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although looking weak and feeble enough, seated on a small stone
holding in his left hand three blades of kusah-grass. The old woman,
who was in the act of tying up the lock of sacred hair on his head in
some mystical form, shouted to me to keep off. I stood at a distance
and looked on. He was evidently undergoing the purification
ceremony. Bhawanee, who smiled sweetly at me, was holding before
her husband a bowl of water, which he first sipped, then flung a little
of it toward the horizon, and washed his hands, ears, breast, eyes,
nose, shoulders, and feet, repeating over each member a prayer. His
wife then brought him a stick of lighted wood from the household
fire; he breathed over it, repeating the mystic word "Aum," "O divine
Spirit, resplendent Fire, purify me from all uncleanliness." He then
placed the sacred grass on his right ear (Gunga, the sacred river, is
supposed to have its source in the right ear of Brahm, the sacrificial
fire (or life) in Brahm's nostrils, so that when the pundit touched
these members of his person with fire and water all the impurity
entailed by my visit to his house on the previous day passed away).
Finally he took some sacred mud out of a pot which was handed to
him by his wife, and made the holy mark, the circle and the cross of
his caste and race, on his brow.
Meanwhile, Doorah, the sister, had been purifying the hut. First it
was sprinkled all over with holy water, smeared with cow-ordure,
and lastly fumigated with certain gums—a very sensible proceeding
in a hot, moist climate like that of Bombay.
And at length the poor pundit, restored to his normal condition of
holiness, was once more assisted into his bed by his tender and
loving wife. I smiled at them from a distance, and went my way
regretting more keenly than ever we were so separated from one
another that the simplest act of kind interest on my part should
entail on the whole household a series of purificatory rites to last for
seven days.
As long as there exist in social life certain laws, manners, and
customs by which the civilized man is distinguished from the savage,
the gentleman from the cowherd, the high-born dame from her
lowly maid, so long will caste, which is nothing more or less than
social grades, complicate the lives and destinies not only of the races
of the East, but of the West. The three great problems which yet
remain to be solved by the British in India are to do away with the
degradation of man by caste, the bondage of woman by custom,
and the deterioration of childhood through the influence of the one
and the other.
Caste on Indian soil was not in its beginning an entirely arbitrary
institution; it was at first the natural expression of a high-bred and
highly-sensitive race toward an inferior and savage population
among which they had settled. It took centuries before caste was
established on Indian soil, and nearly a thousand years before it
became incorporated in the sacred books of the Brahmans in its
present form. But the moment that divine authority was claimed for
it, that moment it became to the God-fearing races of the East a law
so subtle, so intricate, and yet so absolute, that the most daring as
well as the most abject could not hope to escape its iron rule.
From the remotest times there has been a ceaseless march of tribes
and races into the vast peninsula called Hindostan, from which there
is no easy outlet, east or west, north or south; all points are equally
difficult and impassable—mountain-barriers on the north, with
ranges of mountains and circling seas on every other side.
Nevertheless, pouring across the Indus and straggling down the
narrow defiles and passes of the Himalayas, came wave after wave
of immigration, pushing the earlier populations farther and farther
into the hills and forest-boundaries of the occupied land. Each wave,
borne down by the later arrival, disappeared or retreated deeper and
deeper into the heart of the country till the whole of India was over-
flooded by the great Aryan invasion.
In no part of the world are there found so many remains of distinct
tribes and races of men as in Hindostan proper. Everywhere in the
forests, in the most inaccessible mountain-regions of the peninsula,
and all along the sea-coast, are tribes and races who seem to have
been hemmed in where we now find them. The vast plains of the
regions of the Indus and the Ganges afforded no place of refuge to
the retreating barbarians. Hence, with the exception of some few
who were absorbed into the population of Lower Bengal, the Aryans
drove all before them, even the Tamuls, a partly-civilized people,
who, having swept the earlier inhabitants southward, were in their
turn forced south.
From the latitude of the Vindhyan chain down to Cape Comorin, and
in the forests of Ceylon, the aboriginal populations of India are still
to be met with, living in detached communities, distinct in physical
appearance, manners, customs, and religions, not only from the
Hindoos, Tamuls, Moslems, and Parsees, but from one another.
Nothing annoyed our pundit so much as when he heard me call my
bhistee, or water-man, "a Hindoo:" "Hindoo nay, maim sahib, whoo
jungly-wallah hai" ("Not Hindoo-man, but a savage of the forest").
And, to tell the truth, one could not fail to notice between the
Hindoo pundit and the coolie-bhistee as marked a difference as one
sees between a high-bred American gentleman of the Anglo-Saxon
race and the newly-emancipated American negro.
In crossing the Indus one comes upon the relics of ancient races in
the dark-complexioned, diminutive, but powerfully athletic natives of
Guzerat, many of whom are now the coolies or porters of Bombay.
Again, scattered over the Vindhyan and Satpurah mountains and the
banks of the Nerbudda and Tapti are other tribes of a very peculiar
race called Bheels or Bhils, probably from the Sanskrit word "bhil,"
which signifies "separate" or "outcasts." The legends of these tribes,
one and all, trace their origin to the union of the god Mahadèo with
a beautiful woman met by him in a forest. From this union sprang a
sort of giant distinguished by his ugliness and vice, who, after
having perpetrated a series of horrible crimes, killed the sacred
Brahmanic bull of the god, and was banished to the wilderness of
Jodhpoor. The history of the Rajpoot princes of Jodhpoor and
Odhpoor corroborates this account of the Bhil emigration. The Bhats,
[30] or minstrels, of the Bhils still reside in Rajpootana, and make
yearly visits to the countries of the various Bhil tribes to celebrate
festal seasons with music and song. The celebrated Nádir Singh, a
Bhilahah (that is, one sprung from the marriage of a Rajpoot with a
Bhil woman), was one of the most formidable freebooters of his time
until the establishment of an English settlement at Mhau,[31] when
he was compelled to discharge his foreign adherents and renounce
plundering.[32]
The Bhils are short in stature, thick-set, almost black, with wiry hair
and beard, but extraordinarily active and capable of enduring great
fatigue, delighting in flesh of all kinds and intoxicating drinks, with
which no Brahman will ever pollute his sacred lips. The chiefs of the
Bhils are called Bhomiyahs, and are generally of the Bhilalah or
mixed race. They exercise the most absolute power over their
subjects; each chief is styled a "dhani," or lord, and the most
atrocious crimes are often committed at his bidding. In order to limit
this absolute power, however, there are certain religious officers
called "tarwis," or heads of tribes, whose counsel must be attended
to by the chiefs. The worship of the Bhils is paid to Mahadèo, the
high god, and Dèvi his consort, the goddess of small-pox. A great
number of infernal deities are also propitiated by yearly offerings
and pilgrimages to their respective shrines.
