element, is performed in accordance with the original rules of the
Hindoo ritual, which are free from all kinds of abominations. But the
great body of the people, lacking the vital principle of a pure and true
faith and following the impulse of unrestrained appetites, have
gradually sunk into the depths of corruption,--the outcome of impure
imaginations and of a vitiated taste. In Bengal, the observance of this
festival is not characterised by anything that is violently opposed to
the social amenities of life. Notwithstanding the many-featured phases
and multitudinous requirements of the Hindoo creed, the peculiarities of
this festival are mainly confined to the worship of the household image,
and the entertainment of the Brahmins and friends. Daubing the bodies of
the guests with red powder in an either dry or liquid state, and singing
songs descriptive of the sports of Krishna with the milk-maids in the
groves of Brindabun, form the constituent elements of the festival in
Bengal. Offerings of rice, fruits and sweetmeats are made to the god,
and its body is also smeared with red powder by the officiating priest,
so as to render it one with that of its followers. At the close of the
ceremony, the rite of purification is performed, which restores the
image--either a piece of stone or metal--to its normal purity.
It is a noteworthy fact that in this festival, no _new_ image made of
clay and straw is either set up or thrown into the sacred stream, as is
invariably the case with the other Hindoo gods and goddesses generally
worshipped by the people of Bengal. Krishna, in whose honor this
festival is celebrated, has many forms, one of which generally
constitutes the household deity that is worshipped every morning and
evening by the hereditary priest with all the solemnity of a religious
service. A Hindoo who keeps an image of this god is esteemed more in a
religious point of view than one who is without it. In the popular
estimation he escapes many censures to which a godless Hindoo is often
exposed. Nor is this at all singular. An orthodox Hindoo who offers up
his daily prayer to his tutelar deity is at least more consistent in his
principles, which, as Confucius very justly says, means Heaven, than one
who is tossed about by a wavering faith in the indistinguishable whirl
of life.
The festival of Dole Jattra or Holi in Bengal, commencing on the day of
the full moon, varies, however, in its observance as to the day on which
it is to be held. Some celebrate it on the first, some on the second,
and some again on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth day of the dark phase
of the moon. Generally Vaishnaws, or the followers of Krishna, observe
it, though in some cases, the Saktos,--the followers of Doorga and
Kalli--also celebrate it. No bloody sacrifices are offered on the
occasion. Apart from the religious merit attributed to the ceremonial,
it is comparatively a tame and undemonstrative affair in the Lower
Provinces of Bengal when compared with the sensational excitement with
which it is celebrated in the Upper Provinces. In Orissa too, it is kept
up with great eclat before the shrine of Juggurnauth and its environs.
Thousands and tens of thousands of pilgrims from a great distance
congregate there on this occasion and offer their oblations to the
"stumped" lord of the world. When the inhabitants of Bengal talk of
their most popular festivals, they pronounce almost involuntarily the
_Dole_ and _Doorgutsub_, but the latter has long since completely
eclipsed the former. Morally, socially and intellectually the
enlightened Bengallees are assuredly the Athenians of Hindoostan. Their
growing intelligence and refined taste,--the outcome of English
education--have imbued them with a healthier ideal of moral excellence
than any other section of the Indian population throughout the length
and breadth of the land (the Parsis of Bombay excepted). It is owing to
the influence of this superior moral sense that they do not abandon
themselves to the general corruption of manners obtaining in Upper India
during the _Holi_ festival.
