Although the Hindoos keep their women parda-nishīn, that is, veiled and secluded behind the curtain, the fakīrs have the privilege of entering any house they please, and even of going into the zenāna; and so great is their influence over the natives, that if a religious mendicant enter a habitation leaving his slippers at the door, the husband may not enter his own house! They have the character of being great libertines.
On this day I purchased curious old china dishes and brass circular locks of remarkable form. Also some brass idols that are scarce and very valuable. I have a large collection of idols of all sorts and sizes: some have undergone pooja for years, others are new. A native will buy a new brass idol, Gopalu, perhaps, for fourpence (two ānās); he takes it to his gooroo, or priest, who dips it in the Ganges; and having performed pooja with divers ceremonies, the spirit of the god enters the idol, upon which the gooroo receives ten or twelve rupees from the Hindoo, and restores the idol a pukkā god! Before the money was paid or the pooja performed it was nothing. Every Hindoo has some particular god whom he worships especially; he keeps his image tied up in a little bag, sometimes in his kamarband (cloth round the waist), at times in his turban, and sometimes stuck into the thatch of the roof of his house. It accompanies him wherever he goes: these little lares are seldom more than an inch, or two inches in height. When a man bathes, he takes his little god out of some corner of his attire, bathes the idol, and replaces it most carefully: to lose it is a sign of ill luck[100].
The rosary is made use of in Persia and India by Muhammadans as well as Hindoos, and appears with both to answer the same purpose. A bead is dropped through the finger and thumb at the contemplation of certain names and attributes of God, who has many appellations. The Brahmans are constantly seen with rosaries in their hands. It is remarkable that Christians, Hindoos, and Muhammadans, people so distant and distinct, should use rosaries for the same purpose.
Moor mentions,—“The thousand names of Vishnŭ and Siva are strung together in verse, and are repeated on certain occasions by Brahmans, as a sort of Litany, accompanied sometimes by the rosary; as each name is mentally recited, with the attention abstractedly fixed on the attribute, or character, that such name excites the idea of, a bead is dropped through the finger and thumb: such operation is supposed to assist and promote abstraction, an attainment that enthusiastic Hindoos think exceedingly efficacious.”
I have a short rosary which I obtained from a fakīr in Bengal with five or six small idols that had been worshipped for years: he gave the whole for a few rupees. The rosary consisted of beads of chalcedony, sulimāni stones, coral, amber, cornelian, agate, and other stones, curious and of some value.
The rosaries usually worn by the Byragies are of large rough berries, called mundrāsee; I believe they come from Madras: they are the seeds of a tree, and are sacred. They wear them of different lengths, but the beads are all of the same size. Brahmans wear them, and fakīrs are seldom without one. These long mālās are worn round the neck, falling to the knees, or over the right shoulder, and under the left arm. They exclaim, “Ram, Ram,” as they count each bead[101].
Another mālā or rosary, which is reckoned extremely holy, is always made of the wood of some sacred tree. On every head is carved the name of their warrior god Ram; and they count it, saying at every bead, “Ram, Ram.” These are made at Benares, and sold at the Melā at Prāg. They are either black and white, or pink and white. The longest I procured at the fair, contained one hundred and eight beads; the small ones, for the hand, contain only twenty-three[102]. Necklaces are also made of the babūl, and every other sort of sacred wood. The men wear them, and consider them very holy. Other rosaries are formed of the grey nut, the seed of the bonduc-tree. During the fair time, you will see turners sitting on the sands and turning these very minute wooden beads. It is remarkable that they bore the beads at the same time that they turn them, with great rapidity—bored and turned at once. The smaller the bead, the more expensive the necklace; but the utmost price amounts only to two ānās.
I also bought a mālā for a horse, which the natives say possesses great power as a charm; of what it is composed, I know not: the beads are somewhat of the shape and size of a pigeon’s egg, and opaque white, but appear not to be of glass or china. It looks well on the neck of a black horse. The natives tie one bead of this sort upon a horse’s fetlock to avert the evil eye and keep off maladies. With a whole mālā the horse must bear a charmed life!
Rosaries are counted for devotion, but oftener for good luck. The rosary counted by the prime minister during breakfast, at the King of Oude’s, consisted of pearls of enormous size. No one could be more superstitious than the Nawāb Hakīm Mehndi; doubtless he told his beads for good luck.
Pilgrims, carriers of the holy water, come in gangs from great distances to the Triveni; the processions are most picturesque, and they are very remarkable people. They carry two baskets, suspended by a bamboo over their shoulders, with a canopy above them, gaily decorated with bells and flags; these baskets contain small stumpy bottles of the thinnest green glass, having long necks; they are filled with Ganges water at the junction, and sealed with the seal of a Brahman at the Bene (bathing-place). These people travel all over the country, selling the sacred water at a high price at the distant stations. Some of the bottles are not above two inches high, others contain a quart; they are of all sizes, and the price varies accordingly. The salutation of these people on passing is, “Ram ram,” or “Bom bom mahadēo;” a pilgrim of this class is called a Kanwar Wālā. The men come for this water to place it in their houses for religious and medicinal uses, and sometimes perform a journey on the occasion of five or six months; it is also used in the English courts of justice, in administering an oath to an Hindoo.