FROM SIMLA TO ALLAHABAD AND BOMBAY.--A GREAT HINDOO
FESTIVAL.--CASTES.--THUGS AND THE CAVES OF ELLORA.
From Simla the party returned to Umballa, which they reached just in
time to take the train for Allahabad. They expected to arrive there
early in the morning, and it was just about daybreak as the train rolled
over the magnificent bridge that crosses the Jumna just outside the
city. The bridge is two-thirds of a mile in length, and built entirely
of stone and iron, and the engineers had great difficulty in placing the
piers, owing to the treacherous nature of the river's sandy bed. The
Bramins predicted that the bridge could never be made, and its
successful construction has gone far to shake the faith of the people in
the infallibility of their idols, and teach them to regard the God of
the foreigner.
It was the time of the _mela_, or annual festival, that brings two or
three millions of people to Allahabad to bathe in the sacred waters
where the Ganges and Jumna unite. Early in the forenoon our friends went
to the flat plain at the junction of the rivers--a triangular stretch of
sand measuring a mile or more on each side, and so low that it is
covered during the season of floods. Their carriage was not allowed to
proceed farther than the edge of this plain, through fear of accidents,
but they hired an elephant that was equipped with a couple of chairs of
the "settee" pattern placed back to back, and affording accommodation
for half a dozen persons. Thus mounted, they rode over the ground of the
assemblage, and had a capital view of the scene.
Doctor Bronson thought there were at least 100,000 people on the ground,
and it is said that the crowd sometimes numbers half a million. They
come from all parts of India, and there are few acts considered more
pious than the pilgrimage to Allahabad. As if the sanctity of the two
rivers was not sufficient, the priests teach that there is a third
river, invisible to mortal eyes, which flows directly from heaven to
unite with the Ganges and Jumna, and it is at the point of the triple
union that the bathing ceremony is performed.
[Illustration: HINDOO FAKIRS CUTTING THEMSELVES WITH KNIVES.]
The boys had never seen so large a crowd as this, nor even one so
curious. There were pilgrims of all degrees, poor men and women who had
begged their subsistence along the road, and rich men who came in grand
state with trains of elephants and camels, and with gorgeous tents
spread for their occupation. There were many _fakirs_, some holding
their withered hands high in the air, where they had kept them for
years. Others with the skin worn from their knees in consequence of
dragging their bodies along the roads, and others covered with dust and
ashes, in accordance with their vows. It is a peculiar principle of the
Hindoo religion that its holiest men are the dirtiest; and if one wishes
to get up a reputation for sanctity, his first duty is to become as
repulsive as possible by never washing himself, covering his body with
rags, allowing his hair to go quite untouched by comb or scissors, to
perform some act of bodily torture, and then sit by the roadside and beg
for food. The fakirs are even exempt from the injunction to bathe in the
holy rivers, possibly through fear that the accumulated dirt, which is
the seal of their profession, might be washed away. But they come in
great numbers to all the sacred places, and probably the chance of
picking up a liberal allowance from the charitable may have something to
do with their coming.
Formerly there were great cruelties practised by these fakirs on
themselves in the name of religion, but they are no longer allowed. They
used to fasten hooks in the flesh of their backs and then be swung in
the air; they slashed their flesh with knives, or pierced it with nails
and spears; placed fire on their heads till their scalps were burnt
through, and did many other cruel things. The boys saw several of these
fakirs whose hands had been so long held upright that they were fixed in
that position, and others whose finger-nails had been allowed to grow
until they were turned like the claws of birds and pierced the palms of
the hands. One man had his feet and hands bound together, and was
rolling along like a cart-wheel, and the Doctor said he had doubtless
come hundreds of miles in this way.
