Next day, early in the morning, the local shikaris went under the
leadership of the warlike Akali, to hunt glamoured and real tigers
in the caves. It took them longer than we expected. The old Bhil, who
represented to us the absent dhani, proposed that in the meanwhile
we should witness a Brahmanical wedding ceremony. Needless to say,
we jumped at this. The ceremonies of betrothal and marriage have not
changed in India during the last two millenniums at least. They are
performed according to the directions of Manu, and the old theme has
no new variations. India's religious rites have crystallized long ago.
Whoever has seen a Hindu wedding in 1879, saw it as it was celebrated in
ancient Aryavarta many centuries ago.----
A few days before we left Bombay we read in a small local newspaper two
announcements of marriages: the first the marriage of a Brahman heiress,
the second of a daughter of the fire-worshipers. The first announcement
was something to the following effect: "The family of Bimbay Mavlankar,
etc., etc., are preparing for a happy event. This respectable member
of our community, unlike the rest of the less fortunate Brahmans of
his caste, has found a husband for his grand-daughter in a rich Gujerat
family of the same caste. The little Rama-bai is already five, her
future husband is seven. The wedding is to take place in two months and
promises to be brilliant."
The second announcement referred to an accomplished fact. It appeared
in a Parsi paper, which strongly insists on the necessity of giving up
"disgusting superannuated customs," and especially the early marriage.
It justly ridiculed a certain Gujerati newspaper, which had just
described in very pompous expressions a recent wedding ceremony in
Poona. The bridegroom, who had just entered his sixth year "pressed to
his heart a blushing bride of two and a half!" The usual answers of this
couple entering into matrimony proved so indistinct that the Mobed had
to address the questions to their parents: "Are you willing to have him
for your lawful husband, O daughter of Zaratushta?" and "Are you willing
to be her husband, O son of Zoroaster?" "Everything went as well as it
could be expected," continued the newspaper; "the bridegroom was led out
of the room by the hand, and the bride, who was carried away in arms,
greeted the guests, not with smiles, but with a tremendous howl, which
made her forget the existence of such a thing as a pocket-handkerchief,
and remember only her feeding-bottle; for the latter article she asked
repeatedly, half choked with sobs, and throttled with the weight of the
family diamonds. Taking it all in all, it was a Parsi marriage, which
shows the progress of our speedily developing nation with the exactitude
of a weather glass," added the satirical newspaper.
Having read this we laughed heartily, though we did not give full credit
to this description, and thought it a good deal exaggerated. We knew
Parsi and Brahman families in which were husbands of ten years of
age; but had never heard as yet of a bride who was a baby in
arms.----
It is not without reason that the Brahmans are fervent upholders of
the ancient law which prohibits to everyone, except the officiating
Brahmans, the study of Sanskrit and the reading of the Vedas. The
Shudras and even the high-born Vaishyas were in olden times to be
executed for such an offence. The secret of this rigour lies in the fact
that the Vedas do not permit matrimony for women under fifteen to twenty
years of age, and for men under twenty-five, or even thirty. Eager
above all that every religious ceremony should fill their pockets, the
Brahmans never stopped at disfiguring their ancient sacred literature;
and not to be caught, they pronounced its study accursed. Amongst other
"criminal inventions," to use the expression of Swami Dayanand, there is
a text in the Brahmanical books, which contradicts everything that is
to be found in the Vedas on this particular matter: I speak of the Kudva
Kunbis, the wedding season of all the agricultural classes of Central
Asia. This season is to be celebrated once in every twelve years, but
it appears to be a field from which Messieurs les Brahmans gathered
the most abundant harvest. At this epoch, all the mothers have to seek
audiences from the goddess Mata, the great mother--of course through her
rightful oracles the Brahmans. Mata is the special patroness of all the
four kinds of marriages practised in India: the marriages of adults, of
children, of babies, and of specimens of humanity that are as yet to be
born.
