In every _chatoospati_ or school, the Brahmin Pundit and his pupils worship this G.o.ddess with religious strictness. The Pundit setting up an image, invites all his patrons, neighbouring friends and acquaintances on this occasion. Every one who attends must make a present of one or a half Rupee to the G.o.ddess, and returns home with the hollow benediction of the Brahmin. To so miserable a strait have the learned Pundits been reduced of late years, that they anxiously look forward to the anniversary of this festival as a small harvest of gain to them, as the authoritative ministers of the G.o.ddess. They make from fifty to one hundred Rupees a year by the celebration of this Poojah, which keeps them for six months; should any of their friends fail to make the usual present to the G.o.ddess, they are sure to come and demand it as a right.[82]
Females are not allowed to take a part in the worship of this G.o.ddess, simply because the great lawgiver of the country has denied them this privilege. They, however, now-a-days read and write in spite of the traditional prohibition, but are religiously forbidden to say their prayer before the G.o.ddess, though she is herself an embodiment of their s.e.x. It is quite obvious that feelings of lamentable debas.e.m.e.nt arise in their hearts at the annual recurrence of this festival, strongly reminding them of the unhealthy, unnatural ordinance of their great lawgiver.
The day following the Poojah, the women are not permitted to eat any _fresh_ prepared article of food, but must be satisfied with stale, cold things, such as boiled rice and boiled pease with a few vegetables, totally abstaining from fish, which they cannot do without on any other day. Taking place on the sixth day of the increase of the moon, this part of the festival is called _Situl Shasthi_ as enjoining the use of cold food.
As a mark of homage to the G.o.ddess, the Hindoos do not read or write on that day. Hence the day is observed as a holiday in public and mercantile offices where the clerks are mostly Hindoos. Should any necessity arise they write in red ink, as all the inkstands in the household are washed out and placed before the G.o.ddess for annual consecration. They are, however, not prevented from attending to secular business on this occasion. Unlike the sanguinary character of the Poojahs of Doorga and Kali, no b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices are offered to this gentle G.o.ddess, but as regards rude merriment, the one in question does not form an exception to the others. Revelry and unbecoming mirth are the grand characteristics of this as indeed of almost every other Hindoo festival. It is sickening to reflect how indecency and immorality are thus unblushingly countenanced under the sacred name of religion.
Loose women celebrate this festival, and keep up dancing and singing all night in a b.e.s.t.i.a.l state of intoxication to the utter disgust of all sober-minded men. The Moharajah of Burdwan used to expend large sums of money on this occasion, engaging the best dancing girls of the metropolis and illuminating and ornamenting his palace in a splendid style, besides giving entertainment to his English and Native friends.
Vast mult.i.tudes of people from Calcutta still resort to his palace and admire the profuse festoons of flowers and the yellow appearance of everything, indicative of the advent of spring,--a season which, according to popular notion, invites the mind to indulge in licentious mirth. It is needless to enumerate farther the many obscenities practised in songs and actions on this occasion.
FOOTNOTES:
[82] A gift once made to a Brahmin must be continued from year to year till the donor dies; in some cases it is tenable from one generation to another.
XI.
THE FESTIVAL OF CAKES.
On the annual commemoration of this popular festival in Bengal, which is a.n.a.logous to the English "Harvest home," the people in general, and the agricultural cla.s.ses in particular, manifest a gleeful appearance, indicative of national demonstrations of joy and mirth. It takes place in the Bengalee month of _Pous_ or January, following immediately in the wake of the English Christmas and New year"s day. With the exception of the upper ten thousand, almost all men, women and children alike partic.i.p.ate in the festivities of the season, and for three succeeding days are occupied in rural pastimes and gastronomical enjoyment. The popular cry on this occasion, is--"_Awoynee_, _Bownee_, _teen deen_, _pittaey_, _bhat_, _khawnee_," "the _Pous_ or _Makar Sankranti_ is come, let three days be pa.s.sed in eating cakes and rice," accompanied by a supplementary invocation to the G.o.ddess of Prosperity (Lukshmee) that she may afford her votaries ample stores so that they may never know want. As the outward manifestation of this internal wish, they tie all their chests, boxes, beddings, the earthen cooking pots in the kitchen, as well as those in the store-house containing their food grains, and in fact every movable article in the house, with shreds of straw that they may always remain intact. The origin of this festival is involved in obscurity, but tradition says that it sprung from the general desire of the people engaged in agricultural pursuits to celebrate the last day of _Pous_, and two succeeding days, in eating what they most relish, cakes of all sorts, to their hearts" content, after having harvested and gathered their corn and other food grains, which form the main staff of their life. Whatever may have been the origin of this festival, it is evident that it does not owe its existence, like most other Hindoo festivals, to priestcraft. The idea is good and the tendency excellent.
