developed into a caste. The Lingayat sect is supposed [295] to have
been founded in the twelfth century by one Basava, a Brahman minister
of the king of the Carnatic. He preached the equality of all men and
of women also by birth, and the equal treatment of all. Women were to
be treated with the same respect as men, and any neglect or incivility
to a woman would be an insult to the god whose image she wore and with
whom she was one. Caste distinctions were the invention of Brahmans
and consequently unworthy of acceptance. The _Madras Census Report_
[296] of 1871 further states that Basava preached the immortality of
the soul, and mentions a theory that some of the traditions concerning
him might have been borrowed from the legends of the Syrian Christians,
who had obtained a settlement in Madras at a period not later than the
seventh century. The founder of the sect thus took as his fundamental
tenet the abolition of caste, but, as is usual in the history of
similar movements, the ultimate result has been that the Lingayats have
themselves become a caste. In Bombay they have two main divisions,
Mr. Enthoven states: [297] the Panchamsalis or descendants of the
original converts from Brahmanism and the non-Panchamsalis or later
converts. The latter are further subdivided into a number of groups,
apparently endogamous. Converts of each caste becoming Lingayats form
a separate group of their own, as Ahir Lingayats, Bania Lingayats
and so on, severing their connection with the parent caste. A third
division consists of members of unclean castes attached to the
Lingayat community by reason of performing to it menial service. A
marked tendency has recently been displayed by the community in Bombay
to revert to the original Brahmanic configuration of society, from
which its founder sought to free it. On the occasion of the census a
complete scheme was supplied to the authorities professing to show the
division of the Lingayats into the four groups of Brahman, Kshatriya,
Vaishya and Sudra.
In the Central Provinces Lingayats were not shown as a separate caste,
and the only return of members of the sect is from the Bania caste,
whose subcastes were abstracted. Lingayat was recorded as a subcaste by
8000 Banias, and these form a separate endogamous group. But members
of other castes as Gaolis, Malis, Patwas and the Telugu Balijas are
also Lingayats and marry among themselves. A child becomes a Lingayat
by being invested with the _lingam_ or phallic sign of Siva, seven
days after its birth, by the Jangam priest. This is afterwards carried
round the neck in a small casket of silver, brass or wood throughout
life, and is buried with the corpse at death. The corpse of a Lingayat
cannot be burnt because it must not be separated from the _lingam_,
as this is considered to be the incarnation of Siva and must not
be destroyed in the fire. If it is lost the owner must be invested
with a fresh one by the Jangam in the presence of the caste. It is
worshipped three times a day, being washed in the morning with the
ashes of cowdung cakes, while in the afternoon leaves of the _bel_
tree and food are offered to it. When a man is initiated as a Lingayat
in after-life, the Jangam invests him with the _lingam_, pours holy
water on to his head and mutters in his ear the sacred text, '_Aham
so aham_,' or 'I and you are now one and the same.' The Lingayats
are strict vegetarians, and will not expose their drinking water to
the sun, as they think that by doing this insects would be bred in it
and that by subsequently swallowing them they would be guilty of the
destruction of life. They are careful to leave no remains of a meal
uneaten. Their own priests, the Jangams, officiate at their weddings,
and after the conclusion of the ceremony the bride and bridegroom
break raw cakes of pulse placed on the other's back, the bride with her
foot and the bridegroom with his fist. Widow-marriage is allowed. The
dead are buried in a sitting posture with their faces turned towards
the east. Water sanctified by the Jangam having dipped his toe into
it is placed in the mouth of the corpse. The Jangam presses down the
earth over the grave and then stands on it and refuses to come off
until he is paid a sum of money varying with the means of the man,
the minimum payment being Rs. 1-4. In some cases a platform with an
image of Mahadeo is made over the grave. When meeting each other the
Lingayats give the salutation _Sharnat_, or, 'I prostrate myself before
you.' They address the Jangam as Maharaj and touch his feet with their
head. The Lingayat Banias of the Central Provinces usually belong to
Madras and speak Telugu in their houses. As they deny the authority
of Brahmans, the latter have naturally a great antipathy for them,
and make various statements to their discredit. One of these is that
after a death the Lingayats have a feast, and, setting up the corpse
in the centre, arrange themselves round it and eat their food. But
this is not authenticated. Similarly the Abbe Dubois stated: [298]
"They do not recognise the laws relating to defilement which are
generally accepted by other castes, such, for instance, as those
occasioned by a woman's periodical ailments, and by the death and
funeral of relations. Their indifference to all such prescriptive
customs relating to defilement and cleanliness has given rise to a
Hindu proverb which says, 'There is no river for a Lingayat,' meaning
that the members of the sect do not recognise, at all events on many
occasions, the virtues and merits of ablutions." The same author also
states that they entirely reject the doctrine of migration of souls,
and that, in consequence of their peculiar views on this point, they
have no _tithis_ or anniversary festivals to commemorate the dead. A
Lingayat is no sooner buried than he is forgotten. In view of these
remarks it must be held to be doubtful whether the Lingayats have
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
Muhammadan Religion
[_Bibliography_: Rev. T.P. Hughes, _Notes on Muhammadanism_, and
_Dictionary of Islam_, London, W.H. Allen, 1895; _Bombay Gazetteer_,
vol. ix. Part II. _Muhammadans of Gujarat_, by Khan Bahadur Fazalullah
Lutfullah Faridi; _Qaun-i-Islam,_ G.A. Herklots, Madras, Higginbotham,
reprint 1895; _Muhammadanism and Early Developments of Muhammadanism_,
by Professor D.S. Margoliouth; _Life of Mahomet_, by Sir. W. Muir;
Mr. J.T. Marten's _Central Provinces Census Report_, 1911. This
article is mainly compiled from the excellent accounts in the _Bombay
Gazetteer_ and the _Dictionary of Islam_.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Statistics and distribution_.
2. _Occupations_.
3. _Muhammadan castes_.
4. _The four tribal divisions_.
5. _Marriage_.
6. _Polygamy, divorce and widow-remarriage_.
7. _Devices for procuring children, and beliefs about them_.
8. _Pregnancy rites_.
9. _Childbirth and naming children_.
10. _The Ukika sacrifice_.
11. _Shaving the hair and ear-piercing_
12. _Birthdays_.
13. _Circumcision, and maturity of girls_.
14. _Funeral rites_.
15. _Muhammadan sects. Shiah and Sunni_.
16. _Leading religious observations. Prayer._
17. _The fast Ramazan._
18. _The pilgrimage to Mecca._
19. _Festivals. The Muharram_.
20. _Id-ul-Fitr._
21. _Id-ul-Zoha._
22. _Mosques._
22. _Mosques_
23. _The Friday service._
24. _Priest. Mulla and Maulvi._
25. _The Kazi._
26. _General features of Islam._
27. _The Koran._
28. _The Traditions_
29. _The schools of law._
30. _Food._
31. _Dress._
32. _Social rules. Salutations._
33. _Customs._
34. _Position of women._
35. _Interest on money._
36. _Muhammadan education._
1. Statistics and distribution.
_Muhammadan Religion._--The Muhammadans numbered nearly 600,000
persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, or about 3 per cent
of the population. Of these about two-fifths belong to Berar,
the Amraoti and Akola Districts containing more than 70,000 each;
while of the 350,000 returned from the Central Provinces proper,
about 40,000 reside in each of the Jubbulpore, Nagpur and Nimar
Districts. Berar was for a long period governed by the Muhammadan
Bahmani dynasty, and afterwards formed part of the Mughal empire,
passing to the Mughal Viceroy, the Nizam of Hyderabad, when he became
an independent ruler. Though under British administration, it is still
legally a part of Hyderabad territory, and a large proportion of the
official classes as well as many descendants of retired soldiers are
Muhammadans. Similarly Nimar was held by the Muhammadan Faruki dynasty
of Khandesh for 200 years, and was then included in the Mughal empire,
Burhanpur being the seat of a viceroy. At this period a good deal of
forcible conversion probably took place, and a considerable section
of the Bhils nominally became Muhammadans.
When the Gond Raja of Deogarh embraced Islam after his visit to Delhi,
members of this religion entered his service, and he also brought back
with him various artificers and craftsmen. The cavalry of the Bhonsla
Raja of Nagpur was largely composed of Muhammadans, and in many cases
their descendants have settled on the land. In the Chhattisgarh
Division and the Feudatory States the number of Muhammadans is
extremely small, constituting less than one per cent of the population.
2. Occupations.
No less than 37 per cent of the total number of Muhammadans live
in towns, though the general proportion of urban population in
the Provinces is only 7 1/2 per cent. The number of Muhammadans
in Government service excluding the police and army, is quite
disproportionate to their small numerical strength in the Provinces,
being 20 per cent of all persons employed. In the garrison they
actually outnumber Hindus, while in the police they form 37 per
cent of the whole force. In the medical and teaching professions
also the number of Muhammadans is comparatively large, while of
persons of independent means a proportion of 29 per cent are of this
religion. Of persons employed in domestic services nearly 14 per cent
of the total are Muhammadans, and of beggars, vagrants and prostitutes
23 per cent. Muhammadans are largely engaged in making and selling
clothes, outnumbering the Hindus in this trade; they consist of two
entirely different classes, the Muhammadan tailors who work for hire,
and the Bohra and Khoja shopkeepers who sell all kinds of cloth; but
both live in towns. Of dealers in timber and furniture 36 per cent
are Muhammadans, and they also engage in all branches of the retail
trade in provisions. The occupations of the lower-class Muhammadans
are the manufacture of glass bangles and slippers and the dyeing of
cloth. [299]
3. Muhammadan castes.
About 14 per cent of the Muhammadans returned caste names. The
principal castes are the Bohra and Khoja merchants, who are of the
Shiah sect, and the Cutchis or Memans from Gujarat, who are also
traders; these classes are foreigners in the Province, and many
of them do not bring their wives, though they have now begun to
settle here. The resident castes of Muhammadans are the Bahnas or
cotton-cleaners; Julahas, weavers; Kacheras, glass bangle-makers;
Kunjras, greengrocers; Kasais, butchers; and the Rangrez caste
of dyers who dye with safflower. As already stated, a section of
the Bhils are at least nominally Muhammadans, and the Fakirs or
Muhammadan beggars are also considered a separate caste. But no caste
of good standing such as the Rajput and Jat includes any considerable
number of Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, though in northern
India large numbers of them belong to this religion, while retaining
substantially their caste usages. The Muhammadan castes in the Central
Provinces probably consist to a large extent of the descendants of
Hindu converts. Their religious observances present a curious mixture
of Hindu and Muhammadan rites, as shown in the separate articles on
these castes. Proper Muhammadans look down on them and decline to
take food or intermarry with them.