The latter is the queerest of all, because the feelings it excites are
so very like gambling. In this case, the marriage ceremony is celebrated
between the mothers of the future children. Many a curious incident is
the result of these matrimonial parodies. But a true Brahman will
never allow the derision of fate to shake his dignity, and the docile
population never will doubt the infallibility of these "elect of the
gods." An open antagonism to the Brahmanical institutions is more
than rare; the feelings of reverence and dread the masses show to the
Brahmans are so blind and so sincere, that an outsider cannot help
smiling at them and respecting them at the same time.
If both the mothers have children of the same sex, it will not upset the
Brahman in the least; he will say this was the will of the goddess Mata,
it shows that she desires the new-born babies to be two loving brothers,
or two loving sisters, as the case may be, in future. And if the
children grow up, they will be acknowledged heirs to the properties of
both mothers. In this case, the Brahman breaks the bonds of the marriage
by the order of the goddess, is paid for doing so, and the whole affair
is dropped altogether. But if the children are of different sexes these
bonds cannot be broken, even if they are born cripples or idiots.
While I am dealing with the family life of India, I had better mention
some other features, not to return to them any more. No Hindu has the
right to remain single. The only exceptions are, in case the child is
destined to monastic life from the first days of his existence, and in
case the child is consecrated to the service of one of the gods of the
Trimurti even before he is born. Religion insists on matrimony for the
sake of having a son, whose duty it will be to perform every prescribed
rite, in order that his departed father may enter Swarga, or paradise.
Even the caste of Brahmacharyas, who take vows of chastity, but take a
part and interest in worldly life--and so are the unique lay-celibates
of India--are bound to adopt sons. The rest of the Hindus must remain
in matrimony till the age of forty; after which they earn the right to
leave the world, and to seek salvation, leading an ascetic life in some
jungle. If a member of some Hindu family happens to be afflicted from
birth with some organic defect, this will not be an impediment to his
marrying, on the condition that his wife should be also a cripple, if
she belongs to the same caste. The defects of husband and wife must be
different: if he is blind, she must be hump-backed or lame, and vice
versa. But if the young man in question is prejudiced, and wants a
healthy wife, he must condescend to make a mesalliance; he must stoop to
choose a wife in a caste that is exactly one degree lower than his own.
But in this case his kinsmen and associates will not acknowledge her;
the parvenue will not be received on any conditions whatever. Besides,
all these exceptional instances depend entirely on the family Guru--on
the priest who is inspired by the gods.
All the above holds good as far as the men are concerned; but with the
women it is quite different.
Only the nautches--dancing girls consecrated to gods, and living
in temples--can be said to be free and happy. Their occupation is
hereditary, but they are vestals and daughters of vestals, however
strange this may sound to a European ear. But the notions of the Hindus,
especially on questions of morality, are quite independent, and even
anti-Western, if I may use this expression. No one is more severe
and exacting in the questions of feminine honor and chastity; but the
Brahmans proved to be more cunning than even the Roman augurs. Rhea
Sylvia, for instance, the mother of Romulus and Remus, was buried alive
by the ancient Romans, in spite of the god Mars taking an active part in
her faux pas. Numa and Tiberius took exceedingly good care that the good
morals of their priestesses should not become merely nominal. But the
vestals on the banks of the Ganges and the Indus understand the question
differently from those on the banks of the Tiber. The intimacy of the
nautch-girls with the gods, which is generally accepted, cleanses them
from every sin and makes them in every one's eyes irreproachable
and infallible. A nautcha cannot sin, in spite of the crowd of the
"celestial musicians" who swarm in every pagoda, in the form of
baby-vestals and their little brothers. No virtuous Roman matron was
ever so respected as the pretty little nautcha. This great reverence
for the happy "brides of the gods" is especially striking in the purely
native towns of Central India, where the population has preserved intact
their blind faith in the Brahmans.