"Fools make a mock at sin" is a scriptural proverb which is especially
applicable to the inhabitants of the Upper Provinces on the annual
return of this festival. Unlike their brethren in Bengal they pay
greater attention to the secular than to the religious part of the
ceremony. A few days before the _Holi_, as if to enkindle the flame of a
national demonstration of a sensational character, they return to the
low, obscene old ballads which constitute a notable feature of the
ceremonial. Week after week, day after day, and hour after hour, they
pour them out almost as spontaneously as a bird, because they have a
perverse propensity for the indulgence of impure thoughts, and rude,
profane mirth, which is an outrage on common decency and a scandal to a
rational being. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the Police and the
stringency of the Penal Code, these ragamuffins stroll along the public
streets in bands, dance antics and sing obscene songs with impunity,
simply because the major portion of the Native constables come from the
same lower strata of society. Of course before a European they dare not
commit the same nuisance. Should a luckless female, even old and infirm,
chance to come in their way, they unblushingly assail her with a volley
of scurrilous and insulting epithets much too gross to be tolerated by a
rational being having the smallest modicum of decorum about him. To give
a specimen of the songs, vulgar as they unquestionably are, would be an
act of unpardonable profanation. Even in the Burra Bazar of Calcutta,
where the Up-country Hindoos mostly reside, excesses and enormities are
committed, even in the full blaze of day, which alike belie reason and
conscience, and ignore the divine part of humanity. Mirth, music and
melody do not form the programme of their amusement, but a feverish
excitement, originating in lust and leading to criminal excesses, is the
characteristic of the scene. If a sober-minded man were permitted to
examine the Cash Book of a country liquor shop, he would most assuredly
be struck with the enormous receipts of the shopkeeper during the
festive days on this occasion. Bacchanalianism in all its most
detestable forms reigns rampant in almost every home and purlieu
throughout the Upper Provinces. Every brothel, every toddykhannah, every
grog shop, is crowded with customers from early morning to dewy evening
and later on. An almost incessant volume of polluted and polluting
outcries rises to the skies from these dens of sin, smirching and
vulgarising the brilliant ideals of a holy festival. The endless
chanting of obscene songs, the discordant notes of the inebriated
songsters almost tearing their throats in excessive vociferations, the
harsh din of music, their frightful gesticulations and contortions of
the body, their frantic dance, their dithyrambic fanaticism in which
every sense of decorum is lost, their horrid looks rendered tenfold more
horrid by reason of their smearing their bodies with red powder, the
pestiferous atmosphere by which they are encompassed, and their reeling
posture and bestial intoxication, _all_ conspire to make them "mock at
sin."[84] Nor is this to be wondered at. The lives and examples of the
Hindoo gods have, in a great measure, moulded the character of their
followers: "Shiva is represented as declaring to Luckhee that he would
part with the merit of his works for the gratification of a criminal
passion; Brahma as burning with lust towards his own daughter; Krishna
as living with the wife of another, murdering a washerman and stealing
his clothes, and sending his friend Yoodhisthira to the regions of
torment by causing him to utter a falsehood; Indra and Chundra are seen
as the paramours of the wives of their spiritual guides." It is much to
be lamented that the authors of the Hindoo mythology have unscrupulously
held up the revels of their gods to the imitation of their followers.
It is but just to observe that the more respectable classes are
restrained by a sense of honor from participating with the populace in
the vicious pleasures of undisciplined passions. But their implied
approval of such sensual gratifications tends, in no small degree, to
fan the flame of superstitious frenzy. If they do not expose themselves
in the highway, they betray their concupiscence within the confines of
their own dwellings. They substitute opium and bhang (hemp) for
spirituous liquors, and among the females of the house, some aunt or
other is the butt of their rude, unseemly satire. Their lusts and want
of inward discipline, stimulated by a false religion as well as by the
demoralized rules of an abnormal conventionalism, have deadened, as it
were, their finer sensibilities, and generations must pass away before
they are enabled rightly to appreciate their social relations and their
moral and religious duties.
FOOTNOTES:
[84] When the late Mr. Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor of the
North-Western Provinces, visited Benares, the far famed city of holy
shrines and holy bulls, during this festival, he exclaimed in pious
indignation, "what disgusting scenes are enacted and frightful crimes
perpetrated in the name of religion by rational beings capable of purer
and sublimer enjoyments. Surely the shameless ragamuffins are the fit
subjects of a bedlam."
XIII.
CASTE.
The distinction of caste is woven into the very texture of Hindoo
society. In whatever light it is considered, religiously, morally, or
socially, it must be admitted that this abnormal system is calculated to
perpetuate the ignorance and degradation of the race among which it
prevails. It is useless to enquire when and by whom it was founded. The
Hindoo Shastras do not agree as to this point, but it is obvious to
conclude that it must have originated in a dark age when a proud and
selfish priesthood, in the exercise of its sacerdotal functions, imposed
on the people this galling yoke of religious and social servitude. Even
the rulers of the land were not exempt from its baneful influence. They
were as much subject to the prescribed rules of their order as the
common people. Calculating on the implicit and unquestioning obedience
of men to their authoritative injunctions, a scheming hierarchy
established a universal system, the demoralizing effects of which are
perhaps without a parallel in the annals of human society. The capacity
and culture of man's intellect was shamefully under-estimated when it
was expected that such an artificial order, so preposterously unsuited
to the interests of humanity and to the advancement of civilization,
should for ever continue to influence the life and destiny of unborn
generations.
"The distinctions of rank in Europe" says Mr. Ward, "are founded upon
civic merit or learning, and answer very important ends in the social
union; but this system commences with an act of the most consummate
injustice that was ever perpetrated; binds in chains of adamant
nine-tenths of the people, debars them for ever from all access to a
higher state, whatever their merits may be; puts a lock upon the whole
intellect of three of the four orders, and branding their very birth
with infamy, and rivetting their chains for ever, says to millions and
millions of mankind,--'you proceeded from the feet of Brahma, you were
created for servitude.'"
