of whose works are still extant, flourished in India, and medicines
prepared according to the formulas of the _Ayurveda_--the best standard
medical work--were supposed to have produced wholesome results,
affording no inconsiderable amount of relief to thousands afflicted with
diseases of various kinds, and even of a most malignant character. Under
the Hindoo dynasty, every encouragement was given to the cultivation and
improvement of medical science. Next to the Brahmins, the Vidya class
was respected, though sometimes they are unjustly twitted with what is
called a hybrid origin. It is, however, foreign to our purpose to
determine this point, which seems to be enveloped in obscurity. The
common theory on which the Hindoo system of physic is based, has
reference to the country, the season and the age of the patient, to
which is superadded the course of regimen suited to his physical
organisation. The scientific and philosophical theory is that there are
certain defined elements in the human body on the natural equilibrium of
which mainly depends the health of man. The disturbance of this normal
equilibrium, either by the increase or decrease of the essential
ingredients, deranges the system and requires the use of medicines
generally obtained from several kinds of indigenous drugs, bark, root,
wood, fruits, flowers, metals, &c.
From the existing medical works according to which medicines are
prepared and cures effected, it is evident that the Hindoo system is not
entirely destitute of science, but the light it is capable of diffusing
is greatly dimmed by a combination of unfavourable circumstances brought
about by the overthrow of the Hindoo dynasty, the decay of learning in
every branch of human knowledge, and the consequent growth and progress
of empiricism.
In his eleventh discourse before the Asiatic Society, that distinguished
orientalist, Sir William Jones, has said "Physic appears in these
regions to have been from time immemorial as we see it practised at this
day by the Hindoos and Mussulmans, a mere empirical history of diseases
and medicines." This is presumably a remark applicable to a society but
little removed from a state of barbarism, but the existence of such
scientific works as _Ayurveda_, _Nidan_, _Churruck-Swasru_,
_Sarasungraha_, _Boidya_, _Sarvuswn_, &c., furnishes abundant proof that
the Hindoo system of physic is not altogether founded on empiricism.
In 1838 the Honorable the East India Company appointed a Committee,
consisting of Drs. Jackson, Rankin Bramby, Pearson, W. B. O'Shaughnessy
and Mr. James Prinsep, to examine and report upon the state of the
Honorable Company's Dispensaries, and the possibility of substituting
native drugs for European medicines, the primary object being twofold,
namely cheapness and efficacy. Death, ill health and the casualties of
the service dispersed the Committee long before the members could
accomplish the task imposed on them, and subsequently the whole charge
devolved upon Dr. W. B. O'Shaughnessy, who, after the unwearied labour
of four years, assisted by some of the best Native physicians, produced
a work entitled "The Bengal Dispensary" published under the authority of
the Government of India, which still remains a valuable monument of his
indomitable zeal and untiring devotion to medical science.
Great attention has also been given to the scientific analysis of the
various indigenous drugs by Roxburgh, Wallick, Ainslie, White, Arson,
Royle, Pereira, Lindlay, Richard, &c., &c. The result of their
analytical examination, though not so exhaustive as the very great
importance of the subject required, was nevertheless very favourable to
the opinion that the native system was based on fixed scientific
principles, and that many of the drugs possessed great curative
properties. Unfortunately the improved principles and important
discoveries of modern Europe have not been sufficiently brought to bear
on the simultaneous development of the native system. They have,
however, proved greatly beneficial in teaching the native _kobirajes_ to
adopt, to a certain extent, the European method and regime.
It is a remarkable fact that even now, when this science may be said to
be in a retrogressive stage both for want of adequate culture as well as
of sufficient encouragement, there are a few Hindoo _kobirajes_[99] in
this City, and in other parts of the country, whose treatment in chronic
cases of fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, phthisis, pulmonary consumption,
asthma, &c., proves, in a great measure, successful. Hence in almost
every respectable Hindoo family there is a competent _kobiraj_, who is
always consulted in cases of a serious nature. It is generally
considered that on the subject of pulsation greater weight is attached
to the opinion of a Hindoo _kobiraj_ than to that of an English doctor.