Every nautcha can read, and receives the highest Hindu education. They
all read and write in Sanskrit, and study the best literature of ancient
India, and her six chief philosophies, but especially music, singing and
dancing. Besides these "godborn" priestesses of the pagodas, there are
also public nautches, who, like the Egyptian almeas, are within the
reach of ordinary mortals, not only of gods; they also are in most cases
women of a certain culture.
But the fate of an honest woman of Hindostan is quite different; and a
bitter and incredibly unjust fate it is. The life of a thoroughly good
woman, especially if she happens to possess warm faith and unshaken
piety, is simply a long chain of fatal misfortunes. And the higher her
family and social position, the more wretched is her life. Married women
are so afraid of resembling the professional dancing girls, that they
cannot be persuaded to learn anything the latter are taught. If a
Brahman woman is rich her life is spent in demoralizing idleness; if
she is poor, so much the worse, her earthly existence is concentrated
in monotonous performances of mechanical rites. There is no past, and no
future for her; only a tedious present, from which there is no possible
escape. And this only if everything be well, if her family be not
visited by sad losses. Needless to say that, amongst Brahman women,
marriage is not a question of free choice, and still less of affection.
Her choice of a husband is restricted by the caste to which her father
and mother happen to belong; and so, to find a suitable match for a girl
is a matter of great difficulty, as well as of great expense. In India,
the high-caste woman is not bought, but she has to buy the right to get
married. Accordingly, the birth of a girl is not a joy, but a sorrow,
especially if her parents are not rich. She must be married not later
than when she is seven or eight; a little girl of ten is an old maid in
India, she is a discredit to her parents and is the miser-able butt of
all her more fortunate contemporaries.
One of the few noble achievements of Englishmen in India which have
succeeded is the decrease of infanticide, which some time ago was a
daily practice, and still is not quite got rid of. Little girls were
killed by their parents everywhere in India; but this dreadful custom
was especially common amongst the tribes of Jadej, once so powerful in
Sindh, and now reduced to petty brigandage. Probably these tribes were
the first to spread this heartless practice. Obligatory marriage for
little girls is a comparatively recent invention, and it alone is
responsible for the parents' decision rather to see them dead than
unmarried. The ancient Aryans knew nothing of it. Even the ancient
Brahmanical literature shows that, amongst the pure Aryans, woman
enjoyed the same privileges as man. Her voice was listened to by the
statesmen; she was free either to choose a husband, or to remain single.
Many a woman's name plays an important part in the chronicles of the
ancient Aryan land; many women have come down to posterity as eminent
poets, astronomers, philosophers, and even sages and lawyers.
But with the invasion of the Persians, in the seventh century, and later
on of the fanatical, all-destroying Mussulmans, all this changed. Woman
became enslaved, and the Brahmans did everything to humiliate her.
In towns, the position of the Hindu woman is still worse than amongst
agricultural classes.
The wedding ceremonies are very complicated and numerous. They are
divided into three groups: the rites before the wedding; the rites
during the ceremony; and the rites after the celebration has taken
place. The first group consists of eleven ceremonies: the asking in
marriage; the comparison of the two horoscopes; the sacrifice of a goat;
the fixing of a propitious day; the building of the altar; the purchase
of the sacred pots for household use; the invitation of guests; the
sacrifices to the household gods; mutual presents and so on. All this
must be accomplished as a religious duty, and is full of entangled
rites. As soon as a little girl in some Hindu family is four years old,
her father and mother send for the family Guru, give him her horoscope,
drawn up previously by the astrologer of their caste (a very important
post), and send the Guru to this or that inhabitant of the place who is
known to have a son of appropriate age. The father of the little boy has
to put the horoscope on the altar before the family gods and to answer:
"I am well disposed towards the Panigrhana; let Rudra help us." The Guru
must ask when the union is to take place, after which he is bowed out.