While the Bhil men are brutal, cruel, and drunken, it is a remarkable
fact that the Bhil women are chaste, gentle, and almost always very
good-looking.[33]
Driven southward by the conquering Rajpoots, numbers of the Bhils
adopted the savage life of freebooters and robbers, which they still
retain, and the more wealthy settled in Guzerat and Candeish, where
most richly-ornamented temples and rock-shrines are to be found to-
day, and such as remained with the Rajpoots became hardy
cultivators of the soil or the bravest of watchmen when employed as
guards.
In character they are sensitive on points of honor among
themselves, but desperate foes, revenging themselves, sometimes
years after, for any grievance perpetrated against one of their tribe. I
remember an incident related to me by my mother which is
characteristic of the Bhil freebooters and robbers. My stepfather was
appointed to survey the public road newly opened from Cambay to
the confines of the great and then almost unknown province of
Guzerat. She had decided to accompany him on his long and
hazardous journey. Having acquired a fair knowledge of the Guzerati
language, she proved, as he had hoped, an invaluable aid in settling
disputes about payments of money for work done, and in directing
and instructing such of the Bhils, Khands, and other tribes as were
employed on the roads. Furnished with a sepoy guard and a large
amount of government money to defray the expenses of the road
repairs, they travelled for some time unmolested through the
strange country. On one occasion, however, they had pitched their
tents in the village of Balmere, and had retired for the night. My
stepfather, fatigued with a hard day's ride over the roads, slept
soundly. The guards patrolled the little encampment, which
consisted of three tents, two for the servants and sepoys on duty,
and the other, a double-poled tent, consisting of two rooms with a
double wall of canvas around it, for the family. The tumbril which
conveyed the government money from place to place stood in the
corner of the room, near the cot on which my mother slept. My
stepfather occupied the adjoining room. A small lamp stood burning
on the tumbril, and the key had been carelessly left in the treasure-
box.
About midnight my mother was suddenly aroused by a slight
shuffling noise. She raised her head, and, looking toward the spot
whence the sound proceeded, was horrified at seeing the shadows
of the nude figures of several men passing between the outer and
inner walls of the tent. Presently a gang of Bhil robbers opened the
tent-door and stood before her, confronting her, armed with bows
and poisoned arrows. There were six men in all, with nothing on
their persons but langoutis[34] of straw round their loins, and their
bodies highly greased, so as to slip away from the grasp of any
person who attempted to seize and hold them.
Divining that their object was to rob the tumbril, the brave lady,
without uttering a single cry, sprang to her feet, standing erect and
seemingly fearless, and gazed defiantly at them. For a moment or
two the foremost robbers seemed to hesitate. Then the one of the
gang nearest her addressed her in Guzerati, and said, "Woman, we
do not desire to hurt you; we only mean to possess ourselves of
what we need, the money in that cart there;" saying which, he
attempted to advance toward the tumbril. To scream for help would
imperil her own and her husband's life, for these freebooters would
at once use their poisoned arrows; but to permit them quietly to rob
the government treasury would be almost as fatal, entailing on them
endless delay, trouble, and perhaps even unjust suspicion at head-
quarters. The intrepid wife suddenly remembered that the Bhils had
a superstitious reverence for the person of woman, and before they
had time to reach the tumbril she flung herself on her face and
hands across their path, and said solemnly in Guzerati, "Only by
stepping over a woman's body can you obtain possession of what is
entrusted to the care of her husband." There she lay, not daring to
utter another word, trembling from head to foot, and anticipating
momentary death from their cruel arrows.
Minute after minute passed away, but she still did not dare to open
her eyes or even turn her head toward them. After lying there for
nearly half an hour, which seemed almost an eternity of agonizing
suspense, and unable to endure it any longer, she ventured timidly
to glance in the direction of the robbers, and, lo! their places were
empty; the tent-door was closed. The Bhil freebooters, hearing this
strange being address them in their own language, hurling at them
one of their most formidable threats, had vanished as softly as they
had entered the tent, vanquished by the presence of mind shown by
a delicate woman.
On another occasion the military chaplain at Desa, a British station
in Guzerat, was on his way to seek change of air at Mount Aboo. At
dusk one evening he found himself surrounded by a gang of Bhil
robbers; his travelling-wagon was stopped, his driver took to his
heels and fled; his servants too had gone on ahead. Not knowing
what to do, he addressed them in Guzerati, and said, "I am not a
rich man; I am a poor servant of God, a Christian priest in search of
health." Immediately the chief of the gang gave orders that he
should not be hurt. They stripped him, however, and divided among
themselves whatever they could find. Two of the gang, presenting
their short daggers to the poor clergyman, made him march before
them in his shirt for some distance. Every time that he turned to
remonstrate with the robbers they pricked him slightly with their
pointed daggers, till at length he resolved to take no further notice
of them. On and on he went. A great darkness had overtaken him;
almost fainting from fatigue, he sank to the ground unable to take
another step, when, to his surprise, he found that the robbers had
departed, leaving him to pursue his way through a wild jungle. He
spent an anxious night in the forest, retraced his steps to the village,
and by complaining to the headman was at once furnished with a
guard and every facility to pursue his journey, the law here being
that if robbery or murder is perpetrated in the vicinity of a village,
the headman is obliged to make ample restitution; and he has the
power to levy a fine on the community to indemnify himself for all
the expenses that such acts entail on him as patèl, or governor, of
the village. The reverend clergyman always maintained that his
escape from death on this occasion was owing to the fact of his
being able to address the robbers in their own tongue.
