FROM SIMLA TO ALLAHABAD AND BOMBAY.—A GREAT HINDOO FESTIVAL.—CASTES.—THUGS AND THE CAVES OF ELLORA.
From Simla the party returned to Umballa, which they reached just in time to take the train for Allahabad. They expected to arrive there early in the morning, and it was just about daybreak as the train rolled over the magnificent bridge that crosses the Jumna just outside the city. The bridge is two-thirds of a mile in length, and built entirely of stone and iron, and the engineers had great difficulty in placing the piers, owing to the treacherous nature of the river's sandy bed. The Bramins predicted that the bridge could never be made, and its successful construction has gone far to shake the faith of the people in the infallibility of their idols, and teach them to regard the God of the foreigner.
It was the time of the mela, or annual festival, that brings two or three millions of people to Allahabad to bathe in the sacred waters where the Ganges and Jumna unite. Early in the forenoon our friends went to the flat plain at the junction of the rivers—a triangular stretch of sand measuring a mile or more on each side, and so low that it is covered during the season of floods. Their carriage was not allowed to proceed farther than the edge of this plain, through fear of accidents, but they hired an elephant that was equipped with a couple of chairs of the "settee" pattern placed back to back, and affording accommodation for half a dozen persons. Thus mounted, they rode over the ground of the assemblage, and had a capital view of the scene.
Doctor Bronson thought there were at least 100,000 people on the ground, and it is said that the crowd sometimes numbers half a million. They come from all parts of India, and there are few acts considered more pious than the pilgrimage to Allahabad. As if the sanctity of the two rivers was not sufficient, the priests teach that there is a third river, invisible to mortal eyes, which flows directly from heaven to unite with the Ganges and Jumna, and it is at the point of the triple union that the bathing ceremony is performed.
HINDOO FAKIRS CUTTING THEMSELVES WITH KNIVES.
The boys had never seen so large a crowd as this, nor even one so curious. There were pilgrims of all degrees, poor men and women who had begged their subsistence along the road, and rich men who came in grand state with trains of elephants and camels, and with gorgeous tents spread for their occupation. There were many fakirs, some holding their withered hands high in the air, where they had kept them for years. Others with the skin worn from their knees in consequence of dragging their bodies along the roads, and others covered with dust and ashes, in accordance with their vows. It is a peculiar principle of the Hindoo religion that its holiest men are the dirtiest; and if one wishes to get up a reputation for sanctity, his first duty is to become as repulsive as possible by never washing himself, covering his body with rags, allowing his hair to go quite untouched by comb or scissors, to perform some act of bodily torture, and then sit by the roadside and beg for food. The fakirs are even exempt from the injunction to bathe in the holy rivers, possibly through fear that the accumulated dirt, which is the seal of their profession, might be washed away. But they come in great numbers to all the sacred places, and probably the chance of picking up a liberal allowance from the charitable may have something to do with their coming.
Formerly there were great cruelties practised by these fakirs on themselves in the name of religion, but they are no longer allowed. They used to fasten hooks in the flesh of their backs and then be swung in the air; they slashed their flesh with knives, or pierced it with nails and spears; placed fire on their heads till their scalps were burnt through, and did many other cruel things. The boys saw several of these fakirs whose hands had been so long held upright that they were fixed in that position, and others whose finger-nails had been allowed to grow until they were turned like the claws of birds and pierced the palms of the hands. One man had his feet and hands bound together, and was rolling along like a cart-wheel, and the Doctor said he had doubtless come hundreds of miles in this way.
At the junction of the rivers the crowd was more dense than elsewhere, and hundreds of persons were clinging to rafts anchored for the safety of those who could not swim. Before a pilgrim enters the water he sits on the bank and submits himself to a barber, who removes his hair and beard and throws them into the river. He is told that for every hair he thus gives to the gods he will have a million years in paradise. After the shaving is over he bathes; the next day he goes through a ceremony in honor of his ancestors, and is then ready to depart for home. From where the boys sat on the back of their elephant, near the junction of the rivers they saw dozens of barbers at work; men with long hair and beards would sit down in front of one of these operators, and rise a few minutes later shorn of what had formed their principal attraction.
A PILGRIM CARRYING RELIGIOUS RELICS.
The priests who have charge of this festival make a great deal of money, as the pilgrims are required to pay according to their means for the services of the barbers and the privilege of bathing. Several times it has been proposed to make an end of this idolatrous worship by closing the place altogether, and giving a cash allowance to the owners to replace their revenues. But the Government is unwilling to interfere in the religion of the people, and so the festival is kept up. It occurs in the months of January and February, and is one of the curious sights for a traveller in India.
Allahabad means "the city of God." The name was given to it by the great Moslem emperor, Akbar, who conquered it from the Hindoos, and built a fort, which is now occupied by the English garrison. During the Mutiny the European residents took refuge in the fort, where many of them died of cholera before the army came to raise the siege and relieve them from their imprisonment.
MOSLEM SCHOOL AT ALLAHABAD.
