whom an absolute and unlimited deference is due. This reverence is made only before the highest personages, such as kings, guru3, and others of lofty rank. A child occasionally performs it before its father ; and it is common to see it practised by various casts of Hindus in presence of the Brahmans.
This sign of reverence is not confined to the Hindus, but is common to several other nations of Asia ; which is confirmed by the most ancient
II
RESTORATION TO THE CAST. gg
of all books, the Bible, where this extraordinary mark of reverence is called by the name of adoration^ even when it is applied to mere mortals* It is said in the book of Genesis that Abraham ran to meet them firofa the tent-door, " and bowed himself toward the ground*." Lot also, "rose up, and bowed himself with his face. toward the ground f .'* In the in- terview with his brother Esau, Jacob " bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came ne^r to his brother :[:." In the history of Joseph the same obeisance is more than once described §. There are many other passages in scripture where this salutation is alluded to^ from which it appears that this extraordinary degree of respect was em- ployed amongst the 1[^haldeans, Egyptians, . and other ancient people commemorated in the sacred writings, under circumstances and for purposes exactly similar to those in which it is still employed to this day in India.
When a man is expelled from his cast for reasons of great moment, they sometimes slightly bum his tongue with a piece of gold made hot^ They likewise apply to different parts of the body iron stamps, heated to redness, which impress indelible marks upon the skin. In other parts they compel the culprit to walk on burning embers ; and, last of all, to complete the purification, he must drink the Panchakaryam; a word which literally signifies ihejive things; which are so many substances that proceed from the body of the cow, namely, milk, butter, curd, dung, and urine, all mixed together. This is a term not to be forgotten, as it will frequently occur in the course of this work. The last of the five things, namely the urine of the cow, is held to be the most efficacious of any for purifying all imaginable uncleanness. I have often seen the super- stitious Hindu accompanying these animals when in the pasture, and watching the moment for receiving the urine as it fell, in vessels, which he had brought for that purpose to carry it home in a fresh state ; or catching it in the hollow of his hand to bedew his face and all his body. When so used it removes all external impurity ; and when taken internally, which is very ccytnmon, it cleanses all within*
* Gen. chap, xviii. 2. f Gen. chap. xix. 1.
% Gen. chf^. xxxiii. 5. $ Gen. chap. xlii. 6. chap, xliii. 26. chap. L 18.
30 KBSTORATION TO THE CAST.
The ceremony of the Pandiakaryam bemg closed, the person who had been expelled must give a grand entertainment. If he be a Brah- man he gives it to the Brahmans, who flock to it from all parts ; or if he belong to another cast, those that belong to it are his guests. This finishes the whole ceremony, and he is then restored to all his privileges.
There are certain oâfences, however, so heinous in the eyes of Hindus as to leave no hope of restoration to those who have been excluded from their cast for committing them. Such would be the crime of a Brahman who had publicly married a woman of the detested tribe of the Pariah. If the woman Were of any tribe l&s base, it is possible that, after repudiating her, and disclaiming all his children by her, many acts of purification and a large expence might at length procure his restoration. But very different would be the case of one who should be so abandoned as to eat of the flesh of a cow, supposing the idea of such enormous wickedness to enter into the heart of a Brahman or any other Hindu of respectable cast. If such a portentous crime were by any possibility committed, even by compulsion, the abhorred perpetrator would be beyond all hope of redemption.
When the last Musalman prince reigned in Mysore, and formed the ambitious desire of extending his. religion over all the peninsula of India, he seized a great number of Brahmans and had them circumcised. Afterwards he made them eat cows' flesh, in token of renouncing their cast and their customs. After the war which liberated that people firom the yoke of the tyrant, I know that nqt a few of those who had been forced to become Musalmans, made every efibrt, by ofiering large sums of money, to be re^admitted into their cast, which they had not abandoned but through force* Assemblies were held in different parts for examining into this business, and the heads of the cast, out of which they were formed decided unanimously that, after many ceremonies and expensive purifications, those who petitioned for re-admission might be cleansed from the complicated pollution contracted in their commu* nication with the Moors. But when it was ascertained that those who were circumcised had been also under the necessity of eating cows' flesh, it was decided with one voice, in, all their assemblies, that a pol->
RESTORATION TO THE CAST.
SI
lution of that nature and such a prominent crime could by no means admit of forgiveness ; that it could not be obliterated by presents, nor by fine, nor by the Panchakaryam. This decision was not- confined to the cast of the Brahmans ; for I know well that many Sudras in the same situation had no better success, and were all obliged to continue Musalmans.
The Rajaputras, as well as the good casts among the Sudras, are still more difficult than the Brahmans in receiving back those who have been expelled. Amongst the former, indeed, this degrading punishment is not inflicted but upon grave offences ; whereas among the latter it is the punishment of slight breaches of their customs. .
But whatever the cast may be from which one has been expelled, much cost and many ceremonies are required to reinstate him. Even when he has regained his place, he never overcomes the scandaL The blot continually remains ; and in any altercation he Hiay &11 into, his former misfortune is sure to be commemorated.
( 32 )
CHAP. V.
ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF THE CASTS.
JN OTHING in the world appears to be of greater antiquity than the casts of the Hindus and the customs which pertain to them. The an- cient Greek and Latin aujthors who have made mention of India, speak of those institutions as the groundwork of Hindu civilization established from time immemorial. The inviolable attachment of that people to their customs is a strong evidence of their antiquity. They are bred in the principle of invariably clinging to their customs, so that any new habit is a thing unheard of among them ; any man attempting to in- troduce one would rouse the whole nation and would be proscribed as a dangerous innovator. So difficult would it be, that I believe it has never yet entered into the imagination of any intelligent Hindu. Every thing relating to their customs proceeds evenly, and is transacted with inflexible uniformity, and the minutest particulars are treated as of the utmost importance ; because they have been taught that it is by the strict nicety with which small matters are attended to that the most momentous concerns are sustained. Accordingly there is no na- tion on the earth that can boast of having kept up for so long a time its domestic rules and customs without any perceptible change.
• Some modem philosophical writers among them, such as Vemana, who has written his performance in the language of Telingana ; and Tiruvaluven who has written his in the Tamul, are distinguished highly, and have made the Hindu customs the subject of their satire, throwing the sharpest ridicule upon the religion and habits of the country. But while these authors are exercising all their skill and raillery in ridicul- ing the religious ceremonies established in the nation, they never fail
ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF THB CASTS. 33
to recommend the practice of them, and are strictly attentive to it themr selves. The works of the two authors I have named are always read and quoted with delight by all intelligent Hindus, although there be not a page in their writings that does not contain satirical reflections aimed at their gods and the worship and rites of the country.
One of the most artful contrivances made use of by the early Hindus for preserving their customs, has been that of clothing them with cere- monies, which make a strong impression on the senses, and communi- cate something holy to the practice. These ceremonies are rigorously observed. It is never permitted to any one to treat them as matters of form which may be practised or omitted at pleasure. The omission of any, even of the least important, would not be allowed to pass unpu* nished. •
Some of their most important tenets are not peculiar to them, but are common to all ancient nations. The rule of marrying within the family is of this sort. We find in the holy Scripture that Abraham married his niece; -and it is probable that it was a general custom among the Chaldeans. Farther, he sent to a far country to bring a kinswoman for his son Isaac Rebecca could not pardon her son Esau for giving her strangers for her daughters-in-law, that is to say Canaanites ; and she sent her best beloved son Jacob to marry .in their own family, distant as it was. It had passed into a custom therefore, with them, as well as with the Hindus, to intermarry with their own kindred. Of the latter people, when settled in a strange country, it is the usual practice to send perhaps upwards of a hundred leagues to the place of their nativity for wives and husbands to their sons and daugh- ters. As to the distinction of casts, Moses introduced it among the Israelites, as we have elsewhere remarked. Besides having the com- mand of God, he must have seen this division of the people into tribes while he sojourned in Eg3rpt. He was educated there, and must have perceived the advantage which that system produced in maintaining good order; and therefore, in legislating for the people of God and establishing amongst them the division into tribes, he adopted and improved the political system of the Egyptians aifd Arabians.
34 ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF THE CASTS.
But the origin of the casts amongst the Hindus goes back to a much higher aera than that of any other people, if credit be given to their ancient books, in which it is written that the whole was the work of the God Brahma, when he replenished the earth with inhabitants. From his head sprung the Brahmans'; the Kshatriya or Bajas, from his shoulders ; the Vaisya or merchants from his belly ; and the Sudras or farmers from his feet.
It is easy to perceive that this tale is a pure allegory, alluding not only to the rank which the casts maintain in relation to each other, but also to the different functions of those who compose them. The Brah- mans, no doubt, being generally engaged in the spiritual concerns of life, must have burst from the head of the Creator. Power being the attribute of the^Rajas who were ordained to the arduous duties of war ; from whence could their origin be derived but from the shoulders and arms of Brahma ? The Merchants, solely occupied in providing food, clothing and other necessaries of life, were no less appropriately drawn from the belly of the god : and the plodding Sudras, doomed to the humble drudgery of the field, were sliaken out of his feet.
Dropping this fabulous origin of the casts, which is familiar to every Hindu, their writers give countenance to another, which refers that es- tablishment to the remote sera of the subsiding of the universal deluge : for this awful event, which made a new world, was almost as distinctly known to the Hindus as to Moses.
We will revert to this subject hereafi;er j but in the meantime we may observe that a famous personage, distinguished by the Hindus under the name of Manu was saved from the flood by the aid of a bird» together with the seven famous penitents who will be mentioned in the next chapter. After the flood, this new renovator of the human race, discriminated men, as Hindu authors say» into the different casts which still prevail in India.
The name Manu deserves notice. Whatever may be the etymology of the word, the similarity of sound seems to point out Manu to be the same as the Menés of the ancient Egyptiaiis, and the great Noah of the Scripture, who stands the highest in consideration and the most venerable of mankind afler Adam.
( 35 )
CHAP. VI.
THE FABULOUS ORIGIN OF THE B RAHMANS. — ON THEIR NAME AMD ORIGINAL
FOUNDERS. CONJECTURES ON THEIR REAL ORIGIN.
X HE true origin of the Brahmans, as well as that of the other Hindu tribes, is not distinctly known ; and we are therefore reduced to fables or mere conjecture.
The fabulous tradition which is most current among them is that which derives them from the head of Brahma ; and they draw their name from his. The other casts, having sprung from the same stem, would seem entitled to bear the same appellation. But the Brahmans being the first, and emanating from the noblest part of their common father, consider themselves exclusively entitled to that sacred name.
They also produce other claims to establish their sole right to this venerable titlç. The Brahmans, they say, were the first to comprehend Brahma in perfection ; and having the clearest conception of this great being, it pertains to them only to explain his nature and attributes to the other tribes. They alone have the distinguished privilege of perusing the books that treat of this divinity; and, for these and many other reasons not less conclusive, they assume the name of Brahmans.
But, however well founded their pretensions may be to this great distinction, certain it is, that they derive it from the word Brahma. In the scientific languages of the country, they are called Brahmana from which the name Bracmanes used by the Latin authors is undoubt- edly derived.