After harvesting and gathering the fruits of their labour, on which depend not only their individual subsistence throughout the year, but the general prosperity of the country by the development of its resources, the husbandmen are well ent.i.tled to lay aside, for a short while, the ploughshare, and taking three days" rest, spend them in rural amus.e.m.e.nts and festivities amid their domestic circle. All this tends, in no small degree, to awaken and revive dormant feelings of love and friendliness by mutual exchange of invitations as well as of good fellowship. Their incessant toil in the field during the seven previous months, their intense anxiety on the score of weather, carefully noting, though not with the scientific precision of the meteorological reporter, deficient and plenteous rainfall, and apprehending the destructive October gale, when the ears of corn are almost fully developed, their constant watchfulness for the prevention of theft and the destruction of the crops by cattle, their unceasing weeding out of troublesome and useless plants and _ca.s.say_ gra.s.s, sometimes wading in marshy swamp or mire knee deep, and their incessant anxiety for the due payment of rent to the zemindar, or perhaps of interest to the relentless money lender, are sources of uneasiness that do not allow them a moment"s peace of mind. Should they, by way of relaxation, cease to work for three days in the year, they are not to be blamed for laziness or supineness. The question of a good harvest is of such immense importance to an agricultural country like India, that when the G.o.d, Ram Chunder, the model king, visited his subjects in Oude, the first thing he asked them was about the state of the crops, and when the enquiry was favorably answered, his mind was set at rest, and he cheerfully unfolded to them the scheme of his future Government.[83] Physically and practically considered, temporary cessation from labor is indispensable to recruit the energy of the exhausted frame of body, and promote the normal vigor of mind. So in whatever light this national jubilee is regarded, socially, morally or scientifically, it is productive of beneficial results, ultimately contributing to the augmentation of the material prosperity of the land.
Some of my countrymen of a fastidious taste look upon this festival as a puerile and foolish entertainment, because it possesses no dignified feature to commend it to their attention, but they should consider that it is free from the idolatrous abominations and rank obscenity by which most of the Hindoo festivals are characterised, independently of its having a tendency to promote the innocent mirth and general hilarity of the ma.s.ses, whose contentment is the best test of a good government and of a generous landed aristocracy.
So popular is this festival amongst the people that the Mussulmans have a common saying to the effect, that their _Eed_, _Bakrid_ and _Shub-i-Barat_--three of their greatest national festivals--are no match for the Hindoo _Pous Sakrad_.
Our children and women in the city, whose minds are so largely tinctured with an instinctive regard for all festivities, share in the general excitement. On this occasion, exchanges of presents of sweetmeats, cloths, jaggery, ghee, flour, oranges, cereals, cocoanuts, b.a.l.l.s of concentrated milk, vegetables, spices, sugar, almonds, raisins, etc, are made between relatives in order that they may be enabled to solemnise the cake festival with the greatest _eclat_. In respectable families, the women cheerfully take the trouble of making these preparations, instead of trusting them to their female cooks, because male cooks are no adepts in the art. So nicely are these cakes made and in such variety, that the late Mr. c.o.c.kerell, a highly respected merchant of this City, used every year to get an a.s.sortment from his Baboo and invite his friends to partake of them; and notwithstanding the proverbial differences of taste, there are few who would not relish them.
The boys in the many patshalas or primary schools around Calcutta, annually keep up this festival in a splendid style. The more advanced form themselves into a band of songsters, and, attended by bands of musicians with all the usual accompaniments of flags, staves, etc., proceed in procession from their respective schools to the bank of the river Bhagiruttee, singing rhythmically in a chorus all the way in praise of the holy stream, and of her powers of salvation in the present _Kali Yuga_, or iron age. When they reach their destination they pour forth their songs most vociferously. They afterwards perform the usual ablutions and return home in the same manner as they set out from the Patshala, regarding the performance as an act of great merit.
FOOTNOTES:
[83] Indeed, it has become a byword among the Natives in general that the compound word, "_Ram-Rajya_," or the empire of Ram is synonymous with a happy dynasty. There existed peace, union and harmony among the people in the infancy of society. Almost every family had its a.s.signed plot of land which they cultivated, and the fruits of which they enjoyed without the incubus of a rack-renting system, because the virgin soil always afforded an abundant harvest. The wants of the people were few and those were easily supplied. In fact there was a complete ident.i.ty of interests between the rulers and the ruled. The result was universal contentment and happiness. But unhappily the present advanced stage of social organisation has considerably impaired the relation.