South of the Nerbudda, and in the very heart of the Vindhyan chain,
are the Gonds,[35] so called from their habitual nudity—a race of
the lowest type, jet-black skin, stunted, thick-lipped, and with small,
deep-set eyes. This race is often called by the Hindoos Angorees—i.
e. cannibals. They live in miserable huts, surrounded by swine,
poultry, buffaloes, and dogs, without any industries, literature, or
priesthood, and with few ceremonials of any kind whatever—
worshippers of serpents, demons, or anything, in fact, that inspires
them with dread, to whom they sometimes sacrifice their children or
captives taken in war. Such religious rites as prevail among them are
conducted by the aged and honored members of their tribe, both
male and female.
Verging on the Gondwana[36] are the hilly provinces of Orissa,
inhabited by the Khands, no doubt a tribe slightly in advance in
physical type and civilization of their neighbors, the Gonds, the
Thugs, and Sourahs. They regard the earth-spirit as in rebellion
against the Supreme Deity. To the earth-spirit they direct their
prayers, and seek to propitiate her by human sacrifices. Their victims
are called "Meriah"[37] by the Oriyahs, and Kudatee by the Khands.
These victims must not belong to their tribes nor to the Brahman
caste. They are purchased, or more generally kidnapped, from the
surrounding districts by persons called Panwhas, who are attached
to their villages for these and other peculiar offices. They may be
either male or female, and as consecrated persons are treated with
great kindness. To the "Meriah" youth or maiden a portion of land is
assigned, with farming stock. He or she is also permitted to marry
and bear children, who in turn become victims. If a "Meriah" youth
form an attachment to the daughter or even wife of a Khand, the
relatives indulge him in his wishes, regarding it as an especial favor.
These sacrifices take place annually, when the sun is in his highest
point in the heavens. The victim is selected by casting of lots. The
ceremony lasts three days, and is always attended by a large
concourse of people of both sexes. The first day of the approaching
sacrifice is spent in feasting, merriment, and prayers, which go hand
in hand with wild revelry of all kinds. On the second morning the
victim who is to propitiate the earth-goddess is washed, attired in a
flowing white robe, and conducted, with music, beating of drums,
blowing of horns and rude reed instruments, to the sacred groves
preserved for these rites. Here the assembled community implore
the earth-goddess Tari (called Pennu by the Shanars and Davee by
the Rajpoots, who have in great measure been tainted by their
contact with these hill-tribes) to accept the sacrifice about to be
offered, and to bless their land with increase of corn, wine, cattle,
and so forth. After the offering up of prayer the victim, whether male
or female, stands up before the assembly, draws forth his glittering
knife, and passes his hand three times over its sharp edge. He then
deliberately steps up to the rude altar of Tari, lays down his knife
upon it, and, bowing his head, worships the insatiable earth-
goddess; then snatching up the knife, he cries, "Drink of my blood
and be appeased, O Tari," etc., etc. He waves it aloft three times and
plunges it into his side. Leaning toward the earth, which he desires
to propitiate in behalf of his fellow-men, he slowly draws out the
knife, pours his life-blood out upon her parched and thirsty soil, and
expires at the foot of the dreaded altar raised to her name. Honored
as no other creature in the land, reared for death, the "Meriah," or
doomed one, exults in the performance of this self-sacrifice with a
consciousness of being a savior of the country, and has never been
known to evade or escape the doom in store for him.
After this horrible sacrifice the human victim is cut into small pieces,
and each head of a Khand or Gond family obtains a shred or
infinitesimal portion of the body, which he buries in his field to
please the spirit of the earth. This is believed to aid not a little in
rendering the soil rich and fertile.
The Thugs, or "stranglers," are not unlike the Gonds in physical
appearance and natural characteristics. They live by robbery and
murder, and are banded together by certain vows which they
religiously follow. One sect of Thugs are called Phansigars, or
"throttlers." It is their practice to strangle wayfarers, whence their
name, and appropriate such spoils as may fall to their lot in these
onslaughts. Efforts have been made, through the British
government, to put a stop to both these religious atrocities of the
Meriah and the Thugs, and in some parts of the country with great
success.
The Jadejas are a branch of the great Samma tribe once so powerful
in Sindh; they assumed this title from a celebrated chief named
Jada. Their arrival in Guzerat dates from 800 A. D. The remarkable
characteristic of this tribe is their systematic murder of all their
female children. Another branch of the Jadejas settled in Kach, or
Cutch. These differ materially from their brethren in Guzerat. They
are half Musulmans and half Hindoos, believe in the Kuran, worship
Mohammedan saints, swear by Allah, eat, drink, and smoke with the
followers of the Prophet. But, on the other hand, they do not
undergo circumcision, and adore all kinds of images of wood and
stone. In appearance they are fine, tall men, light-complexioned,
handsome-featured, and have singularly long whiskers, which are
often allowed to come down to the breast. They owe their good
looks to their mothers, who are either bought or kidnapped from
other tribes; no females of their own are ever reared.
The Kalhis (another curious tribe) are evidently a northern race; they
are tall, well-formed, with regular features, aquiline nose, blue or
gray eyes, and soft dark-brown hair. The sun is their chief deity. On
the Mandevan Hills, near Thau, is a temple to the sun, said to have
been erected by the Kalhis on their first arrival in Guzerat. In this
temple there is a huge image of the Sun-god with a halo round its
head. The symbol of the sun with the words, "Sri suryagni shakh"
("the witness of the holy sun") is affixed to all official documents and
deeds of property.
A number of tribes may be found in the district of Bilaspoor, which
forms the upper half of the basin of the river Maha-Nadi—the Gonds,
already mentioned, the Kanwars, Bhumias, Bingwars, and Dhanwars
—all differing among themselves in physical characteristics, customs,
manners, and certain religious observances. Among the Hindoos
here are two tribes which deserve particular mention—the Chamars,
or Chamar-wallahs, and the Pankhas. The former take their name
from their dealing in "chamar," or "leather." They are the shoemaker
and leather-trading castes of the Hindoo communities, and have
always been held in great contempt by the high-class Brahmans and
Hindoos. About sixty years ago a religious movement was
inaugurated by one of the Chamars named Ghasi-Dhas. He
represented himself as a messenger from God sent to teach men the
unity of God and the equality of men. He was the means of
liberating his tribe from the trammels of caste; he prohibited the
worship of idols or images, and enjoined that prayers should be
offered up to the Supreme Being, whose spirit should be ever
present to their minds without any visible sign or representation.