A Brahman is in a very different situation from a Raja^ a Vaisya^ or a Sudra. These are born in the condition in which they continue jto live. But a Brahman becomes such only by the ceremony of the
P 2
35 FABULOUS ORIGIN OF THE BRAHMAN8.
Cord, which will be afterwards fully explained. He is till then only a Sudra; and by bjrth he possesses nothing that raises him above the level of other men. It is after this rite that he is called Dwija (twice born). The first birth adniits him to the common rank of mortals ; the second, which he owes to the ceremony of the triple cord, exalts him to the lofty rank of the tribe to which he belongs.
The seven casts of the Brahmans have for their special origin the seven famous Riihis or penitents. Two of these were not originally of that rank ; but they practised so long and so severe a penance, that they obtained the remarkable favour of being raised to it by the ceremony of the cord. From penitent Rajas they became penitent Brahmans ; and their rise was from a still lower rank, if we believe what is sung upon the subject by the philosophical poet Vemanah.
These seven RUhis or penitents, of whom frequent mention will be hereafter made, are highly celebrated in the annals of the country. They are the holiest and most venerated personages that the Hindus acknowledge. Their names are held sacred and are invoked by all the people. They are inculcated on their children ; and are as follows : KdsyapQj Atrij Bharadwajuj Oaviama^ ViswamUra^ Jafnadagni^ Fo- sukta. It was Vamhta and Viswamitra that were considered worthy, from the rigour of their penance, to be admitted into the cast of the Brahmans.
It is certain that these seven Rishis were of great antiquity, since they must have existed prior to the Vedas, which make mention of them in many passages. They were J&voured by the gods, and particularly by Vishnu, who preserved them at the time of the flood from the universal destruction, by making them and their wives embark in a ship in which he himself acted as the pilot.
Some of the gods have suffered not a little from incurring their displeasure ; for even against them the wrath of the Rishis would pursue evil conduct and infamous debauchery.
The seven penitents, after giving an example on earth of all the virtues, were translated into heaven, where they still hold their place among the most brilliant of the stars. Those who have a desire to see them, have only to look up to the seven stars in the great bear ;
FABULOUS (»I01N OF THE BBAHMANS. 37
for these are no other than the seven famous Rishis themselves ; not emblematically, but in strict reality. And it is believed that, without ceasing to sparkle in the firmament, they can descend, and actually do pay an occasional visit to the earth to know what is going on.
If the fabulous stories which are told of the origin of certain great families in Europe shed a lustre upon them by proving their antiquity; how much more reason has the Brahman to vaunt his noble pedigree ? and if the honour of being sprung from an illustrious family, some* times leads its descendants to look down with contempt upon the lower ranks, we cannot surely wonder at the arrogance and haughtiness of the Brahman, and the high disdain which he shews to every cast but his own.
The idea of preserving the memory of their great men and of making them immortal, by assigning them a place among the con- stellations which shine in the sky, appears to be common to all ancient tribes. The worship of the stars accordingly seems to have been uni- versally and most religiously observed atnongst all idolatrous nations ancient and modem. This species of idolatry being the least un- reasonable of any, and of the longest duration, the lawgivers of antiquity and the founders of false, religions, perceiving the powerfiil hold which it had already acquired over the human mind, made use of it as the most efficacious means of perpetuating the memory of their heroes and other great men : for, by thus transforming them into stars, they set them up as objects always to be seen, and always to strike the observer. It was in this way that the Greeks and Romans con- secrated their chief divinities and most celebrated heroes ; and it was for the same purpose that the Hindus placed their seven famous Rishis in the brightest zone of the starry sphere ; being sure that this was the infallible method of keeping up their memory amongst a people in- sensible to all objects but those that strike vividly on their senses.
But there is at least one thing which is not fanciful in this question \ which is that in the countries situated to the north-cast of Bengal, beyond the Ganges, there were neither casts nor Brahmans till within these four or five hundred years. The people who inhabited those provinces, beginning then to see that it would be of advantage to them
^ CONJECTURES ON THE
to adopt the customs of their neighbours, demanded to have Brahmans» The order was soon created by selecting and setting apart a number of their youths, who were trained up in the manners of that cast ; into which they were duly embodied by the ceremony of the cord. From that period, they have been considered as true Brahmans, and hold equal rank with those who are of a far more ancient order.
In the southern countries they do not like to be reminded of this anecdote, although they are obliged to admit its authenticity, as well as that of the two penitents who were at first only Rajas.
There is a puzzling objection frequently urged against the Brahmans. If it be the ceremony of the cord, it is asked, that creates you Brahmans, how come your wives, who do not undergo that ceremony, to be any thing but Sudras ? You are therefore - married to wives not belonging to your cast ; a principle held sacred and inviolable amongst all Hindus.
Their solution of this difficulty is an answer that has been con* tinually made to all their antagonists ; namely, that they are guided in this particular by the usage of the cast firom time, immemorial.
After reporting what the fables of India afibrd respecting the origin of the Brahmans, I wish to ofier, with deference, what appears to me no improbable suggestion. What I am goipg to say may perhaps appear of little weight to most of my readers : but I give my opinion without arrogance, or the vain pretension of forming a connected system, where all the documents that can be had, are founded only on the most extravagant fables. My view of it may be tolerated by those who in the midst of the thick darkness in which the origin of nations is obscured, would rejoice in one spark that might serve to guide their steps, and assist them in discovering what at least approaches most nearly to truth.
It appears tolerably certain, that India has been peopled firom the earliest times, and not long after the deluge, which converted the earth into a vast desert. It is close to the plains of Shinar, where the descendants of Noah remained fixed for a long time. Its happy climate and fertile soil would naturally retain the wanderers who settled there. I need say nothing of the subsequent conquests of Hercules,
II
REAL ORIGIN OF THE BRAHMANS. 39
Bacdtus, and Osiris. The best authorities hold them to be entirely fabulous, though some are inclined to admit their history to be fun-' damentally true, and content themselves with rejecting its extravagant embellishments.
The history of Sesostris, though also abounding in fable, is evidently more connected and better founded. The few monumnts of antiquity that have descended to us, represent this celebrated hero as the greatest, and indeed the only warrior that pacific. Egypt can boast pf during its long career as an independent nation, extending to more than sixteen hundred years. He is also described as the inost extensive conqueror that ever existed on earth ; for the boundaries of his empire embraced the enormous sweep between the Danube and all the nations which then inhabited the provinces of India ; but his conquests there turned out to be neither more secure nor more permanent than those that were made, long afler, by his competitor in glory, Alexander the Great.
The establishments which were made by the Arabians in India, as they are represented by some modern writers, appear more plausible to superficial minds. The restless disposition of that people, the wandering life which they have always led, together with their vicinity to India, would seem to give a colour of probability to this opinion. Nay, its supporters may even add that it is from the Arabs that the Hindus derive their division into casts, and that it still subsists among the people of Arabia. But, in order to give weight to the supposition^ it would be necessary to prove that the division into casts has not existed amongst all ancient nations, and equally to the Arab and the Hindu.
It is not therefore through the channel of Egypt or Arabia that I am inclined to introduce the Brahmans into India. I do not conceive them to be the descendants of Shem, but of Japhet. I think it sup- posable that they penetrated into the country by the north or the north* west, and that we must seek for their origin in the long chain of mountains, known in Europe by the name of Mount Caucasus.
Their books make frequent mention of two celebrated mountains situated in the middle of Jambudwipa^ (which is their name also for the
40 OONJBCTURSS ON Tim
habitable world,) remotely situated beyond the most northern bounda- *ries: of India. One of these mountains is designated by the name of Maha Meru^ or Great Mem, and the other by that of Mount Man* dara. Frequent allusions to these two mountains, or, as I conceive^ to the same under different names, are made in the prayers of the ]^ahmans, in their religious and civil ceremonies, and in the principal occurrences of life. According to them and their books, this mountain is situated in the remotest quarter of the north, and from its bosom they still agree that their ancestors took their origin. This country, th^ tell us^ is so far distant, that its precise situation is unknown to the modem Brahmans ; and that is not very surprizing in a country whose inhabitants have so little knowledge of practical geography, that the utmost reach of it extends only to the Countries between Kasi and Cape Comorin.
It is in these retired regions of the north that they fix the residence
of the seven famous penitents of whom we have spoken, whom they
. consider as the first of their ancestors ; and from them proceeded
tibose descendants who gradually penetrated into the southern provinces
of India.
This notion of the first origin of the Brahmans deduced from the Hindu books, and kept up to this day by the members of that cast, is confirmed by the manner in which they treat one another. Those of the north of India consider themselves to be more noble and of higher distinction than those of the south; on the ground of their being less distant from their original seat, and consequently their descent firom the great fountain being less dubious.
The Seven Penitents, or Philosophers of the north, from whom they spring, may have been the seven sons of Japhet, who, with their father at their head, at the time of the dispersion of men, carried with them the third part of the human race towards the west. The whole of that family did not go over to Europe. Many of them having approached its boundaries, turned towards the north, under the direction of Magog, the second son of Japhet, and advancing through Tartary as far as Mount Caucasus, formed considerable colonies in that wide r^on.
REAL ORIGIN OF THS BRAHMANS. 41
I Am stating nothing here that is not conformable to the sense of Scripture and the interpretation of judicious commentators ; out of whose works it would be an easy matter to raise a vast pile of erudition. Indeed I should have odcasion to go no farther than to what Bochart and Calmet have written on the subject
The name of Magog may be traced among the Seven Penitents, from whom the Brahmans say they are descended. It seems to arise from that o( Gauta Maha. Ma or MaJha signifies gre(£t^ and GatUa is the same as Got or Gog^ the a before a vowel and the final a being • both elided in Sanscrit words : so that Gauta Maha, signifies the great Got. or Magog, Magoth.
The history of other ancient people would supply me with conjee^ tures for supporting the opinion I have embraced on the origin and antiquity of the Brahmans. The learned acknowledge several Frome-- theuses. The most famous was the Prometheus of Greece, whom they consider to be the son of Japhet. He formed men from the soil, in imitation of the gods, and animated them with the fire which he stole from heaven. This boldness irritated Jupiter, who bound him to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture constantly devoured his liver as it grew. This grievous punishmeijit continued till Hercules slew the vulture, and so delivered the son of Japhet. .
Was not Brahma the same as Prometheus ? The Indian god is also called Brahma^ and Prume in some dialects. These names well accord with the Prometheus of the Greeks. That is to say the god Promé or Prume is the same' as Brahma. The latter as well as the former, is re- garded as the author of the creation of men, who sprung from various parts of his body. He was their lawgiver, by the Vedas which he wrote with his own hand. He had more than once occasion for the aid of Vishnu, as Prometheus had for that of Hercules, in order to be de- livered from his enemies.
This claim of the Indian Prometheus to be recognized as the creator of men and as a god, has descended, at least in part, to the Brahmans, his eldest bom» They denominate themselves without ceremony5 and take the title, wit]^out any ofience to their modesty, of the God$ Brah^
42 CONJECTURES ON THE
tnanSf the Gods of the Earth ; and on certain occasions they receive the homage of being adored on bended knees, like deities.
