Of the ceremonies practised at the death of Brahmans.
When a Brahman is sick, before he dies, they send to call the learned
Brahmans who are his priests, so that they should come to pray, and
console the sick man; and they talk to him of the affairs of his soul,
and what he must do to save it, bidding him spend money in alms. After
this ceremony is over they make the Brahman priests shave the sick
man's head, and after the shaving they bid them wash it, and after
the washing it is their custom to bring into their houses a cow
with a calf, -- there are very few Brahmans, however poor they be,
who do not have one to live in their house, -- which cow, when they
have finished washing the man's head, they take a turban and tie it to
its neck and put the end of the turban into the hand of the sick man,
and he gives it and the calf in alms for his soul to those priests who
perform these ceremonies. On that day he gives alms according to his
position, and gives to eat to some Brahmans who are invited and who
come there for the purpose. They believe that when these ceremonies
are made for the sick man, if he is to live he is soon cured of his
infirmity, and if not that he soon dies.
After the death of the sick man they have the ground washed upon which
he lay, and after the washing they take cow-dung and spread it over
the ground, and place the body on the top of this dung. They hold that
a sick man who dies on a cot, or on anything so-ever except only on
the ground, commits a mortal sin. As soon as the body is laid on the
ground they make for it a bier covered with boughs of the fig-tree,
and before they place the body on the bier they wash it well with
pure water, and anoint it with sandal-wood (oil); and they place by
the body branches of sweet basil and cover it with a new cloth, and
so place it in the bier. Then one of his relatives takes the bier on
one side, and they call three other Brahmans whosoever they may be
to aid them to lift it; and so they carry it to the place where they
are to burn it, accompanied by many Brahmans who go singing in front
of the corpse. In front of all goes his son, if he has one, or next
younger brother or nearest relative, with fire in the hand for the
burning. As soon as they arrive at the place where they have to burn
the body, they scatter money according to their ability, and then put
the fire to it; and they wait there till the whole body is consumed,
and then all go and wash their bodies in a tank and afterwards return
each one to his house. The son or brother or relation who put the fire
is obliged to sleep on the ground where the man died for nine nights,
and after the lapse of nine days from the death come the priests and
learned men and they command to shave the head of this man. During
these nine days, they feed the poor and they give them the dead man's
clothes, and they give the cot with its bed in alms to the priests,
with some money in addition; if he is a rich man they give gardens and
other things in alms to many Brahmans. When ten days are finished,
and the son has been shaved, he goes to the place where they burned
his father or his brother, and they perform many ceremonies over the
ashes and bones that remain unburned; then they put them in a small
vessel and make a pit in the ground and bury them in it, and keep
them thus guarded and buried in order (afterwards) to send the bones
to be thrown into a sacred river, which is distant from Goa over one
thousand leagues.[650] There is a very large temple there, the object
of many pilgrimages, and they hold that every pilgrim who dies there
is saved, and goes to Paradise, and also every dead man whose bones
are thrown into that river. In spite of this they in reality take
very few people there. The heir or the father or son of the dead man
is obliged, from the day of the death, for eleven days to give food
to twenty-seven Brahmans, and until twenty-one days to three others;
until twelve days again he feeds seven Brahmans, and until twenty-seven
days gives to eat to the three; on the last day of the month he gives
food to three others, and thenceforward, until one year is finished,
he gives meals once a month to three Brahmans. They do this in honour
of the Trinity for the soul of the deceased. When this year is over
he gives no more alms, except that each year, on the day on which the
death happened, he feeds six Brahmans, -- namely, three in honour of
the Trinity, and three for the persons of his father, grandfather,
and great-grandfather; who thus seemingly eat together. Thus he obtains
favour with God, and for these expenses they beg alms of the Brahmans
if they are poor. These give him all help for it. Before they dine
they wash the feet of all six, and during the meal some ceremonies
are performed by Brahman priests who come there for that purpose.