4. The four tribal divisions.
The Muhammadans proper are usually divided into four classes, Shaikh,
Saiyad, Mughal and Pathan. Of these the Shaikhs number nearly 300,000,
the Pathans nearly 150,000, the Saiyads under 50,000, and the Pathans
about 9000 in the Central Provinces. The term Saiyad properly
means a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law, and the lady Fatimah,
the daughter of the Prophet. They use the title Saiyad or Mir [300]
before, and sometimes Shah after, their name, while women employ
that of Begum. Many Saiyads act as Pirs or spiritual guides to other
Muhammadan families. The external mark of a Saiyad is the right to
wear a green turban, but this is of course no longer legally secured
to them. The title Shaikh properly belongs only to three branches of
the Quraish tribe or that of Muhammad: the Siddikis, who claim descent
from Abu Bakr Siddik, [301] the father-in-law of the Prophet and the
second Caliph; the Farukis claiming it from Umar ul Faruk, the third
Caliph, and also the father-in-law of the Prophet; and the Abbasis,
descended from Abbas, one of the Prophet's nine uncles. The Farukis are
divided into two families, the Chistis and Faridis. Both these titles,
however, and especially Shaikh, are now arrogated by large numbers
of persons who cannot have any pretence to the above descent. Sir
D. Ibbetson quotes a proverb, 'Last year I was a butcher; this year I
am a Shaikh; next year if prices rise I shall become a Saiyad.' And Sir
H. M. Elliot relates that much amusement was caused in 1860 at Gujarat
by the Sherishtadar or principal officer of the judicial department
describing himself in an official return as Saiyad Hashimi Quraishi,
that is, of the family and lineage of the Prophet. His father, who was
living in obscurity in his native town, was discovered to be a Lohar
or blacksmith. [302] The term Shaikh means properly an elder, and
is freely taken by persons of respectable position. Shaikhs commonly
use either Shaikh or Muhammad as their first names. The Pathans were
originally the descendants of Afghan immigrants. The name is probably
the Indian form of the word Pushtun (plural Pushtanah), now given to
themselves by speakers of the Pushtu language. [303] The men add Khan
to their names and the women Khatun or Khatu. It is not at all likely
either that the bulk of the Muhammadans who returned themselves as
Pathans in the Central Provinces are really of Afghan descent. The
Mughals proper are of two classes, Irani or Persian, who belong to
the Shiah sect, and Turani, Turkish or Tartar, who are Sunnis. Mughals
use the title Mirza (short for Amirzada, son of a prince) before their
names, and add Beg after them. It is said that the Prophet addressed
a Mughal by the title of Beg after winning a victory, and since then
it has always been used. Mughal women have the designation Khanum
after their names. [304] Formerly the Saiyads and Mughals constituted
the superior class of Muhammadan gentry, and never touched a plough
themselves, like the Hindu Brahmans and Rajputs. These four divisions
are not proper subcastes as they are not endogamous. A man of one
group can marry a woman of any other and she becomes a member of her
husband's group; but the daughters of Saiyads do not usually marry
others than Saiyads. Nor is there any real distinction of occupation
between them, the men following any occupation indifferently. In fact,
the divisions are now little more than titular, a certain distinction
attaching to the titles Saiyad and Shaikh when borne by families who
have a hereditary or prescriptive right to use them.
5. Marriage.
The census returns of 1911 show that three-fourths of Muhammadan boys
now remain unmarried till the age of 20; while of girls 31 per cent are
unmarried between 15 and 20, but only 13 per cent above that age. The
age of marriage of boys may therefore be taken at 18 to 25 or later,
and that of girls at 10 to 20. The age of marriage both of girls and
boys is probably getting later, especially among the better classes.
Marriage is prohibited to the ordinary near relatives, but not between
first cousins. A man cannot marry his foster-mother or foster-sister,
unless the foster-brother and sister were nursed by the same woman
at intervals widely separated. A man may not marry his wife's sister
during his wife's lifetime unless she has been divorced. A Muhammadan
cannot marry a polytheist, but he may marry a Jewess or a Christian. No
specific religious ceremony is appointed, nor are any rites essential
for the contraction of a valid marriage. If both persons are legally
competent, and contract marriage with each other in the presence of two
male or one male and two female witnesses, it is sufficient. And the
Shiah law even dispenses with witnesses. As a rule the Kazi performs
the ceremony, and reads four chapters of the Koran with the profession
of belief, the bridegroom repeating them after him. The parties then
express their mutual consent, and the Kazi, raising his hands, says,
"The great God grant that mutual love may reign between this couple
as it existed between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and
Zuleika, Moses and Zipporah, His Highness Muhammad and Ayesha, and
His Highness Ali and Fatimah." [305] A dowry or _meher_ must be paid
to the wife, which under the law must not be less than ten silver
_dirhams_ or drachmas; but it is customary to fix it at Rs. 17, the
dowry of Fatimah, the Prophet's favourite daughter, or at Rs. 750,
that of the Prophet's wife, Ayesha. [306] The wedding is, however,
usually accompanied by feasts and celebrations not less elaborate
or costly than those of the Hindus. Several Hindu ceremonies are
also included, such as the anointing of the bride and bridegroom
with oil and turmeric, and setting out earthen vessels, which are
meant to afford a dwelling-place for the spirits of ancestors, at
least among the lower classes. [307] Another essential rite is the
rubbing of the hands and feet of the bridegroom with _mehndi_ or red
henna. The marriage is usually arranged and a ceremony of betrothal
held at least a year before it actually takes place.
6. Polygamy, divorce and widow-remarriage.
A husband can divorce his wife at pleasure by merely repeating the
prescribed sentences. A wife can obtain divorce from her husband for
impotence, madness, leprosy or non-payment of the dowry. A woman who
is divorced can claim her dowry if it has not been paid. Polygamy is
permitted among Muhammadans to the number of four wives, but it is
very rare in the Central Provinces. Owing to the fact that members
of the immigrant trading castes leave their wives at home in Gujarat,
the number of married women returned at the census was substantially
less than that of married men. A feeling in favour of the legal
prohibition of polygamy is growing up among educated Muhammadans,
and many of them sign a contract at marriage not to take a second
wife during the lifetime of the first. There is no prohibition on
the remarriage of widows in Muhammadan law, but the Hindu rule on
the subject has had considerable influence, and some Muhammadans of
good position object to the marriage of widows in their family. The
custom of the seclusion of women also, as Mr. Marten points out,
operates as a bar to a widow finding a husband for herself.
7. Devices for procuring children, and beliefs about them.
Women who desire children resort to the shrines of saints, who are
supposed to be able to induce fertility. "Blochmann notes that the
tomb of Saint Salim-i-Chishti at Fatehpur-Sikri, in whose house
the Emperor Jahangir was born, is up to the present day visited by
childless Hindu and Musalman women. A tree in the compound of the
saint Shaih Alam of Ahmedabad yields a peculiar acorn-like fruit,
which is sought after far and wide by those desiring children; the
woman is believed to conceive from the moment of eating the fruit. If
the birth of a child follows the eating of the acorn, the man and woman
who took it from the tree should for a certain number of years come at
every anniversary of the saint and nourish the tree with a supply of
milk. In addition to this, jasmine and rose-bushes at the shrines of
certain saints are supposed to possess issue-giving properties. To
draw virtue from the saint's jasmine the woman who yearns for a
child bathes and purifies herself and goes to the shrine, and seats
herself under or near the jasmine bush with her skirt spread out. As
many flowers as fall into her lap, so many children will she have. In
some localities if after the birth of one child no other son is born,
or being born does not live, it is supposed that the first-born child
is possessed by a malignant spirit who destroys the young lives of
the new-born brothers and sisters. So at the mother's next confinement
sugar and sesame-seed are passed seven or nine times over the new-born
infant from head to foot, and the elder boy or girl is given them to
eat. The sugar represents the life of the young one given to the spirit
who possesses the first-born. A child born with teeth already visible
is believed to exercise a very malignant influence over its parents,
and to render the early death of one of them almost certain." [308]
8. Pregnancy rites.
In the seventh or ninth month of pregnancy a fertility rite is
performed as among the Hindus. The woman is dressed in new clothes,
and her lap is filled with fruit and vegetables by her friends. In
some localities a large number of pots are obtained, and a little
water is placed in each of them by a fertile married woman who has
never lost a child. Prayers are repeated over the pots in the names
of the male and female ancestors of the family, and especially of the
women who have died in childbirth. This appears to be a propitiation
of the spirits of ancestors. [309]
9. Childbirth and naming children.
A woman goes to her parents' home after the last pregnancy rite and
stays there till her confinement is over. The rites performed by the
midwife at birth resemble those of the Hindus. When the child is born
the _azan_ or summons to prayer is uttered aloud in his right ear,
and the _takbir_ or Muhammadan creed in his left. The child is named
on the sixth or seventh day. Sometimes the name of an ancestor is
given, or the initial letter is selected from the Koran at a venture
and a name beginning with that letter is chosen. Some common names
are those of the hundred titles of God combined with the prefix _abd_
or servant. Such are Abdul Aziz, servant of the all-honoured; Ghani,
the everlasting; Karim, the gracious; Rahim, the pitiful; Rahman,
the merciful; Razzak, the bread-giver; Sattar, the concealer; and
so on, with the prefix Abdul, or servant of, in each case. Similarly
Abdullah, or servant of God, was the name of Muhammad's father, and
is a very favourite one. Other names end with Baksh or 'given by,' as
Haidar Baksh, given by the lion (Ali); these are similar to the Hindu
names ending in Prasad. The prefix Ghulam, or slave of, is also used,
as Ghulam Hussain, slave of Hussain; and names of Hebrew patriarchs
mentioned in the Koran are not uncommon, as Ayub Job, Harun Aaron,
Ishaq Isaac, Musa Moses, Yakub Jacob, Yusaf Joseph, and so on. [310]