Moreover, many learned authors, sacred and profane, have supposed that Prometheus, who wished to be accounted the creator of men, was no other than Magog himself. It is scarcely credible that at a period so near to the flood, the oblivion of the true God should have been so complete, as that the grandson of Noah should desire to pass for a god, but there is nothing improbable in supposing that his descendants might give him that title when idolatry had spread over the earth.
It was Magog that went to Tartary to establish himself there with such as chose to accompany him, when he had separated from the other sons of Japhet From thence, he or his sons, extended not only to India, but to other countries which were the inheritance of Shem and his poster rity. Thus was accomplished the prophecy of Noah, when he announced to Japhet that his posterity should be the most numerous, and that he should establish himself in the territory of Shem. ^' God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Gen. ix. 27.
But, granting.that the original natal soil of the Brahmans was Tar* tary, or the environs of Mount Caucasus, it will not be easy to determine the exact epoch of their establishment in India. It appears, however, that they were there, and in a flourishing condition, more than nine hundred years before the Christian aera ; for it is recorded that, about that time, Lycurgus went to visit them. The high reputation they had already acquired for learning, and particularly their skill in the occult sciences, had spread even into Europe, and appears to have at that distance de^ termined one of the wisest and most profound philosophers that anti* quity boasts of, to undertake a voyage into India to profit by the lessons and the example of those wise Brahmans, who had been settled there for ages. It is pretty clear that such a personage as Lycurgus was not likely to risk so painful and tedious a voyage if the reputation of the philosophers whom he went to consult had nqt been established long before.
. The Brahmans of those remote ages were indeed very diflferent in their principles and conduct from those of modern days. The former are represented in the Hindu books chiefly (if not exclusively) in the
ftEAL ORIGIN OF THS BRAHMANS. 43
light of penitents or philosophers» devoted wholly to the culture of scienœsy or to a life of contemplation and the practice of the moral vir-* tues. They did not at that time form a tribe wholly intolerant and exclusive, like the hermits of the present days. Neither could peni- tents of a different origin become Brahmans, and be initiated into their cast, by the ceremony of the Dakshina, or the investment of the triple cord: of which various proofs may be shewn in the Hindu books. . The simple and innocent manners of those early Brahmans, their contempt of honours and wealth, their moral virtues, and above all their temperance, raised them into respect amongst kings and people. For, even the monarch did not conceive himself degraded by paying such homage to them as he would not have exacted from his own subjects for himself
Those philosophers, secluded as they were, had wives, and multiplied exceedingly. The Brahmans of our days are their descendants. The present race, though altogether degenerate from the virtues of their ancestors, still preserve a great deal of their character and habits ; inas^ much as they shew to the present day a predilection for retirement and seclusion from the bustle of the world, selecting for their residence vil- lages quite retired, into which they permit no, person of any other cast to enter. Those villages, inhabited by none but Brahmans, are in great numbers in the present different divisions of the peninsula, and are generally described under the name of the Agragrama or superior villages.
The modern Brahmans approach nearer to the manners of their ances- tors, by their frequent feasts, their daily ablutions, and the manner, nature, and subject of their sacrifices ; and above all their scrupulous abstinence not only from meat, and all food that has ever had the prin- ciple of life, but also from many other productions of nature to which their prejudices and superstition have attached some idea of impurity.
The religious system of the modem Brahmans, and the irrational theo* logy which they have introduced into India, appear to me to be the parti- culars in which they have chiefly departed from the rules and precepts of their primitive founders. I am far from believing that the wise legislators who prescribed laws for the Hindus could ever have formed
G 2
44 CONJECTURES ON TÉEE
an idea of introducing among them a species of worship so abominable and so ridiculously absurd as that which we see in use amongst them at the present time.
Their mythology and the external objects of their worship were at first mere allegories, represented under visible shapes, for the purpose of engraving them more vividly on the memory of a people who appeared quite insensible to all objects that did not make an immediate im- pression on the senses. But men of a gross, indolent, careless, and superstitious disposition would naturally soon forget what the worship signified, and attach themsdves exclusively to the material objects re- presented in corporeal shape ; so that all perception of a latent meaning would gradually vanish.
But I shall have occasion to return to this subject in the course of the work. I shall only remark at present that, in my humble opinion, the worship whidh prevails in India, as well as the mythology on which it is founded, without excepting even the TrimurH^ and <!he Iraig tissue of absurdities which accompany it in tibie books where they are detailed, auch as the Four Vedoij the Eighteen PurandSy and other sacred com- positions, are not of very ancient date. So far from ascribing to any of them that high antiquity which modem writers have assigned to them, I believe that the fables on which the present religious worship of the Hindus is founded are of later invention than those of the Greeks.
The primitive religion of the ancient Brahmans appears to have been altered and almost wholly perverted by their successors. The first species of idolatry into which all nations fell as soon as they forgot the traditions of their first ancestors, concerning the unity of God, and the sole and exclusive worship which he requires fi'om all his creatures, was the adoration of the stars and of the elements. It appears that this was the worship that prevailed amongst the eremitical Brahmans or Peni- tents,^ firom whom those of the present day take their rise. It was not till long after their time, that their descendants, falling into the last stage of idolatry, fashioned images or statues, which at first were merely typical of the objects of their religion, but tvhich an ignorant race began at last to worship. It was then that India split into various schemes of religion, which subsist to the present times, and that bne
REAL ORIGIN OF THE BRAHMANS. 45
set embraced the fables of the Trimurti, and another the doptrines of Buddha.
These two sects are probably of equal date. The one may have been a corruption of the other : or both may have been drawn from the purer religion of the ancient Brahmans. Some modem authors h^ve imagined that the religion of Buddh or Buddha was anciently that pf all India.and probably of all A^ia, frpm Siberia to Cape Comorin and the Streights of Malacca, and from jthe Caspian Sea to the Gulph of Kamt;7 chatka. But, be this as it may, the \!^orship of Buddh pr BudcUia ap^ pears frilly as ancient as that of the Trimurti. It is well known that the former specie» of idolatry 19 still in vigour and prevails in T^rtary, in the two Thibets, and in China. It was introduced there froiQ. Slain and not through Cape Comorin, as La Lpubere has demonstrated in \m account of the kingdom of Slam. It is practised almost exclusively in the kingdoms of Pegu, of Las, of Camboyia, of Japan, and probably in all the countries beyond the Ganges. It extends al^ip to t]^e ^lan4 of Ceylon.. . i ■
Besides the worship c^ the Trimurti and th^t of Buddha, thq two predominant religions in India, there exists a third, whjich, till lately, had been but little known. It is that of the Jainas, which keeps aloof from the rest, and equally detests the Brahmans and the BuddJ^ists^aud their respective doctrines.
The Jainas maintain that the Trimurti and Buddhism, are both modem innovations, of evil tendency, and corruptions of the primitive religion of India, which they insist is exclusively maintained by them- selves. They affirm that they are the only successors of the ancient Brahman devotees, whose practice and doctrine Jthey preserve ; wjtiilst the. modem Brahmans and the Buddhists are sadly tainted and dis- figured by the introduction of monstrous innovations which have over- run the country.
Thes^ innovations of the Brahmans Jn matters of religion wei^e not introduced without a long and violent opposition on the part of the Jainas. The latter assert|^ and the Brahmans admit, that the 3f al^man- ical worship at present professed in the country was not received till after a long and bloody war, in which the Jainas were subdued and
46Î CONJECTURES ON, àc.
reduced to the cruel necessity of submitting without reservation t& whatever conditions their enemies the Brahmans chose to prescribe. The Brahmanical system thus acquired the ascendant^ and perverted the popular faith.
But whatever may be the pretensions of the Brahmans, the Jainas and the Buddhists, concerning the antiquity of their religion and the various points of doctrine in which they disagree, it appears extremely probable that all three derive their origin from the same source. The iiuidamental dogma of the metempsychosis, which is common to all the three, and the worship which they equally pay to images, not dis* similar in form, and which appear to be nothing else than allegorical representations intended to pourtray to the external senses the object of their original devotion ; exhibit a striking resemblance among them. Their religious institutions also consist alike of priests, monks, and re^ ligious devotees ; they offer up in most cases the same species of sa- crifice ; and the language used by the priests in the discharge of their functions is also similar. This language is called Paliy and . is unques- tionably employed by the Bonzes or priests of Buddha in the kingdom of Siam, and derived from the Sanscrit, the only idiom used by the Brah- mans and Jainas of the peninsula in their ceremonies. These and many other points of coincidence among the three religions seem to leave little doubt of their origin being the same.
The sect of the Jaipas, though much spread over several provinces of the South of the peninsula, being but little understood by Europeans till of late, I propose, in an Appendix to this work, to give a short sketch of their doctrines and the principal points in which they differ from their enemies the Brahmans. I would have been likewise desirous to add a similar account of the doctrine of the Buddhists ; but not hav- ing succeeded in obtaining authentic documents concerning that sect, it is out of my power to satisfy the curiosity of my readers on that subject. Persons residing in the island of Ceylon, where the religion of Buddha prevails, might supply the defect which such an omission occasions in my worL
( 47 )
CHAP. VIL
OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF BBAHMANS.
X HE tribe of Brahmans is divided into seven branches, each of which recognises as its chief one of the famous penitents of whoni we have spoken in another chapter ; and each Brahman knows from which of the seven he is descended.
Another and a more general division separates them into four dis^ tinct classes, each of which appertains to one of the four Vedas. These Vedas are four books held by them in such reverence that no eye of any other cast has ever perused them. The Brahmans are so jealous about this privilege, or rather they have so great an interest in preventing the other casts from learning what these books contain, that they have invented a story, which obtains universal belief all over the country, that if a Sudra or any other of the profane should make an attempt to read even the title of these sacred books his head would instantly cleave asunder. They conceal them with the utmost care, and never read them but in a low voice, and never but where they are sure to be unseen. The least punishment that a Brahman would undergo who should have the boldness or indiscretion to shew these sacred vo- lumes to profane eyes, would be the expulsion from his tribe without hope of ever regaining it. We shall afterwards resume the subject of these books.
There are Brahmans denominated Yqjur Veda^ Sama Veda^ Rick
Veduj and Atharvana Veda. Of the last species there are very few,
and many people suppose they no longer exist. But the truth is, they
do exist though they conceal themselves with more caution than the
others, from the fear of being suspected to be initiated in the magic
II
4g OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF BRAHMANS«
mysteries and other dreaded secrets which this work is believed to teach. Any one saying that he had it in his possession, would not fidl on that ground alone, to be branded with the detested name of a magician.
At the great sacrifice of the Yqjna to be afterwards described^ Brahmans of all the four Vedas assist.
The prayers which the members of this tribe are bound to repeat three times daily, are taken firom those sacred books. They differ somewhat, according to the Veda fi*om which they are taken ; each Brahman extracting fi*om the Veda to which he is attached.
