Manu commands that whoever accosts a woman shall do so by the title of “sister,”[[17]] and that “way must be made for her, even as for the aged, for a priest, a prince, or a bridegroom”; and in the admirable text on the laws of hospitality, he ordains that “pregnant women, brides, and damsels shall have food before all the other guests”[[18]]; which, with various other texts, appears to indicate a time when women were less than now objects of restraint; a custom attributable to the paramount dominion of the Muhammadans, from whose rigid system the Hindus have borrowed. But so many conflicting texts are to be found in the pages of Manu, that we may pronounce the compilation never to have been the work of the same legislator: from whose dicta we may select with equal facility texts tending to degrade as to exalt the sex. For the following he would meet with many plaudits: “Let women be constantly supplied with ornaments at festivals and jubilees, for if the wife be not elegantly attired, she will not exhilarate her husband. A wife gaily adorned, the whole house is embellished.”[[19]] In the following text he pays an unequivocal compliment to her power: “A female is able to draw from the right path in this life, not a fool only, but even a sage, and can lead him in subjection to desire or to wrath.” With this acknowledgment from the very fountain of authority, we have some ground for asserting that les femmes font les mœurs, even in Rajputana; and that though immured and invisible, their influence on society is not less certain than if they moved in the glare of open day.
Position of Rājput Women.
Rājput Character.
Again: “The Hindus are religious, affable, courteous to strangers, cheerful, enamoured of knowledge, lovers of justice, able in business, grateful, admirers of truth, and of unbounded fidelity in all their dealings. Their character shines brightest in adversity. Their soldiers (the Rajputs) know not what it is to fly from the field of battle; but when the success of the combat becomes doubtful, they dismount from their horses, and throw away their lives in payment of the debt of valour.”[[24]]
I shall conclude this chapter with a sketch of their familiar habits, and a few of their indoor and outdoor recreations.