{133}
_Calmly she took her seat_.--I. p. 8.
SHE, says Bernier, whom I saw burn herself, when I parted from
_Surat_ to travel into _Persia_, in the presence of Monsieur _Chardin_
of _Paris_, and of many _English_ and _Dutch_, was of a middle age,
and not unhandsome. To represent unto you the undaunted cheerfulness
that appeared in her countenance, the resolution with which she
marched, washed herself, spoke to the people; the confidence with
which she looked upon us, viewed her little cabin, made up of very dry
millet-straw and small wood, went into this cabin, and sat down upon
the pile, and took her husband's head into her lap, and a torch into
her own hand, and kindled the cabin, whilst I know not how many
_Brahmans_ were busy in kindling the fire round about: To represent to
you, I say, all this as it ought, is {134} not possible for me; I can
at present scarce believe it myself, though it be but a few days since
I saw it.
_They strip her ornaments away._--I. p. 8.
She went out again to the river, and taking up some water in her
hands, muttered some prayers, and offered it to the sun. All her
ornaments were then taken from her; and her armlets were broken, and
chaplets of white flowers were put upon her neck and hands. Her hair
was tucked up with five combs; and her forehead was marked with clay
in the same manner as that of her husband--STAVORINUS.
_Around her neck they leave_
_The marriage-knot alone._--I. p. 8.
When the time for consummating the marriage is come, they light the
fire Homam with the wood of Ravasiton. The Bramin blesses the former,
which being done, the bridegroom takes three handfuls of rice, and
throws it on the bride's head, who does the same to him. Afterwards
the bride's father clothes her in a dress according to his condition,
and washes the bridegroom's feet; the bride's mother observing to pour
out the water. This being done, the father puts his daughter's hand in
his own, puts water into it, some pieces of money, {135} and, giving
it to the bridegroom, says, at the same time, I have no longer any
thing to do with you, and I give you up to the power of another. The
_Tali_, which is a ribbon with a golden head hanging at it, is held
ready; and, being shewn to the company, some prayers and blessings are
pronounced; after which the bridegroom takes it, and hangs it about
the bride's neck. This knot is what particularly secures his
possession of her; for, before he had had the _Tali_ on, all the rest
of the ceremonies might have been made to no purpose; for it has
sometimes happened, that, when the bridegroom was going to fix it on,
the bride's father has discovered his not being satisfied with the
bridegroom's gift, when another, offering more, has carried off the
bride with her father's consent. But when once the _Tali_ is put on,
the marriage is indissoluble; and, whenever the husband dies, the
_Tali_ is burnt along with him, to shew that the marriage bands are
broke. Besides these particular ceremonies, the people have notice of
the wedding by a _Pandal_, which is raised before the bride's door
some days before. The whole concludes with an entertainment which the
bride's father gives to the common friends; and during this festivity,
which continues five days, alms are given to the poor, and the fire
Homam is kept in. The seventh day, the new-married couple set out for
the {136} bridegroom's house, whither they frequently go by
torch-light. The bride and bridegroom are carried in a sedan, pass
through the chief streets of the city, and are accompanied by their
friends, who are either on horseback or mounted on elephants.--A.
ROGER.
_They force her on, they bind her to the dead_.--I. p. 9.
'Tis true, says Bernier, that I have seen some of them, which, at the
sight of the pile and the fire, appeared to have some apprehension,
and that, perhaps, would have gone back. Those demons, the Bramins,
that are there with their great sticks, astonish them, and hearten
them up, or even thrust them in; as I have seen it done to a young
woman that retreated five or six paces from the pile, and to another,
that was much disturbed when, she saw the fire take hold of her
clothes, these executioners thrusting her in with their long poles.
At Lahor, I saw a very handsome and a very young woman burnt; I
believe she was not above twelve years of age. This poor unhappy
creature appeased rather dead than alive when she came near the pile;
she shook and wept bitterly. Meanwhile, three or four of these
executioners, the Bramins, together with an old hag that held her
under the arm, thrust her on, and made her sit down upon the wood;
and, lest she should run away, {137} they tied her legs and hands; and
so they burnt her alive. I had enough to do to contain myself for
indignation.--BERNIER.