A few days later the father of the little boy takes the horoscope of his
son as well as of the little girl to the chief astrologer. If the latter
finds them propitious to the intended marriage, it will take place; if
not, his decision is immediately sent to the father of the little
girl, and the whole affair is dropped. If the astrologer's opinion is
favorable, however, the bargain is concluded on the spot. The astrologer
offers a cocoa-nut and a handful of sugar to the father, after which
nothing can be altered; otherwise a Hindu vendetta will be handed down
from generation to generation. After the obligatory goat-sacrifice, the
couple are irrevocably betrothed, and the astrologer fixes the day of
the wedding.
The sacrifice of the goat is very interesting, so I am going to describe
it in detail.
A child of the male sex is sent to invite several married ladies, old
women of twenty or twenty-five, to witness the worship of the Lares and
Penates. Each family has a household goddess of its own--which is not
impossible, since the Hindu gods number thirty-three crores. On the eve
of the sacrificial day, a kid is brought into the house, and all the
family sleep round him. Next morning, the reception hall in the lower
story is made ready for the ceremony. The floor is thickly covered with
cow-dung, and, right in the middle of the room a square is traced with
white chalk, in which is placed a high pedestal, with the statue of the
goddess. The patriarch of the family brings the goat, and, holding him
by the horns, lowers his head to salute the goddess. After this, the
"old" and young women sing marriage hymns, tie the legs of the goat,
cover his head with red powder, and make a lamp smoke under his nose,
to banish the evil spirits from round him. When all this is done, the
female element puts itself out of the way, and the patriarch comes again
upon the stage. He treacherously puts a ration of rice before the goat,
and as soon as the victim becomes innocently absorbed in gratifying his
appetite, the old man chops his head off with a single stroke of his
sword, and bathes the goddess in the smoking blood coming from the head
of the animal, which he holds in his right arm, over the idol. The women
sing in chorus, and the ceremony of betrothal is over.
The ceremonies with the astrologers, and the exchange of presents,
are too long to be described. I shall mention only, that in all these
ceremonies the astrologer plays the double part of an augur and a family
lawyer. After a general invocation to the elephant-headed god Ganesha,
the marriage contract is written on the reverse of the horoscopes and
sealed, and a general blessing is pronounced over the assembly.
Needless to say that all these ceremonies had been accomplished long ago
in the family to whose marriage party we were invited in Bagh. All these
rites are sacred, and most probably we, being mere strangers, would
not have been allowed to witness them. We saw them all later on in
Benares--thanks to the intercession of our Babu.
When we arrived on the spot, where the Bagh cere-mony was celebrated,
the festivity was at its height. The bridegroom was not more than
fourteen years old, while the bride was only ten. Her small nose was
adorned with a huge golden ring with some very brilliant stone, which
dragged her nostril down. Her face looked comically piteous, and
sometimes she cast furtive glances at us. The bridegroom, a stout,
healthy-looking boy, attired in cloth of gold and wearing the many
storied Indra hat, was on horseback, surrounded by a whole crowd of male
relations.
The altar, especially erected for this occasion, presented a queer
sight. Its regulation height is three times the length of the bride's
arm from the shoulder down to the middle finger. Its materials are
bricks and white-washed clay. Forty-six earthen pots painted with
red, yellow and green stripes--the colors of the Trimurti--rose in two
pyramids on both sides of the "god of marriages" on the altar, and all
round it a crowd of little married girls were busy grinding ginger.
When it was reduced to powder the whole crowd rushed on the bridegroom,
dragged him from his horse, and, having undressed him, began rubbing him
with wet ginger. As soon as the sun dried him he was dressed again by
some of the little ladies, whilst one part of them sang and the other
sprinkled his head with water from lotus leaves twisted into tubes. We
understood that this was a delicate attention to the water gods.