By the pulse, in the different parts of our physical organisation, the
state of the body may be ascertained and suitable remedies applied. In
cases of severe indisposition among the Hindoos, the friends of a
patient have not only to contend against the struggle between life and
death, but to closely watch the last expiring flicker of vitality that
he may be removed in time to the banks of the sacred stream for insuring
his entrance into heaven.
It has been urged by some native physicians that the Sanskrit work,
_Ayurveda_, above-mentioned, treats of anatomy and of the doctrine of
the circulation of the blood. If this be true, great credit is doubtless
due to its author for having made in a comparatively dark age such
considerable advances in an important branch of medical science, without
which medicine and surgery are of little avail. Chemistry, which enables
us to distinguish the real properties of different substances, was
certainly not unknown to the Hindoo physicians, because their medicines
indicate a scientific selection of several ingredients mixed together to
produce a certain result. But it can by no means be asserted that the
people ever attained to a thorough knowledge, either in the one or the
other, which can bear comparison with the perfection of the modern
European system. In almost every department of human knowledge steady
progress is the grand characteristic of the age, but in this country
unhappily a spirit of scientific investigation has very nearly been
extinguished simply for want of adequate cultivation and support.
If empirics abound in enlightened Christendom, where chemical analysis,
scientific researches in materia medica and pharmacy, and anatomical
demonstration and surgical operations almost daily bring to light new
discoveries and inventions, what can be expected in a country where
medical science has long since been in a state of absolute stagnation.
Ignorant and unprincipled quacks, quite unacquainted with the rules of
the Hindoo medical shastras, abound all over the country, which has for
some years past been severely suffering from malarious fever of a
virulent type, carrying death and devastation wherever it prevails.[100]
They literally sport with the health of their patients, and the natural
consequence is, hundreds and thousands of human beings are mercilessly
sacrificed to their ignorance and cupidity. Not one in a hundred of
those who call themselves _kobirajes_ is acquainted with the principles
of physic as laid down in the standard medical works of the Hindoos.
Some of them have a few nostrums of their own, the composition of which
is unknown to every one but themselves.
A Bengalee _kobiraj_ carries a miniature dispensary about him. He takes
with him a small packet, containing different kinds of pills or powders,
wrapped up in a piece of paper, in small doses which are commonly used
twice a day with ginger, honey, betel, roots of doov-grass, &c. He
seldom uses phials; liquids, when required, are made in a patient's own
house. His medicines are chiefly made of drugs, but he has neither a
proper classification of them, nor a complete system of botany. He uses,
however, certain preparations of oil, which are sometimes beneficially
administered in chronic cases. These preparations are rather expensive,
selling from two to ten Rupees per pound. The popularity of some of
these _kobirajes_ stands very high in Native public estimation. Almost
every wealthy family in the interior as well as in the Town has its own
physician. The fee of a quack in the villages is one Rupee on the first
day of his visit, and he continues to attend twice daily until the
patient recovers. When completely recovered, the physician gets one or
two Rupees more, a suit of clothes and some provisions.
The introduction of English medicines into the interior, though not
scientifically administered in every case, has very considerably
affected the trade of the native quacks. Their occupation, it may be
said, is nearly gone, because the doctors of the Bengalee class, more
systematically trained under the auspices of the Government Vernacular
Colleges, have, in a manner, superseded them. In strong fevers, instead
of compelling the patient to fast for twenty-one days or longer, and
restricting his regimen to parched rice, the Bengalee class doctor first
reduces him by evacuations,[101] and then gives him either fever
mixture, or cinchona febrifuge, or quinine mixture as he thinks best.
In place of warm applications--the quondam regimen of a kobiraj in
strong fevers--he gives ice or cold water, thus relieving the patient
from the effects of a merciless abstinence and excessive thirst. On the
periodical return of the unhealthy season in Bengal, _i. e._, in the
months of September, October, November and December, when the atmosphere
is surcharged with a large quantity of vapour, these doctors generally
reap a harvest of gain from their practice. It should be mentioned,
however, that their imperfect knowledge and want of sufficient
experience, are too often attended with the most disastrous results.