CHAPTER A
Diamonds
However much it may at first sight appear that our chroniclers have
exaggerated in their description of the wealth of the Hindu sovereign
and his nobles, and of the wonderful display of jewels made on days of
high festival by the ladies of their households, an account of which
is given us by Paes, I for one see little reason for doubt. Nuniz
distinctly states (p. 389) that the diamond mines, in their day the
richest in the world, were farmed out on condition that all stones
above twenty mangellins in weight -- about twenty-five carats -- were
sent to the Raya for his personal use, and there must have been many
of these. Barradas (p. 226 above) states that, according to rumour,
even after the downfall of the empire the king at Chandragiri in
1614 A.D. had no less than three large chests full of diamonds in
his possession; and every traveller and chronicler has something to
say on the subject.
The principal mines were on the north bank of the Krishna river,
and in the Kurnool and Anantapur countries, notably at Vajra
Karur. Generically these are known as "the mines of Golkonda," and
the phrase has passed into a proverb.
Linschoten (ii. 136) writes: "They (diamonds) grow in the countrie
of Decam behinde Ballagate, by the towne of Bisnagar, wherein are
two or three hilles, from whence they are digged, whereof the King
of Bisnagar doth reape great profitte; for he causeth them to be
straightly watched, and hath farmed them out with this condition,
that all diamonds that are above twenty-five Mangellyns in weight
are for the King himselfe (every Mangellyn is foure graines in weight).
"There is yet another hill in the Countrie of Decam, which is called
Velha, that is the old Rocke, from whence come the best diamonds and
are sold for the greatest price.... Sometimes they find Diamonds of
one hundred and two hundred Mangelyns and more, but very few."
As regards the diamond "as large as a hen's egg," said to have been
found at the sack of Vijayanagar and presented to the Adil Shah
(above, p. 208), Couto (Decade VIII. c. xv.) says that it was a jewel
which the Raya had affixed to the base of the plume on his horse's
head-dress. Garcia da Orta, who was in India in 1534, says that at
Vijayanagar a diamond had been seen as large as a small hen's egg, and
he even declares the weights of three others to have been respectively
120, 148, and 250 MANGELIS, equivalent to 150, 175, and 312 1/2 carats
(Tavernier, V. Ball, ii. 433).
Dr. Ball has gone carefully into the question of the diamonds known
as "Babar's," "the Mogul's," "Pitt's," "the KOH-I-NUR," and others,
and to his Appendix I. I beg to refer those interested in the subject.
It is clear that this hen's egg diamond could not be the fame as Sultan
Babar's, because the former was taken at Vijayanagar in A.D. 1565,
whereas Sultan Babar's was received by his son Humayun at Agra in 1526,
and could not have been, forty years later, in the possession of the
Hindu king of the south.[651]
Dr. Ball has shown that probably the KOH-I-NUR is identical with
the "Mogul's diamond." Was, then, this "hen's egg" diamond the
same? Probably not. If we had been told that the "hen's egg," when
found in the sack of Vijayanagar, had been cut, the proof CONTRA would
be conclusive, since the KOH-I-NUR was certainly uncut in A.D. 1656
or 1657. But there is no information available on this point.
The "hen's egg" was apparently taken by the Adil Shah to Bijapur in
1565, and it is not likely to have found its way, still in an uncut
state, into the possession of Mir Jumla in 1656.