History furnishes no parallel to such an audacious declaration, made in
utter defiance of the fundamental principles of humanity. The onward
march of intellect can never be checked, even when fenced in by the
strongest of artificial barriers. Still will that "grey spirit" rise and
chase away the errors which age has accumulated and superstition
cherished.
"That grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought."
The distinction of caste, it is obvious, was originally instituted to
secure to the hierarchy all the superior advantages of a privileged
class, and to condemn all other orders to follow menial occupations such
as the trades of the country could furnish. They kept the key of
knowledge in their own hands, and thus exercised a domineering influence
over the mass of the people, imagining that their exclusive privileges
should have endless duration. This power in their hands was "either a
treasury chest or a rod of iron." The mind recoils from contemplating
what would have been the state of the country, the extent of her
hopelessness and helplessness, if the light of European knowledge had
not dawned and penetrated the Hindoo mind, and thereby introduced a
healthier state of things. Eighty years back this system was at the
zenith of its splendour; men clung to it with all the tenacity of a
natural institution, and proscribed those who ventured to break through
its fetters. It was a terrible thing then to depart from the established
order of social union; the least whisper of a deviation and the
slightest violation of its rules were visited with social persecution
of the worst type. I cannot do better than give a few instances,
illustrating the nature of the punishments to which a Hindoo was
subjected in that period of terror, when caste-mania raged most
furiously.
"After the establishment of the English power in Bengal, the caste of a
Brahmin of Calcutta was destroyed by a European who forced into his
mouth flesh, spirits, &c. After remaining three years an outcast, great
efforts were made, at an expense of eighty thousand rupees, to restore
him to the pale of his caste, but in vain, as many Brahmins of the same
order refused to associate with him as one of their own. After this, an
expense of two lacks of Rupees more was incurred, when he was
re-admitted to the privileges of his caste. About the year 1802, a
person in Calcutta expended in feasting and presents to Brahmins fifty
thousand Rupees to be re-admitted into the ring of his caste from which
he had been excluded for eating with a Brahmin of the _Peeralee_ caste.
Not long after this, two _Peeralee_ Brahmins of Calcutta made an effort
to wipe out the opprobrium of _Peeralism_, but were disappointed, though
they had expended a very large sum of money.
"Ghunusyamu, a Brahmin, about thirty-five years ago, went to England and
was excommunicated. Gocool, another Brahmin, about the same time went to
Madras, and was renounced by his relatives; but after incurring some
expense in feasting Brahmins, he was received back. In the year 1808, a
blacksmith of Serampore returned from Madras and was disowned by his
fellow caste men, but after expending two thousand Rupees amongst the
Brahmins, he was restored to his family and friends. In the same year
the mother of Kali Prosaud Ghose, a rich _Kayusto_ of Benares, who had
lost caste by intercourse with Mussulmans and was called a _Peeralee_,
died. Kali Prosaud was much concerned on account of the rites required
to be performed in honor of the manes of his deceased parent, but no
Brahmin would officiate at the ceremony; after much entreaty and
promise of rewards, he prevailed at last upon eleven Brahmins to perform
the necessary ceremonies at night. A person who had a dispute with these
Brahmins informed against them, and they were immediately abandoned by
their friends. After waiting several days in vain, hoping that his
friends would relent, one of these Brahmins, tying himself to a jar of
water, drowned himself in the Ganges. Some years ago, Ram, a Brahmin of
Tribany, having, by mistake, married his son to a _Peeralee_ girl, and
being abandoned by his friends, died of a broken heart. In the year
1803, Shibu Ghose, a _Kayusto_, married a _Peeralee_ girl, and was not
restored to his caste till after seven years, and after he had expended
seven thousand Rupees for the expiation of his offence. About the same
period, a Brahmin woman of Velupookuria, having been defloured, and in
consequence outcasted, put an end to her existence by voluntary
starvation. In the village of Buj Buj, some years ago, a young man who
had lost his caste through the criminal intrigues of his mother, a
widow, in a state of frenzy poisoned himself, and his two surviving
brothers abandoned the country. Goorooprasaud, a Brahmin of Churna, in
Burdwan, not many years ago, through fear of losing caste, in
consequence of the infidelity of his wife, left his home and died of
grief at Benares. About the year 1800, a Brahmin lady of Santipore
murdered her illegitimate child, to prevent discovery and loss of caste.