Pietro Della Valle conversed with a widow, who was about to burn
herself by her own choice. She told him, that, generally speaking,
women were not forced to burn themselves; but sometimes, among people
of rank, when a young woman, who was handsome, was left a widow, and
in danger of marrying again, (which is never practised among them,
because of the confusion and disgrace which are inseparable from such
a thing,) or of falling into other irregularities, then, indeed, the
relations of the husband, if they are at all tenacious of the honour
of the family, compel her to burn herself, whether she likes it or no,
merely to prevent the inconveniences which might take place.
Dellon also, whom I consider as one of the best travellers in the
East, expressly asserts, that widows are burnt there "_de gré, ou de
force. L'on n'en voit que trop qui aprés avoir desiré et demandé la
mort avec un courage intrepide, et aprés avoir obtenu et acheté la
permission de se brûler, ont tremblé à là veuë du bucher, se sont
repenties, mais trop tard, de leur imprudence, et ont fait d'inutiles
efforts pour se retracter. Mais lorsque cela arrive, bien loin que les
Bramenes soient touchés_ {138} _d'aucune pieté, ils lient cruellement
ces malheureuses, et les brûlent par force, sans avoir aucun egard à
leurs plaintes, ni à leurs cris._"--Tom. i. p. 138.
It would be easy to multiply authorities upon this point. Let it
suffice to mention one important historical fact: When the great
Alboquerque had established himself it Goa, he forbade these accursed
sacrifices, the women extolled him for it as their benefactor and
deliverer, (_Commentarios de Alb._ ii. 20,) and no European in India
was ever so popular, or so revered by the natives. Yet, if we are to
believe the anti-missionares, none but fools, fanatics, and pretenders
to humanity, would wish to deprive the Hindoo women of the right of
burning themselves! "It may be useful (says Colonel Mark Wilks,) to
examine the reasonableness of interfering with the most exceptionable
of all their institutions. It has been thought an abomination not to
be tolerated, that a widow should immolate herself on the funeral pile
of her deceased husband. But what judgement should we form of the
Hindoo, who (if any of our institutions admitted the parallel) should
_forcibly_ pretend to stand between a Christian and the hope of
eternal salvation? And shall we not hold him to be a driveller in
politics and morals, a fanatic in religion, and a pretender in
humanity, who would forcibly wrest this hope from the Hindoo {139}
widow?"--_Historical Sketches of the South of India_, vol. i. p. 499.
Such opinions, and such language, may safely be left to the
indignation and pity which they cannot fail to excite. I shall only
express my astonishment, that any thing so monstrous, and so miserably
futile, should have proceeded from a man of learning, great good
sense, and general good feelings, as Colonel Wilks evidently appears
to be.
_One drops, another plunges in._--I. p. 10.
When Bernier was passing from Amad-Avad to Agra, there came news to
him in a borough, where the caravan rested under the shade, (staying
for the cool of the evening to march on their journey,) that a woman
was then upon the point of burning herself with the body of her
husband. I presently rose, says he, and ran to the place where it was
to be done, which was a great pit, with a pile of wood raised in it,
whereon I saw laid a dead corpse, and a woman, which, at a distance,
seemed to me pretty fair, sitting near it on the same pile, besides
four or five Bramins, putting the fire to it from all sides; five
women of a middle age, and well enough dressed, holding one another by
the hand, and dancing about the pit, and a great crowd of people, men
and women, looking {140} on. The pile of wood was presently all on
fire, because store of oil and butter had been thrown upon it: and I
saw, at the same time, through the flames, that the fire took hold of
the clothes of the woman, that were imbued with well-scented oils,
mingled with powder of sandal and saffron. All this I saw, but
observed not that the woman was at all disturbed; yea, it was said,
that she had been heard to pronounce, with great force, these two
words, _five_, _two_, to signify, according to the opinion of those
that hold the soul's transmigration, that this was the _fifth_ time
she had burnt herself with the same husband, and that there remained
but two more for perfection; as if she had at that time this
remembrance, or some prophetical spirit. But here ended not this
infernal tragedy: I thought it was only by way of ceremony that these
five women sung and danced about the pit; but I was altogether
surprised when I saw, that the flame having taken hold of the clothes
of one of them, she cast herself, with her head foremost, into the
pit; and that after her, another, being overcome by the flame and the
smoke, did the like; and my astonishment redoubled afterwards, when I
saw that the remaining three took one another again by the hand,
continued their dance without any apparent fear; and that at length
they precipitated themselves, one after another, into the fire, as
their {141} companions had done. I learnt that these had been five
slaves, who, having seen their mistress extremely afflicted at the
sickness of her husband, and heard her promise him, that she would not
survive him, but burn herself with him, were so touched with
compassion and tenderness towards this their mistress, that they
engaged themselves in a promise to follow her in her resolution, and
to burn themselves with her.--BERNIER.