10. The Ukika sacrifice.
After childbirth the mother must not pray or fast, touch the Koran
or enter a mosque for forty days; on the expiry of this period she is
bathed and dressed in good clothes, and her relatives bring presents
for the child. Some people do not let her oil or comb her hair during
these days. The custom would seem to be a relic of the period of
impurity of women after childbirth. On the fortieth day the child
is placed in a cradle for the first time. In some localities a rite
called Ukika is performed after the birth of a child. It consists of a
sacrifice in the name of the child of two he-goats for a boy and one
for a girl. The goats must be above a year old, and without spot or
blemish. The meat must be separated from the bones so that not a bone
is broken, and the bones, skin, feet and head are afterwards buried
in the earth. When the flesh is served the following prayer is said by
the father: "O, Almighty God, I offer in the stead of my own offspring
life for life, blood for blood, head for head, bone for bone, hair
for hair, and skin for skin. In the name of God do I sacrifice this
he-goat." This is apparently a relic of the substitution of a goat for
Ishmael when Abraham was offering him as a sacrifice. The Muhammadans
say that it was Ishmael instead of Isaac who was thus offered, and they
think that Ishmael or Ismail was the ancestor of all the Arabs. [311]
11. Shaving the hair and ear-piercing.
Either on the same day as the Ukika sacrifice or soon afterwards the
child's hair is shaved for the first time. By the rich the hair is
weighed against silver and this sum is distributed to beggars. It is
then tied up in a piece of cloth and either buried or thrown into a
river, or sometimes set afloat on a little toy raft in the name of a
saint. Occasionally tufts of hair or even the whole head may be left
unshaven in the name of a saint, and after one or more years the child
is taken to the saint's tomb and the hair shaved there; or if this
cannot be done it is cut off at home in the name of the saint. [312]
When a girl is one or two years old the lobes of her ears are bored. By
degrees other holes are bored along the edge of the ear and even
in the centre, till by the time she has attained the age of two or
three years she has thirteen holes in the right ear and twelve in the
left. Little silver rings and various kinds of earrings are inserted
and worn in the holes. But the practice of boring so many holes has
now been abandoned by the better-class Muhammadans.
12. Birthdays.
The child's birthday is known as _sal-girah_ and is celebrated by a
feast. A knot is tied in a red thread and annually thereafter a fresh
knot to mark his age, and prayers are offered in the child's name to
the patriarch Noah, who is believed to have lived to five hundred or
a thousand years, and hence to have the power of conferring longevity
on the child. When a child is four years, four months and four days
old the ceremony of Bismillah or taking the name of God is held,
which is obligatory on all Muhammadans. Friends are invited, and the
child is dressed in a flowered robe (_sahra_) and repeats the first
chapters of the Koran after his or her tutor. [313]
13. Circumcision, and maturity of girls.
A boy is usually circumcised at the age of six or seven, but among
some classes of Shiahs and the Arabs the operation is performed a few
days after birth. The barber operates and the child is usually given
a little _bhang_ or other opiate. Some Muhammadans leave circumcision
till an age bordering on puberty, and then perform it with a pomp and
ceremony almost equalling those of a marriage. When a girl arrives
at the age of puberty she is secluded for seven days, and for this
period eats only butter, bread and sugar, all fish, flesh, salt and
acid food being prohibited. In the evening she is bathed, warm water
is poured on her head, and among the lower classes an entertainment
is given to friends. [314]
14. Funeral rites.
The same word _janazah_ is used for the corpse, the bier and the
funeral. When a man is at the point of death a chapter of the Koran,
telling of the happiness awaiting the true believer in the future life,
is read, and some money or sherbet is dropped into his mouth. After
death the body is carefully washed and wrapped in three or five cloths
for a male or female respectively. Some camphor or other sweet-smelling
stuff is placed on the bier. Women do not usually attend funerals, and
the friends and relatives of the deceased walk behind the bier. There
is a tradition among some Muhammadans that no one should precede the
corpse, as the angels go before. To carry a bier is considered a very
meritorious act, and four of the relations, relieving each other
in turn, bear it on their shoulders. Muhammadans carry their dead
quickly to the place of interment, for Muhammad is stated to have
said that it is good to carry the dead quickly to the grave, so as
to cause the righteous person to attain the sooner to bliss; and, on
the other hand, in the case of a bad man it is well to put wickedness
away from one's shoulders. Funerals should always be attended on foot,
for it is said that Muhammad once rebuked people who were following
a bier on horseback, saying, "Have you no shame, since God's angels
go on foot and you go upon the backs of quadrupeds?" It is a highly
meritorious act to attend a funeral whether it be that of a Muslim,
a Jew or a Christian. The funeral service is not recited in the
cemetery, this being too polluted a place for so sacred an office,
but either in a mosque or in some open space close to the dwelling of
the deceased person or to the graveyard. The nearest relative is the
proper person to recite the service, but it is usually said by the
family priest or the village Kazi. The grave sometimes has a recess
at the side, in which the body is laid to prevent the earth falling
upon it, or planks may be laid over the body slantwise or supported on
bricks for the same purpose. Coffins are only used by the rich. When
the body has been placed in the grave each person takes up a clod
of earth and pronouncing over it a verse of the Koran, 'From earth
we made you, to earth we return you and out of earth we shall raise
you on the resurrection day,' places it gently in the grave over the
corpse. [315] The building of stone or brick tombs and writing verses
of the Koran on them is prohibited by the Traditions, but large masonry
tombs are common in all Muhammadan countries and very frequently they
bear inscriptions. On the third day a feast is given in the morning
and after it trays of flowers with a vessel containing scented oil
are handed round and the guests pick flowers and dip them into the
oil. They then proceed to the grave, where the oil and flowers are
placed. Maulvis are employed to read the whole of the Koran over the
grave, which they accomplish by dividing it into sections and reading
them at the same time. Rich people sometimes have the whole Koran
read several times over in this manner. A sheet of white or red cloth
is spread over the grave, green being usually reserved for Fakirs or
saints. On the evening of the ninth day another feast is given, to
which friends and neighbours, and religious and ordinary beggars are
invited, and a portion is sent to the Fakir or mendicant in charge of
the burying-ground. Some people will not eat any food from this feast
in their houses but take it outside. [316] On the morning of the tenth
day they go again to the grave and repeat the offering of flowers and
scented oil as before. Other feasts are given on the fortieth day,
and at the expiration of four, six and nine months, and one year from
the date of the death, and the rich sometimes spend large sums on
them. None of these observances are prescribed by the Koran but have
either been retained from pre-Islamic times or adopted in imitation of
the Hindus. For forty days all furniture is removed from the rooms and
the whole family sleep on the bare ground. Sometimes a cup of water and
a wheaten cake are placed nightly for forty days on the spot where the
deceased died, and a similar provision is sent to the mosque. When a
man dies his mother and widow break their glass bangles. The mother
can get new ones, but the widow does not wear glass bangles or a
nose-ring again unless she takes a second husband. For four months
and ten days the widow is strictly secluded and does not leave the
house. Prayers for ancestors are offered annually at the Shab-i-Barat
or Bakr-Id festival. [317] The property of a deceased Muhammadan is
applicable in the first place to the payment of his funeral expenses;
secondly, to the discharge of his debts; and thirdly, to the payment
of legacies up to one-third of the residue. If the legacies exceed
this amount they are proportionately reduced. The remainder of the
property is distributed by a complicated system of shares to those of
the deceased's relatives who rank as sharers and residuaries, legacies
to any of them in excess of the amount of their shares being void. The
consequence of this law is that most Muhammadans die intestate. [318]
15. Muhammadan sects. Shiah and Sunni.
Of the two main sects of Islam, ninety-four per cent of the Muhammadans
in the Central Province were returned as being Sunnis in 1911 and three
per cent as Shiahs, while the remainder gave no sect. Only the Cutchi,
Bohra and Khoja immigrants from Gujarat are Shiahs and practically
all other Muhammadans are Sunnis. With the exception of Persia,
Oudh and part of Gujarat, the inhabitants of which are Shiahs, the
Sunni sect is generally prevalent in the Muhammadan world. The main
difference between the Sunnis and Shiahs is that the latter think
that according to the Koran the Caliphate or spiritual headship of
the Muhammadans had to descend in the Prophet's family and therefore
necessarily devolved on the Lady Fatimah, the only one of his children
who survived him, and on her husband Ali the fourth Caliph. They
therefore reject the first three Caliphs after Muhammad, that is Abu
Bakr, Omar and Othman. After Ali they also hold that the Caliphate
descended in his family to his two sons Hasan and Hussain, and the
descendants of Hussain. Consequently they reject all the subsequent
Caliphs of the Muhammadan world, as Hussain and his children did not
occupy this position. They say that there are only twelve Caliphs,
or Imams, as they now prefer to call them, and that the twelfth
has never really died and will return again as the Messiah of whom
Muhammad spoke, at the end of the world. He is known as the Mahdi, and
the well-known pretender of the Soudan, as well as others elsewhere,
have claimed to be this twelfth or unrevealed Imam. Other sects of
the Shiahs, as the Zaidiyah and Ismailia, make a difference in the
succession of the Imamate among Hussain's descendants. The central
incident of the Shiah faith is the slaughter of Hussain, the son
of Ali, with his family, on the plain of Karbala in Persia by the
sons of Yazid, the second Caliph of the Umaiyad dynasty of Damascus,
on the 10th day of the month Muharram, in the 61st year of the Hijra
or A.D. 680. The martyrdom of Hussain and his family at Karbala is
celebrated annually for the first ten days of the month of Muharram by
the Shiahs. Properly the Sunnis should take no part in this, and should
observe only the tenth day of Muharram as that on which Adam and Eve
and heaven and hell were created. But in the Central Provinces the
Sunnis participate in all the Muharram celebrations, which now have
rather the character of a festival than of a season of mourning. The
Shiahs also reject the four great schools of tradition of the Sunnis,
and have separate traditional authorities of their own. They count the
month to begin from the full moon instead of the new moon, pray three
instead of five times a day, and in praying hold their hands open by
their sides instead of folding them below the breast. The word Shiah
means a follower, and Sunni one proceeding on the _sunnah_, the path
or way, a term applied to the traditions of the Prophet. The two words
have thus almost the same signification. Except when otherwise stated,
the information in this article relates to the Sunnis.