But in the intercourse of life, they appear to pay little attention to this distinction of Brahmans by the Veda, nor to give the preference to one Veda over another. Perhaps they are right in this; for if there be any truth in what the author of the ^Aag^at;a/a says, (a poem famous over India,) there was formerly no distinction of one Veda from another, and the whole composed but one work. It was the penitent Vyasa who divided them into four books. This same author of the Bhagavata has supplied an introduction and commentary to render the text more in- telligible. He ascribes also to Vyasa the eighteen Puranas; which, it is well known, are eighteen rhapsodies, each more ridiculous than another, giving a détail of the grossest fables of Hindu idolatry. *
Another race of Brahmans widely spread over the south of the peninsula, is formed of individuals of that tribe who profess a par- ticular veneration for Vishnu, and who bear imprinted on their fore- heads the mark of his particular worship, which is formed of three perpendicular lines joined at their base, and thus representing the figure of a trident. The middle line is red or yellow, and those on each side are painted with a piece of white earth, called Nama : and it is firom this that the whole figure goes by the name of Nama. Several casts of Ihe Sudras professing to do particular honour to Vishnu, also wear the Nama inscribed on their foreheads in the same manner as the Brahmans.
Those of the latter cast who bear the mark, are very numerous in the southern provinces of the peninsula within the Krishna, where they are generally known by the name of Vishnavansj which signifies
OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF BRAHMAltfS: 49
** devotees of Vishnu.'^ They are desirous of assuming an air jc^ superiority over the other casts of Brahmans, with whom they refuse to eat or to form alliances; but it is in fact the «other casts that reject them as being of a lower degree, on account of their associating themselves with a particular sect. This is displeaâing to the Brahmans in general, who being of a more liberal and tolerftnt disposition, give equal honour to the three great divinities of India without preferring one to the others. We shalt speak farther respecting this species of Brahmans in the following chapter.
The Brahmans called Saiva are the most despised of any belonging to this tribe. They appear to make a distinct biEind among themiselves, and to admit the superiority of the others. They are employed in many places as servants in the temples, to wash the idols, and bring up the offerings of incense, of flowers and fruits, of boiled rice and other things which are presented by the devout, and form the materials for the sacrifice.
In many pagodas the Sudras are employed in the same manner, as sacrificers. This office is assigned to them exclusively in the temples where fowls, sheep, hogs, buffaloes, and other living creatures are im- molated. It is probably by exercising this kind of service in the temples, that the Saiva Brahmans have fallen into such contempt. A servile office, which even a simple Sudra has the right to perform, is degrading in their estimation. The employment of Pvjari or sacrificer to a temple is not held very honourable amongst the Hindus, and the occupations carried on by such individuals are con-* sidered as purely servile. But where there is no other resource, -a man has no choice. ^^ To serve his belly, a man will play any game." Such is the favourite proverb of the Brahmans, which serves them for an excuse under all circumstances where their conduct is opposite to * their principles, and particularly in the case before ns.
I will say nothing of those who are called in derision FUsh Brahmane and Fish Brahmans. I have been assured that, in the north of India, and even on the Malabar coast, there are some of them who would eat of both, publicly and without scruple. And it is added, that this conduct, brings no reproach upon them from the Brahmans who abstain. But
50
OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF BRAHMANS.
whether this be so or not, it is certain that if Brahmans who eat meftt and fish were toiappear in the southern provinces, and were detected^ the Brahmans of the place would peremptorily refuse to eat with them, and would expel them out of their society, > Whether those * in , the south have refined on the practice, or whether the others have dege^ nerated fi'om the rules of their early ancestors, I will not attempt to decide. The second supposition, however, would appear to be the more probable, because the usages of the Brahmans, particularly as relating to abstinence fi'om. flesh meat, are less difiicult in the obser- vance in the warm countries of the south than they are in the cold or temperate regions of the north, ,
( 51 )
CHAP. VIIL
OF THE SECTS OF rXSlKSrir AND SIVA, — CAUSES OF THE OPPOSITION OF THE ORDINART BRAHltANS TO THE riSBNU BRAHMANS AND OTHER SECTARIES.
X HE great body of Hindus profess to pay equal honours to all the gods of the country, particularly the three principal pnes, Brahma^ Vishnuy and 5ii?a, without any preference of one to another. But great shoals of sectaries are likewise found among them, of whom some attach themselves exclusively to the worship of Vishnu, and some to that of Siva. The former are very generally known by the appellation of Vishnu Bater or Bhdktaru^ which signifies devotees of Vishnuj and the other by that of Siva Bhaktam or devotees of Siva, These are also called Lingadharij and the devotees of Vishnu Nama^ dhari. These last appellations are taken from the marks of distinction which each of the parties bears. That of the Vishnuvites is the Nama and is traced on the forehead, as has been described in the preceding chapter. On the other hand, that of the partisans of Siva is called the Linga, which they wear sometimes stuck in the hair or attached to the arm in a small tube of gold or silver; but it is more frequently seen hanging by a' riband from the neck, and deposited in a. silver box which dangles on the breast
Nothing can be imagined more infamous than this abominable token. We shall not describe it here, as we shall have occasion to notice it in another chapter, .and as.wé_ are : unwilling to stain the pages of our work by the repetition of impudent fooleries which disgust good sense, and inflict a wound on modesty.
In place of the Nama^ some devotees of Vishnu content them- sdves with drawing in a particular way a ' single perpendicular line of red do wa the middle of the forehead; and instead of the Z^tn^o^
H 2
•
THE SECT OF ViSHNU. •
some of the devotees of Siva are satisfied with rubbing the forehead and some other parts of the body with the ashes of cow dung.
Vishnu's worshippers are met with in great numbers in all the pro- vinces of the peninsula of India, and are known by the several names of Andhra, Dasaru, Purushutama, Ramanuja, Bhikhari, and some more.
Besides the Nama, the least ambiguous mark of this sect^ the greater number of its members may be discovered by the fantastic dress which they wear. Their clothes are always of the deepest yellow, bor- dering Upon red. Many of them wear across their shoulders for a doak, a kind of particoloured garment formed of patched work of all colours. The turban with which they cover the head is likewise made up of doth c^i three or four tints, braided with each odier. Some, in- stead of the clothing we have mentioned^ hatig a tyger's skin over their riioulders, wbidh reaches the ground. The most of them adorn their hecks with several rows of necklaces of black beads of the size of a niit.
.Besides their ridiculous dress, which frequently resembles that of Hariequin in a European pantomime, the disciples of Vishnu, when they travel or go a begging, equip themselves with a round plate of brass, about a foot in diameter, and a large shell called Sankha, shaped like a sea conch ; with either of which they can make a suffident noise to announce their approach from afar. With one hand they beat upon the brass plate with a stick, which makes a. sound like a bell, and at the 6ame time they apply the sankha to their mouth with the other hand^ and by blowing into it they raise a sound sharp and always monotonous. , îThese two last mentioned articles, the sankha and the drcular plate of brass, are always seen in the hands of that portion of the devotees of yishnu who make it their profession to solicit alms, and indeed are a àoTt of religious mendicants.
'f. These religionists of Vishnu, also, for the most part, wear a plate of i^pper on the breast, on which is engraved the image of Hanuman^ or some one of the Avatars^ or incarnations of their god. Besides this, many of them have numbers of little bells hung from their shoulders, and sometimes fastened on their legs, the tinkling of which announces ihdr approach from a; distance. Some of them add to all this apparatus
TBB SECT OF VISHNU; 53
ah iron ring which they carry on- their shoulders, at each side of which a chafing-dish of the same metal is suspended, for the purpose of carry- ing the fire which they use in burning the incense when they sacrifice.
The principal business of the devotee of Vislmu is to seek alms. It is a privilege inherent in the sect ; and in general, throughout India, every person of the religious calling exercises that profession as matter ' of right
It is chiefly when they go on a pilgrimage to some holy place that these religious beggars make use of this right. Sometimes one meets them in troops of more than a thousand : and in the districts through which they pass, they spread themselves in the different villages, where each of the inhabitants gives lodging to several of them{ l;y which means they savç the expence of travelling. In other circumstances, also, they generally go in bands to solicit alms, but not .in s\ich numbers as in their travelling excursions.
In all cases they demand alms with insolent audacity,, and often with threats, as a matter which is their due. When they are not readily served they redouble the uproar, setting up shouts all at once, beating on the sonorous plate of brass, and exciting harsh and shrill sounds from their sankha. If all this fails of. success, they sometimes enter into the houses, break the earthen dishes, and overturn every thing within their reach. •
It is commonly in a dance that these religious beggars ^ply for alms, singing hymns. in honour of their gods, and istiU more frequently indecent songs.
The devotees of Vishnu, and particularly the religious beggars of that sect, are detested by the people in general, chiefly on account of their intemperance. One would imagine that they give themselves up to that vice from as spirit of contradiction to their opponëilts the Linga- mites, whose extreme moderation in eating and drinking equals» if it does not surpass, that of the Brabmans, in imitation of whom they ab- stain fi-om all animal food. The sectaries of Vishnu, on the contrary, eat publicly of all sorts of meat, excepting that of the cow, and drink toddy, arrack, and all other liquors that the country supplies, without shame or restraint
54 THE SECT OF VISHNU.
^ ' They are reproached also with other vices of this sort,, and in parti* eular with being the chief promoters of that abominable sacrifice known by the name of Sati or Saktupuja^ of which we shall say more here- after.
Among the objects of worship held in the highest veneration by the Vishnu devotees, are the Ape, the Monkey, the bird called Garuda, and the serpent Capella. One would expose himself to serious conse^ quences who should be imprudent enough to kill or even to maltreat in their presence any of those animals. A man so offending would be forced to expiate his crime by the ceremony or sacrifice called the Pahvahdam.
The l^ahyahdam is known to very few, as I believe, and is therefore entitled to a: short description. It is a ceremony peculiar to the sect of Vishnu, and they resort to it only in circumstances of the weightiest kind, such as the necessity of expiating the crime of causing the death of any of the animals which are the objects of their worship ;, or for obtaining reparation for some breach of honour occasioned by any deep injury which an individual of their tribe may have received from some other person, and which would be felt as redounding to the disgrace of the sect if it remained unpunished. The Fahvahdam is a ceremony of the most serious kind, since it demands no less than the sacrifice of a human victim, and its* resuscitation afterwards.
As soon as it is publicly known that any one has given occasion for the Fahvahdam, by any of the crimes that have been mentioned, or by any deep insult cast upon the sect, the votaries crowd from all quarters to the place where the culprit resides, and having assembled to the number sometimes of more than two thousand, each bringing his sound- ing plate of brass, and his sankha or great shell, they proceed to the ceremony. The first step is to arrest the person who is the cause of their assembling, and then they spread a tent at a small distance, which is immediately encompassed with several ranks of partisans assembled for the occasion.
The chiefs having selected from the multitude a fit person who con- sents to become the victim for sacrifice, exhibit -him to the crowd of people collçctçd from all parts to witness the sight A small incision is
THE SECT OF VISHNU.
55
then made on his bellj^, deep enough for the blood to flow ; upon which the pretended victim shams a fainting fit^ tumbles on the ground, and counterfeits death. He is then carried into the tent which is fitted to receive him» and is there laid out as a corpse.