FOOTNOTES:
[99] The most popular and successful among them are, Gunga Prosad Sen,
Chunder Coomar Roy, Gopee Bullub Roy, Prosono Chunder Sen, Brojendro
Coomar Sen, Kally Dass Sen, &c. They profess to practise on the
principles of _Ayurveda_, the best standard work on Hindoo Medical
Science, and their mode of treatment is much appreciated by respectable
Hindoos.
[100] The general climate of Bengal has for some years past become very
unhealthy, and as fever is the most prevalent epidemic in the Lower
Provinces, Dr. D. N. Gupto's Mixture has become a patent medicine,
proving efficacious in the majority of cases, so that the doctor is said
to have made a very large fortune by the sale of it within a few years.
As far as success is concerned, Dr. D. N. Gupto has almost become the
minimized Holloway of Bengal. Several other Native assistant surgeons
have from time to time endeavoured to offer their anti-malarious mixture
to the inhabitants of Lower Bengal, but they have signally failed in
winning public confidence and favor. Attempts at counterfeit trade marks
have also been tried, but on conviction before a Court of Justice the
guilty have been punished.
[101] The late indisposition of the Marquis of Ripon gave rise to many
alarming rumours as to the probable turn and termination of the
disease--malarious fever--with which he was unhappily attacked during
his travels to and from Bombay, and which, according to telegraphic
messages, had considerably weakened his constitution, and diminished the
wonted activity and vigor of his mind. The antiquated notion that
violent paroxysm of fever in a European in this country causes the
abnormal depletion of the system by constant evacuations has still a
strong hold on the popular mind. Hence a pessimist view was generally
taken of the speedy and complete recovery of so good and beneficent a
Governor-General, whose rule, though only just begun, has been happily
inaugurated by several circumstances of a peculiarly hopeful character,
tending, in no small degree, to make the people happy and contented by
anticipation. The termination of the disastrous and ruinous Afghan war,
the few public utterances of his Lordship bearing on the future policy
of the Government of India for the general well-being of the subjects,
and the sure prospect of an abundant harvest, and the consequent
appreciable reduction in the price of rice--the main staff of life in
this country--by nearly fifty per cent., have all combined to evoke a
sincere desire and fervent hope among the people for the long
continuance of a rule so nobly begun and beneficently administered. May
undisturbed peace and undiminished plenty and prosperity be the
distinguishing features of such a liberal, generous and pure
administration, and may it end fitly what it has begun so auspiciously.
In speaking thus favorably of the Marquis of Ripon's Government, I
merely echo the sentiments of my countrymen from one end of the vast
British Indian empire to the other.
XVII.
HINDOO FEMALES.
The condition of a Hindoo female, partially described in the preceding
pages, is usually deplorable. The changes and vicissitudes to which her
chequered life is subject are manifold. From the day she is ushered into
the world to her dissolution, she is surrounded by adventitious
circumstances, which, from the peculiar constitution of the society in
which her life is cast, contain a larger admixture of misery than of
happiness. Weak and frail as she assuredly is made by nature, the
conventional forms and social usages to which she is religiously
enjoined to adhere alike tend to deprive her of temporal and spiritual
happiness. Born under unfavorable circumstances chiefly by reason of her
sex, her life is rendered doubly miserable by the galling chains of
ignorance and superstition. "Accursed the day when a woman child was
born to me," was the emphatic exclamation of a Rajpoot when a female
birth was announced. "The same motive," says Colonel Tod, "which studded
Europe with convents, in which youth and beauty were immured until
liberated by death, first prompted the Rajpoot to infanticide: and,
however revolting the policy, it is perhaps kindness compared to
incarceration. There can be no doubt that monastic seclusion, practised
by the Frisians in France, the Langobardi in Italy and the Visigoths in
Spain, was brought from Central Asia, the cradle of the Goths.[102] It
is in fact a modification of the same feeling, which characterizes the
Rajpoot and the ancient German warrior,--the dread of dishonor to the
fair: the former raises the poniard to the breast of his wife rather
than witness her captivity, and he gives opiate to the infant, whom, if
he cannot portion and marry to her equal, he dare not see degraded."