The KOH-I-NUR was found at Kollur on the river Krishna, probably in
A.D. 1656. Mir Jumla farmed the mines at that time, and presented
it uncut to the emperor, Shah Jahan. It is said to have weighed 756
English carats (Ball, ii. 444). It was entrusted to a Venetian named
Hortensio Borgio, and was so damaged and wasted in his hands that,
when seen by Tavernier in Aurangzib's treasury in 1665, it weighed
not more than 268 1/2 English carats. In 1739 Nadir Shah sacked Delhi
and carried the stone away with him to Persia, conferring on it its
present immortal name the "Mountain of Light." On his murder in 1747
it passed into the hands of his grandson, Shah Rukh. Four years later
Shah Rukh gave it to Ahmad Shah Durani of Kabul, and by him it was
bequeathed to his son Taimur. In 1793 it passed by descent to his
son Shah Zaman, who was blinded and deposed by his brother Muhammad;
but he retained possession of the stone in his prison, and in 1795 it
became the property of his brother Sultan Shuja. In 1809, after Shuja
became king of Kabul, Elphinstone saw the diamond in his bracelet
at Peshawur. In 1812, Shuja, being dethroned by Muhammad, fled to
Lahore, where he was detained as a quasi-prisoner by Ranjit Singh,
the ruler of the Panjab. In 1813 an agreement was arrived at, and Shuja
surrendered the diamond to Ranjit Singh. Ranjit often wore the stone,
and it was constantly seen by European visitors to Lahore. Dying in
1839, the KOH-I-NUR was placed in the jewel-chamber till the infant
Dhulip Singh was acknowledged as Ranjit's successor. In 1849 it was
handed over to Sir John Lawrence on the annexation of the Panjab, and
by him was sent to England to Her Majesty the Queen. In 1851 it was
exhibited at the first great Exhibition, and in 1852 it was re-cut by
an Amsterdam cutter, Voorsanger, in the employ of Messrs. Garrards. The
weight is now 106 1/16 carats.
It would be interesting to trace the story of the "hen's egg" diamond
after its acquisition by the Bijapur sultan, Ali Adil.
H. de Montfart, who travelled in India in 1608, saw a very large
diamond in the possession of the Mogul emperor Jahangir at Delhi,[652]
but this had been pierced. "I have seene one with the great MOGOR
as bigge as a Hen's egge, and of that very forme, which he caused
expressly to bee pierced like a pearle to weare it on his arme.... It
weighteth 198 Mangelins."
CHAPTER B
The Wealth of the Dakhan in the Fourteenth Century A.D.
When Malik Kafur, in the year 1310 A.D., during the reign of Ala-ud-Din
Khilji of Delhi, carried out his successful raids into the Dakhan
and to the Malabar coast, sacking all the Hindu temples, ravaging
the territory of Maisur, and despoiling the country, he is said to
have returned to Delhi with an amount of treasure that seems almost
fabulous. Firishtah writes: "They found in the temples prodigious
spoils, such as idols of gold adorned with precious stones, and other
rich effects consecrated to Hindu worship;" and Malik presented his
sovereign with "312 elephants, 20,000 horses, 96,000 MANS of gold,
several boxes of jewels and pearls, and other precious effects."
When we come to estimate the amount of gold we are met with a
difficulty, as there are many varieties of MANS in India, the
variation being as much as from 19 lbs. in Travancore to 163 1/4
lbs. in Ahmadnagar. The Madras MAN weighs 25 lbs., the Bombay MAN
28 lbs. Hawkins, writing in 1610, gives 55 lbs. to the MAN,[653]
Middleton, in 1611, 33 lbs.[654] Now Firishtah had more to do with
Ahmadnagar than any other part of India, and if his estimate was based
on the MAN of that tract. Malik Kafur's 96,000 MANS of gold would
have amounted to the enormous sum of 15,672,000 lbs. weight. It is
hardly likely that Firishtah would have had in his mind the Travancore
MAN. Even if he was thinking of the Madras MAN, which is not likely,
his estimate of the weight of the gold carried off amounted to
2,400,000 lbs.
Whether we accept these amounts or not, there can be no manner of
doubt that the richness of the temples was very great, and the reason
is easy to see. The country had always been subject to Hindu kings, and
treasures had year by year accumulated. The Brahmans exacted gifts and
payments from the people on all occasions. Kings and chiefs, merchants
and landowners, vied with one another in presenting rich offerings
to their favourite places of worship; and when it is remembered
that this practice had been going on from time immemorial, it need
be no matter for wonder that the man who first violently despoiled
the sacred buildings departed from the country laden with an almost
incredible amount of booty. Colonel Dow, in his translation of the
works of Firishtah (i. 307), computes the value of the gold carried
off by Malik Kafur at a hundred millions sterling of our money.