Of the great concourse of people gathered together, part watches night and day round the tent, which nobody is suffered . to approach ; while aiDother division surrounds the house of the individual who hasgiveh occasion for the ceremony. Both parties raise continual criés andiHght- fill bowlings, which being mixed with the clanking soUnd of the brazen plates and the shrill squeak of the sankha, produce a confusion and up- roar, in the midst of which it is almost impossible to exist. This over- whelming disorder continues without interruption till the person who was the cause of it pays the fine imposed upon him, which generally exceeds his means.
In the meantime the inhabitants of the village and of the neighbour- hood finding it impossible to live in the midst of the confiision and disorder occasioned by the fanatical crowd, come to terms with the chiefs and pay at least a part of what has been required of the culprit, in order to obtain a speedy termination to the Puhvahdam^ and to in- duce the great multitude to go to their homes.
The chieÊi, when satisfied, repair to the tent to conclude the cere- mony, which is effected by restoring to life the pretended dead man, who lies stretched out before them. For this purpose they chuse one of their number, and, making an incision in his thigh, they collect the blood which runs firom. it and sprinkle the body of the sham corpse, which being restored by the efficacy of this simple ceremony is delivered over alive to those who assist at it, and who have no doubt whatever of the reality of the resurrection.
Afl^er this ceremony, for effacing all traces of the crime or the affront which had been, complained of, the fine is laid out in a grand entertain- ment to all the persons present ; and when that is over, the whole of them quietly return to their homes.
It is not very long since the Fahvahdam was celebrated in a solemn manner in a village next to that where I lived. The cause firom which it originated was, that an inhabitant of that village had cut down (with-
II
56 "WïîS SECT OF SIVA.
out being aware of it, as it is sakl) a tree or shrub called Kakktatf-mara^ which produces yellow flowers, and to which the sectaries of Vishnu offer up adoration and sacrifices.
The sect of Siva is not less widely spread than that of Vishnu. It beats rule over severed provinces, of the peninsula. On the west, to the yvhole extent of diat long chain of mountains which make theis^ara* tion between the countries called by the Europeans by the generic natne of Malabar and Coromandel, the Lingamites or devotees of Siva compose at least* half the population, over a space of two or three hundred miles from north to south.
This sect has several customs'peculiar to itself. In common'with.the Brahmabs it will oh no account partake of animal food or of any thing that has enjoyed the principle of life, such as eggs, or of many of the simple productions of nature. They agree with the greater part of the other tribes in burying their dead and not burning them. But they difibr from the most of them in not admitting the principles so ge-* nerally adopted among all the other Casts respecting uncleatiness, and particularly that which is incident to women by child-birth, and periodical occurrences, or by the death and funeral of any relation ; as well as in some other domestic, regulations parti- cular to themselves, in which they seem to be at variance with the manner of living and the customs generally observed by the other Hindus.
Their disregard of the rules regarding uncleanness and the decent propriety of conduct, so religiously observed among all the other tribes, has given rise to a proverb which circulates in the country, the mean-^ ing of which is that there is no river for a Lingamite ; alluding to the people of that sect hardly in any case acknowledging tbe merit and vir- tue of the ablutions practised by the other Hindus.
The Ungamites, as well as the Vishnuvites, have* amongst them a great number of religious beggars under the names of Pandahram^ Wodyaruy Jangamuj and several others. The greater part of these devo- tees of Siva have no other means of living but by alms, which they demand in bodies ; with the exception of a few who live retired in àlàta$9 which are a species of convents usually having some lands at-
SECTS OF VISHNU AND SIVA. ffj
tached to them, the produce of which, together with the offenngf^ brought by the devotees of their sect, serve them for sustenance.: i
The dress of the penitents of Siva scarcely differs from that of the devo- tees of Vishnu, both being clothed in a way equally fantastical and ridicur lous. The colour of their garments is also the Cahvy ; that is a very deep yellow inclining to red. This colour is worn in general not only by the devotees of Siva and Vishnu, but also by all those who make re* ligion a profession; by the Fakirs,- Gurus, and all the Indian clergy, as uniformly as black is worn by the clergy of Europe.
The devotees of Siva have, nevertheless, some particular marks of dis- tinction, (independent of the Linga which they always wear) by which they* are easily known. Of this kind are the strings of large beads called Rudraksha, of the size and nearly of the shape and colour of a nutmeg, which they suspend at their, necks, and the ashes of cowrdung with which they daub thé forehead, the arms and several other parts of the body. • \
Among the objects of their worship, the two principal are the Linga and the Bidl, of which we shall afterwards speak at greater length.
Although the children commonly embrace the sect of their fathers; yet they are not by right of birth alone, entitled to become Vishnuvites or Lingamites ; they are not admitted into the sect of their parents until a certain age, and they are then associated- by the Guru of the sect, who administers to the candidates the ceremony of the Dîkshâ^ 'which means initiation. This solemn ceremony of the Dîkshâ, is a species of baptism amongst the Hindus ; and, indeed, the Christians in India give baptism the name of Jnâna Dîkshâ or spiritual initiation!. 'The ceremony we have been describing consists in pronouncing over the novice sevrai Mantras or prayers, adapted to the occasion, and in whispering in his ear certain secret instructions. But the whole is done in a language generally not understood by the Guru himself who presides at the ceremony. After the Diksha, the newly initiated acquire a perpetual right' to all the privileges belonging to the sect into which they are admitted.
' Peisons of any cast may be admitted into the sect of Vishnu, and ,then they may. bear the Nama on the forjehead, which is its distin-
1
5g ^SBCTS OF VISHNtJ AND SJVA.
guishiDg mark. Even the Pariahs^ or any of the vilest tribes belongs ing to them^ will not be rejected.
I conceive also that all persons without distinction, may be permitted to join with the sect of Siva ; but as those initiated there must renounce for ever all animal food and inebriating liquors, a condition too hard to be easily submitted to by the low casts who are accustomed to those indulgences, we do not often see in the sect of Siva any other thaqi the best easts of the Sudras. There are some Pariahs in certain places, but they are very few in number. It is a common thing to see apostates gomg over from one of these sects to the other, as their int^est prompts them ; and some from spite or caprice.
Either of these casts will admit freely «ad without any examination such of the extraneous Hindus as shew a desire to be incorporated with them.
In some casts of the Sudras a lingular peculiarity in this respect may be observed, where the husband belongs to the sect of Vishnu and bears the madk of the Nama, while the wife adheres to the sect of Siva and shews the Linga. The husband eats animal food ; while the woman is absolutely debarred from it. But this difference of religion between t]^ husband and wife, disturbs in no degree the peace of the £unUy or tï^k conju^ happiness. Both follow quietly thdr separate modes of reli«- gion, and adore in their own manner the god they have severally chosen, without any disposition to contend with each other on the subject.
In other cases we see the two sects striving to exalt the respective deities whom they worship and to revile those of their opponents. The followers of Vishnu maintain that it is to the providence c^th^ir god that we owe the preservation of whatever exists in the/ universa They say it is to him that Siva owes hi^ birth and being, and that Vishnu has preserved him in many perils, which would otherwise have involved him in utter perdition. They vehemently insist that he is far superior to Siva and is alone worthy of all honour.
The disciples of 5îz;ci, on the contrary, no less obstinately afiirm that Vishnu is nothing, and has never done any act but tricks so base as to provoke shame and indignation. They confirm these assertions by some particulars in the life of that deity, which their adversaries cannot deny.
SECTS OF VISHNU JÙW SIVA. 59
nsA which certttnly do not redound to his credit. They hold that Siva is the only sovereign lord of all things that exist) and that he alone is entitled to our praises.
According to the Vishnuvites> one cannot fall into a deq[ier sin than by wearing ihe Linga or mark of Siva : while^ according to the votaries of this god, all who bear the Nama shall be tormented in hell, when they die, with a three pronged fork in the shape of that emblrai.
It is a very common ^tiling to see disputes and altercati<ms amongst these sectaries, of great vehemence, respecting the pre-eminence of their respective gods. These religious quarrels are generally fomented by the bands of vagabond fanatics, those religious mendicants who are to be found in crowds through the whole extent of the country.
In the throngs in which they frequently assemble to support the dig- nity of their respective gods, their fanaticism on some occasions rouses them to such a pitch that when they are tired out with pouring every species of abuse upon each other, and voiding the most abominable blasphemies against the deity they oppose, they sometimes -come tor blows,- and the religious controversy ends in a fi^t, in which there is rarely much spilling of blood, but a good belabouring with fisticuffs on both aides, the scattering-of many turbans, and the tearing of much apparel into rags. Thus the fray generally ends, without spirit .onr either side to carry it to extremities.
But it is in the naturally timid and indolent character of the Hindu that we are to seek for the true cause why these holy wars do not over^ spread the whole land, or produce the dreadful excesses of every kind which religious phrenzy has occasioned in Europe, and in other riions, for so many ages. . Or perhaps there is a still more powerful reason to be found in the indifierence of most of the people to all forms of wor- ship, which allows them to give equal honour to Vishnu aiid to Siva, without any concern about either, and at the same time disposes them to interfere between the religious combatants, and to mitigate the dis- putes in their origin.
But, nevertheless, if .we are to give any faith to a tradition, very ge^ neral in many province^, it is scarcely to be doubted that, even in recent times, there have been waged in many parts of the peninsula»
I 2
QQ . RELIGIOUS DISTINCTIONS;
general wars upon religion, excited by vast numbers- of fanatics who overran the country, and fomented also, as it. is believed, to the utmost of their power, by the Rajas and other princes, who supported sometimes the one sect and sometimes the other, as their interest re- quired, and became Vishnuvite or Sivite, and mounted the Lingaor the Nama, as best suited their temporal concerns.
Those who are acquainted with the nature of the. Vairagi and of the Gosain in the north of the peninsula, of the Dasaru and the Jaih- gama of the South, will readily believe that it would still be an easyr matter for two ambitious princes to arm, in the name of the gods and of religion, those bands of fanatics, from one end of the country to the other, impelling them to deluge the land with blood, unfurling the standard oî Hamman on one side, and that of Baswa on the other, and persuading them that they ware cutting each others throats for the in-' terest of religion. .
^ In the more limited contests about religion which actually take place^ the Vishnuvites appear the most violent and most bigotted. They are almost always the aggressors ; and the Sivites in general appear more peaceable and tolerant.
' The generality of the Hindus, and above all the* Brahmans, take no part whatever in those religious dissensions. The system of the latter is to hold in equal reverence the principal divinities of the country ; and although, upon the whole, they. appear more inclined to the wor- ship of Vishnu, they never pass a day without ofiering up in their houses a sacrifice to the linga, the idol of Siva.
, " The Vishnuvite Brahmans, making profession of honouring Vishnu,, if not exclusively, at least with a visible partiality, and upon many occa- sions expressing their contempt for Siva, it is not surprizing that the tole- rant party should look down upon them with eyes of contempt as a set of men that, by a marked adherence to such a sect, appear to place themselves on a level with the ofiscourings of the Sudras. i .
That which lessens them the most in the esteem of persons of their own tribe is the afiectation of appearing in public. with, the figure of Nama. engraved on their .foreheads, which we have, already, seen is the distiRctivebadgeof the followers of Vishnu* : This symbol is. uniformly
fiSLIGIOUS DISTINCTIONS. gl
adopted by alL the members of this sect^ whatever their cast or origin may be. But, to assume for an ornament a token which persons of *the lowest extraction, without excepting even the Pariahs, may wear, seems to the true Brahmans a self-abasement and a voluntary degradation to the level of those who are otherwise so much beneath them.