16. Leading religious observances. Prayer.
The five standard observances of the Muhammadan religion are the
Kalima, or creed; Sula, or the five daily prayers; Roza, or the
thirty-day fast of Ramazan; Zakab, the legal alms; and Hajj, the
pilgrimage to Mecca, which should be performed once in a lifetime. The
Kalima, or creed, consists simply in the sentence, 'There is but
one God and Muhammad is His prophet,' which is frequently on the
lips of Muhammadans. The five periods for prayer are Fajr ki namaz,
in the morning before sunrise; Zohar, or the midday prayer, after the
sun has begun to decline; Asur, or the afternoon prayer, about four;
Maghrib, or the evening prayer, immediately after sunset; and Aysha,
or the evening prayer, after the night has closed in. These prayers
are repeated in Arabic, and before saying them the face, hands and
feet should be washed, and, correctly speaking, the teeth should
also be cleaned. At the times of prayer the Azan or call to prayer is
repeated from the mosque by the _muezzan_ or crier in the following
terms: "God is great, God is great, God is great, God is great! I
bear witness that there is no God but God! (twice). I bear witness
that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! (twice). Come to prayers! Come
to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great! There
is no other God but God." In the early morning the following sentence
is added, 'Prayers are better than sleep.' [319]
17. The fast of Ramazan.
The third necessary observance is the fast in the month of Ramazan,
the ninth month of the Muhammadan year. The fast begins when the new
moon is seen, or if the sky is clouded, after thirty days from the
beginning of the previous month. During its continuance no food or
water must be taken between sunrise and sunset, and betel-leaf, tobacco
and conjugal intercourse must be abjured for the whole period. The
abstention from water is a very severe penance during the long days of
the hot weather when Ramazan falls at this season. Mr. Hughes thinks
that the Prophet took the thirty days' fast from the Christian Lent,
which was observed very strictly in the Eastern Church during the
nights as well as days. In ordaining the fast he said that God 'would
make it an ease and not a difficulty,' but he may not have reflected
that his own action in discarding the intercalary month adopted by the
Arabs and reverting to the simple lunar months would cause the fast
to revolve round the whole year. During the fast people eat before
sunrise and after sunset, and dinner-parties are held lasting far
into the night.
It is a divine command to give alms annually of money, cattle, grain,
fruit and merchandise. If a man has as much as eighty rupees, or forty
sheep and goats, or five camels, he should give alms at specified
rates amounting roughly to two and a half per cent of his property. In
the case of fruit and grain the rate is one-tenth of the harvest for
unirrigated, and a twentieth for irrigated crops. These alms should
be given to pilgrims who desire to go to Mecca but have not the means;
and to religious and other beggars if they are very poor, debtors who
have not the means to discharge their debts, champions of the cause
of God, travellers without food and proselytes to Islam. Religious
mendicants consider it unlawful to accept the _zakat_ or legal alms
unless they are very poor, and they may not be given to Saiyads or
descendants of the Prophet.
18. The pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca is incumbent on all men and women
who have sufficient means to meet the expenses of the journey and
to maintain their families at home during their absence. Only a
very small proportion of Indian Muhammadans, however, now undertake
it. Mecca is the capital of Arabia and about seventy miles from the Red
Sea. The pilgrimage must be performed during the month Zu'l Hijjah,
so that the pilgrim may be at Mecca on the festival of Id-ul-Zoha
or the Bakr-Id. At the last stage near Mecca the pilgrims assume a
special dress, consisting of two seamless wrappers, one round the
waist and the other over the shoulders. Sandals of wood may also be
worn. Formerly the pilgrim would take with him a little compass in
which the needle in the shape of a dove pointed continually towards
Mecca in the west. On arrival at Mecca he performs the legal ablutions,
proceeds to the sacred mosque, kisses the black stone, and encompasses
the Kaaba seven times. The Kaaba or 'Cube' is a large stone building
and the black stone is let into one of its walls. He drinks the water
of the sacred well Zem-Zem from which Hagar and Ishmael obtained water
when they were dying of thirst in the wilderness, and goes through
various other rites up to the day of Id-ul-Zoha, when he performs
the sacrifice or _kurban_, offering a ram or he-goat for every member
of his family, or for every seven persons a female camel or cow. The
flesh is distributed in the same manner as that of the ordinary Bakr-Id
sacrifice. [320] He then gets himself shaved and his nails pared, which
he has not done since he assumed the pilgrim's garb, and buries the
cuttings and parings at the place of the sacrifice. The pilgrimage is
concluded after another circuit of the Kaaba, but before his departure
the pilgrim should visit the tomb of Muhammad at Medina. One who has
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca thereafter has the title of Haji.
19. Festivals. The Muharram.
The principal festivals are the Muharram and the two Ids. The month
of Muharram is the first of the year, and the first ten days, as
already stated, are devoted to mourning for the death of Hussain and
his family. This is observed indifferently by Sunnis and Shiahs in
the Central Provinces, and the proceedings with the Sunnis at any
rate have now rather the character of a festival than a time of
sorrow. Models of the tomb of Hussain, called _tazia_, are made of
bamboo and pasteboard and decorated with tinsel. Wealthy Shiahs have
expensive models, richly decorated, which are permanently kept in a
chamber of the house called the Imambara or Imam's place, but this is
scarcely ever done in the Central Provinces. As a rule the _tazias_
are taken in procession and deposited in a river on the last and
great day of the Muharram. Women who have made vows for the recovery
of their children from an illness dress them in green and send them to
beg; and men and boys of the lower classes have themselves painted as
tigers and go about mimicking a tiger for what they can get from the
spectators. It seems likely that the representations of tigers may
be in memory of the lion which is said to have kept watch over the
body of Hussain after he had been buried. In Persia a man disguised
as a tiger appears on the tomb of Hussain in the drama of his murder
at Karbala, which is enacted at the Muharram. In Hindu mythology the
lion and tiger appear to be interchangeable. During the tragedy at
Karbala, Kasim, a young nephew of Hussain, was married to his little
daughter Sakinah, Kasim being very shortly afterwards killed. It is
supposed that the cast shoe of Kasim's horse was brought to India,
and at the Muharram models of horse-shoes are made and carried fixed on
poles. Men who feel so impelled and think that they will be possessed
by the spirit of Kasim make these horse-shoes and carry them, and
frequently they believe themselves to be possessed by the spirit,
exhibiting the usual symptoms of a kind of frenzy, and women apply
to them for children or for having evil spirits cast out. [321]
20. Id-ul-Fitr.
The Id-ul-Fitr, or the breaking of the fast, is held on the first
day of the tenth month, Shawwal, on the day after the end of the
fast of Ramazan. On this day the people assemble dressed in their
best clothes and proceed to the Id-Gah, a building erected outside
the town and consisting of a platform with a wall at the western end
in the direction of Mecca. Here prayers are offered, concluding with
one for the King-Emperor, and a sermon is given, and the people then
return escorting the Kazi or other leading member of the community and
sometimes paying their respects in a body to European officers. They
return to their homes and spend the rest of the day in feasting and
merriment, a kind of vermicelli being a special dish eaten on this day.
21. Id-ul-Zoha
The Idu-l-Azha or Id-ul-Zoha, the feast of sacrifice, also called
the Bakr-Id or cow-festival, is held on the tenth day of the last
month, Zu'l Hijjah. It is the principal day of the Muhammadan year,
and pilgrims going to Mecca keep it there. [322] At this time also the
Arabs were accustomed to go to Mecca and offer animal sacrifices there
to the local deities. According to tradition, when Abraham (Ibrahim)
founded Mecca the Lord desired him to prepare a feast and to offer his
son Ishmael (Ismail). But when he had drawn the knife across his son's
throat the angel Gabriel substituted a ram and Ishmael was saved,
and the festival commemorates this. As already stated, the Arabs
believe themselves to be descended from Ishmael or Ismail. According
to a remarkable Hadis or tradition, related by Ayesha, Muhammad said:
"Man hath not done anything on the Id-ul-Zoha more pleasing to God
than spilling blood in sacrifice; for, verily, its blood reacheth
the acceptance of God before it falleth upon the ground, therefore
be joyful in it." [323] On this day, as on the other Id, the people
assemble for prayers at the Id-Gah. On returning home the head of a
family takes a sheep, cow or camel to the entrance of his house and
sacrifices it, repeating the formula, 'In the name of God, God is
great,' as he cuts its throat. The flesh is divided, two-thirds being
kept by the family and one-third given to the poor in the name of
God. This is the occasion on which Muhammadans offend Hindu feeling
by their desire to sacrifice cows, as camels are unobtainable or
too valuable, and the sacrifice of a cow has probably more religious
merit than that of a sheep or goat. But in many cases they abandon
their right to kill a cow in order to avoid stirring up enmity.
22. Mosques.
The entrance to a Muhammadan mosque consists of a stone gateway,
bearing in verse the date of its building; this leads into a paved
courtyard, which in a large mosque may be 40 or 50 yards long and
about 20 wide. The courtyard often contains a small tank or cistern
about 20 feet square, its sides lined with stone seats. Beyond this
lies the building itself, open towards the courtyard, which is on its
eastern side, and closed in on the other three sides, with a roof. The
floor is raised about a foot above the level of the courtyard. In
the back wall, which is opposite the courtyard to the west in the
direction of Mecca, is an arched niche, and close by a wooden or
masonry pulpit raised four or five feet from the ground. Against
the wall is a wooden staff, which the preacher holds in his hand
or leans upon according to ancient custom. [324] The walls are bare
of decorations, images and pictures having been strictly prohibited
by Muhammad, and no windows are necessary; but along the walls are
scrolls bearing in golden letters the name of the Prophet and the
first four Caliphs, or a chapter of the Koran, the Arabic script
being especially suitable for this kind of ornamental writing. [325]
The severe plainness of the interior of a mosque demonstrates the
strict monotheism of Islam, and is in contrast to the temples and
shrines of most other religions. The courtyard of a mosque is often
used as a place of resort, and travellers also stay in it.