At the junction of the rivers the crowd was more dense than elsewhere,
and hundreds of persons were clinging to rafts anchored for the safety
of those who could not swim. Before a pilgrim enters the water he sits
on the bank and submits himself to a barber, who removes his hair and
beard and throws them into the river. He is told that for every hair he
thus gives to the gods he will have a million years in paradise. After
the shaving is over he bathes; the next day he goes through a ceremony
in honor of his ancestors, and is then ready to depart for home. From
where the boys sat on the back of their elephant, near the junction of
the rivers they saw dozens of barbers at work; men with long hair and
beards would sit down in front of one of these operators, and rise a few
minutes later shorn of what had formed their principal attraction.
[Illustration: A PILGRIM CARRYING RELIGIOUS RELICS.]
The priests who have charge of this festival make a great deal of money,
as the pilgrims are required to pay according to their means for the
services of the barbers and the privilege of bathing. Several times it
has been proposed to make an end of this idolatrous worship by closing
the place altogether, and giving a cash allowance to the owners to
replace their revenues. But the Government is unwilling to interfere in
the religion of the people, and so the festival is kept up. It occurs in
the months of January and February, and is one of the curious sights for
a traveller in India.
Allahabad means "the city of God." The name was given to it by the great
Moslem emperor, Akbar, who conquered it from the Hindoos, and built a
fort, which is now occupied by the English garrison. During the Mutiny
the European residents took refuge in the fort, where many of them died
of cholera before the army came to raise the siege and relieve them from
their imprisonment.
[Illustration: MOSLEM SCHOOL AT ALLAHABAD.]
The population of Allahabad is a mixed one of Moslems and Hindoos, the
former descended from the conquerors of 300 years ago, and the latter
from the more ancient inhabitants. As the boys drove through the Moslem
portion of the city, they passed a school where some bright-eyed boys
were learning their lessons under the supervision of a teacher of their
race and religion. All were squatted on the floor, and the books they
were reading were, according to the Doctor, portions of the Koran. The
lessons are studied aloud, each pupil for himself, and consequently a
Moslem school is the reverse of quiet. The Koran is the principal
text-book, and often the only one; after the pupil has mastered it he is
instructed in arithmetic, and sometimes he learns a little geography,
but not much. There are higher schools and colleges where scientific
instruction is given, but they are not easily entered except by the boys
of well-to-do parents.
While our friends were resting in the hotel after their round of
sight-seeing, the conversation turned upon caste--that peculiar social
and religious institution to which reference has already been made. In
response to the inquiries of the boys, Doctor Bronson said the system of
caste was not fully understood even by those who had lived for years in
India, but it might be described in a general way as a distinction based
on birth, and incapable of change.
"There are," said the Doctor, "four great castes, and these have
numerous subdivisions, which include eighteen principal and more than a
hundred subordinate classes. By the rule of caste no man can ascend to a
higher or go down to a lower; he may commit murder and other crimes
without losing caste, but if he violates any of the rules of ceremony,
however slight, he becomes an outcast, and can only be restored on
payment of a fine proportioned to his means. For some offences there is
no restoration; the outcast, whether temporary or perpetual, is not
recognized by his friends or even by his family, and any one who
ventured to speak to him or give him the least assistance would be
liable to the same fate.
"The four classes are, first, the Bramins, who are supposed to have
come from the head of the Creator, and to be endowed with attributes of
divinity which all below must recognize. Kings and emperors are not
exempt from paying reverence to the Bramins, and the poorest of the
latter considers himself superior to the Sovereign of England or the
Emperor of China. The Bramin is of so exalted a character that he will
eat no food that a man of lower caste has touched, and even to allow the
shadow of the latter to fall on him would be pollution. In Southern
India it was formerly considered quite justifiable for a Bramin to
strike dead a low-caste man who had touched him, whether accidentally or
otherwise, and in the native states of India at the present time the
people of low caste are under heavy disabilities.