The followers of the new faith call themselves "Satmanes" or the
"worshippers of Satyan, the truth." Ghasi-Dhas was their first high
priest; he died 1850. His son succeeded him, but was assassinated
by some Hindoo fanatic, but his grandson is the present high priest
of the Chamars.
The "Pankhas," or weavers, are also deists of a very high order; they
are the followers of a religious reformer named Kahbir, who
flourished about the fifteenth century. There is very little difference
between the Kahbir-Pankhas and the Satmanes-Chamars in their
worship and religion. The province of Sindh derives its name from
the Sanskrit word "Sindhu," "ocean or flood," which name the
Aryans of the Vèdic period who were settled about the sixth century
B. C. in the Panjaub and along the Indus gave to that river. In the
third "Ashtaka" and the sixth "Adhyáya" there appears to be a
distinct mention of the Indus River in the twelfth verse, which runs
as follows: "Thou hast spread abroad upon the earth by thy power
the swollen Sindhu when arrested (on its course)."[38] The Indus is
still called Sindhu throughout its course from Kalabágh to Atâk; it is
sometimes locally termed Atâk. From Kalabágh to Bâhkhar is the
upper Indus, and from Bâhkhar to the sea the lower Indus. It begins
to rise in March and falls in September, but, unlike the Ganges and
the Mississippi, it does not submerge its delta or inundate the valley
through which it passes to any great extent. Its floods are irregular
and partial, pouring sometimes for years on the right bank, and then
on the left, so that even at the height of the freshets the Persian
wheel may be seen at work watering the fields on either bank.
The principal tribes of Sindh are the Beluchis and the Jâts, or
Sindhis, once Hindoos, but converted to Islam under the Khalifs[39]
of the house Ommayyah. The Sindhis are taller, stronger, more
robust, and muscular than the natives of India; they belong chiefly
to the Hanifah sect of Mohammedans. Their language is a strange
mixture of Arabic and Sanskrit words, the noun being borrowed from
the Sanskrit, and the verb from the Persian or Arabic grammar. The
Beluchis are a mountain-tribe; they are superior to the Jâts or
Sindhs, fairer, more powerfully formed, very hardy, not deficient in
courage under brave leaders, and extremely temperate. The Beluchi
women are remarkably faithful and devoted as wives, and those of
the Mari tribe often follow their husbands to battle.
One of the peculiarities of the Hindoos of Sindh is that they have no
outcast tribes among them, like the Parwaris, or Pariahs, Pasis, and
Khandalas of Hindostan; and many of the Musulmans of Sindh are
followers of Nanak[40] and Govind his disciple.
Farther north, in the Afghan districts, numerous warlike tribes are
found. Afghans, properly so called, distinguish themselves from the
aboriginal populations. The chief clans or tribes of the Afghans are
the Duranis, south-west of the Afghan plateau; the Ghilzais, the
strongest and most warlike of the Afghans, occupying the highlands
north of Kandhar (this tribe is noted for its deep-rooted hostility to
foreigners, and especially to the British); the Yusufzais, north of
Peshwar; and the Khakars, who are chiefly the highlanders of this
region. Of the non-Afghan tribes very little is known; those that have
come under the notice of the British officers are no doubt mostly a
mixed race, descendants of the Aryans and Turanians. The purest of
these are the Parsivans, the Kizibashes, the Hindikis, and the Jâts, all
more or less closely allied to the Persians and Hindoos in language,
manners, and customs. The Eimâk, the Hazaras, Tajiks, and the
Khohistans are semi-nomadic tribes—Mohammedans; some are of
the Shiah[41] and others of the Sunni sect.
As a race, the Afghans are a very handsome, athletic people, with
fair complexion, aquiline nose, and flowing black, brown, and
sometimes even red, hair, which the men wear long, falling in soft
curls over the shoulders. The women are beautiful, and often of fair
rosy complexion, dark eyes and hair, which they wear under a skull-
cap, with two long braids falling to the waist behind, finished off with
silk tassels. Since the Mohammedan conquest the custom of
excluding women from the society of the male members of the
family has been introduced into Afghanistan, and is now rigidly
enforced.
In the very apex of India, the hilly districts of Southern Madras, are
numerous early races and tribes, distinct and peculiar to themselves,
of whom the Tudas and Cholas are most worthy of notice. The
former is as superior in type to the latter as the Caucasian is to the
Mongolian. The Tudas are chiefly found in the Nilgherry Hills; they
are tall, athletic, and well-formed. Their women, though dark, are
singularly pleasing when young. The comparatively treeless
character of these hills indicates that in former times large spaces
were cleared and cultivated, though at present the Tudas seem to
prefer roaming about the hills and leading a nomadic life.
In the Dhendigal and neighboring Wynadd Hills appear other tribes,
apparently the oldest of all the primitive races of India, and of the
lowest type of humanity. They are called Shanars, and are clothed, if
at all, with the bark of trees, using bows and arrows, and subsisting
chiefly on roots, wild honey, and reptiles. Short in stature and agile
as monkeys, living without habitations among trees, they penetrate
the jungle with marvellous speed, and seem only a step removed
from the orang-outang of Borneo and Sumatra. There is no doubt
that these wild people, if not indigenous to the soil, occupied at one
time a large portion of this country, and are the remains of that
"monkey race" whom the first Aryan invaders met with, and who,
with their leader Hanuman, figure so largely in the old poems as the
allies of Rama in his conquest of Ceylon.
Among these numerous but isolated relics of aboriginal populations
there is another and superior race, divided into several distinct
nationalities, such as the Tamuls, Telingus, and Canarese, who
people the greater part of Southern India. Nevertheless, between
them and those still later Aryans the difference, both mental and
physical, is plainly seen.