The population of Allahabad is a mixed one of Moslems and Hindoos, the former descended from the conquerors of 300 years ago, and the latter from the more ancient inhabitants. As the boys drove through the Moslem portion of the city, they passed a school where some bright-eyed boys were learning their lessons under the supervision of a teacher of their race and religion. All were squatted on the floor, and the books they were reading were, according to the Doctor, portions of the Koran. The lessons are studied aloud, each pupil for himself, and consequently a Moslem school is the reverse of quiet. The Koran is the principal text-book, and often the only one; after the pupil has mastered it he is instructed in arithmetic, and sometimes he learns a little geography, but not much. There are higher schools and colleges where scientific instruction is given, but they are not easily entered except by the boys of well-to-do parents.
While our friends were resting in the hotel after their round of sight-seeing, the conversation turned upon caste—that peculiar social and religious institution to which reference has already been made. In response to the inquiries of the boys, Doctor Bronson said the system of caste was not fully understood even by those who had lived for years in India, but it might be described in a general way as a distinction based on birth, and incapable of change.
"There are," said the Doctor, "four great castes, and these have numerous subdivisions, which include eighteen principal and more than a hundred subordinate classes. By the rule of caste no man can ascend to a higher or go down to a lower; he may commit murder and other crimes without losing caste, but if he violates any of the rules of ceremony, however slight, he becomes an outcast, and can only be restored on payment of a fine proportioned to his means. For some offences there is no restoration; the outcast, whether temporary or perpetual, is not recognized by his friends or even by his family, and any one who ventured to speak to him or give him the least assistance would be liable to the same fate.
"The four classes are, first, the Bramins, who are supposed to have come from the head of the Creator, and to be endowed with attributes of divinity which all below must recognize. Kings and emperors are not exempt from paying reverence to the Bramins, and the poorest of the latter considers himself superior to the Sovereign of England or the Emperor of China. The Bramin is of so exalted a character that he will eat no food that a man of lower caste has touched, and even to allow the shadow of the latter to fall on him would be pollution. In Southern India it was formerly considered quite justifiable for a Bramin to strike dead a low-caste man who had touched him, whether accidentally or otherwise, and in the native states of India at the present time the people of low caste are under heavy disabilities.
"The second caste have a sort of sacred character, but far below that of the Bramins; they are the military and executive class, and carry out the laws which the Bramins make. The third caste comprises the mercantile and agricultural classes; and the fourth, or sudra, includes all the servile classes, who must remain forever in a state of dependence, and are not allowed to acquire property, or even to be instructed in anything more than the work they have to do. It is forbidden for a Bramin to read the sacred writings to the sudras, or give them any religious instruction whatever. Below the sudras are the pariahs, or outcasts; no men of any caste will associate with them, and they are regarded as utterly without any redeeming qualities. A pariah who should come into the presence of a Bramin, under the old rules of caste, would be liable to be put to death.
HINDOO ROBBERS IN PRISON.
"Though the distinctions all exist in India, it is well known that they are rapidly breaking up. The second and third castes are being mingled so that it is hard to tell one from the other; the introduction of the railway, which throws men of all castes together, and often compels them to touch each other while sitting in the same carriage, is doing much to destroy the system, and the Government has enacted laws that aid in the movement. By the rules of the system, loss of caste is followed by forfeiture of all property and civil rights; but the Government steps in and prohibits any such forfeiture, and in several instances has punished the priests ordering it, by convicting them of conspiracy, and sending them to prison. From present indications it may be hoped that the caste system will some day be abolished, though such a result can hardly be looked for in our lifetime."
In the afternoon they took another drive through Allahabad, and as they passed the prison one of the boys indicated a desire to see it. The carriage was stopped, and the Doctor was taken to see the superintendent, who permitted the strangers to enter. In one cell there were three ill-looking fellows, who were said to be robbers, and in an adjoining cell there were four equally repulsive characters, described as Thugs. The Doctor expressed his surprise, as he had supposed the system of Thuggee or Thuggery was extinct; but the chief of the prison said that once in a while bands of Thugs were found plying their trade, and they generally proved to be some who escaped arrest in the general movement for their suppression, or were simply robbers who had adopted the principles of the Thugs. In other cells and in corners of the yard were some ordinary thieves and other violators of the law; there was nothing attractive about the place, and after a short visit the party withdrew.
As they rode away from the prison, one of the boys asked Doctor Bronson to tell them about the Thugs, and their peculiarities.
"It may astonish you," replied the Doctor, "to learn that they were a body of assassins religiously devoted to their horrible work. They went about murdering people, and supposed they had the approval of their goddess in doing so."
The Doctor had surmised rightly, as the boys opened their eyes widely in the astonishment which this information caused. When the eyes had resumed their former appearance, he resumed:
"The discovery of the existence of this organization was made by accident, or rather through the guilty conscience of a member of it.
THUGS AWAITING TRIAL AT ALLAHABAD.