In the year 1807, a Brahmin of Tribany murdered his wife by strangling
her to avert loss of caste through her criminal intrigues. About the
year 1790, Kalidass, a Brahmin, who had been inveigled into marrying a
washerman's daughter, was obliged to flee the country to Benares, where
being discovered, he sold all his property and fled, and his wife became
a maniac. In the time of Rajah Krishna Chunder Roy, a Brahmin of
Santipore was found to have a criminal intrigue with the daughter of a
shoemaker: the Rajah forbade the barber of the village to shave the
family or the washerman to wash for them: in this distress they applied
to the Rajah and afterwards to the Nawab for restoration, but in vain.
After having been despoiled of their resources by the false promises of
pretended friends, the Rajah relented and removed the ban, but the
family have not obtained to this day their pristine position.[85]
"Numbers of outcasts abandon their homes and wander about till death.
Many other instances might be given in which the fear of losing caste
had led to the perpetration of the most shocking murders, which in this
country are easily concealed, and thousands of children are murdered in
the womb, to prevent discovery and the consequent loss of caste,
particularly in the houses of the Koolin Brahmins."
The inveterate tenacity with which the rites and privileges of caste are
clung to is a prominent feature of the Hindoo character, showing, like
many other facts, that as a nation--the Rajpoots excepted--they fear the
sword-blade, but can meet death with calmness and fortitude when they
apprehend any danger to the purity of caste. In the year 1777, a
Mussulman nobleman forcibly seized the daughters of three Brahmins. They
complained to the judge of the district, but obtaining no redress, they
committed suicide by poison under the nose of the unrighteous judge.
"When, about a century since, a body of sepoys were being brought from
Madras to Calcutta, the provisions ran short, till at last the only food
consisted of salted beef and pork. Though a few submitted to the
necessity of circumstances and defiled themselves, many preferred a
languishing death by famine to a life polluted by tasting forbidden
food. The Mussulman Governors often took advantage of this prejudice,
when their exchequers were empty. The Hindoo would submit to the most
excruciating tortures rather than disclose his hoard, but the moment his
religious purity was threatened, he complied with any demand, if the sum
asked for was within his means; if not, the man being linked to his
caste fellows, the latter raised the required sum by subscription."
In a moral point of view, the effects of this distinction are equally
mischievous. Far from promoting a spirit of benevolence and good
fellowship between man and man, it has a natural tendency to engender
hostile feelings, which cannot fail to militate against the best
interests of humanity. Should a Hindoo of inferior caste happen to touch
one of superior caste, while the latter is cooking or eating, he throws
away everything as defiled. Even in cases of extreme sickness, the one
will seldom condescend to drink water out of the hands of the other.
There are also instances on record in which two Hindoos of the same
caste refuse to eat together, simply because they belong to two several
_dalls_ or parties; in the villages especially this partisan feeling is
sometimes carried to so great a length that no party will scruple to
blast the fair fame of their antagonists by scandalous accusations and
uncalled-for slanders. Thousands and thousands of Rupees are spent in
securing the favors or alliance of the _Koolins_--the great arbiters of
caste,--and he who by the power of his purse can enlist on his side a
larger number of these pampered _Koolins_, generally takes away the
palm. The hard struggle for the attainment of this hollow, ephemeral
distinction, instead of stimulating any noble desire or laudable
ambition, almost invariably terminates in fostering an antagonistic
spirit, which is decidedly opposed to the laws of good fellowship and
the general brotherhood of mankind. Genuine charity can never exist in
such an unexpansive state of society, and mutual love is torn in
shreds. If the original founder of the system had calmly and soberly
considered, apart from selfish motives, a tithe of the evils which the
caste system was calculated to inflict on society, he would, I make no
doubt, have paused before imposing on Hindoo society the fetters of
caste servitude.
It has been urged by the advocates of the system that it is designed to
confer a great boon on society by confining each trade or occupation to
one particular class, and thereby securing perfection in that line; but
the argument is as fallacious as the result is disappointing. Experience
and observation sufficiently prove that the Hindoo artisans use almost
the same tools and implements which their predecessors used centuries
ago. They work with the same loom and spindle, the same plough, the same
spade, the same scythe, the same threshing machine, and the same
everything that were in vogue at the time of _Vicramadyatta_ in the
sixteenth century, and if any improvement has been effected, it is owing
to the superior skill of the foreigners. It is, however, creditable to
the native artisans to say that they evince a great aptitude for
learning and imitating what they see. Native carpenters, shoemakers,
tailors, engravers, lithographers, printers, gold and silver-smiths,
&c., now-a-days turn out articles which in point of workmanship are not
very much inferior to those imported from Europe. Of course they are
materially indebted to Europeans for this improvement.