23. The Friday service.
A service is held in the principal mosque on Fridays about midday, at
which public prayers are held and a sermon or _khutbak_ is preached or
recited. Friday is known as Jumah, or the day of assembly. Friday was
said by Muhammad to have been the day on which Adam was taken into
paradise and turned out of it, the day on which he repented and on
which he died. It will also be the day of Resurrection. The Prophet
considered that the Jews and Christians had erred in transferring
their Sabbath from Friday to Saturday and Sunday respectively. [326]
24. Priests, Mulla and Maulvi.
The priest in charge of a mosque is known as Mulla. Any one can be a
Mulla who can read the Koran and say the prayers, and the post is very
poorly paid. The Mulla proclaims the call to prayer five times a day,
acts as Imam or leader of the public prayers, and if there is no menial
servant keeps the mosque clean. He sometimes has a little school in the
courtyard in which he teaches children the Koran. He also sells charms,
consisting of verses of the Koran written on paper, to be tied round
the arm or hung on the neck. These have the effect of curing disease
and keeping off evil spirits or the evil eye. Sometimes there is a
mosque servant who also acts as sexton of the local cemetery. The funds
of the mosque and any endowment attached to it are in charge of some
respectable resident, who is known as Mutawalli or churchwarden. The
principal religious officer is the Maulvi, who corresponds to the
Hindu Guru or preceptor. These men are frequently intelligent and
well-educated. They are also doctors of law, as all Muhammadan law
is based on the Koran and Traditions and the deductions drawn from
them by the great commentators. The Maulvi thus acts as a teacher of
religious doctrine and also of law. He is not permanently attached
to a mosque, but travels about during the open season, visiting
his disciples in villages, teaching and preaching to them, and also
treating the sick. If he knows the whole of the Koran by heart he
has the title of Hafiz, and is much honoured, as it is thought that
a man who has earned the title of Hafiz frees twenty generations of
his ancestors and descendants from the fires of hell. Such a man is
much in request during the month of Ramazan, when the leader of the
long night prayers is expected to recite nightly one of the thirty
sections of the Koran, so as to complete them within the month. [327]
25. The Kazi.
The Kazi was under Muhammadan rule the civil and criminal judge,
having jurisdiction over a definite local area, and he also acted as
a registrar of deeds. Now he only leads the public prayers at the Id
festivals and keeps registers of marriages and divorces. He does not
usually attend marriages himself unless he receives a special fee, but
pays a deputy or _naib_ to do so. [328] The Kazi is still, however,
as a rule the leading member of the local Muhammadan community,
the office being sometimes elective and sometimes hereditary.
26. General features of Islam.
In proclaiming one unseen God as the sole supernatural being, Muhammad
adopted the religion of the Jews of Arabia, with whose sacred books
he was clearly familiar. He looked on the Jewish prophets as his
predecessors, he himself being the last and greatest. The Koran says,
"We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down to us, and that
which was sent down unto Abraham, and Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob,
and the tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses, and Jesus and
the prophets from the Lord, and we make no distinction between any
of them." Thus Muhammad accepted the bulk of the Old but not of the
New Testament, which the Jews also do not receive. His deity was the
Jewish Jehovah of the Old Testament, though called Allah after the name
of a god worshipped at Mecca. The six prophets who brought new laws
were Adam, the chosen of God; Noah, the preacher of God; Abraham, the
friend of God; Moses, one who conversed with God; Jesus, the Spirit
of God; and Muhammad, the Messenger of God. His seven heavens and
his prophecy of a Messiah and Day of Judgment were Jewish beliefs,
though it is supposed that he took the idea of the Sirat or narrow
bridge over the midst of hell, sharper than the edge of a sword,
over which all must pass, while the wicked fall from it into hell,
from Zoroastrianism. Muhammad recognised a devil, known as Iblis,
while the Jinns or Genii of pagan Arabia became bad angels. The great
difference between Islam and Judaism arose from Muhammad's position
in being obliged continually to fight for his own existence and
the preservation of his sect This circumstance coloured the later
parts of the Koran and gave Islam the character of a religious and
political crusade, a kind of faith eminently fitted to the Arab nature
and training. And to this character may be assigned its extraordinary
success, but, at the same time, probably the religion itself might have
been of a somewhat purer and higher tenor if its birth and infancy
had not had place in a constant state of war. Muhammad accomplished
most beneficent reforms in abolishing polytheism and such abuses as
female infanticide, and at least regulating polygamy. In forbidding
both gambling and the use of alcohol he set a very high standard to his
disciples, which if adhered to would remove two of the main sources of
vice. His religion retained fewer relics of the pre-existing animism
and spirit-worship than almost any other, though in practice uneducated
Indian Muhammadans, at least, preserve them in a large measure. And
owing to the fact that the Muhammadan months revolve round the year,
its festivals have been dissociated from the old pagan observances of
the changes of the sun and seasons and the growth of vegetation. At the
same time the religious sanction given to polygamy and slavery, and the
sensual nature of the heaven promised to true believers after death,
must be condemned as debasing features; and the divine authority and
completeness ascribed to the Koran and the utterances of the Prophet,
which were beyond criticism or question, as well as the hostility
towards all other forms of religion and philosophy, have necessarily
had a very narrowing influence on Muhammadan thought. While the formal
and lifeless precision of the religious services and prayers, as well
as the belief in divine interference in the concerns of everyday life,
have produced a strong spirit of fatalism and resignation to events.
27. The Koran.
The word Kuran is derived from _kuraa_, to recite or proclaim. The
Muhammadans look upon the Koran as the direct word of God sent down
by Him to the seventh or lowest heaven, and then revealed from time to
time to the Prophet by the angel Gabriel. A few chapters are supposed
to have been delivered entire, but the greater part of the book was
given piecemeal during a period of twenty-three years. The Koran
is written in Arabic prose, but its sentences generally conclude
in a long-continued rhyme. The language is considered to be of the
utmost elegance and purity, and it has become the standard of the
Arabic tongue. Muhammadans pay it the greatest reverence, and their
most solemn oath is taken with the Koran placed on the head. Formerly
the sacred book could only be touched by a Saiyad or a Mulla, and an
assembly always rose when it was brought to them. The book is kept on a
high shelf in the house, so as to avoid any risk of contamination, and
nothing is placed over it. Every chapter in the Koran except one begins
with the invocation, '_Bismillah-nirrahman-nirrahim_,' or 'In the name
of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful'; and nearly all Muhammadan
prayers and religious writings also begin with this. As the Koran is
the direct word of God, any statement in it has the unquestioned and
complete force of law. On some points, however, separate utterances
in the work itself are contradictory, and the necessity then arises of
determining which is the later and more authoritative statement. [329]
28. The Traditions.
Next to the Koran in point of authority come the Traditions of
the sayings and actions of the Prophet, which are known as Hadis or
Sunnah. These were eagerly collected as the jurisdiction of Islam was
extended, and numerous cases arose for decision in which no ruling
was provided by the Koran. For some time it was held necessary that a
tradition should be oral and not have been reduced to writing. When
the necessity of collecting and searching for the Traditions became
paramount, indefatigable research was displayed in the work. The most
trustworthy collection of traditions was compiled by Abu Abdullah
Muhammad, a native of Bokhara, who died in the Hijra year 256, or
nearly 250 years after Muhammad. He succeeded in amassing no fewer than
600,000 traditions, of which he selected only 7275 as trustworthy. The
authentic traditions of what the Prophet said and did were considered
practically as binding as the Koran, and any case might be decided by
a tradition bearing on it. The development of Moslem jurisdiction was
thus based not on the elucidation and exposition of broad principles
of law and equity, but on the record of the words and actions of
one man who had lived in a substantially less civilised society than
that existing in the countries to which Muhammadan law now came to be
applied. Such a state of things inevitably exercised a cramping effect
on the Moslem lawyers and acted as a bar to improvement. Thus, because
the Koran charged the Jews and Christians with having corrupted the
text of their sacred books, it was laid down that no Jew or Christian
could be accepted as a credible witness in a Moslem lawsuit; and since
the Prophet had forbidden the keeping of dogs except for certain
necessary purposes, it was ruled by one school that there was no
property in dogs, and that if a man killed a dog its owner had no
right to compensation. [330]
29. The schools of law.
After the Koran and Traditions the decisions of certain lawyers during
the early period of Islam were accepted as authoritative. Of them
four schools are recognised by the Sunnis in different countries,
those of the Imams Abu Hanifa, Shafei, Malik, and Hambal. In northern
India the school of Abu Hanifa is followed. He was born at Kufa,
the capital of Irak, in the Hijra year 80, when four of the Prophet's
Companions were still alive. He is the great oracle of jurisprudence,
and with his two pupils was the founder of the Hanifi code of law. In
southern India the Shafei school is followed. [331] The Shiahs have
separate collections of traditions and schools of law, and they say
that a Mujtahid or doctor of the law can still give decisions of
binding authority, which the Sunnis deny. Except as regards marriage,
divorce and inheritance and other personal matters, Muhammadan law
is of course now superseded by the general law of India.
30. Food.
An animal only becomes lawful food for Muhammadans if it is killed by
cutting the throat and repeating at the time the words, '_Bismillah
Allaho Akbar_,' or 'In the name of God, God is great.' But in shooting
wild animals, if the invocation is repeated at the time of discharging
the arrow or firing the gun, the carcase becomes lawful food. This
last rule of Sunni law is, however, not known to, or not observed by,
many Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, who do not eat an animal
unless its throat is cut before death. Fish and locusts may be eaten
without being killed in this manner. The animal so killed by Zabh
is lawful food when slain by a Moslem, Jew or Christian, but not if
slaughtered by an idolater or an apostate from Islam. Cloven-footed
animals, birds that pick up food with their bills, and fish with
scales are lawful, but not birds or beasts of prey. It is doubtful
whether the horse is lawful. Elephants, mules, asses, alligators,
turtles, crabs, snakes and frogs are unlawful, and swine's flesh
is especially prohibited. Muhammadans eat freely of mutton and fish
when they can afford it, but some of them abstain from chickens in
imitation of the Hindus. Their favourite drink is sherbet, or sugar
and water with cream or the juice of some fruit. Wine is forbidden in
the Koran, and the prohibition is held to include intoxicating drugs,
but this latter rule is by no means observed. According to his religion
a Muhammadan need have no objection to eat with a Christian if the
food eaten is of a lawful kind; but he should not eat with Hindus,
as they are idolaters. In practice, however, many Muhammadans have
adopted the Hindu rule against eating food touched by Christians,
while owing to long association together they will partake of it when
cooked by Hindus. [332]