This excellent traveller relates an extraordinary circumstance which
occurred at one of these sacrifices. A woman was engaged in some
love-intrigues with a young Mahommedan, her neighbour, who was a
tailor, and could play finely upon the tabor. This woman, in the hopes
she had of marrying this young man, poisoned her husband, and
presently came away to tell the tailor, that it was time to be gone
together, as they had projected, or else she should be obliged to burn
herself. The young man, fearing lest he might be entangled in a
mischievous business, flatly refused her. The woman, not at all
surprised at it, went to her relations, and advertised them of the
sudden death of her husband, and openly protested that she would not
survive him, but burn herself with him. Her kindred, well satisfied
with so generous a resolution, and the great honour she did to the
whole family, presently had a pit made and filled with wood, exposing
{142} the corpse upon it, and kindling the fire. All being prepared,
the woman goes to embrace and bid farewell to all her kindred that
were there about the pit, among whom was also the tailor, who had been
invited to play upon the tabor that day, with many others of that sort
of men, according to the custom of the country. This fury of a woman
being also come to this young man, made sign as if she would bid him
farewell with the rest; but, instead of gently embracing him, she
taketh him with all her force about his collar, pulls him to the pit,
and tumbleth him, together with herself, into the ditch, where they
both were soon dispatched.--BERNIER.
The Hindoos sometimes erect a chapel on the spot where one of these
sacrifices has been performed, both on account of the soul of the
deceased, and as a trophy of her virtue. I remember to have seen one
of these places, where the spot on which the funeral pile had been
erected was inclosed and covered with bamboos, formed into a kind of
bower planted with flowering creepers. The inside was set round with
flowers, and at one end, there was an image.--CRAWFURD.
Some of the Yogees, who smear themselves with ashes, use none but what
they collect from funeral piles,--human ashes! PIETRO DELLA VALLE.
From a late investigation, it appears, that the number {143} of women
who sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every
year, is, on an average, upwards of two hundred. The Pundits have
already been called on to produce the sanction of their Shasters for
this custom. The passages exhibited are vague and general in their
meaning, and differently interpreted by the same casts. Some sacred
verses commend the practice, but none command it; and the Pundits
refer once more to _custom_. They have, however, intimated, that if
government will pass a regulation, amercing by fine every Brahmin who
attends a burning, or every Zemindar who permits him to attend it, the
practice cannot possibly long continue; for that the ceremony,
unsanctified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity and
consequence in the eyes of the people.
The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the abolition of this
opprobrium of a Christian administration, the female sacrifice; which
has subsisted, to our certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander
the Great.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN.
This practice, however, was manifestly unknown when the Institutes of
Menu were written. Instructions are there given for the conduct of a
widow: "Let her," it is said, "emaciate her body, by living
voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when
her {144} lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man.
Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh
duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the
incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women
as were devoted to one only husband. Many thousands of Brahmins,
having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no
issue in their families, have ascended nevertheless to heaven; and,
like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though
she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote
herself to pious austerity: but a widow, who, from a wish to bear
children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings
disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of
her lord."--_Inst. of Menu_, ch. 5, 157-161.
Second marriages were permitted to men.--_Ibid_. 167, 8-9.
_Lo! Arvalan appears._--II. p. 11.
Many believe that some souls are sent back to the spot where their
bodies were burnt, or where their ashes are preserved, to wait there
until the new bodies they are destined to occupy be ready for their
reception. This appears to correspond with an opinion of Plato, which,
{145} with many other tenets of that philosopher, was adopted by the
early Christians; and an ordinance of the Romish church is still
extant, prohibiting having lights or making merriment in church-yards
at night, lest they should disturb the souls that might come
thither.--CRAWFURD.
According to the Danish missionaries, the souls of those who are
untimely slain wander about as diabolical spectres, doing evil to
mankind, and possessing those whom they persecute.--NIECAMP. i. 10.