There are still current in Southern India a number of languages and
dialects, which, though largely intermixed with Sanskrit terms in
consequence of Aryan conquest and civilization, belong to distinct
families of languages. The most comprehensive of these are the
Tamul, Telingu, and Carnatic, showing the existence of separate
nations at the time of the Aryan conquest. The Tamul language has
no inconsiderable literature of its own.
The Mahrattas, whose chief seat is in the Deccan, belong to still
another race, although there is now among them a larger infusion of
Aryan blood than is to be found farther south in India.
In the van of Aryan immigration settling along the plains of the
Ganges from Hurdwar down to the eastern frontier of Oude and the
Raj-Mahal Hills were the Brahmans, founders of the great cities
Hastinapoora ("abode of elephants"), Indraspatha, Delhi, Canouge
on the Doab, Ayodhya (Oude), Benares, and Palibothra (Patna).
They concentrated themselves in the upper part of the Ganges
valley, but did not attempt to pass into Lower Bengal, as may be
seen to-day by the physical and mental inferiority of the Bengalees
to the populations of Northern Hindostan.
All travellers and historians agree in stating that the early Aryan
settlers in the valley of the Ganges closely resembled the Hellenic
race in Greece in almost every feature of their military, domestic,
and social life. They were split up into a number of small states or
communities. The Kshatryas, though originating in their military
profession, and not in a single family, were not unlike the Heraclidæ,
who became the royal race of the Peloponnesus. But in process of
time these Kshatryas were absorbed into the Rajpoots, who are
supposed to have arrived in India about the time of Alexander's
invasion of the Panjaub. They settled where we find them to-day, in
the neighborhood of Rohilcund and Bundelcund, and shortly after
them came the Jâts, another branch of the Indo-European or Aryan
family, thus completing the four great waves of the so-named
Pandya, or white-faced, immigration—the Brahmans, Kshatryas, the
Rajpoots, and the Jâts. It was the Brahmans who founded the
celebrated Pandhya kingdom, so called from their white skins, and
established the "Meerassee" system—i. e. an aristocracy of equality
among the four conquering races. They shared the land equally
among themselves, and regarded all others as servants or subjects.
In this primitive village-system the Brahman, or priest and poet, the
Pundit, or schoolmaster, the Vakeel, or pleader, were as essential as
food and drink to the community. Priest, teacher, and pleader by
virtue of their high functions enjoyed peculiar and unquestioned
privileges: land free of all tax was religiously assigned to them, and
servants to cultivate it for their use were attached to the grant.
In each and every Hindoo village or town which has retained its old
form the children even to-day are able to read, write, and cipher. But
wherever the village-system has been swept away by foreign and
other influences there the village school has also disappeared with it.
A trial by jury, called "punchayet," was also a part of the primitive
system of self-government instituted by the early Brahmans: each
party named two or more arbitrators, and the judge one; the jury
could not in any case be composed of less than five persons,
whence the name "punchayet"—five just ones. In difficult cases the
influence of the heads and elders of the village was brought to bear
upon the contending parties, and the administration of justice was
so pure in those days that the saying "In the punchayet is God"
became proverbial.
Out of these marked mental and physical differences grew up the
monstrous and extraordinary system of caste in India. Not that caste
does not exist in some degree everywhere throughout the world. In
the British Isles it is as fixed and absolute as a Medo-Persic law, and
even among Americans a marked social inequality exists. Caste
naturally sprang up with the first mingling of the conquering and
conquered races on Indian soil. At first the distinctions of class and
rank were no more marked than that of an English peasant and the
lord of a domain, or that of the negro girl and her mistress in the
United States to-day. But the proud, white-skinned Brahmans, in
order to guard the purity of their own "blue blood," and to rivet their
own ascendency, invented at length a distinct and most binding code
of laws, and then claimed for them the divine authority of the Vèdas.
Of the four great castes that we read so much about, three only
were fixed—Brahmans, Kshatryas, and the Vaisyas. This last was the
common Aryan people, and they were not separated from their
superiors by any harsh distinctions. But the Sudras, "the threefold
black men," among whom the Aryan population established
themselves, all the non-Aryan races and tribes of the peninsula of
Hindostan, were kept off by a wide gulf and the most galling marks
of inferiority. The Sudra could not read the Vèdas nor join in their
religious meetings. He could not cook their food, or even serve in
their houses; he was unclean, gross, sensual, irreligious, and
therefore an abomination to the noble white-faced Aryan.
The code of Manu, with all its "unparalleled arrogance" toward the
Sudra, was founded rather upon what a high-bred Brahman ought to
be than with any deliberate intent to degrade the Sudra. But with its
practice came that inevitable deterioration to the moral character of
the Brahmans themselves, who forgot that the humblest man has a
right to the same sanctity of life and character as the highest. The
lower the Brahman sank in his spiritual and moral nature, the more
he tried to hedge himself about with artificial claims to the reverence
of the peoples around him, until finally the code of Manu swelled
into minute details. Reaching the unborn child of Aryan parents, it
directed its nursing in the cradle, it shaped the training of the youth,
and regulated the actions of his perfect manhood as son, husband,
and father. Food, raiment, exercise, religious and social duties, must
be brought into subjection to its sovereign voice, and in the course
of time it was inseparably interwoven with every domestic usage,
every personal and social habit. From the cradle to the grave it
undertakes to regulate and control every desire, every inclination,
every movement, of the inner and outer man. Such is the code of
Manu.
In spite of these laws, however, there flourished Sudra kings and
Sudra communities, influenced though not absorbed by the Aryan
population. Sudra kings were invited to the court of the great
Yudishthira[42] and treated with marked respect and courtesy;
indeed, this word "Kiriya" or "Kritya" (courtesy) was held to be the
distinguishing mark of a high-bred Brahman. The Sudras in their turn
soon caught the infection of caste feeling, and were not slow in
adopting the same distinctions among themselves.
