[34]. There are two of these alligators quite familiar to the inhabitants of Udaipur, who come when called “from the vasty deep” for food; and I have often exasperated them by throwing an inflated bladder, which the monsters greedily received, only to dive away in angry disappointment. It was on these that my friend affirmed he had ventured.
[35]. Chaturanga, so called from imitating the formation of an army. The ‘four’ (chatur) ‘bodied’ (anga) array; or elephants, chariots, horse, and foot. His chief antagonist at chess was a blind man of the city. [Chaupar is played with oblong dice on a board with two transverse bars in the form of a cross, like chausar and pachīsī.]
[36]. The tappa belongs to the very extremity of India, being indigenous as far as the Indus and the countries watered by its arms; and though the peculiar measure is common in Rajasthan, the prefix of panjabi shows its origin. I have listened at Caen to the viola or hurdy-gurdy, till I could have fancied myself in Mewar.
[37]. Chand remarks of his hero, the Chauhan, that he was “master of the art,” both vocal and instrumental. Whether profane music was ever common may be doubted; but sacred music was a part of early education with the sons of kings. Rama and his brothers were celebrated for the harmonious execution of episodes from the grand epic, the Ramayana. The sacred canticles of Jayadeva were set to music, and apparently by himself, and are yet sung by the Chaubes. The inhabitants of the various monastic establishments chant their addresses to the deity; and I have listened with delight to the modulated cadences of the hermits, singing the praises of Pataliswara from their pinnacled abode of Abu. It would be injustice to touch incidentally on the merits of the minstrel Dholi, who sings the warlike compositions of the sacred Bardai of Rajasthan.
[38]. The turai is the sole instrument of the many of the trumpet kind which is not dissonant. The Kotah prince has the largest band, perhaps, in these countries; instruments of all kinds—stringed, wind, and percussion. But as it is formed by rule, in which the sacred and shrill conch-shell takes precedence, it must be allowed that it is anything but harmonious.
[39]. [Mashak is the name of the leather water-bag. One of the late Rājas of Jind in the Panjāb had a bagpipe band, the musicians wearing kilts and pink leggings to make them look like their Highland originals. The Yanādis, a forest tribe in Madras, play the bagpipe (Thurston, Tribes and Castes, vii. 431).]
[40]. [For these observatories see A. ff. Garrett, Pandit Chandradhar Guleri, The Jaipur Observatory and its Builder, Allahabad, 1902; Fanshawe, Delhi Past and Present, 247 f.; M. A. Sherring, The Sacred City of the Hindus, 131 ff.; Asiatic Researches, v. 177 ff.]
[41]. [E. Terry, A Voyage to East India, ed. 1777, p. 185.] Those who wish for an opinion “of the most excellent moralities which are to be observed amongst the people of these nations” cannot do better than read the 14th section of the observant, intelligent, and tolerant chaplain, who is more just, at least on one point, than the modern missionary, who denies to the Hindu filial affection. “And here I shall insert another most needful particular to my present purpose which deserves a most high commendation to be given unto that people in general, how poor and mean soever they be; and that is, the great exemplary care they manifest in their piety to their parents, that notwithstanding they serve for very little, but five shillings a moon for their whole livelihood and subsistence, yet if their parents be in want, they will impart, at the least, half of that little towards their necessities, choosing rather to want themselves than that their parents should suffer need.” It is in fact one of the first precepts of their religion. The Chaplain thus concludes his chapter “On the Moralities of the Hindu” [232 f.]: “O! what a sad thing is it for Christians to come short of Indians, even in moralities; come short of those, who themselves believe to come short of heaven!” The Chaplain closes his interesting and instructive work with the subject of Conversion, which is as remote from accomplishment at this day as it was at that distant period. “Well known it is that the Jesuits there, who, like the Pharisees that would ‘compass sea and land to make one proselyte’ (Matt. xxiii. 15), have sent into Christendom many large reports of their great conversions of infidels in East India. But all these boastings are but reports; the truth is, that they have there spilt the precious water of Baptism upon some few faces, working upon the necessity of some poor men, who for want of means, which they give them, are contented to wear crucifixes; but for want of knowledge in the doctrine of Christianity are only in name Christians.”[[A]]
[A]. A Voyage to East India, 427.