In all ages and in almost all countries, there have been religious enthusiasts, who have sought to gain the favor or propitiate the anger of the deity by voluntary suffering, but there is perhaps no country where we find so great a variety of this principle as we do in India. There are Mohammedan as well as Hindoo ascetics, and the latter have this advantage, that they need not belong to any particular caste. To describe fully the extraordinary proceedings of these men would occupy much more space than can be afforded, and we will therefore only take a few of the most characteristic examples.
One of the commonest, as well as one of the lightest, of these tortures is, to have the tongue bored with a red-hot iron. This practice used to prevail largely at Chinsurah, at the temple of the Bull-god. Under a clump of banyan trees the devotees assembled in order to inflict various tortures upon themselves, and by far the most common was that of tongue boring. The operation was performed by a native smith, who was reckoned very skilful at it, and at certain seasons he was completely beset by applicants, doubly clamorous in the first place to have their tongues bored, and in the next to have it done as cheaply as possible. At these seasons he used to range the applicants in regular lines, and take them in their turn, varying his fee according to their number, rank, and impatience.
A strange instance of self-torture is described by Colonel Campbell. At Colar, the birthplace of Tippoo Sultan, a man was seen marching up and down before a mosque, chanting a hymn. He was shod with a pair of wooden sandals, not tied but nailed to his feet by long iron spikes that had been driven through the sole and projected above the instep. Yet he walked with a firm, unconcerned step, and chanted his measured tune as if utterly unconscious of the horrible torture which each step must have cost him.
Sometimes these devotees show their piety by long pilgrimages to certain sacred spots, making the journey as difficult and fanciful as possible. Some will lie on the ground and roll the whole distance, while others measure the track by prostrating themselves on their faces, marking the spot where their heads lay, getting up, placing their feet on the marked spot, and then prostrating themselves again. Sometimes they will lie on their backs and push themselves along the road by their heels, thus cutting and bruising their backs terribly against the rough ground. Some of these men practise a most extraordinary penance in honor of the goddess Doorga, a penance which in some respects resembles the initiation of the Mandans. A stout pole, some twenty feet high, is fixed in the ground, and a long bamboo is placed horizontally over the top, on which it revolves by means of a pivot. Sometimes two or even three poles cross each other on the top of the post. Ropes hang from each end of the bamboos, and to half of them are fastened large unbarbed hooks of polished iron. The devotees having placed themselves under the bamboo, the hooks are run into their backs, and by persons hauling on the rope at the other end of the bamboo they are raised into the air. The men who hold the ropes then run in a circle, so as to swing the devotees round at a great pace, the whole weight of their bodies being borne by the hooks. While swinging they scatter flowers and other gifts among the spectators, who eagerly scramble for them, thinking they possess very great virtues.
Both men and women submit to this terrible torture, and do so for a variety of reasons. Some permit themselves to be swung in pure honor of the goddess, some do it in fulfilment of a vow, while many submit to the operation for pay, acting as substitutes of persons who have made the vow and are afraid to fulfil it personally, or who prefer honoring the goddess by deputy rather than in their own person. From one to two rupees, i. e. from two to four shillings, is considered a fair price to the substitute.
Sometimes the upright post is fastened upon an ordinary bullock wagon, and is shorter than when it is fixed in the ground. After the hooks have been inserted, the opposite end of the bamboo is drawn down, so as to elevate the devotee some thirty feet in the air, and made fast to the wagon. The cart is then drawn as fast as possible round the enclosure by six or eight bullocks, which are harnessed to it for the occasion, and selected for their speed.
In many instances, the Jogis (pronounced Yogees) perform their penance by keeping one or more of their limbs in one attitude, until after a time it becomes incapable of motion, and the muscles almost entirely waste away. Some of these men will hold one arm stretched upward to its fullest extent. This is done by supporting the arm by a cord when the wearied muscles refuse to uphold the limb any longer. In some instances, where the Jogi has clenched his hand, the nails have grown fairly through the hand, forced their way through the back, and hung nearly to the wrist.
A very common practice is to sit completely motionless, in which case the legs become in time totally incapable of moving, so that the man could not change his position even if he desired to do so. In some instances they even go beyond this, and manage to stand instead of sit, with scarcely any support for their bodies during sleep. One of these men is described by Mr. Williamson: “Within a few yards of the river on our left stood one of those horrid figures called a yogee, or Indian saint,—a gentleman beggar, who had placed himself in a certain attitude, from which he had vowed never to swerve during the remainder of his life, but to spend his life in mental abstraction.
“He appeared on a platform of earth raised about eighteen inches from the ground. At one end of this mound (which might be seven feet long by five broad) were erected two bamboos, seven or eight feet high, and sufficiently apart for him to stand between them. At elbow height a broad board was placed from one bamboo to the other, and upon the middle of this another piece of plank, two feet long by five inches wide, was fixed, sloping upward from him. He therefore, standing on the platform, and resting his arms upon the cross-bar, held with his hands on each side of the upright sloping board. He seemed to press equally on either foot, leaning a little forward, with his face turned rather aside, and raised toward the sun.
“His personal appearance was squalid and miserable. His body was daubed all over with blue mud; his hair—long, matted, discolored to a yellowish brown with exposure—dangled in all directions. His beard was bushy and black, and the rest of his face so disfigured with hair, that it might be said to be all beard.