Seclusion of Females.--Paadshah Begum.--The Suwaarree.--Female
Bearers.--Eunuchs.--Rutts.--Partiality of the Ladies to Large
retinues.--Female Companions.--Telling the Khaunie.--Games of the
Zeenahnah.--Shampooing.--The Punkah.--Slaves and
slavery.--Anecdote.--The Persian Poets.--Fierdowsee.--Saadie, his
'Goolistaun'.--Haafiz.--Mahumud Baarkur.--'Hyaatool
Kaaloob'.--Different manner of pronouncing Scripture names...Page 248
The strict seclusion which forms so conspicuous a feature in the female
society of the Mussulmauns in India, renders the temporary migration of
ladies from their domicile an event of great interest to each individual
of the zeenahnah, whether the mistress or her many dependants be
considered.
The superior classes seldom quit their habitation but on the most
important occasions; they, therefore, make it a matter of necessity to
move out in such style as is most likely to proclaim their exalted station
in life. I cannot, perhaps, explain this part of my subject better than by
giving a brief description of the suwaarree[1] (travelling retinue) of the
Paadshah Begum[2] which passed my house at Lucknow on the occasion of her
visit to the Durgah of Huzerut Abas Ali Kee, after several years strictly
confining herself to the palace.
By Paadshah is meant 'King';--Begum, 'Lady.' The first wife of the King is
distinguished by this title from every other he may have married; it is
equivalent to that of 'Queen' in other countries. With this title the
Paadshah Begum enjoys also many other marks of royal distinction; as, for
instance, the dunkah (kettle-drums) preceding her suwaarree; a privilege,
I believe, never allowed by the King to any other female of his family.
The embroidered chattah (umbrella); the afthaadah (embroidered sun); and
chowries of the peacock's feathers, are also out-of-door distinctions
allowed only to this lady and the members of the royal family. But to my
description:--
First, in the Paadshah Begum's suwaarree I observed a guard of cavalry
soldiers in full dress, with their colours unfurled; these were followed
by two battalions of infantry, with their bands of music and colours. A
company of spearmen on foot, in neat white dresses and turbans, their
spears of silver, rich and massive. Thirty-six men in white dresses and
turbans, each having a small triangular flag of crimson silk, on which
were embroidered the royal arms (two fish and a dirk of a peculiar shape).
The staffs of these flags are of silver, about three feet long; in the
lower part of the handle a small bayonet is secreted, which can be
produced at will by pressure on a secret spring. Next followed a full band
of music, drums, fifes, &c.; then the important dunkah, which announces to
the public the lady's rank: she is enclosed within the elevated towering
chundole, on each side of which the afthaadah and chowries are carried by
well-dressed men, generally confidential servants, appointed to this
service.
The chundole is a conveyance resembling a palankeen, but much larger and
more lofty; it is, in fact, a small silver room, six feet long, five broad,
and four feet high, supported by the aid of four silver poles on the
shoulders of twenty bearers. These bearers are relieved every quarter of a
mile by a second set in attendance: the two sets change alternately to the
end of the journey. The bearers are dressed in a handsome royal livery of
white calico made to sit close to the person; over which are worn scarlet
loose coats of fine English broad-cloth, edged and bordered with gold
embroidery: on the back of the coat a fish is embroidered in gold. Their
turbans correspond in colour with the coats; on the front of the turban is
fixed diagonally a fish of wrought gold, to the tail of which a rich gold
tassel is attached; this readies to the shoulder of the bearer, and gives
a remarkable air of grandeur to the person.
The chundole is surrounded by very powerful women bearers, whose business
it is to convey the vehicle within the compound (court-yard) of the
private apartments, or wherever men are not admitted at the same time with
females. Chobdhaars and soota-badhaars walk near the chundole carrying
gold and silver staffs or wands, and vociferating the rank and honours of
the lady they attend with loud voices the whole way to and from the Durgah.
These men likewise keep off the crowds of beggars attracted on such
occasions by the known liberality of the ladies, who, according to
established custom, make distributions to a large amount, which are
scattered amongst the populace by several of the Queen's eunuchs, who walk
near the chundole for that purpose.
The chief of the eunuchs followed the Queen's chundole on an elephant,
seated in a gold howdah; the trappings of which were of velvet, richly
embroidered in gold; the eunuch very elegantly dressed in a suit of
gold-cloth, a brilliant turban, and attired in expensive shawls. After the
eunuch, follow the Paadshah Begum's ladies of quality, in covered
palankeens, each taking precedence according to the station or the favour
she may enjoy; they are well guarded by soldiers, spearmen, and chobdhaars.