§ 14.
The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall believe, that when God
sends a messenger to summon a person to his presence, if the messenger
should mistake his object, and carry off another, he is desired by the
Deity to take him away; but as the earthly mansion of his soul must be
decayed, it is destined to remain mid-way between heaven and earth,
and never can return to the presence of God. Whoever commits homicide
without a divine order, and whoever is killed by a snake, as a
punishment for some concealed crime, will be doomed to the same state
of wandering; and whoever hangs himself will wander eternally with a
rope about his neck.--_Asiat. Researches_.
Pope Benedict XII. drew up a list of 117 heretical opinions held by
the Armenian Christians, which he sent to the king of
Armenia,--instead of any other assistance, {146} when that prince
applied to him for aid against the Mahomedans. This paper was first
published by Bernino, and exhibits a curious mixture of mythologies.
One of their opinions was, that the souls of the adult wander about in
the air till the day of judgment; neither hell, nor the heavenly, nor
the terrestrial paradise, being open to them till that day shall have
past.
Davenant, in one of his plays, speculates upon such a state of
wandering as the lot of the soul after death:--
I must to darkness go, hover in clouds,
Or in remote untroubled air, silent
As thoughts, or what is uncreated yet;
Or I must rest in some cold shade, and shall
Perhaps ne'er see that everlasting spring
Of which philosophy so long has dreamt,
And seems rather to wish than understand.
_Love and Honour._
I know no other author who has so often expressed to those who could
understand him, his doubts respecting a future state, and how
burthensome he felt them.
_But I, all naked feeling and raw life_.--II. p. 13.
By the vital souls of those men who have committed {147} sins in the
body, another body, composed of _nerves_, with five sensations, in
order to be susceptible of torment, shall certainly be assumed after
death; and being intimately united with those minute nervous
particles, according to their distribution, they shall feel in that
new body the pangs inflicted in each case by the sentence of
Yama.--_Inst. of Menu_.
Henry More, the Platonist, has two applicable stanzas in his Song of
the Soul:--
Like to a light fast lock'd in lanthorn dark,
Whereby by night our wary steps we guide
In slabby streets, and dirty channels mark,
Some weaker rays through the black top do glide,
And flusher streams, perhaps, from horny side;
But when we've past the peril of the way,
Arrived at home, and laid that case aside,--
The naked light how clearly doth it ray,
And spread its joyful beams as bright as summer's day.
Even so the soul, in this contracted state,
Confined to these strait instruments of sense,
More dull and narrowly doth operate;
At this hole hears,--the sight must ray from thence,--
Here tastes, there smells;--but when she's gone from hence,
{148}
Like naked lamp she is one shining sphere,
And round about has perfect cognoscence,
Whatever in her horizon doth appear.
She is one orb of sense, all eye, all airy ear.
Amid the uncouth allegory, and more uncouth language, of this strange
series of poems, a few passages are to be found of exceeding beauty.
Milton, who was the author's friend, had evidently read them.
_Undying as I am!_--II. p. 12.
The Soul is not a thing of which a man may say, it hath been, it is
about to be, or is to be hereafter; for it is a thing without birth;
it is ancient, constant, and eternal, and is not to be destroyed in
this its mortal frame. How can the man who believeth that this thing
is incorruptible, eternal, inexhaustible, and without birth, think
that he can either kill or cause it to be killed! As a man throweth
away old garments and putteth on new, even so the Soul, having quitted
its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new. The weapon
divideth it not, the fire burneth it not, the water corrupteth it not,
the wind drieth it not away;--for it is indivisible, inconsumable,
incorruptible, and is not to be dried away;--it is eternal, universal,
permanent, immoveable; it is {149} invisible, inconceivable, and
unalterable.--BHAGVAT GEETA.
_Mariataly_.--II. p. 15.