The same distance whidi the tolerant Brahmans observe towards the Vishnuvite Brahmans would be extended also to the Lingamite Brahmans if there were many of that persuasion. For my own part, I have never met with any of them, and I do not believe that there are any to be found in- the South of the peninsula, from the banks of the Krishna to Cape Comorin. Yet I have been informed (though not in a way to put the matterout of all doubt) that there are certain cantons in the North of, the peninsula where Sivite Brahmans are to foe founds bear-' ing the mark of the Linga like all other individuals of the cast.
The Vishnuvite Brahmans are not met with but in the Southern, pro- vinces of India situated .on this side of the Krishna. None are seen bevond that river. . i . ^
The contempt which the tolerant Brahmans manifest for thé Vish- nuvite Brahmans is not wholly confined to them : the same feeling; of aversion being universal^against this class of Brahmans, whom I never heard mentioned but in terms of reproach and contempt. I do :not conceive, however, the feeling of dislike for them on the part of the Sudras can have arisen out of the special attachment of that class of Brahmans to the sect of Vishnu ; but that it is rather to be ascribed^to their extreme haughtiness and their insolent b^aviour to all othà* tribes. And though t^e vices imputed to them are common to the whole Brahmans, yet it is universally observed that they belong to the. Vishnuvite cast of them in ahigher degree than to the others. ... ; jj
But, however that may be, it is certain that this sect of . Brahmansr ttands aloof from the rest. The tolerant Brahmans do not admit* then; to their tables or to their ceremonies; and they, , in their tiim, axe lex^ eluded under the same circumstai^ces, by the Vishnu vites. The-fes^. trangement and distrust which they mutually ente;rtain is visiblerki;the: whole intercourse of society. The tolerant Brahmans^ iwheiiiiûpipàiiier^; invest the Vishnuvite Brahmans with no employments of trust, and they
II
( 64 )
CHAP. IX.
OP THÉ GURUS OR PRIESTS OF INDIA.
X HE word Guru properly means master; whence fathers and mothers are sometimes called Mahd-gurus^ or great masters of their families ; kings the Gurus of the kingdom, and masters Gurus of their servants.
But the appellation is specially applied to certain persons of dis- tinguished rank who attain a character of sanctity, which invests them with power both spiritual and temporal. The latter consists chiefly in a superintendance over the different casts, by inforcing the due observance of their general and particular customs, and punishing the refractory. They have also the power of expelling from the tribe, and of restoring those who had been expelled.
Besides this temporal authority, which is never called in question, they possess an equal extent of spiritual jurisdiction. The sashtanganiy or prostration of the eight members, is made before them, and when followed by their benediction, or asirvadam^ is effectual for the re- mission of all sins. The look even of a Guru has the same efficacy. Their prasadam^ or present, which they confer upon their disciples, consists in some matter otherwise of small value, such as a portion of cow-dung ashes, to beautify the forehead, flowers that were previously offered up to the idols, the crumbs from their meals, or the water in which they had washed their feet, which is preserved and sometimes drank by those who receive it. These and other things of the like nature, or indeed whatever comes from their holy hands, possess the virtue of purifying body and soul from all uncleanness.
But if the benediction of the Gurus and the other little tokens of their favour, which they bestow on their disciples, have so wonderfiil an
THE GURUS OR PRIESTS. 65
influence in attracting the respect and reverence of the silly populace ; their curse, which is not less powerful, fills them with terror and awe. The Hindu is persuaded that it never fails to take effect, whether justly or unjustly incurred. Their books are full of fables which seem invented for the express purpose of inspiring this belief; and, to, add greater force to it, the attendants of the Guru, who are interested in the success of the impostor's game, do not fail to recount many marvellous stories respecting him, of which they pretend to have been eye-witnesses ; and to avoid any possibility of detection, they lay the scene of the miracles in some distant country.
Sometimes they tell of a person struck dead on the spot by the curse of the Guru : sometimes of one suddenly seized with a shivering through every joint, which goes . on, and will never cease until the malediction is stayed. At other times it is a pregnant woman whom they describe as miscarrying by it ; or a labourer, perhaps, that was doomed to see all his cattle perish in a moment.
Nay, I have heard from these men stories stiU more ridiculous, and given with the utmost gravity ; of a man, for example, being changed into a stone, and of another converted into a hog by their Guru's malediction.
The silly Hindu gives implicit credit to such tales, and therefore it is not surprising that he should carry his dread and reverence for his Guru to the most extravagant pitch. He naturally avoids whatever may be displeasing to him ; ançl rather than incur the awful danger of his anathema, a Hindu has been known to sell his wife or one of his children, having nothing else to part with, to procure for his Guru the tribute or presents which he unmercifully exacts.
£ach cast and sect has its particular Guru. But all of them are not invested with an equal degree of authority. There is a gradation ^.mong the Gurus themselves, according to the dignity of the casts they belong to, and a kind of hierarchy has grown up among them, which preserves the subordination of one to another. In short there is an inferior clergy, very numerous in every quarter, while each sect has its par- ticular high priests, who are hut few in number. TJie inferior. Gurus pay them obedience, and derive their power from the superior authority
(56 THE GURUS OR PRIESTS.
of the priests» who can d^K>se them at pleasure, and appoint others in their room.
The place of residence of the Hindu Pontiffs is commonly called Sing- hoMna which signifies a throne. There are several of these episcopal sees, as they may be called, in the different provinces of the peninsula. The different casts, and each sect, have their own Smghasana and their particular pontifik. Thus, for example the Brahmans of the sect called Smarta submit to one, that of Tadvati to another, and that of the Vishnuvite Brahmans to a third.
In the sect of Vishnu and in that of Siva die higher and lower clergy are innumerable. Each subdivision of the two sects has its pon- tiff and corresponding iGrurus. Among the Vishnuvites, the single sect of Sri-vashtumo has no less than four Singhasanas or episcopal sees, and seventy two Pithas or Pondamsj places of residence of the inferior Gurus ; without reckoning à great number of a lower rank, who spread over the country to extend their visits to every place within their bounds.
The other subdivisions of the same sect have in like manner their Gu*- rus in great abundance.
In the sect ef Siva, also, each subdivision has its Singhasana or epis- copal seat and its Pitha or places of residence of the inferior clergy. The Gurus of this sect are known by the names of Pandahram^ Janga^ mas^ and others, according to the different idioms of the places.
• The pontiffs and all the clergy of thé sect of Siva are taken out of the tribe of Sudra ; but the greater part of the high Gurus of Vishnu are Brahmans of Vishnu, who ordain the inferior clergy pertaining to the sect.
It is the Brahmans also who are most frequently the pontiffs among the tolerant Hindus, that is to say, such as are attached neither to the sect of Vishnu nor that of Siva.
The pontiff or Guru of a cast or sect has no authority out of it. In any other sect they would disregard his Prasddam, his blessing and his curse. There are but few instances therefore of amy attempts at such an intrusion.
Besides the Gurus that pertain to the different tribes and sects, great personages, such as kings and princes, have them of their own, attached
THE GURUS OR PRIBSTS. ffj
to their households and accompanying them wherever they go. Every day they present themselves before their Guru» and receive his blessing and Prasadam. When they are engaged in any dangerous enterprizet the Guru generally tarries behind. On such occasions he contents him- self with loading the great man with blessings and offering him some little hallowed gifts, which are received and kept as a precious relic, havmg the power to avert aU evils that might otherwise happen in the absence of the Guru.
The princes take a pride in entertaining these associates ^whom they call their chaplains) with the greatest magnificence. They invest them with a splendour which sometimes eclipses their own. Besides the presents which they fi-equently bestow, for the support of their rank and dignity, they also assign them land estates of considerable revenue for their ordinary expences.
The great Giunis never appear in public without the utmost degree of pomp ; but it is when they proceed to a visitation of their district that they are seen surrounded with their whole splendour. They com- monly make the procession on the back of an elephant, or seated in a rich palanquin. Some of them have a guard of horse, and are sur- rounded with numerous troops both cavalry and infantry, armed with pikes and other weapons. Several bands of musicians precede them, playing on all the instruments of the country. Flags in all the varie- ties of colour wave round them, adorned with the pictures of their gods. Some of their officers take the lead, singing odes in their praise, or admonishing the spectators to be prepared to pay the mighty Gruru, as he comes up, the honour and reverence which are due to him. In- cense and other perfumes are burnt in profusion ; new cloths are spread before him on the road. Boughs of trees, forming triumphal arches, are expanded in many places on the way through which he passes. Bands of young women, or the. dancing girls of the templets, relieve each other, and keep up with the procession, enlivening it with lewd songs and lascivious dances. *
* The custom of having Criers on such solemnities to make their proclamations of praise before all great personages when they appear in public is common through all India. They repeat with a loud voice, or sing, the renown of their masters, with a long diqilay of thdr
K 2
68
THE GURUS OR PRIESTS.
This pompous shew attracts a crowd of people, who throng to pros-* tratè themselves before the Guru. After paying their adoration, they join in the train and make the sky resound with their shouts of joy • during the whole course of the ceremony.
I shall not be understood to mean that every Guru meets with a re- ception like this, as it is only the pontifis or Gurus of the first order that are accompanied with this extraordinary state. Those of inferior degree proportion their pomp to their narrower means. The common Gurus of the sect of Vishnu, known by the name of Va^htumah, are generally mounted on a sorry horse, and some are even reduced to the necessity of travelling on foot. The wealthiest of the Gurus of the sJBct of Siva, called Jangama or Pandakram, sometimes go on horseback and sometimes in a palanquin. But the greater number are mounted on bullockïi, the favorite animal of this sect.
The Gurus, in general, rank as the first and most distinguished order of. society. Those who are elevated to this great dignity, receive in most cases, marks of reverence or rather of adoration which are not rendered even to the gods themselves. But this is not sui'prising when it is understood that the power of controuling the gods is generally attri- buted to them, by which it is supposed they have the means of obtain- ing whatsoever the deities can bestow. i.
- The Gurus generally make a tour from time to time among their disciples, perhaps in a circle of two hundred leagues round their. place ' of residence. During this visitation, their principal, and I may say their only object, is to amass money. Besides the fines which they levy from persons guilty of offences or any breach of the ceremonies of the cast or sect, they often rigorously exact from their adherents a tribute to
iUustrious birth, exalted rank, unbounded power and high virtues, and counsel all who hear them to pay the honours due to such illustrious men.
It appears from sacred and profane authors that a custom still prevalent amongst the great in India was in use amongst other ancient people. Gen. xli. 43. Among the honours paid by Pharaoh to Joseph, " he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had ; and ** they cried before him. Bow the knee." In Esther, vi. 8. " Bring him on horseback << through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the << man whom the king delighteth to honour.''