Next in the train, follow the several officers of the Queen's household,
on elephants, richly caparisoned. And, lastly, the women of inferior rank
and female slaves, in rutts (covered carriages) such as are in general use
throughout India. These rutts are drawn by bullocks, having bells of a
small size strung round their neck, which as they move have a novel and
not unpleasing sound, from the variety of tones produced. The rutt is a
broad-wheeled carriage, the body and roof forming two cones, one smaller
than the other, covered with scarlet cloth, edged, fringed, and bordered
with gold or amber silk trimmings. The persons riding in rutts are seated
on cushions placed flat on the surface of the carriage (the Asiatic style
of sitting at all times) and not on raised seats, the usual custom in
Europe. The entrance to these rutts is from the front, like the tilted
carts of England, where a thick curtain of corresponding colour and
material conceals the inmates from the public gaze; a small space is left
between this curtain and the driver, where one or two women servants are
seated as guards, who are privileged by age and ugliness to indulge in the
liberty of seeing the passing gaiety, and of enjoying, without a screen,
the pure air; benefits which their superiors in rank are excluded from at
all ages.
In the Paadshah Begum's suwaarree, I counted fifty of these Native
carriages, into each of which from four to six females are usually crowded,
comprising the members of the household establishment of the great lady;
such as companions, readers of the Khoraum, kaawauses[3] (the higher
classes of female-slaves), muggalanie[4] (needle-women), &c. This will
give you a tolerable idea of the number and variety of females attached to
the suite of a lady of consequence in India. The procession, at a walking
pace, occupied nearly half an hour in passing the road opposite to my
house: it was well conducted, and the effect imposing, both from its
novelty and splendour.
A lady here would be the most unhappy creature existing, unless surrounded
by a multitude of attendants suitable to her rank in life. They have often
expressed surprise and astonishment at my want of taste in keeping only
two women servants in my employ, and having neither a companion nor a
slave in my whole establishment; they cannot imagine anything so stupid as
my preference to a quiet study, rather than the constant bustle of a
well-filled zeenahnah.
Many of the Mussulmaun ladies entertain women companions, whose chief
business is to tell stories and fables to their employer, while she is
composing herself to sleep; many of their tales partake of the romantic
cast which characterizes the well-remembered 'Arabian Nights'
Entertainments', one story begetting another to the end of the collection.
When the lady is fairly asleep the story is stayed, and the companion
resumes her employment when the next nap is sought by her mistress.
Amongst the higher classes the males also indulge in the same practice of
being talked to sleep by their men slaves; and it is a certain
introduction with either sex to the favour of their employer, when one of
these dependants has acquired the happy art of 'telling the khaunie'[5]
(fable) with an agreeable voice and manner. The more they embellish a tale
by flights of their versatile imaginations, so much greater the merit of
the rehearser in the opinion of the listeners.
The inmates of zeenahnahs occasionally indulge in games of chance: their
dice are called chowsah (four sides), or chuhsah[6] (six sides); these
dice are about four inches long and half an inch thick on every side,
numbered much in the same way as the European dice. They are thrown by the
hand, not from boxes, and fall lengthways.
They have many different games which I never learned, disliking such modes
of trifling away valuable time; I am not, therefore, prepared to describe
them accurately. One of their games has a resemblance to draughts, and is
played on a chequered cloth carpet, with red and white ivory cones.[7]
They have also circular cards, six suits to a pack, very neatly painted,
with which they play many (to me) indescribable games; but oftener, to
their credit be it said, for amusement than for gain. The gentlemen,
however, are not always equally disinterested; they frequently play for
large sums of money. I do not, however, find the habit so general with the
Natives as it is with Europeans. The religious community deem all games of
chance unholy, and therefore incompatible with their mode of living. I am
not aware that gaming is prohibited by their law in a direct way,[8] but
all practices tending to covetousness are strictly forbidden; and, surely,
those who can touch the money called 'winnings' at any game, must be more
or less exposed to the accusation of desiring other men's goods.
Shampooing has been so often described as to leave little by way of
novelty for me to remark on the subject; it is a general indulgence with
all classes in India, whatever may be their age or circumstances. The
comfort derived from the pressure of the hands on the limbs, by a clever
shampooer, is alone to be estimated by those who have experienced the
benefits derived from this luxurious habit, in a climate where such
indulgences are needed to assist in creating a free circulation of the
blood, which is very seldom induced by exercise as in more Northern
latitudes. Persons of rank are shampooed by their slaves during the hours
of sleep, whether it be by day or by night; if through any accidental
circumstance the pressure is discontinued, even for a few seconds only,
the sleep is immediately broken: such is the power of habit.