We were also told that the whole of the previous night had been given up
to the worship of various spirits. The last rites, begun weeks ago,
were hurriedly brought to an end during this last night. Invocations to
Ganesha, to the god of marriages; to the gods of the elements, water,
fire, air and earth; to the goddess of the smallpox and other illnesses;
to the spirits of ancestors and planetary spirits, to the evil spirits,
good spirits, family spirits, and so on, and so on. Suddenly our ears
were struck by strains of music.... Good heavens! what a dreadful
symphony it was! The ear-splitting sounds of Indian tom-toms, Tibetan
drunis, Singalese pipes, Chinese trumpets, and Burmese gongs deafened us
on all sides, awakening in our souls hatred for humanity and humanity's
inventions.
"De tous les bruits du monde celui de la musique est le plus
desagreable!" was my ever-recurring thought. Happily, this agony did
not last long, and was replaced by the choral singing of Brahmans and
nautches, which was very original, but perfectly bearable. The wedding
was a rich one, and so the "vestals" appeared in state. A moment of
silence, of restrained whispering, and one of them, a tall, handsome
girl with eyes literally filling half her forehead, began approaching
one guest after the other in perfect silence, and rubbing their faces
with her hand, leaving traces of sandal and saffron powders. She glided
towards us also, noiselessly moving over the dusty road with her bare
feet; and before we realized what she was doing she had daubed me as
well as the colonel and Miss X----, which made the latter sneeze and
wipe her face for at least ten minutes, with loud but vain utterances of
indignation.
The Babu and Mulji offered their faces to the little hand, full of
saffron, with smiles of condescending generosity. But the indomitable
Narayan shrank from the vestal so unexpectedly at the precise moment
when, with fiery glances at him, she stood on tiptoe to reach his face,
that she quite lost countenance and sent a full dose of powder over his
shoulder, whilst he turned away from her with knitted brow. Her forehead
also showed several threatening lines, but in a moment she overcame her
anger and glided towards Ram-Runjit-Das, sparkling with engaging
smiles. But here she met with still less luck; offended at once in his
monotheism and his chastity, the "God's warrior" pushed the vestal so
unceremoniously that she nearly upset the elaborate pot-decoration of
the altar. A dissatisfied murmur ran through the crowd, and we were
preparing to be condemned to shameful banishment for the sins of the
warlike Sikh, when the drums sounded again and the procession moved
on. In front of everyone drove the trumpeters and the drummers in a car
gilded from top to bottom, and dragged by bullocks loaded with garlands
of flowers; next after them walked a whole detachment of pipers, and
then a third body of musicians on horseback, who frantically hammered
huge gongs. After them proceeded the cortege of the bridegroom's and
the bride's relations on horses adorned with rich harness, feathers and
flowers; they went in pairs. They were followed by a regiment of Bhils
in full disarmour--because no weapons but bows and arrows had been left
to them by the English Government. All these Bhils looked as if they had
tooth-ache, because of the odd way they have of arranging the ends of
their white pagris. After them walked clerical Brahmans, with aromatic
tapers in their hands and surrounded by the flitting battalion of
nautches, who amused themselves all the way by graceful glissades and
pas. They were followed by the lay Brahmans--the "twice born." The
bridegroom rode on a handsome horse; on both sides walked two couples
of warriors, armed with yaks' tails to wave the flies away. They
were accompanied by two more men on each side with silver fans. The
bridegroom's group was wound up by a naked Brahman, perched on a donkey
and holding over the head of the boy a huge red silk umbrella. After him
a car loaded with a thousand cocoa-nuts and a hundred bamboo baskets,
tied together by a red rope. The god who looks after marriages drove in
melancholy isolation on the vast back of an elephant, whose mahout
led him by a chain of flowers. Our humble party modestly advanced just
behind the elephant's tail.
The performance of rites on the way seemed endless.