Mariatale, as Sonnerat spells the name, was wife of the penitent
Chamadaguini, and mother of Parassourama, who was, in part, an
incarnation of Veeshno. This goddess, says Sonnerat, commanded the
elements, but could not preserve that empire longer than her heart was
pure. One day, while she was collecting water out of a tank, and,
according to her custom, was making a bowl of earth to carry it to the
house, she saw on the surface of the water, some figures of Grindovers
(Glendoveers) which were flying over her head. Struck with their
beauty, her heart admitted an impure thought, and the earth of the
bowl dissolved. From that time she was obliged to make use of an
ordinary vessel. This discovered to Chamadaguini that his wife had
deviated from purity; and, in the excess of his rage, he ordered his
son to drag her to the place where criminals were executed, and to
behead her. The order was executed; but Parassourama was so much
afflicted for the loss of his mother, that Chamadaguini told him to
take up the body, and fasten the head upon it, and repeat a prayer
(which he taught him for that purpose) in her ear, and then his mother
{150} would come to life again. The son ran eagerly to perform what he
was ordered, but, by a very singular blunder, he joined the head of
his mother to the body of a Parichi, who had been executed for her
crimes; a monstrous union, which gave to this woman the virtues of a
goddess, and the vices of a criminal. The goddess, becoming impure by
such a mixture, was driven from her house, and committed all kinds of
cruelties. The Deverkels, perceiving the destruction she made,
appeased her by giving her power to cure the small-pox, and promising
that she should be implored for that disorder. Mariatale is the great
goddess of the Parias;--to honour her, they have a custom of dancing
with several pots of water on their heads, placed one above the other:
These pots are adorned with the leaves of the Margosies, a tree
consecrated to her.
_It was my hour of folly._--II. p. 13.
Among the qualities required for the proper execution of public
business, mention is made, "That a man must be able to keep in
subjection his lust, his anger, his avarice, his _folly_, and his
pride." The folly there specified is not to be understood in the usual
sense of the word in an European idiom, as a negative quality, or the
mere want of sense, but as a kind of obstinately stupid {151}
lethargy, or perverse absence of mind, in which the will is not
altogether passive: It seems to be a weakness peculiar to Asia, for we
cannot find a term by which to express the precise idea in the
European languages. It operates somewhat like the violent impulse of
fear, under which men will utter falsehoods totally incompatible with
each other, and utterly contrary to their own opinion, knowledge, and
conviction; and, it may be added also, their inclination and
intention.
A very remarkable instance of this temporary frenzy happened lately in
the supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, where a man (not an
idiot) swore, upon a trial, that he was no kind of relation to his
brother, who was then in Court, and who had constantly supported him
from his infancy; and that he lived in a house by himself, for which
he paid the rent from his own pocket, when it was proved that he was
not worth a rupee, and when the person in whose house he had always
resided stood at the bar close to him.
Another conjecture, and that exceedingly acute and ingenious, has been
started upon this _folly_, that it may mean the deception which a man
permits to be imposed on his judgment by his passions, as acts of
rapacity and avarice are often committed by men who ascribe them to
prudence and a just assertion of their own right; malice {152} and
rancour pass for justice, and brutality for spirit. This opinion, when
thoroughly examined, will very nearly tally with the former; for all
the passions, as well as fear, have an equal efficacy to disturb and
distort the mind: But to account for the _folly_ here spoken of as
being the offspring of the passions, instead of drawing a parallel
between it and the impulses of those passions, we must suppose the
impulses to act with infinitely more violence upon an Asiatic mind
than we can ever have seen exemplified in Europe. It is, however,
something like the madness so inimitably delineated in the Hero of
Cervantes, sensible enough upon some occasions, and at the same time
completely wild, and unconscious of itself upon others; and that, too,
originally produced by an effort of the will, though, in the end,
overpowering and superseding its functions.--HALHED.
_The little songsters of the sky_
_Sit silent in the sultry hour._--IV. p. 29.
The tufted lark, fixed to this fruitful land, says Sonnini, speaking
of Egypt, never forsakes it; it seems, however, that the excessive
heat annoys him. You may see these birds, as well as sparrows, in the
middle of the day, with their bills half open, and the muscles of
their breasts agitated, breathing with difficulty, and as if they
panted {153} for respiration. The instinct which induces them to
prefer those means of subsistence which are easily obtained, and in
abundance, although attended with some suffering, resembles the mind
of man, whom a thirst for riches engages to brave calamities and
dangers without number.
_The Watchman._--V. 35.
The watchmen are provided with no offensive weapons excepting a sling;
on the contrary, they continue the whole day standing in one single
position, upon a pillar of clay raised about ten feet, where they
remain bellowing continually, that they may terrify, without hurting,
the birds who feed upon the crop. Every considerable field contains
several such centinels, stationed at different corners, who repeat the
call from one to another so incessantly, that the invaders have hardly
any opportunity of making good a livelihood in the field.