XII.
The Holi Festival.
The annual return of this festival in honor of the G.o.d Krishna, excites the religious feelings and superst.i.tious frenzy of the Hindoos not only in Bengal but also in Orissa, Bombay, and in the Upper Provinces of India. From time immemorial, it has continued to exercise a very great influence over the minds of the people at large, so much so that what the Holi festival is in the Upper Provinces, the Doorga Poojah is in the Lower Provinces of Bengal, being by far the most popular and demonstrative in all their leading features. Though originally and essentially a Hindoo festival of a religious character, dedicated to the worship of a Hindoo G.o.d, it has subsequently a.s.sumed a jubilant phase, drawing the followers of a different creed to its ranks; hence not a few Mussulmans in Upper India observe it in a secular sense, quite distinct from its religious aspect or requirements.
In Bengal it is called _Dole Jattra_, or the rocking of the image of Krishna on its throne. It occurs on the day of the full moon in the Bengallee month of Falgoon or March, at the vernal equinox,--a season of the year when all the appet.i.tes, pa.s.sions and desires of the people are supposed to be more or less inflamed, and they naturally seek outlets of gratification. In the Upper Provinces it is known by the name of _Holi_, or festival of scattering _fhag_ or red powder among friends and others.
On the previous night the people both here and in the Upper Provinces burn amidst music the effigy of an uncouth straw image of a giant named Maydhasoor, who caused great disturbance among the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses in their hours of meditation and prayer. To put a stop to this unholy molestation the G.o.d Narayan or Krishna destroyed the giant by means of his matchless valor and skill, and thus restored peace in heaven as well as on earth. To commemorate this glorious achievement, the image of the above giant is annually burnt on the night previous to the _Holi_ festival.
The religious part of the ceremony, irrespective of its idolatrous 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 appet.i.tes, 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 mult.i.tudinous 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 const.i.tuent elements of the festival in Bengal. Offerings of rice, fruits and sweetmeats are made to the G.o.d, 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses generally worshipped by the people of Bengal. Krishna, in whose honor this festival is celebrated, has many forms, one of which generally const.i.tutes 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.dless 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 p.r.o.nounce almost involuntarily the _Dole_ and _Doorgutsub_, but the latter has long since completely eclipsed the former. Morally, socially and intellectually the enlightened Bengallees are a.s.suredly 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 const.i.tute 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 ragam.u.f.fins 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 a.s.sail her with a volley of scurrilous and insulting epithets much too gross to be tolerated by a rational being having the smallest modic.u.m 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 amus.e.m.e.nt, but a feverish excitement, originating in l.u.s.t 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 a.s.suredly be struck with the enormous receipts of the shopkeeper during the festive days on this occasion. Baccha.n.a.lianism 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 encompa.s.sed, and their reeling posture and b.e.s.t.i.a.l intoxication, _all_ conspire to make them "mock at sin."[84] Nor is this to be wondered at. The lives and examples of the Hindoo G.o.ds 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 pa.s.sion; Brahma as burning with l.u.s.t 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 G.o.ds to the imitation of their followers.
It is but just to observe that the more respectable cla.s.ses are restrained by a sense of honor from partic.i.p.ating with the populace in the vicious pleasures of undisciplined pa.s.sions. But their implied approval of such sensual gratifications tends, in no small degree, to fan the flame of superst.i.tious frenzy. If they do not expose themselves in the highway, they betray their concupiscence within the confines of their own dwellings. They subst.i.tute opium and bhang (hemp) for spirituous liquors, and among the females of the house, some aunt or other is the b.u.t.t of their rude, unseemly satire. Their l.u.s.ts 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 pa.s.s 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 ragam.u.f.fins 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 acc.u.mulated and superst.i.tion 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 inst.i.tuted to secure to the hierarchy all the superior advantages of a privileged cla.s.s, 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 ma.s.s 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 inst.i.tution, 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, ill.u.s.trating 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 a.s.sociate 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, Kalida.s.s, 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 fort.i.tude when they apprehend any danger to the purity of caste. In the year 1777, a Mussulman n.o.bleman 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 circ.u.mstances 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 h.o.a.rd, 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 n.o.ble 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 t.i.the 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.