"The second caste have a sort of sacred character, but far below that of
the Bramins; they are the military and executive class, and carry out
the laws which the Bramins make. The third caste comprises the
mercantile and agricultural classes; and the fourth, or _sudra_,
includes all the servile classes, who must remain forever in a state of
dependence, and are not allowed to acquire property, or even to be
instructed in anything more than the work they have to do. It is
forbidden for a Bramin to read the sacred writings to the sudras, or
give them any religious instruction whatever. Below the sudras are the
_pariahs_, or outcasts; no men of any caste will associate with them,
and they are regarded as utterly without any redeeming qualities. A
pariah who should come into the presence of a Bramin, under the old
rules of caste, would be liable to be put to death.
"Though the distinctions all exist in India, it is well known that they
are rapidly breaking up. The second and third castes are being mingled
so that it is hard to tell one from the other; the introduction of the
railway, which throws men of all castes together, and often compels them
to touch each other while sitting in the same carriage, is doing much to
destroy the system, and the Government has enacted laws that aid in the
movement. By the rules of the system, loss of caste is followed by
forfeiture of all property and civil rights; but the Government steps in
and prohibits any such forfeiture, and in several instances has punished
the priests ordering it, by convicting them of conspiracy, and sending
them to prison. From present indications it may be hoped that the caste
system will some day be abolished, though such a result can hardly be
looked for in our lifetime."
[Illustration: HINDOO ROBBERS IN PRISON.]
In the afternoon they took another drive through Allahabad, and as they
passed the prison one of the boys indicated a desire to see it. The
carriage was stopped, and the Doctor was taken to see the
superintendent, who permitted the strangers to enter. In one cell there
were three ill-looking fellows, who were said to be robbers, and in an
adjoining cell there were four equally repulsive characters, described
as Thugs. The Doctor expressed his surprise, as he had supposed the
system of _Thuggee_ or _Thuggery_ was extinct; but the chief of the
prison said that once in a while bands of Thugs were found plying their
trade, and they generally proved to be some who escaped arrest in the
general movement for their suppression, or were simply robbers who had
adopted the principles of the Thugs. In other cells and in corners of
the yard were some ordinary thieves and other violators of the law;
there was nothing attractive about the place, and after a short visit
the party withdrew.
As they rode away from the prison, one of the boys asked Doctor Bronson
to tell them about the Thugs, and their peculiarities.
"It may astonish you," replied the Doctor, "to learn that they were a
body of assassins religiously devoted to their horrible work. They went
about murdering people, and supposed they had the approval of their
goddess in doing so."
The Doctor had surmised rightly, as the boys opened their eyes widely
in the astonishment which this information caused. When the eyes had
resumed their former appearance, he resumed:
"The discovery of the existence of this organization was made by
accident, or rather through the guilty conscience of a member of it.
[Illustration: THUGS AWAITING TRIAL AT ALLAHABAD.]
"One day, in the year 1829, a native came to Colonel Sleeman, an officer
of the English Government, and confessed that he was the leader of a
gang of Thugs in the neighborhood, and showed where many of the victims
had been buried. An investigation proved the correctness of his
statement, and the members of the gang were arrested; one discovery
followed another, till it was known that the organization extended
through all the provinces of India, and that the different gangs had
their _jemadars_ or leaders, _garus_ or teachers, _sothas_ or
entrappers, _bhuttotes_ or stranglers, and _lughaees_ or grave-diggers.
They worshipped the goddess _Kali_, and always consulted her before
starting on an expedition, and if the omens were wrong they abandoned
their plans.
"They went in the disguise of merchants or pilgrims; robbery was the
object of the murders they committed, and the proceeds were divided as
follows: one third to the goddess, one third to the widows and orphans
of the sect, and the remaining third to the assassins themselves. The
teachers or spies learned the route of an intended victim, and informed
the entrappers, who lured him away from the road or to a secluded place,
where at a moment when he suspected no danger the stranglers killed him
by suddenly throwing a handkerchief around his neck and twisting it
tightly. Then the grave-diggers performed their share of the business,
and after it was over the party went to the temple, divided the spoil in
the manner I have mentioned, and partook of a sacrament by way of
purification.