Descending from the lofty ideal of a chivalrous Rajpoot character to the
more familiar portraiture of tame Hindoo life in Bengal, we find the
same sad destiny is the portion of a female in both cases. "When a
female is born no anxious inquiries await the mother--no greetings
welcome the new comer, who appears an intruder on the scene, which often
closes in the hour of its birth. But the very silence with which a
female birth is accompanied forcibly expresses sorrow." In almost every
stage of life, from infancy to old age, her existence presents a uniform
picture of gloominess, uncertainty, despondency, and neglect. Freedom of
thought and independence of action--the natural birthrights of a
rational being--are denied her not by her Creator but by a selfish,
narrow-minded and crafty priesthood. She is treated and disposed of as
if she were entirely destitute of the feelings and ideas of a sentient
being. She dare not emerge from the unhealthy seclusion of the closely
confined _andarmahal_, or female department, where suspicions and
jealousies, envy and malignity are not unfrequently brewing in the
boiling caldron of domestic discord. Born within the precincts of an
ill-ventilated zenana, and cooped up in the cage of an uncongenial cell,
she is destined to breathe her last in that unwholesome retreat.
A European lady can have no idea of the enormous amount of misery and
privation to which the life of a Hindoo female is subjected. In her
case, the bitters far counterbalance the sweets of life. The natural
helplessness of her condition, the abject wretchedness to which she is
inevitably doomed, the utter prostration of her intellect, the
ascendency of a dominant priesthood exacting unquestioning submission
to its selfish doctrines, the unmerited neglect of an unsympathetic
world, and the appalling hardships and austerities which she is
condemned to endure in the event of the death of her lord, literally
beggar description. All the graces and accomplishments with which she is
blessed by nature, and which have a tendency to adorn and ennoble
humanity, are in her case unreasonably denounced as unfeminine
endowments and privileges, to assert which is a sacrilegious act.
If she is ever happy, she is happy in spite of the cruel ordinances of
her lawgiver, and the still more cruel usages and institutions of her
country. Manu, the greatest fountain of authority, has expressly
inculcated the doctrine that no man other than a Brahmin should receive
the blessings of knowledge, and much more severely was the rule enforced
in the case of females, who were held to be naturally unfit for mental
culture! It was worse than a blasphemy to attempt to educate a female;
she was born in ignorance, she must die in ignorance. All the horrors of
a premature and certain widowhood were pictured forth to her eyes, were
she to make an effort to enlighten her mind.[103] How shamefully
contracted were the views of the Hindoo lawgiver in respect of the
progressive development of the human intellect! His prohibitory
injunction was and is now more honored in the breach than in observance.
From the moment a female child is brought into the world, a new source
of anxiety arises in the minds of its parents, which becomes more and
more intense as it advances in years. The thought of educating the child
is not what troubles their heads, it is a thought which is at the
furthest remove from their imagination; but the idea how to dispose of
it in the world continually preys on their minds. The child, perfectly
unconscious of the fate that awaits it, begins to handle the playthings
set before it, and as nature in almost every case works intuitively, it
soon learns to make a miniature kitchen with earthen pots and pans
resembling that in the midst of which it has to spend the greater
portion of its existence. It is a noteworthy fact that a Hindoo lady
even when placed in affluent circumstances does not consider it beneath
her dignity to occasionally take a part in the _cuisine_, or at least in
making preparations for the same, though the family has professional
cooks in its employ, the principal object being to feed her husband and
children with extra delicacies prepared with her own hand. Instead of
idle and unprofitable talk and scandalous gossipings, reflecting on the
characters of others, such an occupation is deserving of
commendation.[104]
When six or seven years of age, the mother endeavours to initiate the
girl in the first course of simple _Bratas_ or religious vows, which are
destined, as has been already shewn, to exercise a vast influence on her
mind. The germs of superstition being thus sown so early take a deep
root. Meanwhile the anxiety of the mother for her marriage increases
with her growth. Numerous proposals are received and rejected, till at
length a selection is made according to the rules stated in a former
sketch. In this manner, persons are married with as much indifference as
cattle are yoked together, they are disposed of according to the
judgment of their parents, without the parties, who are to live together
till death, having the slightest opportunity of seeing each other, much
less of studying each other's disposition.