These watchmen are forced, during the rains, to erect, instead of a
clay pillar, a scaffolding of wood as high as the crop, over which
they suspend a roof of straw, to shelter their naked bodies from the
rain.--TENNANT.
_The Golden Palaces_.--V. 35.
Every thing belonging to the sovereign of Ava has the {154} addition
of [Transcriber: the last letter of the word "sho-" is unreadable],
or golden, annexed to it; even his majesty's person is never mentioned
but in conjunction with this precious metal. When a subject means to
affirm that the king has heard any thing, he says, "it has reached the
golden ears;" he who obtained admission to the royal presence has been
at the "golden feet." The perfume of otto of roses, a nobleman observed
one day, "was an odour grateful to the golden nose."--SYMES.
_A cloud ascending in the eastern sky_
_Sails slowly o'er the vale,_
_And darkens round, and closes in the night._--V. p. 37.
At this season of the year, it is not uncommon, towards the evening,
to see a small black cloud rising in the eastern part of the horizon,
and afterwards spreading itself to the north-west. This phenomenon is
always attended with a violent storm of wind, and flashes of the
strongest and most vivid lightning and heavy thunder, which is
followed by rain. These storms sometimes last for half an hour or
more; and, when they disperse, they leave the air greatly freshened,
and the sky of a deep, clear, and transparent blue. When they occur
near the full moon, the whole atmosphere is illuminated by a soft but
brilliant silver light, attended with gentle airs.--HODGES.
{155}
_A white flag, flapping to the winds of night,_
_Marks where the tyger seized his human prey._--V. p. 37.
It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo
staff, of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tyger has
destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers, also, each to throw
a stone, or brick, near the spot, so that, in the course of a little
time, a pile equal to a good waggon-load is collected. This custom, as
well as the fixing a rag on any particular thorn-bush, near the fatal
spot, is in use likewise on various accounts. Many brambles may be
seen in a day's journey, completely covered with this motley
assemblage of remnants. The sight of the flags and piles of stones
imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether devoid of
apprehension: They may be said to be of service in pointing out the
places most frequented by tygers.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 22.
_Pollear._--V. p. 45.
The first and greatest of the sons of Sevee is Pollear: he presides
over marriages: The Indians build no house without having first
carried a Pollear on the ground, which they sprinkle with oil, and
throw flowers on it {156} every day. If they do not invoke it before
they undertake any enterprise, they believe that God will make them
forget what they wanted to undertake, and that their labour will be in
vain. He is represented with an elephant's head, and mounted on a rat;
but in the pagodas they place him on a pedestal, with his legs almost
crossed. A rat is always put before the door of his chapel. This rat
was a giant, called Gudja-mouga-chourin, on whom the gods had bestowed
immortality, as well as great powers, which he abused, and did much
harm to mankind. Pollear, entreated by the sages and penitents to
deliver them, pulled out one of his tusks, and threw it against
Gudja-mouga-chourin; the tooth entered the giant's stomach, and
overthrew him, who immediately changed himself into a rat as large as
a mountain, and came to attack Pollear, who sprung on his back,
telling him, that hereafter he should ever be his carrier.
The Indians, in their adoration of this god, cross their arms, shut
the fist, and in this manner give themselves several blows on the
temples; then, but always with the arms crossed, they take hold of
their ears, and make three inclinations, bending the knee; after
which, with their hands joined, they address their prayers to him, and
strike their forehead. They have a great veneration for this deity,
whose image they place in all temples, streets, {157} highways, and,
in the country, at the foot of some tree, that all the world may have
an opportunity of invoking him before they undertake any concern, and
that travellers may make their adorations and offerings to him before
they pursue their journey.--SONNERAT.
_The Glendoveers_.--VI. p. 48.
This word is altered from the _Grindouvers_ of Sonnerat, who describes
these celestial children of Casyapa as famous for their beauty; they
have wings, he adds, and fly in the air with their wives. I do not
know whether they are the _Gandharvas_ of the English orientalists.
The wings with which they are attired in the poem are borrowed from
the neglected story of Peter Wilkins, a work of great genius. Whoever
the author was, his winged people are the most beautiful creatures of
imagination that ever were devised. I copy his minute description of
the _graundee_, as he calls it:--Stothard has made some delightful
drawings of it in the Novelist's Magazine.