The punkah (fan) is in constant use by day and night, during eight months
of the year. In the houses of the Natives, the slaves have ample
employment in administering to the several indulgences which their ladies
require at their hands; for with them fixed punkahs have not been
introduced into the zeenahnah:[9] the only punkah in their apartments is
moved by the hand, immediately over or in front of the person for whose
use it is designed. In the gentlemen's apartments, however, and in the
houses of all Europeans, punkahs are suspended from the ceiling, to which
a rope is fastened and passed through an aperture in the wall into the
verandah, where a man is seated who keeps it constantly waving, by pulling
the rope, so that the largest rooms, and even churches, are filled with
wind, to the great comfort of all present.
The female slaves, although constantly required about the lady's person,
are nevertheless tenderly treated, and have every proper indulgence
afforded them. They discharge in rotation the required duties of their
stations, and appear as much the objects of the lady's care as any other
people in her establishment. Slavery with them is without severity; and in
the existing state of Mussulmaun society, they declare the women slaves to
be necessary appendages to their rank and respectability. The liberal
proprietors of slaves give them suitable matches in marriage when they
have arrived at a proper age, and even foster their children with the
greatest care; often granting them a salary, and sometimes their freedom,
if required to make them happy. Indeed, generally speaking the slaves in a
Mussulmaun's house must be vicious and unworthy, who are not considered
members of the family.
It is an indisputable fact that the welfare of their slaves is an object
of unceasing interest with their owners, if they are really good
Mussulmauns; indeed, it is second only to the regard which they manifest
to their own children.
Many persons have been known, in making their will, to decree the liberty
of their slaves. They are not, however, always willing to accept the boon.
'To whom shall I go?'--'Where shall I meet a home like my master's house?'
are appeals that endear the slave to the survivors of the first proprietor,
and prove that their bondage has not been a very painful one. It is an
amiable trait of character amongst the Mussulmauns, with whom I have been
intimate, and which I can never forget, that the dependence of their
slaves is made easy; that they enjoy every comfort compatible with their
station; and that their health, morals, clothing, and general happiness,
are as much attended to as that of their own relatives. But slavery is a
harsh term between man and man, and however mitigated its state, is still
degrading to him. I heartily trust there will be a time when this badge of
disgrace shall be wiped away from every human being. He that made man,
designed him for higher purposes than to be the slave of his fellow-mortal;
but I should be unjust to the people of India, if I did not remark, that
having the uncontrolled power in their hands, they abstain from the
exercise of any such severity as has disgraced the owners of slaves in
other places, where even the laws have failed to protect them from cruelty
and oppression. Indeed, wherever an instance has occurred of unfeeling
conduct towards these helpless beings, the most marked detestation has
invariably been evinced towards the authors by the real Mussulmaun.
I have heard of a very beautiful female slave who had been fostered by a
Native lady of high rank, from her infancy. In the course of time, this
female had arrived to the honour of being made the companion of her young
master, still, however, by her Begum's consent, residing with her lady,
who was much attached to her. The freedom of intercourse, occasioned by
the slave's exaltation, had the effect of lessening the young creature's
former respect for her still kind mistress, to whom she evinced some
ungrateful returns for the many indulgences she had through life received
at her hands. The exact nature of her offences I never heard, but it was
deemed requisite, for the sake of example in a house where some hundreds
of female slaves were maintained, that the lady should adopt some such
method of testifying her displeasure towards this pretty favourite, as
would be consistent with her present elevated station. A stout silver
chain was therefore made, by the Begum's orders, and with this the slave
was linked to her bedstead a certain number of hours every day, in the
view of the whole congregated family of slaves. This punishment would be
felt as a degradation by the slave; not the confinement to her bedstead,
where she would perhaps have seated herself from choice, had she not been
in disgrace.
'Once a slave, and always a slave,' says Fierdowsee the great poet of
Persia; but this apophthegm was in allusion to the 'mean mind' of the King
who treated him scurvily after his immense labour in that noble work, 'The
Shah Namah.' I have a sketch of Fierdowsee's life, which my husband
translated for me; but I must forbear giving it here, as I have heard the
whole work itself is undergoing a translation by an able Oriental scholar,
who will doubtless do justice both to 'The Shah Namah' and the character
of Fierdowsee, who is in so great estimation with the learned Asiatics.[10]
The Mussulmauns quote their favourite poets with much the same freedom
that the more enlightened nations are wont to use with their famed authors.
The moral precepts of Saadie[11] are often introduced with good effect,
both in writing and speaking, as beacons to the inexperienced.