31. Dress.
The most distinctive feature of Muhammadan dress is that the men
always wear trousers or pyjamas of cotton, silk or chintz cloth,
usually white. They may be either tight or loose below the knee, and
are secured by a string round the waist. A Muhammadan never wears the
Hindu _dhoti_ or loin-cloth. He has a white, sleeved muslin shirt,
made much like an English soft-fronted shirt, but usually without a
collar, the ends of which hang down outside the trousers. Over these
the well-to-do have a waistcoat of velvet, brocade or broadcloth. On
going out he puts on a long coat, tight over the chest, and with
rather full skirts hanging below the knee, of cotton cloth or muslin,
or sometimes broadcloth or velvet. In the house he wears a small cap,
and on going out puts on a turban or loose headcloth. But the fashion
of wearing the small red fez with a tassel is now increasing among
educated Muhammadans, and this serves as a distinctive mark in their
dress, which trousers no longer do, as the Hindus have also adopted
them. The removal of the shoes either on entering a house or mosque
is not prescribed by Muhammadan law, though it has become customary in
imitation of the Hindus. The Prophet in fact said, 'Act the reverse of
the Jews in your prayers, for they do not pray in boots or shoes.' But
he himself sometimes took his shoes off to pray and sometimes not. The
following are some of the sayings of the Prophet with regard to dress:
'Whoever wears a silk garment in this world shall not wear it in the
next.' 'God will not have compassion on him who wears long trousers
(below the ankle) from pride.' 'It is lawful for the women of my
people to wear silks and gold ornaments, but it is unlawful for the
men.' 'Wear white clothes, because they are the cleanest and the most
agreeable, and bury your dead in white clothes.' Men are prohibited
from wearing gold ornaments and also silver ones other than a signet
ring. A silver ring, of value sufficient to produce a day's food in
case of need, should always be worn. The rule against ornaments has
been generally disregarded, and gold and silver ornaments have been
regularly worn by men, but the fashion of wearing ornaments is now
going out, both among Muhammadan and Hindu men. A rich Muhammadan woman
has a long shirt of muslin or net in different colours, embroidered
on the neck and shoulders with gold lace, and draping down to the
ankles. Under it she wears silk pyjamas, and over it an _angia_
or breast-cloth of silk, brocade or cloth of gold, bordered with
gold and silver lace. On the head she has a shawl or square kerchief
bordered with lace. A poor woman has simply a bodice and pyjamas,
with a cloth round the waist to cover their ends. Women as a rule
always wear shoes, even though they do not go out, and they have a
profusion of ornaments of much the same character as Hindu women. [333]
32. Social rules. Salutations.
There are certain social obligations known as Farz or imperative, but
if one person in eight or ten perform them it is as if all had done
so. These are, to return a salutation; to visit the sick and inquire
after their welfare; to follow a bier on foot to the grave; to accept
an invitation; and that when a person sneezes and says immediately,
'_Alhamd ul lillah_' or 'God be praised,' one of the party must reply,
'_Yar hamak Allah_' or 'God have mercy on you.' The Muhammadan form
of salutation is '_Salam u alaikum_' or 'The peace of God be with
you,' and the reply is '_Wo alaikum as salam_' or 'And on you also
be peace.' [334] From this form has come the common Anglo-Indian use
of the word _Salaam_.
When invitations are to be sent for any important function, such as
a wedding, some woman who does not observe _parda_ is employed to
carry them. She is dressed in good clothes and provided with a tray
containing betel-leaf _biras_ or packets, cardamoms wrapped in red
paper, sandalwood and sugar. She approaches any lady invited with
great respect, and says: "So-and-so sends her best compliments to
you and embraces you, and says that 'as to-morrow there is a little
gaiety about to take place in my house, and I wish all my female
friends by their presence to grace and ornament with their feet the
home of this poor individual, and thereby make it a garden of roses,
you must also positively come, and by remaining a couple of hours
honour my humble dwelling with your company.'" If the invitation is
accepted the woman carrying it applies a little sandalwood to the neck,
breast and back of the guest, puts sugar and cardamoms into her mouth,
and gives her a betel-leaf. If it is declined, only sandalwood is
applied and a betel-leaf given. [335]
Next day _dhoolies_ or litters are sent for the guests, or if the
hostess is poor she sends women to escort them to the house before
daybreak. The guests are expected to bring presents. If any ceremony
connected with a child is to be performed they give it clothes
or sweets, and similar articles of higher value to the bride and
bridegroom in the case of a wedding.
33. Customs.
Certain customs known as Fitrah are supposed to have existed among the
Arabs before the time of the Prophet, and to have been confirmed by
him. These are: To keep the moustache clipped short so that food or
drink cannot touch them when entering the mouth; not to cut or shave
the beard; to clean the teeth with a _mismak_ or wooden toothbrush;
this should really be done at all prayers, but presumably once or
twice a day are held sufficient; to clean the nostrils and mouth with
water at the time of the usual ablutions; to cut the nails and clean
the finger-joints; and to pull out the hair from under the armpits and
the pubic hair. It is noticeable that though elaborate directions are
given for washing the face, hands and feet before each prayer, there
is no order to bathe the whole body daily, and this may probably not
have been customary in Arabia owing to the scarcity of water. [336]
And while many Muhammadans have adopted the Hindu custom of daily
bathing, yet others in quite a respectable position have not, and
only bathe once a week before going to the mosque. Gambling as well
as the drinking of wine is prohibited in the Koran according to the
text: "O believers! Surely wine and games of chance and statues and
the divining-arrows are an abomination of Satan's work." Statues
as well as pictures were prohibited, because at this time they were
probably made only as idols to be worshipped, the prohibition being
exactly analogous to that contained in the Second Commandment. The
Koran enjoins a belief in the existence of magic, but forbids its
practice. Magic is considered to be of two kinds, that accomplished
with the help of the Koran and the names of prophets and saints, which
is divine or good, and evil magic practised with the aid of genii and
evil spirits which is strongly condemned. Divining-rods apparently
belong to the latter class. Perfection in divine magic consists in the
knowledge of the Ismi Aazam or Great Name, a knowledge first possessed
by the prophet Sulaiman or Solomon, and since Solomon transmitted only
to those who are highly favoured by Providence. This appears to be the
true name of God, which is too awful and potent to be known or used by
the commonalty; hence Allah, really an epithet, is used instead. It
was in virtue of engraving the great name on his ring that Solomon
possessed dominion over men and genii, and over the winds and birds and
beasts. The uttering of Solomon's own name casts out demons, cures the
sick, and raises the dead. The names of certain prophets and holy men
have also a special virtue, and written charms of mysterious numerical
combinations and diagrams have power for good. [337] Both kinds of
magic are largely practised by Muhammadans. Muhammad disapproved of
whistling, apparently because whistling and clapping the hands were
part of the heathen ritual at Mecca. Hence it is considered wrong
for good Muhammadans to whistle. [338]
34. Position of women.
The inferior status of women in Islam is inherited from Arabian
society before the time of Muhammad. Among the pagan Arabs a woman
was a mere chattel, and descended by inheritance. Hence the union of
men with their step-mothers and mothers-in-law was common. Muhammad
forbade these incestuous marriages, and also the prevalent practice
of female infanticide. He legalised polygamy, but limited it to four
wives, and taught that women as well as men could enter paradise. It
would have been quite impossible to abolish polygamy in Arabia at the
time when he lived, nor could he strike at the practice of secluding
women even if he had wished to do so. This last custom has shown an
unfortunate persistence, and is in full force among Indian Muhammadans,
from whom the higher castes of Hindus in northern India have perhaps
imitated it. Nor can it be said to show much sign of weakening at
present. It is not universal over the Islamic world, as in Afghanistan
women are not usually secluded. As a matter of fact both polygamy and
divorce are very rare among Indian Muhammadans. Mr. Hughes quotes an
interesting passage against polygamy from a Persian book on marriage
customs: "That man is to be praised who confines himself to one wife,
for if he takes two it is wrong and he will certainly repent of his
folly. Thus say the seven wise women:
Be that man's life immersed in gloom
Who weds more wives than one,
With one his cheeks retain their bloom,
His voice a cheerful tone;
These speak his honest heart at rest,
And he and she are always blest;
But when with two he seeks his joy,
Together they his soul annoy;
With two no sunbeam of delight
Can make his day of misery bright."
Adultery was punished by stoning to death in accordance with the
Jewish custom.
35. Interest on money.
Usury or the taking of interest on loans was prohibited by the
Prophet. This precept was adopted from the Mosaic law and emphasised,
and while it has to all appearance been discarded by the Jews, it is
still largely adhered to by Moslems. In both cases the prohibition was
addressed to a people in the pastoral stage of culture when loans were
probably very rare and no profit could as a rule be made by taking
a loan, as it would not lead to any increase. Loans would only be
made for subsistence, and as the borrower was probably always poor,
he would frequently be unable to pay the principal much less the
interest, and would ultimately become the slave of the creditor in
lieu of his debt. Usury would thus result in the enslavement of a
large section of the free community, and would be looked upon as an
abuse and instrument of tyranny. As soon as the agricultural stage is
reached usury stands on a different footing. Loans of seed for sowing
the land and of cattle or money for ploughing it then become frequent
and necessary, and the borrower can afford to pay interest from the
profit of the harvest. It is clearly right and proper also that the
lender should receive a return for the risk involved in the loan and
the capacity of gain thus conferred on the borrower, and usury becomes
a properly legitimate and necessary institution, though the rate, being
probably based on the return yielded by the earth to the seed, has a
tendency to be very excessive in primitive societies. The prohibition
of interest among Muhammadans is thus now a hopeless anachronism,
which has closed to those who observe it some of the most important
professions. A tendency is happily visible towards the abrogation of
the rule, and Mr. Marten notes that the Berar Muhammadan Council has
set an example by putting out its own money at interest. [339]
36. Muhammadan education.
The Indian Muhammadans have generally been considered to be at a
disadvantage in modern India as compared with the Hindus, owing to
their unwillingness to accept regular English education for their
sons, and their adherence to the simply religious teaching of their
own Maulvis. However this may have been in the past, it is doubtful
whether it is at all true of the present generation. While there is
no doubt that Muhammadans consider it of the first importance that
their sons should learn Urdu and be able to read the Koran, there
are no signs of Muhammadan boys being kept away from the Government
schools, at least in the Central Provinces. The rationalising spirit
of Sir Saiyad Ahmad, the founder of the Aligarh College, and the
general educational conference for Indian Muhammadans has, through the
excellent training given by the College, borne continually increasing
fruit. A new class of educated and liberal-minded Muhammadan gentlemen
has grown up whose influence on the aims and prejudices of the whole
Muhammadan community is gradually becoming manifest. The statistics
of occupation given at the commencement of this article show that the
Muhammadans have a much larger share of all classes of administrative
posts under Government than they would obtain if these were awarded on
a basis of population. Presumably when it is asserted that Muhammadans
are less successful than Hindus under the British Government, what is
meant is that they have partly lost their former position of the sole
governing class over large areas of the country. The community are
now fully awake to the advantages of education, and their Anjumans or
associations have started high schools which educate students up to
the entrance of the university on the same lines as the Government
schools. Where these special schools do not exist, Muhammadan boys
freely enter the ordinary schools, and their standard of intelligence
and application is in no way inferior to that of Hindu boys.
