From Adam's Peak to Elephanta

by Edward Carpenter

CONTENTS

[CEYLON].
[CHAPTER I].
Colombo.
	PAGES
The Suez Canal—Port Said—Gulf of Suez—The Red Sea—Colombo—Its streets and population—Picturesque glimpses—Tommy Atkins in a jinrickshaw—The Tamils and the Cinghalese—Costume and Character—Language and Literature—The British and the Eurasians—Social arrangements and amenities—“Spicy gales”—The coco-nut palm—A catamaran	[5–25]
[CHAPTER II].
Kandy and Peasant Life.
Primitive habits of the Cinghalese—“Ajax” arrives from England—A peasant-cabin near Kandy—Marriage-customs—Devil-dancing—Kalua and Kirrah—Their rice-fields and mode of life—The great Buddhist temple at Kandy—The tooth-relic—Ancient MSS.—A Librarian-priest—The talipot palm—The British and the natives—The “oyster”—Nuwara Ellia	[26–39]
[CHAPTER III].
Kurunégala.
Cinghalese views on Politics—Kornegalle—The Elephant-rock—The general landscape in Ceylon—Tanks and irrigation—The Paddy tax—Modern Commercial policy—Poverty of the people—The village bath—Decorum and passivity in manners—The bazaar and the shops—My friend the opium-seller—The policeman—The gaol and the prisoners—A Tamil official and his mode of life—The Bungalow—Mosquitos—Vegetable curries—The Hindu priest in the household—Native servants, their relation to British masters—The pariahs, and our slum-dwellers	[40–59]
[CHAPTER IV].
Adam’s Peak and the Black River.
Ascent of Adam’s Peak—A night on the summit—The unclad natives endure the cold—Advantage of sun-baths—A society for the encouragement of nudity—Moonlight view from the summit of the Peak—History of the mountain—Sunrise—The shadow on the mist, and other phenomena—Adam’s foot-print—The pavilion on the summit, and the priests—Caliban doing poojah—Descent by the pilgrim-track—The great woods—Fauna and Flora—Ratnapura, the city of jewels—Boat-voyage down the Kaluganga to Kalutara—Descent of rapids—Kalua enjoys the voyage—A tea-planter at home—Wage-slavery on the tea-plantations—The tea-factory—Letters from “Ajax” about the coolies	[60–85]
[CHAPTER V].
British Law-Courts and Buddhist Temples.
The courts a great centre of popular interest—A means of wreaking personal revenge—The district court—A case of burglary—The British ideal of life does not appeal to the natives—A Tamil student of philosophy—To Dambulla in a bullock-cart—A coterie of Eurasians—The cave-temples of Dambulla—A boy-priest and his cook—Other Buddhist temples	[86–97]
[CHAPTER VI].
Anurádhapura: a Ruined City of the Jungle.
A night in the “mail-coach”—The present village of Anurádhapura—“Pools of water and a habitation for the bittern”—The remains of the Brazen Palace—The oldest tree in the world—Ruins of enormous dágobas—Specimens of early sculpture—Temples, porticos, stone troughs, cisterns, bathing tanks—A fine statue of Buddha—The city as it was in the 7th century—Its history—View to-day from the Abhayagiria dágoba—Moral and sentimental reflections	[99–115]
[CHAPTER VII].
A Night-Festival in a Hindu Temple.
The festival of Taypusam—The temple, the crowd, and blowing up of trumpets in the full moon—Image of Siva, the raft and the sacred lake—Hymns and offerings to the god—Fearful and wonderful music—Temper of the crowd, and influences of the ceremonial—Interior of Temple—The lingam and the worship of sex—The bull Nandi—Great procession of the gods round Temple—Remindful of Bacchic processions—The Nautch girls, their dress, and dances—Culmination of the show—Revelation of Siva	[116–134]
[A VISIT TO A GÑÁNI].
[CHAPTER VIII].
A Visit to a Gñáni.
Two schools of esoteric teachers, the Himalayan and South Indian—A South-Indian teacher—Three conditions for the attainment of divine knowledge or gñánam—The fraternity of Adepts—Yogam the preparation for gñánam—The yogis—Story of Tilleináthan Swámy—Democratic character of his teaching—Compare stories of Christ—Tamil philosophy and popular beliefs concerning Adepts—The present teacher, his personality and habits—“Joy, always joy”	[137–152]
[CHAPTER IX].
Consciousness without Thought.
What is the nature of a Gñáni’s experience? Answer given in modern thought-terms—Slow evolution of a new form of consciousness—Many a slip and pause by the way—A consciousness without thought—Meaning of “Nirwana”—Phenomena of hypnotism—Theory of the fourth dimension—The true quality of the soul is Space, by which it is present everywhere—Freedom, Equality—The democratic basis of Eastern philosophy	[153–163]
[CHAPTER X].
Methods of Attainment.
Physical methods adopted by some of the yogis—Self-mesmerism, fasting, severe penance—The Siddhi or miraculous powers—Mental methods, (1) the Concentration, and (2) the Effacement of Thought—Difficulties of (1) and (2), but great value for the Western peoples to-day—Concentration and Effacement of Thought are correlative powers—They lead to the discovery of the true Self—Moral methods, gentleness, candor, serenity—Non-differentiation—The final deliverance—Probable difference between Eastern and Western methods of attainment—Through the Will, and through Love	[164–182]
[CHAPTER XI].
Traditions of the Ancient Wisdom-Religion.