"They did not kill Europeans, for fear of detection, and they also
exempted women and old men from their operations. After the existence of
the order was discovered arrests were made all over India, and some
thousands of the murderers were taken. Many were executed for their
crimes; the least guilty of them were colonized near Jubbulpoor, with
the women and children of the organization, where they were kept
separate from others, and still remain under Government supervision and
employment."
There was not a great deal to be seen at Allahabad besides the festival
at the junction of the rivers, as the fort contains nothing remarkable,
and there are no public buildings of consequence. The train for Bombay
left in the evening, and Doctor Bronson and the boys went by it for a
direct ride of 845 miles, which they accomplished in forty hours.
The Doctor had originally intended to stop on the way to visit the Caves
of Ellora; but circumstances made it inconvenient to do so, and the plan
was abandoned. He told the boys that the caves ranked next to the
Pyramids of Egypt as works of human labor, and were far superior to them
in artistic character.
"You have seen," said he, "toys made in Switzerland and other countries
where the side of a block of wood is cut into, and the wood slowly
chipped away so as to leave figures of men, trees, or other things
standing inside of a hollow space?"
Both the boys remembered that they had seen toys of this description.
"Now," he continued, "imagine that the block of wood is a rock 600 feet
high, and two miles long, rising, with very steep sides, from a level
plain."
"Yes."
[Illustration: VESTIBULE OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT ELLORA.]
"And then imagine that the solid rock is cut away so as to leave
temples, pyramids, obelisks, and statues of various kinds, just as the
wood is chipped away in the Swiss toys. If you can picture these in your
mind you will have a vivid conception of the wonderful Caves of Ellora.
They extend for more than a mile along the base of a hill such as I have
described, and the labor of making them is almost incalculable. Here is
the account of one of the excavations, written by a gentleman who
visited the place:
"'The cave called _Khailas_, or Paradise, is the largest and most
elaborate of the series. It is a quarry-like excavation, 250 feet deep;
its length is 401 feet, and its breadth 133 feet. There is a wall of
solid rock separating the enclosure from the plain. The interior of the
quarry is occupied in the centre by the temple. This is of the usual
form, consisting of the shrine, with its pyramidal dome, and several
pillared porticoes and halls. The sides of the quarry are steep, and
hollowed out into successive stories of halls and galleries, into which
light is admitted by open colonnades. All these buildings--the great
temple, its porticoes and galleries, as well as the other apartments,
and the massive wall which divides the whole from the valley--are carved
and quarried out of the solid rock.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TEMPLE HEWN FROM THE ROCK.]
"'The temple is about 85 feet high to the top of the pyramidal spire
over the shrine. Its length, including the porticoes, which are
connected with it by hanging galleries of stone, is not less than 150
feet, and the greatest breadth about 90 feet. The largest apartment is
66 feet by 55. Its ceiling, which is supported by heavy square columns,
is not more than 12 feet high, and carved to represent rafters. The
columns and walls of the apartment were most elaborately carved, as was
also the whole exterior of the building; the designs represent the
exploits of Ram in Lunka, or Ceylon, and the chambers and galleries in
the sides of the quarry were similarly decorated. In the enclosure
between the temple and gate-way are two obelisks, 75 or 80 feet high,
supported on the backs of elephants. Like all the other buildings and
accessories, they are carved from the solid rock.'"
One of the boys asked what was the probable age of the Caves of Ellora,
and by whom they were made.
"They are thought to belong to different centuries," replied the Doctor,
"as some of them are of Braminical character, while others were made by
the Buddhists. It is believed that the most modern were made about 900
years ago, and possibly the oldest were excavated 1000 years earlier.
Every Hindoo divinity has a shrine there, and it is strange that there
is nothing certain about their history. The natives say they were the
work of the gods, and are at least 9000 years old; another tradition
says they were all made by one man, and that he would have excavated
more caves if he had not cut his hand so severely one day that he was
disabled from further work."
[Illustration: MURAL SCULPTURES AT ELLORA.]