We had to stop before every tree, every pagoda, every sacred tank and
bush, and at last before a sacred cow. When we came back to the house
of the bride it was four in the afternoon, and we had started a little
after six in the morning. We all were utterly exhausted, and Miss X----
literally threatened to fall asleep on her feet. The indignant Sikh
had left us long ago, and had persuaded Mr. Y---- and Mulji--whom the
colonel had nicknamed the "mute general"--to keep him company. Our
respected president was bathed in his own perspiration, and even Narayan
the unchangeable yawned and sought consolation in a fan. But the Babu
was simply astonishing. After a nine hours' walk under the sun, with his
head unprotected, he looked fresher than ever, without a drop of sweat
on his dark satin-like forehead. He showed his white teeth in an eternal
smile, and chaffed us all, reciting the "Diamond Wedding" of Steadman.
We struggled against our fatigue in our desire to wit-ness the last
ceremony, after which the woman is forever cut off from the external
world. It was just going to begin; and we kept our eyes and ears wide
open.
The bridegroom and the bride were placed before the altar. The
officiating Brahman tied their hands with some kus-kus grass, and led
them three times round the altar. Then their hands were untied, and the
Brahman mumbled a mantram. When he had finished, the boy husband lifted
his diminutive bride and carried her three times round the altar in his
arms, then again three turns round the altar, but the boy preceding the
girl, and she following him like an obedient slave. When this was over,
the bridegroom was placed on a high chair by the entrance door, and the
bride brought a basin of water, took off his shoes, and, having washed
his feet, wiped them with her long hair. We learned that this was a very
ancient custom. On the right side of the bridegroom sat his mother. The
bride knelt before her also, and, having performed the same operation
over her feet, she retired to the house. Then her mother came out of the
crowd and repeated the same ceremony, but without using her hair as a
towel. The young couple were married. The drums and the tom-toms rolled
once more; and half-deaf we started for home.----
In the tent we found the Akali in the middle of a sermon, delivered for
the edification of the "mute general" and Mr. Y----. He was explaining
to them the advantages of the Sikh religion, and comparing it with the
faith of the "devil-worshipers," as he called the Brahmans.
It was too late to go to the caves, and, besides, we had had enough
sights for one day. So we sat down to rest, and to listen to the words
of wisdom falling from the lips of the "God's warrior." In my humble
opinion, he was right in more than one thing; in his most imaginative
moments Satan himself could not have invented anything more unjust
and more refinedly cruel than what was invented by these "twice-born"
egotists in their relation to the weaker sex. An unconditioned civil
death awaits her in case of widowhood--even if this sad fate befalls
her when she is two or three years old. It is of no importance for the
Brahmans if the marriage never actually took place; the goat sacrifice,
at which the personal presence of the little girl is not even
required--she being represented by the wretched victim--is considered
binding for her. As for the man, not only is he permitted to have
several lawful wives at a time, but he is even required by the law to
marry again if his wife dies. Not to be unjust, I must mention that,
with the exception of some vicious and depraved Rajas, we never heard
of a Hindu availing himself of this privilege, and having more than one
wife.
At the present time, the whole of orthodox India is shaken by the
struggle in favor of the remarriage of widows. This agitation was begun
in Bombay, by a few reformers, and opponents of Brahmans. It is already
ten years since Mulji-Taker-Sing and others raised this question; but
we know only of three or four men who have dared as yet to marry widows.
This struggle is carried on in silence and secrecy, but nevertheless it
is fierce and obstinate.
In the meanwhile, the fate of the widow is what the Brahmans wish it to
be. As soon as the corpse of her husband is burned the widow must shave
her head, and never let it grow again as long as she lives. Her bangles,
necklaces and rings are broken to pieces and burned, together with her
hair and her husband's remains. During the rest of her life she must
wear nothing but white if she was less than twenty-five at her husband's
death, and red if she was older. Temples, religious ceremonies, society,
are closed to her for ever. She has no right to speak to any of her
relations, and no right to eat with them. She sleeps, eats and works
separately; her touch is considered impure for seven years. If a man,
going out on business, meets a widow, he goes home again, abandoning
every pursuit, because to see a widow is accounted an evil omen.