Nanakpanthi
1. Account of the sect.
_Nanakpanthi [340] Sect, Nanakshahi, Udasi, Suthra Shahi_.--The
Nanakpanthi sect was founded by the well-known Baba Nanak, a Khatri
of the Lahore District, who lived between 1469 and 1538-39. He is the
real founder of Sikhism, but this development of his followers into
a military and political organisation was the work of his successors,
Har Govind and Govind Singh. Nanak himself was a religious reformer of
the same type as Kabir and others, who tried to abolish the worship of
idols and all the body of Hindu superstition, and substitute a belief
in a single unseen deity without form or special name. As with most of
the other Vaishnava reformers, Nanak's creed was largely an outcome
of his observation of Islam. "There is nothing in his doctrine," Sir
E.D. Maclagan says, "to distinguish it in any marked way from that of
the other saints who taught the higher forms of Hinduism in northern
India. The unity of God, the absence of any real distinction between
Hindus and Musalmans, the uselessness of ceremonial, the vanity of
earthly wishes, even the equality of castes, are topics common to
Nanak and the Bhagats; and the Adi-Granth or sacred book compiled by
Nanak is full of quotations from elder or contemporary teachers, who
taught essentially the same doctrine as Nanak himself." It was partly,
he explains, because Nanak was the first reformer in the Punjab, and
thus had the field practically to himself, and partly in consequence
of the subsequent development of Sikhism, that his movement has been
so successful and his adherents now outnumber those of any other
reformer of the same period. Nanak's doctrines were also of a very
liberal character. The burden of his teaching was that there is no
Hindu and no Muhammadan. He believed in transmigration, but held that
the successive stages were but purifications, and that at last the
soul, cleansed from sin, went to dwell with its maker. He prescribed
no caste rules or ceremonial observances, and indeed condemned them as
unnecessary and even harmful; but he made no violent attack on them,
he insisted on no alteration in existing civil and social institutions,
and was content to leave the doctrine of the equality of all men in
the sight of God to work in the minds of his followers. He respected
the Hindu veneration of the cow and the Muhammadan abhorrence of the
hog, but recommended as a higher rule than either total abstinence
from flesh. Nothing could have been gentler or less aggressive than
his doctrine, nothing more unlike the teaching of his great successor
Govind. [341] Two other causes contributed to swell the numbers of
the Nanakpanthis. The first of these was that during the late Mughal
Empire the Hindus of the frontier tracts of the Punjab were debarred
by the fanaticism of their Muhammadan neighbours from the worship of
idols; and they therefore found it convenient to profess the faith
of Nanak which permitted them to declare themselves as worshippers
of one God, while not forcing them definitely to break with caste and
Hinduism. The second was that Guru Govind Singh required the absolute
abandonment of caste as a condition of the initiation of a Sikh;
and hence many who would not consent to this remained Nanakpanthis
without adopting Sikhism. The Nanakpanthis of the present day are
roughly classified as Sikhs who have not adopted the term Singh,
which is attached to the names of all true Sikhs; they also do not
forbid smoking or insist on the adoption of the five _Kakkas_ or K's
which are in theory the distinguishing marks of the Sikh; the _Kes_
or uncut hair and unshaven beard; the _Kachh_ or short drawers ending
above the knee; the _Kara_ or iron bangle; the _Khanda_ or steel knife;
and the _Kanga_ or comb. The Nanakpanthi retains the Hindu custom of
shaving the whole head except the _choti_ or scalp-lock, and hence is
often known as a Munda or shaven Sikh. [342] The sect do not prohibit
the consumption of meat and liquor, but some of them eat only the
flesh of animals killed by the Sikh method of Jatka, or cutting
off the head by a blow on the back of the neck. Their only form of
initiation is the ordinary Hindu practice of drinking the foot-nectar
or sugar and water in which the toe of the _guru_ has been dipped,
and this is not very common. It is known as the _Charan ka pahul_ or
foot-baptism, as opposed to the _Khande ka pahul_ or sword-baptism of
the Govindi Sikhs. [343] Baba Nanak himself, Sir E. Maclagan states,
is a very favourite object of veneration among Sikhs of all kinds,
and the picture of the _guru_ with his long white beard and benevolent
countenance is constantly met with in the sacred places of the Punjab.
2. Nanakpanthis in the Central Provinces.
In 1901 about 13,000 persons returned themselves as Nanakpanthis in
the Central Provinces, of whom 7000 were Banjaras and the remainder
principally Kunbis, Ahirs and Telis. The Banjaras generally revere
Nanak, as shown in the article on that caste. A certain number of
Mehtars or sweepers also profess the sect, being attached to it,
as to the Sikh religion, by the abolition of caste restrictions
and prejudices advocated by their founders; but this tolerance has
not been perpetuated, and the unclean classes, such as the Mazbi or
scavenger Sikhs, are as scrupulously avoided and kept at a distance
by the Sikh as by the Hindu, and are even excluded from communion,
and from the rites and holy places of their religion. [344]
3. Udasis.
The Udasis are a class of ascetics of the Nanakpanthi or Sikh faith,
whose order was founded by Sri Chand, the younger son of Nanak. They
are recruited from all castes and will eat food from any Hindu. They
are almost all celibates, and pay special reverence to the Adi-Granth
of Nanak, but also respect the Granth of Govind Singh and attend
the same shrines as the Sikhs generally. Their service consists of a
ringing of bells and blare of instruments, and they chant hymns and
wave lights before the Adi-Granth and the picture of Baba Nanak. In
the Central Provinces members of several orders which have branched
off from the main Nanakpanthi community are known as Udasi. Thus some
of them say they do not go to any temples and worship Nirankal or
the deity without shape or form, a name given to the supreme God by
Nanak. In the Punjab the Nirankaris constitute a separate order from
the Udasis. [345] These Udasis wear a long rope of sheep's wool round
the neck and iron chains round the wrist and waist. They carry half
a cocoanut shell as a begging-bowl and have the _chameta_ or iron
tongs, which can also be closed and used as a poker. Their form of
salutation is '_Matha Tek_,' or 'I put my head at your feet.' They
never cut their hair and have a long string of wool attached to the
_choti_ or scalp-lock, which is coiled up under a little cap. They
say that they worship Nirankal without going to temples, and when
they sit down to pray they make a little fire and place _ghi_ or
sweetmeats upon it as an offering. When begging they say 'Alakh,'
and they accept any kind of uncooked and cooked food from Brahmans.
4. Suthra Shahis.
Another mendicant Nanakpanthi order, whose members visit the Central
Provinces, is that of the Suthra Shahis. Here, however, they often
drop the special name, and call themselves simply Nanakshahi. The
origin of the order is uncertain, and Sir E. Maclagan gives various
accounts. Here they say that their founder was a disciple of Nanak,
who visited Mecca and brought back the Seli and Syahi which are their
distinctive badges. The Seli is a rope of black wool which they tie
round their heads like a turban, and Syahi the ink with which they draw
a black line on their foreheads, though this is in fact usually made
with charcoal. They carry a wallet in which these articles are kept,
and also the two small ebony sticks which they strike against each
other as an accompaniment to their begging-songs. The larger stick is
dedicated to Nanak and the smaller to the Goddess Kali. They are most
importunate beggars, and say that the privilege of levying a pice
(farthing) was given to them by Aurangzeb. They were accustomed in
former times to burn their clothes and stand naked at the door of
any person who refused to give them alms. They also have a _bahi_
or account-book in which the gifts they receive, especially from
Banias, are recorded. Mr. Crooke states that "They indulge freely
in intoxicants and seldom cease from smoking. Their profligacy is
notorious, and they are said to be composed mainly of spendthrifts
who have lost their wealth in gambling. They are recruited from all
castes and always add the title Shah to their names. A proverb says
in allusion to their rapacity:
Kehu mare, Kehu jiye,
Suthra gur batasa piye;
or, 'Others may live or die, but the Suthra Shahi must have his drink
of sugar and water.' [346]
Parmarthi Sect
_Parmarthi Sect_.--A Vishnuite sect of which 26,000 persons were
returned as members in the census of 1901. Nearly all of these
belonged to the Uriya State of Kalahandi, since transferred to Bihar
and Orissa. The following account of the sect has been furnished by
Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, formerly Diwan of Kalahandi State.
This sect penetrated the State from the Orissa side, and seems to
belong to Bengal. In the beginning it consisted only in pure devotion
to the worship of Krishna, but later it has been degraded by sexual
indulgence and immorality, and this appears to be the main basis of
its ritual at present. Outwardly its followers recite the Bhagavad Gita
and pretend to be persons of very high morals. Their secret practices
were obtained from one of his officials who had entered the sect in
the lowest grade. On the day of initiation there is a great meeting
of members at the cost of the neophyte. A text is taught to him, and
the initiation is completed by all the members partaking together
of a feast without distinction of caste. The food eaten at this is
considered to be Mahaprasad, or as if offered to Vishnu in his form
of Jagannath at Puri, and to be therefore incapable of defilement. The
_mantra_ or text taught to the disciple is as follows:
O Hari, O Krishna, O Hari, O Krishna,
O Krishna, O Krishna, O Hari, O Hari,
O Hari, O Ramo, O Hari, O Ramo,
O Ramo, O Ramo, O Hari, O Hari.
The disciple is enjoined to repeat this text a prescribed number
of times, 108 or more, every day. To those pupils who show their
devotional ardour by continual repetition of the first text others
are taught.
The next step is that the disciple should associate himself or herself
with some other Parmarthi of the opposite sex and tend and serve
them. This relation, which is known as _Asra-patro_, cannot exist
between husband and wife, some other person having to be chosen in each
case, and it results of course in an immoral connection. Following
this is the further rite of _Almo-Samarpana_ or offering of oneself,
in which the disciple is required to give his wife to the Guru or
preceptor as the acme of self-sacrifice. The _guru_ calls the disciple
by a female name of one of the milkmaids of Brindaban to indicate
that the disciple regards Krishna with the same devotion as they
did. Sometimes the _guru_ and a woman personate Krishna and Radha,
but reverse the names, the _guru_ calling himself Radha and the woman
Krishna. The other disciples wait upon and serve them, and they perform
an immoral act in public. Parmarthi women sometimes have the _mantra_
or text, 'O Hari, O Krishna,' tattooed on their breasts.