From being at first a sign of superiority of race, it gradually took
form and extended to every branch and profession. Priest, teacher,
soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, robber, murderer, and beggar, was each
one fixed immovably and for ever in his place and grade, and no
earthly power could draw him into any other. Every one piqued
himself on his particular caste; each man confined himself sternly to
his own perfect circle. There was hope for every man who belonged
to a caste, so that even those fallen from caste bound themselves
together in a brotherhood and called themselves Pariahs, "outcasts,"
which in time became a large and distinct caste. "Even in the lowest
depths they found a lower still."
So monstrous and deteriorating was this system that in the course of
time, losing sight of its original purpose, it separated the Aryans
themselves, for whose especial preservation and union it was
designed, by distinctions and restrictions almost as galling as those it
had formerly imposed only on the Sudras.
Nevertheless, it had its noble features, and did good work for a time.
The high advancement to which the Indo-European art, literature,
painting, music, and architecture attained was due to the leadership
of the Brahman civilization. It was an aristocracy to rule and educate
the masses, which everywhere exhibited a uniform inferiority. But
even with all the help of caste and the inflexible code of Manu to
preserve them on every side, the proud white-faced Aryans did not
long escape the deteriorating influences both of the climate in which
they had settled and the debasing usages of the non-Aryan
populations around them.
The most degrading practice that sprang up in time on Indian soil
was asceticism. The amount and the terrible nature of this self-
imposed penance practised by the Hindoos exceed anything known
in the world, and are almost inconceivable to any ordinary European,
whose first instinct is self-preservation. Ablutions and commands of
personal cleanliness, which formed a part of the code of Manu, have
increased in number, and also the penalties attached to their
violation to such a degree that now-a-days a Brahman or Hindoo is
defiled by the most trifling accident of place or touch. To eat with
the left hand, to sneeze when he is praying, to gape in the presence
of the sacrificial fire, to touch one of a low caste, are all pollutions.
In fact, the very shadow of an Englishman or a Sudra falling on his
cooking-pot renders it obligatory on him to bury his meal in the
earth and to throw away his pot if earthen; if not, it must undergo
seven purifications before it is in a sufficiently holy condition to boil
the rice sacred to the Brahman. The simple contact with pig's fat in
the cartridges made the sepoys, who believed they were thus lost to
caste and to heaven, willing and terrible tools in the hands of the
arch-enemy of British power in the East. Nana Sahib, or, more
properly speaking, Dundoo Punt, who, in order to revenge a private
wrong—the lapse to the East Indian Company, on the death of his
uncle and royal father by adoption, of a large territory bequeathed
to him—worked upon the caste-prejudices of the sepoys until he
maddened them into committing the most fiendish acts ever
recorded in Indian history. But the original code does not so regard
the eating of pork. If a Brahman purposely eat pork he shall be
degraded, but if he has partaken of it involuntarily or through
another's connivance, a penance and purification are sufficient for
full atonement.
Thus, injunctions originally designed as rules of pure living and high-
breeding, cleanliness, abstinence, kindliness, charity, and courtesy,
have been so multiplied and distorted that it is now difficult even for
the most precise and devout Brahman to carry them all faithfully into
practice. And if Christian teachers and reformers were seriously
minded to overthrow this vast system of caste in India, they could
successfully do so by quoting the Vèdas and the code of Manu,
which prescribe no such arbitrary rules of life as now exist in India.
It is our want of knowledge, and that of most of the modern
Brahmans, which still holds them in their old fetters, rendering the
efforts to free them of little avail, for we know not how nor where to
begin the attack on such a strong fortress as caste and custom are
to these blind followers of law and order.
Centuries after the consolidation of the Brahman power and system
of caste there arose a strong-souled Aryan, a prince By birth, a
republican at heart, and a reformer by nature, called Sakya
Suddarthà, who no sooner became of age than he suddenly began
to deny the inspiration of the Vèdas, the divine right of Brahmans to
the priesthood, and the obligations of caste. He offered equality of
birthright and of spiritual office alike to all men and women. Sudra,
Pariah, Khandala, bond or free, were of one and the same great
family. He went about declaring all men brothers. This was the
strong point of Buddhism. The new religion spread at once. It
ravished the hearts and kindled the imaginations of many Aryans,
but chiefly the non-Aryan nations. Everywhere it was received with
enthusiasm. Brahmanism and caste received their first great shock,
from which they have never wholly recovered.
 Buddhist Priest Preaching at the Door of a Temple.
Monastic orders first arose among the Buddhists, and as caste was
abolished the monasteries were open to all men, and even to
women, who were bound over to celibacy and self-renunciation.
These Buddhist priests went about preaching their new religion to
the common people, and found ready acceptance with them.
Barefooted, with shaven heads, eyebrows, and chins, wearing a
yellow dress instead of the pure white robes of the Brahmans, they
seemed indeed lower than the lowest Pariahs. They built lowly
chapels, and had regular services in them, chanting a prescribed
liturgy, offering harmless sacrifices of incense, lighted tapers, rice,
wine, oil, and flowers, and taking the lily instead of the Brahmanic
lotos as the emblem of the purity of their faith.
Buddhism spread with amazing rapidity, and flourished for some
time on Indian soil. During the reign of the celebrated Indian king
Asoka, three centuries more or less before Christ, it was the
dominant religion of India, about which time it was also introduced
by Buddhist missionaries into Ceylon, China, and the Japanese
Archipelago. At length, the Brahmans, recovering from the lethargy
that seemed to have overtaken them, joined all their forces, and,
rising en masse everywhere against these dissenters from the Vèdas
and from the old code of Manu, drove out of Hindostan proper those
whom they could not put to death. The Buddhists finally found
refuge in Guzerat and ready acceptance among the early primitive
races; and here the new religion reached its highest prosperity, but
began to decline in the eighth or ninth century after Christ. At this
juncture a new sect arose under the leadership of one Jaina, or
saint, a man of great purity of character, who undertook to correct
the many errors which had crept into Buddhism. Veneration and
worship of deified men, confined by the Buddhists some to five and
others to seven saints, were extended by the Jains to twenty-four, of
whom colossal statues in black or white marble were set up in their
temples. Tenderness and respect for animal life they carried to an
extreme point, which has led to the establishment of the hospitals
for infirm aged animals in different parts of India. In its essence
Jainism agrees with Buddhism. It rejects the inspiration of the
Vèdas, has no animal sacrifices, pays no respect to fire. But in order
to escape the unremitting persecution of the Brahman priesthood it
admits caste, and even the worship of the chief Hindoo gods. Thus
Jainism secured that toleration on Indian soil which was never
extended to Buddhism, the very birthplace of Buddha having been
rendered a wilderness and untenanted by man through the rage and
fury of Brahmanic persecution.