"One day, in the year 1829, a native came to Colonel Sleeman, an officer of the English Government, and confessed that he was the leader of a gang of Thugs in the neighborhood, and showed where many of the victims had been buried. An investigation proved the correctness of his statement, and the members of the gang were arrested; one discovery followed another, till it was known that the organization extended through all the provinces of India, and that the different gangs had their jemadars or leaders, garus or teachers, sothas or entrappers, bhuttotes or stranglers, and lughaees or grave-diggers. They worshipped the goddess Kali, and always consulted her before starting on an expedition, and if the omens were wrong they abandoned their plans.
"They went in the disguise of merchants or pilgrims; robbery was the object of the murders they committed, and the proceeds were divided as follows: one third to the goddess, one third to the widows and orphans of the sect, and the remaining third to the assassins themselves. The teachers or spies learned the route of an intended victim, and informed the entrappers, who lured him away from the road or to a secluded place, where at a moment when he suspected no danger the stranglers killed him by suddenly throwing a handkerchief around his neck and twisting it tightly. Then the grave-diggers performed their share of the business, and after it was over the party went to the temple, divided the spoil in the manner I have mentioned, and partook of a sacrament by way of purification.
"They did not kill Europeans, for fear of detection, and they also exempted women and old men from their operations. After the existence of the order was discovered arrests were made all over India, and some thousands of the murderers were taken. Many were executed for their crimes; the least guilty of them were colonized near Jubbulpoor, with the women and children of the organization, where they were kept separate from others, and still remain under Government supervision and employment."
There was not a great deal to be seen at Allahabad besides the festival at the junction of the rivers, as the fort contains nothing remarkable, and there are no public buildings of consequence. The train for Bombay left in the evening, and Doctor Bronson and the boys went by it for a direct ride of 845 miles, which they accomplished in forty hours.
The Doctor had originally intended to stop on the way to visit the Caves of Ellora; but circumstances made it inconvenient to do so, and the plan was abandoned. He told the boys that the caves ranked next to the Pyramids of Egypt as works of human labor, and were far superior to them in artistic character.
"You have seen," said he, "toys made in Switzerland and other countries where the side of a block of wood is cut into, and the wood slowly chipped away so as to leave figures of men, trees, or other things standing inside of a hollow space?"
Both the boys remembered that they had seen toys of this description.
"Now," he continued, "imagine that the block of wood is a rock 600 feet high, and two miles long, rising, with very steep sides, from a level plain."
"Yes."
VESTIBULE OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT ELLORA.
"And then imagine that the solid rock is cut away so as to leave temples, pyramids, obelisks, and statues of various kinds, just as the wood is chipped away in the Swiss toys. If you can picture these in your mind you will have a vivid conception of the wonderful Caves of Ellora. They extend for more than a mile along the base of a hill such as I have described, and the labor of making them is almost incalculable. Here is the account of one of the excavations, written by a gentleman who visited the place:
"'The cave called Khailas, or Paradise, is the largest and most elaborate of the series. It is a quarry-like excavation, 250 feet deep; its length is 401 feet, and its breadth 133 feet. There is a wall of solid rock separating the enclosure from the plain. The interior of the quarry is occupied in the centre by the temple. This is of the usual form, consisting of the shrine, with its pyramidal dome, and several pillared porticoes and halls. The sides of the quarry are steep, and hollowed out into successive stories of halls and galleries, into which light is admitted by open colonnades. All these buildings—the great temple, its porticoes and galleries, as well as the other apartments, and the massive wall which divides the whole from the valley—are carved and quarried out of the solid rock.
INTERIOR OF TEMPLE HEWN FROM THE ROCK.
"'The temple is about 85 feet high to the top of the pyramidal spire over the shrine. Its length, including the porticoes, which are connected with it by hanging galleries of stone, is not less than 150 feet, and the greatest breadth about 90 feet. The largest apartment is 66 feet by 55. Its ceiling, which is supported by heavy square columns, is not more than 12 feet high, and carved to represent rafters. The columns and walls of the apartment were most elaborately carved, as was also the whole exterior of the building; the designs represent the exploits of Ram in Lunka, or Ceylon, and the chambers and galleries in the sides of the quarry were similarly decorated. In the enclosure between the temple and gate-way are two obelisks, 75 or 80 feet high, supported on the backs of elephants. Like all the other buildings and accessories, they are carved from the solid rock.'"
One of the boys asked what was the probable age of the Caves of Ellora, and by whom they were made.
"They are thought to belong to different centuries," replied the Doctor, "as some of them are of Braminical character, while others were made by the Buddhists. It is believed that the most modern were made about 900 years ago, and possibly the oldest were excavated 1000 years earlier. Every Hindoo divinity has a shrine there, and it is strange that there is nothing certain about their history. The natives say they were the work of the gods, and are at least 9000 years old; another tradition says they were all made by one man, and that he would have excavated more caves if he had not cut his hand so severely one day that he was disabled from further work."
MURAL SCULPTURES AT ELLORA.