The Parmarthis often deny the accusation of immorality, and the above
statements may not be true of all of them; but they are believed to be
true as regards a considerable part of the sect at any rate. "With all
his cleanliness, vegetarianism and teetotalism," one writer remarks,
"the Vaishnava is perhaps the most dangerous in the whole list of
Hindu sects. He has done very good service in civilising the lower
classes to some extent and in suppressing the horrors of the Tantric
worship. But the moral laxity which the Vaishnava encourages by the
stories of the illicit loves between the God and Goddess, and by
the strong tendency to imitate them which his teachings generate,
outweigh the good done by him." This statement applies, however,
principally to one or two sects devoted to Krishna, and by no means
to all nor to the majority of the Vaishnava sects.
Parsi or Zoroastrian Religion
[_Bibliography of works quoted_: Dr. Martin Haug's _Essays on the
Parsis_, Trübner's Oriental Series; _Bombay Gazetteer_, vol. ix. part
ii., _Parsis of Gujarat_. by the late Mr. Kharsedji Nasarvanji Seervai,
J.P., and Khan Bahadur Bamanji Behramji Patel; M. Salomon Reinach's
_Orphéus_; Rev. J. Murray Mitchell's _Great Religions of India_. The
whole account of the customs and social life of the Parsis is taken
from the excellent description in the _Bombay Gazetteer_.]
List of Paragraphs
1. _Introductory_.
2. _The Zoroastrian religion_.
3. _The Zend-Avesta._
4. _The Zend-Avesta and the Vedas_.
5. _Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian
Aryans_.
6. _The dual principle and the conflict between good and
evil_.
7. _The dual principle derived from the antagonism of light
and darkness_.
8. _The Zoroastrians in Persia_.
9. _Their migration to India and settlement there_.
10. _Their wealth and prosperity_.
11. _Marriage customs_.
12. _Religion_. _Worship of fire_.
13. _The Homa liquor_.
14. _Parsi priests_.
15. _The sacred shirt and cord_.
16. _Disposal of the dead_.
17. _Previous exposure of the dead, and migration of souls_.
18. _Clothes, food and ceremonial observances_.
1. Introductory.
The number of Parsis in the Central Provinces in 1911 was about
1800. They are immigrants from Bombay, and usually reside in large
towns, where they are engaged in different branches of trade,
especially in the manufacture and vend of liquor and the management
of cotton mills and factories. [347] The word Parsi means a resident
of the province of Fars or Pars in Persia, from which the name of
the country is also derived.
2. The Zoroastrian religion.
Also known as Mazdaism, the Zoroastrian religion was that of
the ancient Magi or fire-worshippers of Persia, mentioned in
Scripture. It is supposed that Zoroaster or Spitama Zarathustra,
if he was a historical personage, effected a reformation of this
religion and placed it on a new basis at some time about 1100 B.C. It
is suggested by Haug [348] that Zarathustra was the designation of
the high priests of the cult, and Spitama the proper name of that
high priest who carried out its distinctive reformation, and perhaps
separated the religion of the Persian from the Indian Aryans. This
would account for the fact that the sacred writings, which, according
to the testimony of Greek and Roman authors, were of great extent,
their compilation probably extending over several centuries, were
subsequently all ascribed to one man, or to Zarathustra alone. The
Zend-Avesta or sacred book of the Parsis does not mention the fire
priests under the name of Magi, but calls them Athravan, the same
word as the Sanskrit Atharva-Veda. The reason for this, M. Reinach
suggests, is that the Magi had rebelled against Cambyses, the son of
Cyrus, in the sixth century B.C., during his absence in Egypt, and
placed a rival creature of their own on the throne. Darius, the son
of Hystaspes, overthrew him and re-established the Persian kingdom
in 523 B.C., and this may have discredited the Magian priests and
caused those of the reformed religion to adopt a new name. [349]
It is certain that Cyrus conformed to the precept of the Avesta
against the pollution of the sacred element water, when he diverted
the course of the river Gyndanes in order to recover the body of a
horse which had been drowned in it, and that Darius I. invokes in his
inscriptions Ormazd or Ahura Mazda, the deity of the Avesta. [350]
On the subversion of the Persian empire by Alexander, and the
subsequent conquest of Persia by the Arsacid Parthian dynasty, the
religion of the fire-worshippers fell into neglect, but was revived
on the establishment of the Sassanian dynasty of Ardeshir Babegan
or Artaxerxes in A.D. 226, and became the state religion, warmly
supported by its rulers, until the Arab conquest in A.D. 652. It
was at the beginning of this second period of prosperity that the
Zend-Avesta as it still exists was collected and reduced to writing,
but it is thought that the greater part of the remains of the ancient
texts recovered at the time were again lost during the Arab invasion,
as the original literature is believed to have been very extensive.
3. The Zend-Avesta.
The language of the Zend-Avesta is the ancient east Iranian or
Bactrian dialect, which probably died out finally in the third
century B.C., modern Persian being descended from the west Iranian
or Median tongue. The Bactrian language of the Zend-Avesta is, Haug
states, a genuine sister of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Gothic. "The
relationship of the Avesta language to the most ancient Sanskrit,
the so-called Vedic dialect, is as close as that of the different
dialects of the Greek language, Aeolic, Ionic, Doric or Attic,
to each other. The languages of the sacred hymns of the Brahmans,
and of those of the Parsis, are only the two dialects of two separate
tribes of one and the same nation. As the Ionians, Dorians, Aetolians,
etc., were different tribes of the Greek nation whose general name was
Hellenes, so the ancient Brahmans and Parsis were two tribes of the
nation which is called Aryas both in the Veda and Zend-Avesta." [351]
The sections of the Zend-Avesta which remain are about equal in
size to the Bible. They consist of sacrificial hymns, prayers and
accounts of the making of the world, in the form of conversations
between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. The whole arrangement is, however,
very fragmentary and chaotic, and much of the matter is of a trivial
character. It cannot be compared in merit with the Old Testament.
4. The Zend Avesta and the Vedas.
A cuneiform inscription discovered in the centre of Asia Minor
at Ptorium proves that about 1400 B.C. certain tribes who had
relations with the Hittite empire had for their deities Mitra,
Indra, Varuna and the Nasatyas. The first two names are common to
the Persian and Indian Aryans, while the last two are found only
in India. It appears then that at this time the ancestors of the
Hindus and Iranians were not yet separated. [352] Certain important
contrasts between the ancient Zoroastrian and Vedic religions have
led to the theory that the separation was the result of a religious
and political schism. The words Deva and Asura have an exactly
opposite significance in the two religions. Deva [353] is the term
invariably used for the gods of the Hindus in the whole Vedic and
Brahmanical literature. In the Zend-Avesta, on the other hand, Deva
(Pers. _div_) is the general name of an evil spirit, a fiend, demon
or devil, who is inimical to all that is good and comes from God. The
part of the Avesta called the Vendidad, consisting of a collection
of spells and incantations, means _vi-daevo-data_ or given against
the Devas or demons. The Devas, Dr. Haug states, are the originators
of all that is bad, of every impurity, of death; and are constantly
thinking of causing the destruction of the fields and trees, and of
the houses of religious men. "Asura, occurring as Ahura in the first
part of Ahura-Mazda (Hormazd), is the name of God among the Parsis;
and the Zoroastrian religion is distinctly called the Ahura religion,
in strict opposition to the Deva religion. But among the Hindus Asura
has assumed a bad meaning, and is applied to the bitterest enemies
of their Devas (gods), with whom the Asuras are constantly waging
war. This is the case throughout the whole Puranic literature and
as far back as the later parts of the Vedas; but in the older parts
of the Rig-Veda Sanhita we find the word Asura used in as good and
elevated a sense as in the Zend-Avesta. The chief gods, such as Indra,
Varuna, Agni, Savitri, Rudra or Siva, are honoured with the epithet
'Asura,' which means 'living, spiritual,' and signifies the divine
in its opposition to human nature.
"In a bad sense we find Asura only twice in the older parts of the
Rig-Veda, in which passages the defeat of the 'sons or men of the
Asura' is ordered or spoken of; but we find the word more frequently in
this sense in the last book of the Rig-Veda (which is only an appendix
to the whole made in later times), and in the Atharva-Veda, where the
Rishis are said to have frustrated the tricks of the Asuras and to have
the power of putting them down. In the Brahmanas or sacrificial books
belonging to each of the Vedas we find the Devas always fighting with
the Asuras. The latter are the constant enemies of the Hindu gods,
and always make attacks upon the sacrifices offered by devotees. To
defeat them, all the craft and cunning of the Devas were required;
and the means of checking them was generally found in a new sacrificial
rite." [354]
Professor Haug adduces other arguments in this connection from
resemblance of metres. Again the principal Vedic God, Indra, is
included in the list of Devas or demons in the Zoroastrian scripture,
the Vendidad. Siva and the Nasatyas or Ashvins, the divine horsemen
of the Vedas, are also said to be found in the list of Devas or
demons. Others of the Vedic gods as Mitra the sun, Aryaman, either
another name for the sun or his constant associate and representative,
Vayu the wind, and one or two more are found as Yazatas or angels in
the Zend-Avesta. [355]
5. Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian Aryans.
Professor Haug's suggestion as to the cause of the schism between
the Iranian and Indian branches of the Aryans is very interesting. He
thinks that the Aryan tribes after they had left their original home,
which was in all likelihood a cold country, led mainly a pastoral
life, and cultivated only occasionally some patches of land for their
own support. But when they arrived in the tract between the Oxus and
Jaxartes rivers, and the highlands of Bactria, which were suitable for
permanent settlement, certain of them, who were the ancestors of the
Iranian branch, forsook the pastoral life of their ancestors and became
agriculturists. Others, the ancestors of the Indian Aryans, retained
their nomadic habits, and took to the practice of making predatory
incursions into the territories of the settled communities. Hence
arose a bitter hostility between them; and as the success of the
raiders was attributed to their religious spells and incantations, and
especially to the consumption of the Soma liquor under the auspices of
the God Indra, this part of their joint religion became hateful to the
Iranians and led to the founding of the reformed Zoroastrian religion,
in which special stress is laid on the virtue obtained from bringing
land under cultivation, making enclosures and permanent settlements
and protecting agricultural cattle. This is forcibly expressed in
the saying, 'He who cultivates barley cultivates righteousness,' and
others. [356] Finally the nomadic tribes left the common residence
in the Central Asian highlands and migrated into India. It is not
certain that scholars generally accept the above hypothesis.
6. The dual principles and the conflict between good and evil.