Brahmanism, finding itself once more in the ascendency, proceeded
with great tact to incorporate into its ritual all the divinities, the rites,
and the ceremonies peculiar to the non-Aryan populations. In
Southern India Vishnoo is worshipped under the name and character
of Jaggernath (or Juggernaut), "Lord of the universe;" but in
Northern Hindostan this worship is mingled with that of Rama and
Krishna, two Aryan heroes, whom the Brahmans with great political
adroitness represent as later incarnations of both Vishnoo and
Jaggernath. The pre-Aryan Mahrattas and Marwhars were brought to
believe their supreme deities, Cando-ba, and Virabudra, as
incarnations of Siva, and so on, until at length every god, hero, or
saint belonging to the pre-historic inhabitants of Asia found a place
in the Brahmanic calendar of incarnations of gods and goddesses.
Monotheism and polytheism exist side by side; purity and vice are
only different expressions of a system as complex as life itself.
Through all manners, acts, and usages, the most trivial or the most
momentous, the Brahman religion flows in perpetual symbolism and
stamps everything with its seal and mark. The pure Hindoos live in a
network of observances, the smallest infraction of which involves the
most terrible social degradation and loss of caste. They are bound by
observances for rising, for sitting, for eating, drinking, sleeping,
bathing; for birth, marriage, and death; for the sites of their homes
and even the positions of their doors and windows.
The dwellings of Hindoos vary according to their means. The poorer
have only one apartment, which must be smeared over once a week
with a solution of the ordure of the cow. The better classes always
have a courtyard and a verandah, where strangers, and even
Europeans, may be received without risk of contamination. Very
often the walls of the dwellings are covered with frescoes and
paintings. The entrance to the dwelling is always placed, out of
respect to the sun, facing the east, but a little to one side. Every
morning at an early hour the Hindoo wife or mother of the home
may be seen cleansing her house and her utensils for cooking,
eating, and drinking. This done, she will wash or smear with cow-
ordure the space about her dwelling. After this purification the wife
will proceed to ornament the front of the door, which in itself is held
sacred to the Brahman, with the form of a lotos-flower. This she
makes out of a solution of lime or chalk, and imprints it on the door
and on the space in front of it. This flower is emblematic of the
name of God, too pure to be uttered, but supposed to bestow a
magical charm on the dwelling on which it is inscribed.[43]
No one is so scrupulous with regard to personal neatness, purity,
and cleanliness as the true Hindoo woman. The Hindoo sacraments
are ten in number, with five daily duties that are as obligatory on the
Brahman as are the sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. The
first sacrament begins with the unborn babe; it is the conceptional
sacrament. Attended by the mother of a large family, the young wife
repairs to a temple with a peculiar cake made of rice, sugar, and
ghee (clarified butter), and with a fresh cocoanut. The goddess
invoked on such occasions is Lakshina, the consort of Indra. They
first offer up a prayer before her shrine, meditate on her glorious
progeny of gods and heroes, then implore her kindly interposition in
behalf of the young woman who is to become a mother; after which
the elder matron breaks the cocoanut and pours the liquid out as an
offering to the goddess, and part of the cake and cocoanut is
brought home and distributed among the members of the family.
The next ceremony is a very profound one, and has an especial
reference to the quickening of life in the babe. The mother, shrouded
in pure white from head to foot, accompanied by an elder female
and mother of a large family, with her husband and father repair to
the temple. One or more Brahman priests are invited to preside on
this occasion. Oil, flowers, and lighted tapers are offered to Mahadèo
the Great God. The priest pours the oil presented on a lighted lamp,
then performs a wave-offering over the head of the expectant
mother, praying, "O thou who art light, thou art also life and seed.
Accept our sacrifice and make the new life thou hast created in
secret visible in beauty and strength and power of intellect." After
which offerings according to the wealth of the parties are made to
the priests. There is one more important ceremony, similar in
character to the others. All these sacraments are performed only in
the case of the first child.
The birth ceremony takes place on the birth of every child. On this
occasion a Brahman priest and an astrologer are invited. The mother
of a large family and the grandmother are generally present. Before
dividing the umbilical cord fire is waved over the child, a drop of
honey and butter out of a golden spoon is put on his lips, after
which the cord is severed. This is a very sacred ceremony, called
"Jahu Karan" ("introduction to life"), and is performed with prayer,
indicating that as the child's life is now severed from the parent life,
so is all life at some time or other parted from the Central Life, but
yet dependent on that as the infant is on the tender care of a
mother. The father then draws near and looks upon the face of his
son or daughter for the first time, at which he must take a piece of
gold in his hand, offer a sacrifice to Brahma, and anoint the forehead
of the child with ghee which has first been presented to Brahma. A
string of nine threads of cotton, with five blades of durba-grass,
must be bound by the father round the wrist of the child, indicating
that the life matured by nine months is to be made perfect by the
five daily sacraments or duties. This done, the astrologer casts the
horoscope of the child, which is carefully written down, whether
good or evil, and is confided to the father. This paper is generally
burned with the person at death.
When the infant is a month old, and the new moon is first seen, he
is presented to it as his progenitor with a solemn prayer. After which
the naming takes place. The child's nearest relatives are invited. A
Brahman priest waves over it a lamp, then sprinkles holy water, and
calls aloud its name as he anoints the ears, eyes, nose, and breast
of the child with clarified butter. This done, a little dress prepared for
the child is put on for the first time.
