A HOLY MAN, BENARES.
To face p. [96].
In many of the temples, besides the priests to minister to the gods, are dancing girls, whose duties are to dance at the shrines, sing hymns, and generally delight the gods. They are a recognized religious institution, and are honoured next to the priests. They are obtained when quite young by purchase or by gift. Often in times of famine a girl is sold to the temple, that her price may save the rest of the family from starvation. One is given that all may live. In other cases a girl is often a thank-offering given to the gods because of recovery from sickness or great tribulation. A rich man, instead of presenting his own daughter, would buy the daughter of some poor family and present her. These girls, who have no word to say in regard to the disposal of their persons, are public women, and the gains of their profession go towards the support of the temple. If there should be children born to these professional dancing girls, they are brought up in their mother’s profession, very much as were the children born to the priestesses of Aphrodite in the temples of Alexandria.
All Indian girls must be married, consequently these temple women are formally married to a dagger, a tree, or some inanimate object, who, as a husband, cannot object to the actions of his wife. Lately, in some places it has been made a criminal offence to sell a girl or give a daughter to a temple, and it is only done surreptitiously. One is told in India that it is a thing of the past, yet in one large temple in the South there are said to be over one hundred dancing girls kept for the amusement of the blasé gods.
These dancing girls share with their sisters, the nautch girls, the only real freedom given to Indian women. The latter are taught to read and write, to play musical instruments, and to make themselves attractive and charming to men. They come and go freely, mingling with both men and women. They are found at all feasts and public ceremonies, and have a very definite and honourable place in Indian society. Whatever discredit may be attached to her calling, she is considered a necessary adjunct to the temple and the home. Her presence at weddings is considered most fortunate, and in some castes it is the nautch girl who fastens the tali around the neck of the bride, a ceremony similar to placing the wedding-ring upon the finger. She holds the centre of the stage at all entertainments given in honour of guests. While we were in a native province ruled by a prince who had the reputation of liking wine, women, and song even more than did the average ruling prince in India, we were edified by the dancing of a woman brought from Bombay at the expense to the prince of nearly one hundred pounds a day.
The dancing is extremely modest, as the dancer is fully clothed, and it is the graceful, languorous poses of her slim body, the waving of her arms heavily laden with bracelets, and the slow moving, gliding steps that keep time to the tinkle of the anklets, that charm her admirers. There is a proverb that says, “Without the jingling of the nautch girl’s anklets, a dwelling-place does not become pure.”
CHAPTER VI
INDIAN HOME LIFE
Although the women are supposed to have no religious standing and are considered unfit to read the Vedas or touch the consecrated gods, still their entire life is influenced by religion or superstition, and the religion and superstition of the Eastern woman, of whatever land, is so inextricably entwined, that it is hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. Like her sisters of China and Egypt, she is afraid of the evil eye. She firmly believes that if her jewels, her dress, or her children are looked upon with jealous or covetous eyes, much sorrow will come to her, and she has many charms and ceremonies with which to counteract the baneful influence of spiteful persons. It is never wise for a visitor to regard a baby too closely or to admire its jewels or clothing openly, as, even if the mother is one of the advanced minority, instinct will assert itself, and deep within her heart, bred there by centuries of tradition, will be a little feeling that something might happen to her dear one. Quite likely, when the unwise caller departs, the mother will make a lamp of kneaded rice flour and fill it with oil or clarified butter, which, when lighted and passed round the baby’s head, will remove the dreaded evil.
The Hindu woman’s life is ruled by omens to a far greater extent than is the life of the woman of the Western world. If she is starting on a visit to a friend, it is a very bad sign for her to meet a widow, any one carrying a new pot, a bundle of firewood, a pariah, a lame man, two men quarrelling, a leper—in fact, there are about a dozen things she should avoid, or else be under the necessity of returning to her home and saying a few prayers before daring to start on her journey again. If she should sneeze once, it is most unfortunate, and should be followed by a second in order to avert the evil, but if the second sneeze is followed by others, the more the better, it is a most certain sign that her most ardent wishes will soon be granted. When one yawns it is polite to snap the fingers and say, “Govinda, Govinda,” as many believe that the life may leave the body while yawning, and to avert this calamity from a baby the mother snaps her fingers and murmurs, “Krishna, Krishna,” in its tiny ears.
Mohammedan and Hindu customs are so much alike that it is often hard to say that one is a Mohammedan custom or that another is purely Hindu. At the marriages, and the return of the daughter to her home to give birth to her first child, at the birth of the children, and in many of the social customs of the Mohammedans are seen the influence of the Hindu religion. It was the Mohammedans who brought the “purdah” system, or the seclusion of women, into India. Before the invasion of these warlike people the women of India went about freely, but now the Hindus are practically as secluded as are the Mohammedan women. In the North, where the influence of the followers of the Arabian prophet made itself most dominant, the women are much more secluded than in the South, where the Mohammedans did not come in such large numbers.