Haafiz[12] has benefited the Mussulmaun world by bright effusions of
genius, which speak to successive generations the wonders of his
extraordinary mind. He was a poet of great merit; his style is esteemed
superior to the writers of any other age; and, notwithstanding the world
is rich with the beauties of his almost inspired mind, yet, strange as it
may appear, he never compiled a single volume. Even in the age in which he
lived his merit as a poet was in great estimation; but he never thought of
either benefit or amusement to the world or to himself beyond the present
time. He wrote the thoughts of his inspired moments on pieces of broken
pitchers or pans, with charcoal; some of his admirers were sure to follow
his footsteps narrowly, and to their vigilance in securing those scraps
strewed about, wherever Haafiz had made his sojourn, may to this day be
ascribed the benefit derived by the public from his superior writings.
Saadie, however, is the standard favourite of all good Mussulmauns; his
'Goolistaun'[13] (Garden of Roses), is placed in the hands of every youth
when consigned to the dominion of a master, as being the most worthy book
in the Persian language for his study, whether the beauty of his diction
or the morality of his subjects be considered.
The 'Hyaatool Kaaloob'[14] (Enlightener of the Heart), is another Persian
work, in prose, by Mirza Mahumud Baakur, greatly esteemed by the learned
Mussulmauns. This work contains the life and acts of every known prophet
from the Creation, including also Mahumud and the twelve Emaums. The
learned Maulvee, it appears, first wrote it in the Arabic language, but
afterwards translated it into Persian, with the praiseworthy motive of
rendering his invaluable work available to those Mussulmauns who were not
acquainted with Arabic.
I have some extracts from this voluminous work, translated for me by my
husband, which interested me on account of the great similarity to our
Scripture history; and if permitted at some future time, I propose
offering them to the public in our own language, conceiving they may be as
interesting to others as they have been to me.
The Persian and Arabic authors, I have remarked, substitute Y for J in
Scripture names; for instance, Jacob and Joseph are pronounced Yaacoob and
Yeusuf.[15] They also differ from us in some names commencing with A, as
in Abba, which they pronounce Ubba (Father); for Amen, they say Aameen[16]
(the meaning strictly coinciding with ours); for Aaron, Aaroon; for Moses,
Moosa.[17] I am told by those who are intimate with both languages, that
there is a great similarity between the Hebrew and Arabic. The passage in
our Scripture 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabaethani,' was interpreted to me by an
Arabic scholar, as it is rendered in that well-remembered verse in the
English translation.
[1] _Sawari_.
[2] The Padshah Begam was the widow of Ghazi-ud-din Haidar,
King of Oudh. On his death, in 1837, she contrived a plot to place his
putative son, Munna Jan, on the throne. After a fierce struggle in
the palace, the revolt was suppressed by the Resident, Colonel Low,
and his assistants, Captains Paton and Shakespear. The pair were
confined in the Chunar Fort till their deaths. See the graphic
narrative by Gen. Sleeman (_Journey Through Oudh_, ii. 172 ff.); also
H.C. Irwin (_The Garden of India_, 127 f.); Mrs. F. Parks (_Wanderings
of a Pilgrim_, ii. 114).
[3] _Khawass_, 'distinguished': special attendants.
[4] _Mughlani_, a Moghul woman: an attendant in a zenana, a
sempstress.
[5] _Kahani_.
[6] _Chausa, chhahsa_, not to be found in Platt's _Hindustani
Dictionary_.
[7] The game of Pachisi, played on a cloth marked in squares: see
_Bombay Gazetteer_, ix, part ii, 173.
[8] Gambling is one of the greater sins.--Sale, _Koran: Preliminary
Discourse_, 89; Sells, _Faith of Islam_, 155.
[9] Fixed punkahs were introduced early in the nineteenth century.--Yule,
_Hobson-Jobson_, 744.
[10] Firdausi, author of the Shahnama, died A.D. 1020 or 1025,
aged 89 years. An abridged translation, to which reference is made, by
J. Atkinson, was published in 1832. It has since been translated by
A.G. and E. Warner (1905), and by A. Rogers (1907).
[11] Shaikh Sa'di, born at Shiraz A.D. 1175, died 1292, aged 120
lunar years. His chief works are the _Gulistan_ and the _Bostan_.
[12] Khwaja Hafiz, Shams-ud-din Muhammad, author of the
Diwan Hafiz, died at Shiraz A.D. 1389, where his tomb at
Musalla is the scene of pilgrimage; see E.G. Browne, _A Year amongst
the Persians_, 280 f.
[13] _Gulistan_.
[14] See p. 77.
[15] Ya'qub, Yusuf.
[16] _Amin_.
[17] Harun, Musa.