When the teeth begin to appear a grand religious service takes
place, and its first food of milk and rice is given to it after it has
been consecrated by the priest. At three years of age the prescribed
religious ceremony connected with the shaving off of the boy's hair
takes place, and the consecration of the single lock left on the top of
the head. Next comes the investiture of the sacred thread,
performed only in the case of the male child.
Between the ages of fourteen and sixteen the youth formally
presents himself before the temple to be admitted to the order to
which he belongs. He is placed on a stone near a sacred tank in the
precincts of a Hindoo temple; he is then washed in pure water by
the priests robed in spotless white garments; the holy "Gayatri" is
repeated in his right ear by one priest, while the other breathes over
him the mystic trisyllable of "Aum, Aum, Aum," after which he is
invested with a new sacred thread.
Marriage is also a sacrament. The male may be married at any time
after the "mung," or investiture of the sacred thread; the time for
this ceremony varies among the different castes. The female,
however, must not be under ten years of age, and as she is obliged
to be several years younger than the male, he is generally from
sixteen to eighteen at the time of marriage.
Particular rules are laid down to be observed in the choice of a wife.
She must not have any physical or moral defects; she must have an
agreeable voice, sweet-sounding name, graceful proportions, elegant
movements, fine teeth, hair, and eyes. Deformity inherited or
constitutional delicacy, or disease of any kind, weak eyes, imperfect
digestion, an inauspicious name, or lack of respectable lineage,
always operate as strong impediments to marriage. Once the choice
is made by the parents, then the particular months and junctions of
the planets are consulted by the joshis or Hindoo astrologers: the
birth-papers of both parties are first examined, followed by a
profound study of the stars, which sometimes takes a year to be
completed, after which a writing called the Lagan-patrika is
prepared, in which the day, the hour, the names of the parties, and
the position of the planets are put down, and one of the eight
different kinds of marriages mentioned in the Shastras prescribed as
the most fitting in view of the astral relations of husband and wife.
These eight different kinds of marriages, however, are more or less
similar, and vary only when the different castes intermarry one with
the other. This intermarriage is always attended with loss of caste.
The ceremony observed by the Brahmanic caste is the most
interesting, and is called "Brahma," from the sacredness attached to
the rite. The bridegroom is obliged to prepare himself by certain
prayers and ablutions before he can be presented to his future wife,
whom he often sees for the first time, but of whose charms, graces
of person, and character he is fully informed beforehand. Robed in
pure white, anointed with holy oil, and wearing garlands of fresh
flowers around his neck, he goes in procession, accompanied by his
friends and relatives, to the bride's house, where he and his friends
are welcomed as guests by the bride's father. The future wife is
allowed to appear, and is generally veiled, so that even then the
young couple do not see very much of each other.
On the afternoon of the day appointed for the wedding company to
assemble at the house of the bride's father a raised platform is
placed at one end of the hall; here the bridegroom takes his place,
surrounded by the priests. Presently the bride enters the room
accompanied by her father, who does homage to his future son and
places his daughter at his right hand. After this a young priest enters
bearing a large censer containing a charcoal fire, which is placed at
their feet, and is emblematic of their warm affection. Two priests
stand before them holding each a lighted torch in his hands, reciting
some very beautiful prayers; meanwhile the bride rises and treads
three times on a stone and muller[44] placed beside her, and which
is meant to indicate that the cares and duties she is now about to
assume as a married woman will be carefully observed. The
bridegroom then makes an oblation of oil and frankincense to the
fire, as typical of his gratitude to the gods for the blessing which is
now about to crown his life; this done, the priest hands him a torch,
which he takes and waves three times around the person of his
bride, signifying that his love will always surround and brighten her
existence; he then drops it into the pan or censer at their feet. The
bride now scatters a handful of rice and a little oil as an oblation to
the gods. The chant having ceased, the father steps up, and, taking
a new upper and a lower garment, clothes the person of his
daughter; he then fastens the end of her dress to the skirts of her
lover's robe, and, taking the bride's hand, he places it in that of the
bridegroom, binding them together with a mystic cord which is made
of their sacred grass, typifying the delicacy of the marriage-tie, the
strength and solidity of which depends not so much on the fragile
cord which binds them, as on the individual will and resolution not to
break it asunder. Then, conducted by the bridegroom, the young
bride steps seven times around the sacred fire, repeating the
marriage vows, the priests chant the nuptial hymn, and the marriage
is consummated.
Every act of the Brahmanic ritual is symbolic. Thus in the evening of
the same day, after sunset, the bridegroom sees his blushing little
bride alone for the first time; he takes her by the hand, seats her on
a bull's hide, which in its turn is symbolic of several spiritual and
physical facts, one of which points to his power to support and
protect her. Seated side by side, they quietly watch the rising of the
polar star; pointing it out to her, he repeats, "Let us be steady,
stable, serene, for ever abiding in each other's love, as that
immovable and deathless star." Having sat in silent contemplation,
they partake of their first meal together. The bridegroom remains
three days at the house of the bride's father; on the fourth day he
conducts his wife to his own, or, as it sometimes happens, to his
father's house, in solemn procession. The Hindoo women are
remarkably devoted as wives and mothers: instances of conjugal
infidelity among the high caste are unknown, and extremely rare
even among the lower castes of the Hindoo women.
The ceremonies attending the dead are worthy of brief notice here.
The last moments of a Brahman are generally made very impressive
by the prayers and recitations that take place around his dying
pillow, the chief aim of which is to concentrate the thoughts of the
departing soul on the fact that life is the master of death. "The sun
rises out of life and sets into life; so does the soul of a pure
Brahman. Life sways to-day, and it will sway tomorrow, O Brahman!
Life is immortal; death but conceals the fact as the garment covers
the body. Hasten, O soul, to the Unseen, for unseen he sees,
unheard he hears, unknown he knows. As by footprints one finds
cattle, so may thy soul, O Sadhwan (pure one), find the
indestructible Soul," etc., etc.
The moment life is fled the high priest bends over the corpse with
his hands folded on his breast and repeats a prayer. After which the
near female relatives indulge in the most dismal howls and shrieks
as expressions of their grief and lamentation. The body is then
bathed by the priests, perfumed, decked with flowers, and placed on
a temporary bier or litter. This is borne along through the chief