The birth of a daughter being throughout the East, and especially in Bengal, regarded as less auspicious than that of a son, indicates a low position of the sex. From that moment her parents are solicitous to settle her, so that she is often in infancy pledged for life. The character of the bridegroom is of little consequence. Matches, consequently, often prove unhappy, especially where the jealousy or despotism of the husband forces the woman to live in seclusion, and mainly within the private recesses of the zenana. This, however, is not the general custom, women being allowed to appear at festivals and jubilees. Even the wives of respectable Hindus frequently quit the interior apartments set aside for them, and go to bathe in the waters of the Ganges or some other holy stream. The poorer, of course, who assign a share of labour to their wives, cannot seclude them if they would, for the expense of confinement is not inconsiderable.
The wife waits on her husband, and is treated with very partial confidence. In the lower ranks she is employed to prepare cow-dung for fuel, to fetch water, to make purchases in the markets, and perform the drudgery of the house, though this is no more than is done by the poorer classes in Europe. The rich woman adorns herself, curls her hair, listens to the gossip of her slaves, and indulges in what amusements may be within her reach. It may be imagined that the child or wife, uneducated and without a gleam of light in her mind, amuses herself by a thousand trivial devices. The home is thus not unhappy, unless the husband be naturally harsh, or the house be ruled by a tyrannical mother-in-law, which is often the case. Matches founded upon a mutual attachment are very rare, but by no means unknown. The romances of the Hindus are in many cases founded on them. The general plan, however, is for the parties to be betrothed in childhood.
When they perform the ceremonies of marriage they are complete strangers to each other; yet Hindu wives are, on the whole, faithful. When the husband finds himself united to a woman who is hateful to him, he neglects her altogether, and takes another or a concubine, though this is against the ancient law. In many things, however, the practice of this nation, especially among the ruder classes, is opposed to that extraordinary sacred code. However, if he have no children, he adopts this plan of ensuring them, and frequently conceals the facts for a long time from his wife. Polygamy causes great troubles in the Bengalee households. A man is not allowed by law to take a new partner after fifty, but this regulation is observed by few. These customs, together with the facility of divorce—a privilege from which the female sex is excluded—contribute to the demoralization of society. A man calling his wife mother, by that act renounces her, and is thenceforward free from the tie. A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth year; she whose children are all dead in the birth; she who bears only daughters, in the eleventh; while she who is of an unkind disposition may be divorced without delay. The whole code, composed by the priestly order, is unjust to the sex.
Of the general character of the female sex in Hindustan very exaggerated ideas commonly prevail. It is represented as corrupted throughout by the obscenity and indecency of the public religion and the institutions framed by priests. It is true the Hindu Pantheon is a representation of the lowest vices, and that the manners of the people are by no means delicate; yet the respectable class of women appear chaste, orderly, modest, and decorous. The fair muscular race of Afghanistan has indeed been depicted in favourable contrast to the dark and slim race of Bengal, but this need suppose no characteristic depravity in the latter, for the hardy mountaineers are celebrated for their contempt of sensual pleasures. Other parts of India exhibit their peculiar features. Among the rude Mughs of Arracan—a hunting and fishing, as well as cultivating, and formerly a predatory tribe—when a man wants money he pawns his wife for a certain sum, or transfers her altogether. In the southern parts of the Peninsula and the Mysore, manners are more licentious, and women are more debased. There polygamy has always been practised by the powerful and wealthy whose means enabled them to enjoy indulgences discouraged by the precepts of the ancient law. Buchanan, travelling towards the close of the eighteenth century, found about 80 concubines secluded in the palace of Tippoo Sultan, at Seringapatam. These were attended by more than 500 handmaids. The same traveller made a diligent inquiry into the manners of the various communities he visited. Among the Teliga Divangas, followers of Siva, a man was allowed to take many wives, but not to hurt them, or divorce them, except for adultery. It was once the practice for the widow to bury herself alive with the body of her husband.
The Shaynagas of Canara were not allowed to take a second wife unless the first had died, or had no children. The Corannas permitted polygamy, and girls were purchased for money. Adultery was punished by a beating or by a divorce, in which case the guilty wife might marry whom she pleased. The Panchalaru had similar laws, and so indeed had many other tribes. One of the most general rules was, that a woman could not be divorced except for faithless conduct. Widows were sometimes destroyed. Among the Bherid and many others, marriage was contracted, under obligation, before the age of puberty. If a girl remained single beyond that age, no credit was given to her virginity; she was declared incapable of marriage, and usually took resource in prostitution.
The severe laws against violating the law of chastity have not, in India, been formed so much for the protection of morals, as for preserving the boundaries of castes. Women are severely punished for holding intercourse with a man of superior caste; that is, if the intrigue be discovered, for there is no doubt that such intrigues frequently occur.
Among the Woddas the laws of marriage were by no means so stringent as among many other tribes visited by Buchanan. Women abounded. Every man had as many wives as he pleased. They all laboured for him; and if one was lazy she was divorced, though left free to marry again; she also might leave him if hardly treated, but could not contract a new engagement without his consent.
The Carruburru permitted adulteresses to live with any man who would keep them, provided their husbands did not immediately desire revenge. They were despised, but not altogether cast out from the communion of social life. The children of concubines enjoyed equal rights with those of real wives. That they were a gross people is proved by the fact that adultery was sometimes winked at in an industrious woman, too valuable as a servant to lose. The more refined idea, however, which prevailed among them of not allowing a girl to marry until naturally marriageable, was looked upon by members of the higher castes as a beastly depravity.
Among the Rajpoots women are not degraded; they hold a higher position. Ladies of rank are, indeed, secluded, but more from ideas of dignity and etiquette than sentiments of jealousy or the habit of despotism. There is an air of chivalry in some of their customs. A woman of high station, threatened with danger, sometimes sent to any youth whom she might admire the present of a bracelet. He was then called her “bracelet-bound brother,” and was expected to defend her under all circumstances, even at the hazard of his life.
Men, it has been remarked, make the laws—women make the manners—of a country. In Rajasthan, the few women reared exercised great influence on the actions, habitudes, and tastes of the men. The Rajpoot consults his wife on every important occasion; and, much as we are given to lament the condition of these women, it is by no means so debased as many writers would persuade us to imagine. Marriage contracts which often, as among the Jews, took place at the well, where the young girls assembled to draw water and converse, were, in frequent instances, the commencement of a happy life. The precepts of Menu have been quoted to show the contempt of the sex inculcated by the sacred books. His censures on a class, however, have been taken as his description of all womankind—but falsely; for the Rajpoot proverbs on this subject are derived from those famous institutes. The mouth of a woman, we find there, is constantly pure. Her name should be chosen graceful and euphonous, resembling a word of benediction. When they are honoured, the gods are pleased; when they are dishonoured, the gods are offended. The language of another sage was full of rich, and, perhaps, exaggerated sentiment. “Strike not, even with a blossom, a wife guilty of a hundred faults.” The religious maxims laid down for married couples is equally elevated. “Let mutual fidelity continue until death.” Intermarriage is prohibited in the same clan, or even tribe, though the patronymic may have been lost for centuries. Eight hundred years had divided the two branches of one famous house, yet an alliance between them was prohibited as incestuous.