In the past all this was seldom practised, and concerned only the rich
widows, who refused to be burned; but now, since the Brahmans have
been caught in the false interpretation of the Vedas, with the criminal
intention of appropriating the widows' wealth, they insist on the
fulfilment of this cruel precept, and make what once was the exception
the rule. They are powerless against British law, and so they revenge
themselves on the innocent and helpless women, whom fate has deprived of
their natural protectors. Professor Wilson's demonstration of the means
by which the Brahmans distorted the sense of the Vedas, in order to
justify the practice of widow-burning, is well worth mentioning. During
the many centuries that this terrible practice prevailed, the Brahmans
had appealed to a certain Vedic text for their justification, and had
claimed to be rigidly fulfilling the institutes of Manu, which contain
for them the interpretation of Vedic law. When the East India Company's
Government first turned its attention to the suppression of suttee,
the whole country, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, rose in protest,
under the influence of the Brahmans. "The English promised not to
interfere in our religious affairs, and they must keep their word!" was
the general outcry. Never was India so near revolution as in those days.
The English saw the danger and gave up the task. But Professor Wilson,
the best Sanskritist of the time, did not consider the battle lost. He
applied himself to the study of the most ancient MSS., and gradually
became convinced that the alleged precept did not exist in the
Vedas; though in the Laws of Manu it was quite distinct, and had been
translated accordingly by T. Colebrooke and other Orientalists. An
attempt to prove to the fanatic population that Manu's interpretation
was wrong would have been equivalent to an attempt to reduce water to
powder. So Wilson set himself to study Manu, and to compare the text of
the Vedas with the text of this law-giver. This was the result of his
labors: the Rig Veda orders the Brahman to place the widow side by side
with the corpse, and then, after the performance of certain rites, to
lead her down from the funeral pyre and to sing the following verse from
Grhya Sutra:
Arise, O woman! return to the world of the living!
Having gone to sleep by the dead, awake again!
Long enough thou hast been a faithful wife
To the one who made thee mother of his children.
Then those present at the burning were to rub their eyes with collyrium,
and the Brahman to address to them the following verse:
Approach, you married women, not widows,
With your husbands bring ghi and butter.
Let the mothers go up to the womb first,
Dressed in festive garments and costly adornments.
The line before the last was misinterpreted by the Brahmans in the most
skillful way. In Sanskrit it reads as follows:
Arohantu janayo yonim agre.....
Yonina agre literally means to the womb first. Having changed only
one letter of the last word agre, "first," in Sanskrit [script], the
Brahmans wrote instead agneh, "fire's," in Sanskrit [script], and so
acquired the right to send the wretched widows yonina agneh--to the womb
of fire. It is difficult to find on the face of the world another such
fiendish deception.
The Vedas never permitted the burning of the widows, and there is a
place in Taittiriya-Aranyaka, of the Yajur Veda, where the brother of
the deceased, or his disciple, or even a trusted friend, is recommended
to say to the widow, whilst the pyre is set on fire: "Arise, O woman! do
not lie down any more beside the lifeless corpse; return to the world
of the living, and become the wife of the one who holds you by the hand,
and is willing to be your husband." This verse shows that during the
Vedic period the remarriage of widows was allowed. Besides, in several
places in the ancient books, pointed out to us by Swami Dayanand, we
found orders to the widows "to keep the ashes of the husband for several
months after his death and to perform over them certain final rituals."
However, in spite of the scandal created by Professor Wilson's
discovery, and of the fact that the Brahmans were put to shame before
the double authority of the Vedas and of Manu, the custom of centuries
proved so strong that some pious Hindu women still burn themselves
whenever they can. Not more than two years ago the four widows of
Yung-Bahadur, the chief minister of Nepal, insisted upon being burned.
Nepal is not under the British rule, and so the Anglo-Indian Government
had no right to interfere.