If a female child possess, as is very rarely the case, finely chiselled
features, embodying the ideal of a Hindoo beauty, the breast of the
mother is freed for a time, but for a time only, from perturbation or
internal agitation. It may be she is congratulated on the birth of so
beautiful a child, and it is but natural that she should indulge in
pleasant delusions about the future of her offspring. She looks forward
to a match at once desirable and happy. Fed with such hopes, she
cherishes many a fond idea of the wealth of joys in store for her
daughter. But how often are our brightest hopes blasted by the ruthless
hand of fortune.
If, on the contrary, the girl be deficient in beauty, the bosom of the
mother is perpetually disturbed by gloomy forebodings, which no worldly
advantage can effectually remove, no reasoning can sufficiently
suppress. The reassuring admonition of congenial minds may sustain her
spirits for a time, but whenever alone or disengaged from the toils of
domestic duties, her mind almost involuntarily reverts to the future
destiny of the girl. As day by day she grows older, and her features
begin to assume a more distinctive form, the deformity, which was but
faintly perceived at first, becomes more striking. The mother herself,
perhaps, being a living illustration of how fruitless were the attempts
of her parents to secure for her a desirable match, naturally feels a
strong misgiving as to the good fortune of her child.
While the hearts of the parents are thus filled with disquieting
thoughts, the girl is perfectly unconscious of the fate that awaits
her. She laughs and sports about, regardless of what is written on her
forehead by the _Bidhata pooroosh_. The performance of the religious vow
in her infancy, having for its object the securing a good husband, might
incidentally remind her of marriage, but the thought passes off in a
moment like the streaks of a morning cloud. Hence it has been justly
said that the happiest days in the life of a Hindoo female are those
preceding her marriage. If in Bengal, under the paternal care of a
Christian Government, she is not permitted to become a victim to the
poppy at her dawn, or the flames at her riper years, like her Rajpoot
sister in times of yore, she is ever and anon subject to the appalling
hardships of a _bidhaba_ life, or widowhood. Though too young to fully
realise the thousand and one evils of such a wretched existence, yet the
living examples she daily and hourly sees around her make, to use a
native phrase, "her hands and feet enter into her belly."
To those who have studied the existing state of Hindoo society, it is a
matter no less of wonder than of gratulation that the system of early
marriage, the arbitrary manner in which it is consummated, and the utter
absence of the voice and consent of the parties thus affianced, deriding
the very idea of the slightest opportunity being given to study each
other's disposition and habitude, should produce such a large amount of
conjugal felicity, which is the fundamental object of this solemn
compact. In every nation removed from barbarism, marriage is a
recognised ordinance, alike sanctioned by the law of God and the law of
man. It is a solemn covenant between a man and a woman to love each
other through all the vicissitudes of life, till the union is dissolved
by the death of either. We may go further and say that even then the tie
of relationship does not become totally extinct, inasmuch as the party
surviving has to provide for the nurture and education of children,
should there be any. Such being the nature of a matrimonial engagement,
it is next to impossible that a boy of fourteen wedded to a girl of nine
should be capable of forming an adequate idea of the grave
responsibility. The evil must work its own remedy with the general
spread of education and the growth of a sound system of domestic and
social economy, because the existing one is unhealthy and unnatural. It
is useless to dilate on the evil consequences of early marriage, they
are clearly apparent in the every-day life of a Hindoo.