Difficulty of giving any concise account of Indian teaching—Personal rapprochement to the Guru, but alienation from the formalities of his doctrine—Mediæval theories of Astronomy and Geology—Philosophy of the Siddhantic system—The five elements, five forms of sensation, etc.—The twenty-six tatwas, and the Self which stands apart from them all—Evolution and Involution—The five shells which enclose the soul—Death and Birth—Crudities of Astrology, Physiology, etc.—Double signification of many doctrines—Resemblance of modern Guru to a Vedic Sage—His criticisms of the English and of English rule—Importance to the West of the Indian traditions	[183–203]
[INDIA].
[CHAPTER XII].
The South Indian Temples.
Colombo to Tuticorin—The plains of the Carnatic—Thirty great Dravidian temples—The temple at Tanjore—Colossal monolithic bull—The pagoda, a fine piece of work—“It casts no shadow”—Subsidiary temples and frescoed arcades—A regiment of lingams—The Tanjore palace—The temple at Mádura—The Choultrie, the Eastern gate, and the Hall of a thousand Columns—Crowds in the temple precincts, gloom and stillness of the interior—Juggernath cars in the streets—The Temple of Chidámbaram, a goal of pilgrimage and a den of Brahmans—The weird hall of a thousand columns, haunted by bats—A cranky Brahman—Goldsmiths at work for the Temple—A truculent pilgrim	[209–226]
[CHAPTER XIII].
Madras and Calcutta.
The streets of Madras—Comparison with Ceylon—Impositions of drivers, boatmen, hotel managers, etc.—A straggling dull city—A centre however of Hindu political and literary life—Visit to Adyar and the Theosophist headquarters—Blavatsky curios—Scenes of native life—The river Hooghly—Calcutta city and population—Festival of bathing in the Ganges—A Circus—Poverty of the people—Meeting of the Dufferin Fund—British philanthropy in India—A native school—A group of Bengalis—Their love of long yarns, and of music—Panna Lall and his gymnast friends—Chundi Churn performs on the sítar—The Indian music	[227–251]
[CHAPTER XIV].
Benares.
The plains of the Ganges—The crops, and the peasant life—Sentiment of the great expanse—Sacredness of the river—Far-back worship of Siva—Benares a centre of Hindu life—The streets and shops—The Golden Temple—The riverside, characteristic scenes—A spring festival—A talk with a yogi—The burning ghauts—Panna Lall wants to bathe—Religious ablutions—A self-mutilated fakir	[252–267]
[CHAPTER XV].
The Anglo-Indian and the Oyster.
Allahabad—Difficulty of really knowing India—The great gulf of race-difference—The Hindu does not understand “Duty”—The duty-loving Englishman does not understand the Hindu—Race-divisions in the United States—We came to India as conquerors—The gulf remains, and will remain—Criticisms by an educated “oyster”—Aligarh affords an instance of friendly feeling between the two sections—The M.A.O. College—A convivial dinner-party—Sir Syed Ahmed and the Mahomedan influence—Horse-fair at Aligarh—Cabulees, and a native wrestling-bout	[268–281]
[CHAPTER XVI].
Delhi and Agra.
Approach to Delhi—The Fort and the old Palace—The town and population—The Jumma Mosque—The environs of Delhi, a waste of ruined cities—The Kutab Minar and the old fortress of Lalkab—Agra, the Fort and the Palace—The Jessamine Tower—Lovely marble and mosaic—The Taj at twilight—A fairy scene—Flocks of green parrots—Moonlight on the Jumna—“Do we not respect our women?”—A coterie of professors—The population of Agra—Scenes at the railway stations—A favorable specimen of Young India—An incident in the train	[282–298]
[CHAPTER XVII].
Bombay.
The native Bombay a wonderful spectacle—Workshops, saleshops, opium dens, theatres, temples, mosques—The population, Mahrattas and Parsees—The modern city and the manufacturing quarter—The Parsee nose—Justice Telang, a Mahratta—The Bunya Caste—Tribhovan Das at home—View from the Malabar Hill—A Bunya wedding—Native theatres—The Salvation Army—Across the harbor to Elephanta—The great cave-temple—Sculptured panels, the Hindu Trinity—The human-divine life of Siva—Impressive effect of the whole—An opium den—Various sorts of “ecstasy” produced by these and other drugs—The proletariat at home—Music and conversation—Dream of a “United India”—Bombay at night—On the way to Aden—A calm and starlit ocean—A beautiful panorama.	[299–324]
[THE OLD ORDER AND THE NEW INFLUENCES].
[CHAPTER XVIII].
The Old Order: Caste and Communism.
Remarkable social movement in India—Complexity and corruption of Caste system—The Brahmans—Defence of caste from native point of view—Specimens of caste regulation—Caste tyranny—Story of a widow re-marriage—Pharisaism of respectability—Caste in its other aspect as a Trade-Guild—Tempering competition—Instances of this—Communism, the second great feature of social life—Village, Caste and Family communism—The last still flourishing—Anecdotes—Old sanctions being destroyed by commercialism—Sacredness of Family tie	[327–344]
[CHAPTER XIX].
The New Influences: Western Science and Commercialism.
Great spread of Western education—Euclid and Political Economy at Tuticorin—Schools and Colleges throughout India—Cricket and golf—Young India—“We are all Agnostics now”—Similar spread of Commercialism—Interior of a cotton-mill at Bombay—Large profits, conditions of labor—Numerous trading posts and clerkships—The National Indian Congress—Its ideals and influence—Disliked by the British—The social gulf again—Our future in India—The break-up of village life—Problem of pauperism, Sir Henry Maine—Incongruity of Commercialism with the genius of India—Probable ascendancy of the former for a time—But only for a time	[345–363]