Cookery, Medicine.
Superstitions.
VALLEY OF UDAIPUR.
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[1]. Manu, Laws, v. 157, 160, 161.
[2]. Were all Manu’s maxims on this head collected, and with other good authorities, printed, circulated, and supported by Hindu missionaries, who might be brought to advocate the abolition of Satiism, some good might be effected. Let every text tending to the respectability of widowhood be made prominent, and degrade the opponents by enumerating the weak points they abound in. Instance the polyandry which prevailed among the Pandus, whose high priest Vyasa was an illegitimate branch; though above all would be the efficacy of the abolition of polygamy, which in the lower classes leaves women destitute, and in the higher condemns them to mortification and neglect. Whatever result such a course might produce, there can be no danger in the experiment. Such sacrifices must operate powerfully on manners; and, barbarous as is the custom, yet while it springs from the same principle, it ought to improve the condition of women, from the fear that harsh treatment of them might defeat the atonement hereafter. Let the advocate for the abolition of this practice by the hand of power read attentively Mr. Colebrooke’s essay, “On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu Widow,” in the fourth volume of the Asiatic Researches [Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus, ed. 1858, p. 70 ff.], to correct the notion that there is no adequate religious ordinance for the horrid sacrifice. Mr. C. observes (p. 220): “Though an alternative be allowed, the Hindu legislators have shown themselves disposed to encourage widows to burn themselves with their husband’s corpse.” In this paper he will find too many authorities deemed sacred for its support; but it is only by knowing the full extent of the prejudices and carefully collecting the conflicting authorities, that we can provide the means to overcome it. Jahangir legislated for the abolition of this practice by successive ordinances. At first he commanded that no woman, being mother of a family, should under any circumstances be permitted, however willing, to immolate herself; and subsequently the prohibition was made entire when the slightest compulsion was required, “whatever the assurances of the people might be.” The royal commentator records no reaction. We might imitate Jahangir, and adopting the partially prohibitive ordinance, forbid the sacrifice where there was a family to rear. [The early texts on the subject of Sati have been collected by H. H. Wilson, Essays and Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus, 1881, ii. 270 ff. Also see Max Müller, Selected Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion, 1881, i. 332 ff.
[3]. [On Sati shrines and records of their deaths at Bikaner see General G. Hervey, Some Records of Crime, i. 209 f., 238 ff.]
[4]. The Ghakkars, a Scythic race inhabiting the banks of the Indus, at an early period of history were given to infanticide. “It was a custom among them,” says Ferishta, “as soon as a female child was born, to carry her to the market-place and there proclaim aloud, holding the child in one hand and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might now take her; otherwise she was immediately put to death. By this means they had more men than women, which occasioned the custom of several husbands to one wife. When this wife was visited by one of her husbands, she set up a mark at the door, which being observed by any of the others who might be coming on the same errand, he immediately withdrew till the signal was taken away.”
[This quotation from Ferishta is taken from Dow (2nd ed. i. 138 f.). Compare Briggs’ trans., i. 183 f. This account is denied by the present members of the tribe (Rose, Glossary, ii. 275). Much that is said about them refers to the Khokhar tribe (Elliot-Dowson v. 166, note).]