"She first threw up two long branches, or ribs, of the whale-bone, as
I called it before, (and indeed for several of its properties, as
toughness, elasticity, and pliableness, nothing I have ever seen can
so justly be compared to it,) which were jointed behind to the
upper-bone of the spine, and which, when not extended, lie bent over
the shoulders {158} on each side of the neck forwards, from whence, by
nearer and nearer approaches, they just meet at the lower rim of the
belly in a sort of point; but, when extended, they stand their whole
length above the shoulders, not perpendicularly, but spreading
outwards, with a web of the softest and most pliable and spungy
membrane that can be imagined in the interstices between them,
reaching from their root or joint on the back up above the hinder part
of the head, and near half way their own length; but, when closed, the
membrane falls down in the middle upon the neck, like an handkerchief.
There are also two other ribs, rising, as it were, from the same root,
which, when open, run horizontally, but not so long as the others.
These are filled up in the interstice between them and the upper ones
with the same membrane; and on the lower side of this is also a deep
flap of the membrane, so that the arms can be either above or below it
in flight, and are always above it when closed. This last rib, when
shut, flaps under the upper one, and also falls down with it before to
the waist; but it is not joined to the ribs below. Along the whole
spine-bone runs a strong, flat, broad, grisly cartilage, to which are
joined several other of these ribs, all which open horizontally, and
are filled in the interstices with the above membrane, and are jointed
to the ribs of the person just where {159} the plane of the back
begins to turn towards the breast and belly; and, when shut, wrap the
body round to the joints on the contrary side, folding neatly one side
over the other.
"At the lower spine are two more ribs extended horizontally when open,
jointed again to the hips, and long enough to meet the joint on the
contrary side cross the belly: and from the hip-joint, which is on the
outermost edge of the hip-bone, runs a pliable cartilage quite down
the outside of the thigh and leg to the ancle; from which there branch
out divers other ribs, horizontally also when open, but, when closed,
they encompass the whole thigh and leg, rolling inwards cross the back
of the leg and thigh, till they reach and just cover the cartilage.
The interstices of these are filled up with the same membrane. From
the two ribs which join to the lower spine-bone, there hangs down a
sort of short apron, very full of plaits, from hip-joint to hip-joint,
and reaches below the buttocks, half way or more to the hams. This has
also several small limber ribs in it. Just upon the lower spine-joint,
and above the apron, as I call it, there are two other long branches,
which, when close, extend upon the back from the point they join at
below to the shoulders, where each rib has a clasper, which, reaching
over the shoulders, just under the fold of the uppermost branch {160}
or ribs, hold up the two ribs flat to the back, like a V, the
interstices of which are filled up with the aforesaid membrane. This
last piece, in flight, falls down almost to the ancles, where the two
claspers, lapping under each leg within-side, hold it very fast; and
then, also, the short apron is drawn up, by the strength of the ribs
in it, between the thighs forward, and covers as far as the rim of the
belly. The whole arms are covered also from the shoulders to the wrist
with the same delicate membrane, fastened to ribs of proportionable
dimensions, and jointed to a cartilage on the outside in the same
manner as on the legs. It is very surprising to feel the difference of
these ribs when open and when closed; for closed, they are as pliable
as the finest whale-bone, or more so; but, when extended, are as
strong and stiff as a bone. They are tapering from the roots, and are
broader or narrower, as best suits the places they occupy, and the
stress they are put to, up to their points, which are almost as small
as a hair. The membrane between them is the most elastic thing I ever
met with, occupying no more space, when the ribs are closed, than just
from rib to rib, as flat and smooth as possible; but, when extended in
some postures, will dilate itself surprisingly,
"It is the most amazing thing in the world to observe the large
expansion of this graundee when open, and, {161} when closed, (as it
all is in a moment, upon the party's descent,) to see it fit so close
and compact to the body as no tailor can come up to it; and then the
several ribs lie so justly disposed in the several parts, that instead
of being, as one would imagine, a disadvantage to the shape, they make
the body and limbs look extremely elegant; and by the different
adjustment of their lines on the body and limbs, the whole, to my
fancy, somewhat resembles the dress of the old Roman warriors in their
buskins; and, to appearance, seems much more noble than any fictitious
garb I ever saw, or can frame a notion of to myself."