THE GURUS OR PRIESTS. QQ
m
the utmost extent of their means. This method of collecting money they denominate Pador-Kanikai^ which signifies an offering at the feet. Nor can any person, however distressed, evade the payment of the Fada-Kanikai to the Guru. There is no affront or indignity which the Gurus are not disposed to inflict on any disciple, who fails, either fi-om inability or unwillingness, to produce the sum at which he is rated. Rather than relax in the smallest degree from their extortion, they compel them to approach in a humiliating attitude, load them with reproach and abuse before the multitude, and order mud or cow-dung to be flung in their faces. If this ignominious treatment does not succeed, they insist on being supplied with a person to work for them during a certain period, or till the sum is paid. G^rus have been known, in cases where a man was unable to pay the amount of his tax, to force him to deliver up his wife, to be kept for their use or given to some of their dependants.
In the last resort, they threaten to inflict the curse; and such is the credulity of the timid Hindu, and such, his dread of the evils which would spring from the malediction of a Guru, tnat this extreme denun- ciation seldom' fails to extract the payment.
In addition to these ordinary requisitions levied for the support of the Giyns, they have several other sources of revenue under the name of Guru-Dakshina^ which are imposed on the occasions of a birth, of the Diksha or initiation into the sect, or of the marriage or death of their disciples.
The casts, however, being obliged to defray the expence of the visits of their Gurus, the pomp and splendour of which, particularly in the case of the grand Gurus or Pontiffs, would be ruinous if oflen repeat- ed, it is sometimes a long while before they are renewed. Some do not traverse their district more than once in three years, and some in five years or even less frequently.
Some of the Gurus are married; but in general they live in celi- bacy. The latter, however, are not reputed to be very strict in the observance of the virtue of continenoe which they profess. They are the leas to be trusted in this respect as they can keep a woman or two, without, being remarked, in the character of servants or cook-maids.
II
pjfy THE GURUS OR PRIESTS.
For it is a matter admitting of no dispute in this comitry, that for a man to keep a woman in his house as a servant and to have her for a concu- bine, are precisely the same thing ; because the Hindus are all con- vinced that there can be nothing innocent in the free and familiar in- tercourse between man and woman.
But the foolish vulgar, who believe that their Gurus are moulded of a better clay than other mortals, and that they are not subject to fall into evil, look upon this arrangement without scandal. People of un- derstanding deplore it, and without atten^pting a change, endure it as a necessary evil, and say they must lay to the charge of human weakness what even Gurus themselves are not exempt from.
Although the Brahmans style themselves the Gurus of every cast, and claim the exclusive right to that title and to the honours which attend it, there are nevertheless many Sudras elevated to that dignityl The Brahmans, indeed, will on no account recognize their right. But they disregard that, and take the full enjoyment of the honours and profits belonging to the title among the cast or sect which is willing to acknowledge them. *
Excepting during their visitations, the Gurus live in retirement. They commonly reside in a kind of monasteries or insulated her- mitages, generally called Matam^ and shew themselves but se^^dom in public
Some of them reside in the neighbourhood of the great Pagodas ; but the chief Gurus or Pontiffs, who require greater convenience for their supply and that of their household, generally live in the towns.
In their difierent retirements these Gurus give audience to great numbers of their disciples, many of whom come from a great distance to pay them their adorations, to receive their blessing and gifi, to offer them a present, to consult with them, to carry to them complaints of the infraction of customs of the cast, and many other similar purposes.
The Hindus, in presenting themselves before the Gurus, make the Sashtangam, or prostration of the eight members. The sect of Siv^ afler rendering this first mark of reverence to the Jangûma$j as their Gurus
THE GURUS OR PRIBSTS. 72
are called, immediately proceed to a oeremony whkh deserves to be noticed. It consists in washing the feet of the Jangama, and receiving the water as it falls down into a vessel of copper. They pour a part of this water over their heads, and drink the remainder. This practice is general among the sed;aries of Siva, and is not uncommon with many of the Vishnuvites, in regard to their Vashtuma. Neither is it the most disgusting of the practices that prevail in that sect of fanatics, as they are under the reproach of eating as a hallowed morsel the very ordure that proceeds from their Gurus, and swallowing the water with which th0y have rinsed their mouths or washed their faces, with many other, pi^actices equally revolting to nature.
From their Maiam^ the Gurus annually send out one of their agents delegated with their authority to collect the Pada-Kanikaij and the Gura-Dakshina^ or tribute which they impose, and the fines inflicted on those who have committed any ofience, as well as the gifts which it is the custom to present them with.
After discharging all the duties which their profession requires of them towards their disciples, and performing their daily sacrifices and ablutions, the Gurus are bound by the rules of their order to employ what remains of their time in meditation, and the study of the sacred writings.
The dignity of Guru descends, when married, from father to . son : but upon the death of one who has lived single, a successor is appointed by some one of the grand Gurus, who, in the exercise of this power, generally nominates one of his own dependents. The Pontiffs, on the other hand, commonly assume coadjutors in their life-time, who succeed to them at their death*
In the sects of Siva and Vishnu they admit a kind of priestesses, or women specially ordained to the service of their deities. They are different fix)m the dancing-women of the temples ; but they follow the same infamous course of life with them. For the priestesses of Siva and of Vishnu, after being consecrated, become common to their sect, under the name of spouses to these divinities : they are for the most part women who have been seduced by the Jangama and the Vashtuma, that is, by the priests of Vishnu and of Siva, who, to save their own
72 I^E GURUS OR PRIESTS.
credit and the honour of their families, whom they have thus disgraced, lay the crime to the charge of their respective gods, to whom they im- pute the deed. They devote these women to the divine service by the use of certain ceremonies, after which they are declared the wives of the god of the sect to which they belong ; and the priests of that sect may then, without scandal, make use of them, in the name and stead of the god whose ministers they are.
Those who are consecrated in this manner in the sect of Vishnu have the name of Garudor-Bassivy^ or women of Garvda^ and bear upon their breast, as a mark of their dignity, an impression of the form of Garuda, which is the bird consecrated to Vishnu. *
The priestesses of Siva are known in public by the appellation of lAnga^Bamvy or women of the Linga, and have the seal of the Linga imprinted on the thigh, as the distinctive badge of their profession.
These women are held in honour in public by their own cast ; although in reality they be nothing better than the prostitutes of the priests and other chiefs of the sect.
( 73 )
CHAP. X.
OF THE PUROHITAS OR HASTERS OF THE CEREMONIES.
X O prognosticate what are good and what are evil days for beginning any affair, or for putting it off; to avert, by the Mantras or prayers, the pernicious effects of maledictions or of the influence of malign constellations ; to assign the name to new bom children and calculate their nathrity ; to bless new houses, wells, or tanks ; to purify temples and consecrate them, to give life, to the statues and other inanimate objects of an idolatrous worship, and to imbue them with the divine essence : all these ceremonies, and many others of smaller importance^ are the province of the Brahmans called Purohitas^ whose office it is ^ to preside over and conduct them.
The most important of their ceremonies are those of Marriage and Burial. They are so complex that an ordinary Brahman would be found incapable of performing them. A regular study is necessary for the exactness and precision which they require ; and the forms of Man- tras or prayers are also requisite, with regard to which the greater part are ignorant. The Furohitas alone are accomplished in the ma^ nagement of these rites, the detail of which they have in writing, in certain formularies, which they permit nobody to see, not even the other Brahmans. Indeed the principal Mantras that are used are not reduced into writing, from the fear that some other Brahmans might acquire them and so become their rivals, to the diminution of their ex^ dusive profits. The father teaches them to his son, and thus they pass from generation to generation in one family. This shews that it is self- interest rather than superstition which occasions this reserve. By hin^ dering the other Brahmans from learning these ceremonies and the cor-
1^4 THE PUROHITAS.
responding Mantras, the Purohitas render themselves more necessaiy to the people and to the Brahmans themselves, who cannot dispense with their services on many occasions.
The Furohita Brahmans nol being numerous, those who are of that rank are often brought from a great distance. They attend the sum- mons with alacrity, particularly when they are certain that the person who calls them is capable of recompensing their labours in a liberal way. And when they cannot undertake the journey themselves they send some one of their family whom they have trained up to the duty by teaching them the Mantras which are necessary for the due solem- nization. At times their place is supplied by ordinary Brahmans, es- pecially among the Sudras, who are much more brief in regard to ceremonies than the Brahmans : and although the substitute be not acquainted with the true Mantoas which pertain to each ceremony, he does not desist on that account, but pronounces an unmeaning string of Sanscrit words, which appear more than sufficient to the stupid Sudras, who understand nothing of the matter. But abuses of this kind never fail to excite fierce disputes between the real Purohitas and those in-r truders, whom they treat as sacrilegious usurpers of their functions and of the rewards which would attend them.
One of the highest privileges attached to the profession of the Puro- hita is the exclusive right of publishing the Hindu Almanack. The greater number of them being unable to compose it, they are under the necessity of purchasing a copy every year from the Brahmans, who make the calculations. There are but few who are found capable of this ; perhaps one or two only in a district. It is not upon a knowledge of the motions of the stars that the Hindu almanack is compiled, but upon the approximation and agreement of tables and formulae of great antiquity, and extremely numerous ; and therefore the calculation is very complicated, and requires much time, attention, and labour to arrive at exact conclusions.
This book is absolutely necessary to the Furohita, to instruct him not only respecting good and evil days, but also the favourable mo- ments in each day ; for it is in such moments only that the ceremonies which they preside over can be commenced. They are often consulted
THE PUROHITAS. ^g
respecting the happy or unfortunate issue of matters in the most ordi*- tiary occurrences of life. Neither is it the populace only that are ad* dieted to this species of superstition ; for the princes a^e more intangled with it than the people themselves. They have always at least one Furohita retained in their service at their palaces, who comes every morning to wait upon them, and to announce what the almanack con- tains for the day. But the most ridiculous part is, that he afterwards proceeds to perform the same service to the Prince's elephant and the idols. The Purohita is consulted many times every day upon the most ordinary occurrences of life. The Prince will not go a hunting nor take a walk without his decision whether it will be for bis health of otherwise. Neither will he receive visits from strangers without the same precaution : and if there be the least ambiguity in the augury, he will wait for a more favorable moment, or jiut off his excursion to an- other day.
The Hiniu Calendar is called PancMngam^ which signifies the Jhe menU^ers, because in truth it contains five principal heads, namely, the days of the rtionth, the sign in which the moon is each day to be Tound, the *day of the week, the eclipses, and the place of the planets. It likewise marks the good days and the evil ; those on which one may journey towards any of the four cardinal points ; for each point of the Compass has ita lucky and unlucky days ; and a person who might to-day travel very successfully towards the north, would expose himself to some grievous danger if he took a southward course. It farther con- tains a vast number of predictions of all sorts which would be too te- dious for this place.
On the first day of the year the Purohita assembles the principal inhabitants of the pluce where he lives. In theii* presence he an- nounces, by sound of trumpet, who is to be king of the gods for that year, and who is to be supreme over the stars ; who are to be the mi- nisters and generals of the people ; who is to be god of the crops ; what sort of grain will thrive the best. He determines also the quan- tity of rain and of drought, and whether the locusts and other destruc- tive insects will devour the plants, or if the repose of men is to be greatly disturbed by bugs and fleas. He foretells, in short, whether it
L 2
»-g THE PUROHETAS.
is to be a year of health or of disease ; whether the deaths or the births shall predominate ; whether a war is impending, from what side it will break out, and who shall gain the advantage : together with many other contingencies of equal importance.