_Mount Himakoot._--VI. p. 49.
_Dushmanta_. Say, Matali, what mountain is that which, like an evening
cloud, pours exhilarating streams, and forms a golden zone between the
western and eastern seas?
_Matali_. That, O king! is the mountain of Gandharvas, named
Hémacúta: The universe contains not a more excellent place for the
successful devotion of the pious. There Casyapa, father of the
immortals, ruler of men, son of Marichi, who sprang from the
self-existent, resides with his consort Aditi, blessed in holy
retirement.--We now enter the sanctuary of him who rules {162} the
world, and the groves which are watered by streams from celestial
sources.
_Dushmanta_. I see with equal amazement both the pious and their awful
retreat. It becomes, indeed, pure spirits to feed on balmy air in a
forest blooming with trees of life; to bathe in rills dyed yellow with
the golden dust of the lotus, and to fortify their virtue in the
mysterious bath; to meditate in caves, the pebbles of which are
unblemished gems; and to restrain their passions, even though nymphs
of exquisite beauty frolick around them. In this grove alone is
attained the summit of true piety, to which other hermits in vain
aspire.--SACONTALA.
_Her death predoom'd_
_To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon_
_Hath turn'd her face away,_
_Unwilling to behold_
_The unhappy end of guilt!_--VI. p. 50.
I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should a devout man
die, he will never return; and of that time in which, dying, he shall
return again to earth.
Those holy men who are acquainted with Brahm, departing this life in
the fiery light of day, in the bright season of the moon, within the
six months of the sun's northern {163} course, go unto him: but those
who depart in the gloomy night of the Moon's dark season, and whilst
the Sun is yet within the southern part of his journey, ascend for a
while into the regions of the Moon, and again return to mortal birth.
These two, Light and Darkness, are esteemed the World's eternal ways:
he who walketh in the former path returneth not; whilst he who walketh
in the latter, cometh back again upon the earth.--KREESHNA, _in the
Bhagvat Geeta_.
_Indra_.--VI. p. 52.
The Indian God of the visible Heavens is called _Indra_, or the King;
and _Divespetir_, Lord of the Sky. He has the character of the Roman
_Genius_, or chief of the Good Spirits. His consort is named _Sachi_;
his celestial city _Amaravati_; his palace _Vaijayanta_; his garden
_Nandana_; his chief elephant _Airevat_; his charioteer _Matali_; and
his weapon _Vajra_, or the thunder-bolt. He is the regent of winds and
showers, and, though the East is peculiarly under his care, yet his
Olympus is Meru, or the North Pole, allegorically represented as a
mountain of gold and gems. He is the Prince of the beneficent
Genii.--Sir W. JONES.
A distinct idea of Indra, the King of Immortals, may be collected from
a passage in the ninth section of the Geta.
{164}
"These having, through virtue, reached the mansion of the king of
_Suras_, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the Gods; they, who
have enjoyed this lofty region of SWERGA, _but_ whose virtue is
exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals."
He is the God of thunder and the five elements, with inferior Genii
under his command; and is conceived to govern the eastern quarter of
the world, but to preside, like the _Genius_ or _Agathodæmon_ of the
ancients, over the celestial bands, which are stationed on the summit
of MERU, or the North Pole, where he solaces the Gods with nectar
and heavenly music.
The _Cinnaras_ are the male dancers in SWERGA, or the Heaven of
Indra, and the Apsaras are his dancing girls, answering to the fairies
of the Persians, and to the damsels called in the Koran _hhúru
lûyùn_, or, _with antelope's eyes_.--Sir W. JONES.
_I have seen Indra tremble at his prayer,_
_And at his dreadful penances turn pale._--VI. p. 52.
Of such penances Mr. Halhed has produced a curious specimen:
"In the wood, Midhoo, which is on the confines of the kingdoms of
Brege, Tarakee selected a pleasant and beautiful spot, adorned with
verdure and blossoms, and {165} there exerted himself in penance and
mortification, externally, with the sincerest piety, but, in reality,
the most malignant intention, and with the determined purpose of
oppressing the Devetas; penances such as credulity itself was
astonished to hear; and they are here recounted:--
1. For a hundred years, he held up his arms and one foot towards
heaven, and fixed his eyes upon the sun the whole time.