There are many who care little about these predictions and appear to hold them in derision. But even among these some will be found consulting the almanack, and even the very man who invents and pub- lishes it, especially when a war, famine, or other great calamity really seems to approach : so irresistible is the power of superstition over the minds of those even who affect to be liberal thinkers and elevated above the vulgar.
Finally, we may remark, that nothing appears to be more ancient in India than the establishment of the Purohitas. They are noticed in all the Hindu books, and if we can give credit to their authors, the highest honours were paid to them in ancient times. They strive above all others to maintain the usages and customs of the casts, and raise their voice the loudest against those who infringe or neglect them. Their^nterest may prompt them to this : but it is to them that we owe the chief part of the books of science that exist among the Hindus. They have preserved them in the midst of the revolutions which have so oflen subverted the nations.
This class of persons is carefully to be distinguished from the Gurus described in the last chapter, although it belongs to both to watch over the observance of the customs of their casts. In other points they greatly differ, as in the profession of celibacy. All the Purohitas are married. Indeed I believe it is held absolutely necessary that they should be so, to qualify them for the performance of the ceremonies ; and a widower, who did not remarry would not be endured, as his pre- sence would be thought to bode misfortune.
( 77 )
CHAP. XL
OF THE UJNTBAS, OR FORMS OF PRATEn*
JL HE ' Mantras^ so celebrated in all the Hindu books^ are nothing more than certain forms of prayer, or words of efficacy, which (to borrow a Hindu expression on the subject,) have such virtue as to be able to enchain the gods themselves. They are of various sorts, invocatory, evocatory, deprecatory, conservatory. They are beneficent or hurtful, salutary ,or pernicious. By means of them, all effects may be produced. Some are for casting out the evil spirit and driving him away ; some for inspiring love or hatred, ior curing diseases or bringing them on, for causing death or averting it. Some are of a contrary nature to others and counteract their effect ; the stronger overcoming the influence of the weaker. Some are potent enough to occasion the destruction of a whole army. There are some even whose awful summons the gods themselves are constrained to obey. But I should never finish if I attempted to enumerate in detail the whole of the pretended virtues of the Mantra or Mantram.
The Purohitas, of all the Hindus, understand them best. They are indispensably necessary to them for accompanying the cere- monies which it is their office to conduct. But, in general, the whole of the Brahmans are conversant with these fonnulœ, agreeably to this Sanscrit strophe, which is often in their mouths :
Devâdinâm jagatsarwam, Mantradinâm taddevaté, Tanmantram Brâhmanâdinam, Brâhmana mama Devatà.
Which may be translated : ^^ all the universe is under the power (£Ûê gods; the gods are subject to the power of the Mantras: the Mantns
II
78 STORY OF THE KING OF PATNA.
under the power of the Brahmans; the Brahmans are therefore our gods," The argument is regular in form, and the conclusion technical; and ac- cordingly in many books, as I have elsewhere mentioned, they are called the terrestrial gods. They assume these names to themselves, and listen with pleasure when they are applied to them by the other casts.
To place the efficacious virtue of the Mantras in a clear point of view, I will only refer to the following quotation from the Brahmot- tarakhanda^ a well known Hindu poem written in honour of Siva : << Dasara, King of Mathura, having espoused Kalavati, daughter of the King of Kasi or Benares, this princess, on the very day of the marriage, apprized him that it would be absolutely necessary for him to abstain from making use of the right which his title of husband .gave him, because the Mantram of the five letters which she had learned, had penetrated her with a purifying fire which would permit no man to come near her, without the risk of perishing, unless, before familiar intercourse, he should have been purified from his sins by the same means which she herself had practised : that, being his wife, she could not point out to him this piuifying Mantram, because in doing so she would become his Gum, and con- sequently his superior.
" The following day, they went together in quest of the great Rishi, or penitent, Garga ; who having learned the purpose of their visit, ordered them to fast a whole day, to wash themselves in the river Ganges on the day following, and then to visit him again. This being complied with, and the prince having returned, the penitent made him sit down upon the ground with his face turned towards the east. Garga sat down beside him with his &ce towards the west, and secretly whispered these two words in his ear, nama^Sivaya. That is the Mantram of five letters, or five syllables, and signifies, * health to Siva.' As soon as Dasara had learned these two wonder- fiil words, he perceived that he was excited by their purifying fire, and at the same moment, there sprung out firom all parts of his body a multitude of crows, which flew up into the sky and disappeared. These were the sins committed by the prince in preceding generations.
THE MANTRAS, «79
^< This history," says the author, " is œrtain. I had it from my Guru, Vedavyasa^ who had learned it of Pard-Brahma. The king and . his spouse, thus purified, lived together for many years, and retired at last to re-unite with Para-Brahma in the abode of bliss, without being obliged to be re-born any more upon earth."
When the Brahmans are rallied upon the present state of their Mantras, wholly divested of their boasted efficacy and power, they answer, that this loss of their influence is to be attributed to the KaH^ yuganif which means that age of the world in which we now live, the true iron age, the time of evil and misfortune, in which every thing has degenerated. Nevertheless, they subjoin, it is stiU not uncommon to see the Mantras operate effects as miraculous as formerly ; which they confirm by stories not less authentic than such as we have already reported.
' Of all the Mantras, the most celebrated, and at the same time the most effectual for blotting out all sins, and of such potency as to make the gods themselves to tremble, as the Hindu books affirm, is that to which they give the name of Gaitry^ or as some write it, Oayatriy which signifies . the Mantram of the twenty-four letters ' or syllables. It is so ancient and so powerful as to have given rise to the Vedas. The Brahman when about to recite it, makes a previous preparation by prayers and the deepest meditation. Before pronouncing a word, he closes all the apertures of his body, and keeps in his breath as long as it is possible to retain it ; and then hë recites it in a low voice, taking good care that it shall not be intelligible by the Sudras and the rest of the profane. Even his wife, especially at certain periods, is not allowed to hear it.
This famous Mantram consists of the following words :
" Tat Savitu varenyam swarga^evasya " Dimahi diyo yo no prachodayet."
This then is the celebrated Mantram of four and twenty letters or syllables ; and it appears to be addressed to the Sun, one of whose appellations is Savita. The meaning is very dark, and unintelli- gible to the Brahmans themselves. I have never met with any one
go THE MANTRAS.
who could give me a tolerable explication of it. Such as it is, it would be a horrible sacrilege and an unpardonable crime in any Brahman to communicate it to any profane or foreign ears. We may add that there are other Mantras which bear the name of GaycUri^ but they are of much lower repute than this.
Although the Brahmans alone are held to be the true. depositaries of the Mantras, yet there are many persons of other casts who scruple not to pronounce them. There are professions also in which it is in- dispensable. The Physicians themselves, who are not Brahmans» would be considered as ignorant beings and unworthy of the public confidence, however much entitled to it in other respects, if they were unacquainted with the Mantras suited to each disease as regularly as with the medi- cines which are applied in the cure. The cure is considered as arising from the Mantras as much as from the medical applications. One of the principal reasons for which the European physicians are held in such discredit in India, as far as regards their profession, is, that they administer their medicines without any accompaniment of Mantram.
The Midwives are called in some parts Mantra-Sari^ or women who understand the Mantras ; and never can those holy prayers be more necessary than at that crisis when, according to the notions of the Hin- dus, a tender infant and a newly delivered mother are particularly liable to the fascination of evil eyes, to the malign conjunctions of the planets, the influence of unlucky days, and many other dangers, each more perilous than another. A skilful midwife, stored with good and serviceable Mantras, pronounced at the proper moment, provides against all such fears and dangers. ^
But those who are considered to be the most skilful in this kind of knowledge, and at the same time the most dangerous, are the persons who deal in the Occult Sciences ; such as Magicians, Sorcerers, and Sooth- sayers. It is this sort of practitioners who pretend to be possessed of the true Mantras which can strike with sudden death, cure and inflict diseases, call up or lay the fiends, discover thefts, concealed treasures, distant objects, or future events. Such persons will always abound in a country where ignorance, superstition, and quackery so universally prevail.
THB UANTRAS» ' g j
The wkchieoom magicians being very much dreaded andhated^ never fail to be punished when they are believed guilty of having brdugfat down evil upon any one by their spells. The ordinary way of punish*» ing them on such occasions is by drawing the two front teeth of the upper jaw, which prevents them from speaking plainly, and is supposed to mar their utterance of the evil Mantras. Now, the slightest im-. perfection or defect in pronouncing the Mantram is so ofiensive to their god or demon, for both are invoked in their magical rites, that if it occurred he would infallibly turn upon themselves the whole evils which they imprecated upon others, *
Among the numbers who thus lose their teeth in the cause of magic» I knew one individual, who came to me the very day on which the cruel operation was performed, and threw himsdf at my feet, mumbling hia innocence, and imploring my counsel and assistance to procure répara^ tion for the injustice they'^had done him in knocking out his front teeth» and in imputing to him the hateful practices of a magician. The poor man seemed to me to have very little of the appearance of a conjurer; but having neither the power nor the inclination to interfere in the afiair» I got rid of him as I best could.
All the magical Mantras are hard to pronounce ; and it is this diffi-* culty which gives them all their importance, because if a sorcerer pro- nounces a single syllable amiss the whole evil he was invoking would fall upon himself.
The Mantram on which this art chiefly depends cannot easily be ex-* pressed in European characters : Om, mm, hsan^ hgita^ Romaya namah. The four first are barbarous words and without meaning. The two last signify " Health to Rama." ^
I believe no nation on earth is so infatuated as the Hindus are with these notions of magic. The greater part of the cross accidents that befal them in life are attributed to the jealousy of some enemy who has had recourse to this wicked art for the purpose of injuring them. If they lose a wife or children by premature death ; if à contagion breaka out among the cattle ; or if a married woman continue unfiruitful : none of these occurrences is believed to have had a natural cause, but they are all ascribed to, preternatural arts employed by some secret enemy of
M
g2 THE MANTRAS.
their prosperity* Diseases^ particularly such as are of long endurance^ are attributed to the same cause» and if they should happen to take place while any quarrel or law-suit subsisted between the parties» the whole is laid to the charge of the opponent, who is accused of having devised k by magical contrivance. So serious a charge, to be sure, is not in general very patiently borne by the party accused ; and thua a new cause of dissension is engendered.
It is to counteract the effects of this Wicked magic that a vast number of vagabonds roam over the country, calling themselves Beneficent Magidansj who are supposed to possess the Mantras that have power to heal the disorders and other evils occasioned by the Sapanam or malignant magic, to render barren women firuitfiil, to cast out devils from those who are possessed with them, to .check the murrain among cattle, to destroy the insects which ravage the fields, and to produce other beneficial effects. After reciting all their Mantras and carefuUy performing their whole ceremonies, they give amulets to their patients, on which are inscribed some unmeaning words. These sacred S3rmbol8 they direct 'to be worn about their persons, as having virtue to complete the cure which the Mantram had begun. They then take their fee and go in quest of fi*esb dupes.