In the immediate vicinity of this place, and scattered about among the higher points of the hills, the aboriginal tribe of Todas have their settlements, consisting of their peculiar-shaped huts, crowded together as if for mutual defence. Of their original history, not a trace, not even tradition remains; but other native hill races look upon them as the original owners of the soil, and pay them in its produce, for the Todas neither cultivate nor perform manual labour of any other kind, except that certain members of each village community have the duties assigned to them of milking their kine, and preparing their ghee, or clarified butter. They practice polyandry.[258] Infanticide was frequent among them until suppressed under the action of Government.
Very charming as a health resort was “the Southern Sanatorium” found to be. Temperature moderate in degree and range, relatively cooler than that of England in summer, warmer in winter, it possesses greater advantages in these respects than corresponding places in the Himalayan range. Thus, the mean shade temperature is—in January, 53° F.; February, 56°; March, 62°; April, 63°; May, 62°; June, 60°; July, 58°; August, 58°; September, 56°; October, 58°; November, 56°; December, 53°. Annual rainfall, 48 inches; rainy days, 19; with occasional showers, 81; cloudy, 28; clear and fine, 238 = 365. In the month of January, with a shade temperature of 53° F., that in the sun was 118° F.
A visit to Bangalore presented several items of interest. One was the peculiar method by which native workmen split off flakes of the sienite rock that there abounds; the process comprising the application of long-continued heat to the surface, after which the use of chisel, hammer, and percussion so applied as to produce the effect desired. A good deal of comment was the outcome of a visit paid to a “condemned” barrack building, in which was accommodated the band of an infantry regiment—the walls of the edifice in so tumble-down a condition that practice was prohibited lest the vibration caused by the musical instruments should shake the remainder to pieces.
The old fort well repaid a visit to it. In 1791 it was captured by the forces under Lord Cornwallis, the breaches then effected being still traceable by the soft material with which they were filled up, while the broad deep ditch around the fortress remains to a great extent in its original condition. Among the dungeons in which Tippoo Sultan was wont to imprison his captives that of Sir David Baird was indicated to us; as also the wheel to which the captives were put for the double purpose of raising water for palace use, and amusing thereby the ladies of the zenana.
With health unrestored, but rather deteriorated, duty had to be resumed. An important item connected therewith was the inspection of ships arriving with troops, or engaged for the conveyance of others homewards, considerable exposure and fatigue necessarily undergone in its performance. That risk to life was run in persisting to remain at my post, instead of leaving India, was sufficiently clear to myself; but circumstances determined me to run that risk.
Early in 1866 duty[259] took me to Benares. An excursion through the narrow streets and to the shrines within that ancient city was interesting, as a similar visit had been on a previous occasion. The aspect of those streets, the style of dress of the people, their modes of buying and selling, their religious observances, at the present day unchanged since a date six centuries B.C., when, as history records, Kasi was a flourishing city. The temple of Bisheshwar, “the poison god”—a personification of Siva, the special deity of Benares, the object of pilgrimage to thousands of Hindoos—has within it the shrine in the shape of a black stone, ever kept wet by Ganges water, before which their special acts of devotion are performed. The minarets and tapering summit of the temple still resplendent with gold gilding, with which they were last decorated at the expense of Runjeet Singh, of the Punjab. In close vicinity is the Gyan Kup, or “Well of Knowledge,” in which Siva is believed by her worshippers to dwell, but from which arises offensive odours from decomposing floral offerings. In the “golden temple” itself is a figure representing the Kutwal, or judicial officer of Bisheshwar, in his hand a club, at his feet two dogs of stone—Orion and Canes venatici.
Numerous other temples stand in the near vicinity of this the largest and most important of all. Of these, one of small dimensions is sacred to Sanichar, otherwise Saturn, the face of the deity being of a blue or leaden hue. A second is dedicated to the goddess Anpoorna, of whom it is related that when Benares was first established as a city, a famine having occurred she supplied grain, Gunga, or the river Ganges, giving water, and so the people were fed; the custom then established of giving a daily allowance of grain and water being still continued, as witnesssed by ourselves. A third temple visited was dedicated to the Sun. Within it is a painting in which the great luminary is represented in a chariot drawn by seven horses, clearly the prototype of Phœbus and his car. A fourth, dedicated to Sukreshwar, or Venus, is much frequented by women ambitious to become mothers of handsome sons. To the courtesy and kindness of Dr. J. A. Dunbar, whose historical knowledge of these and other places visited was great, I was indebted for a most pleasant and interesting excursion.
Close to the river edge stood a temple to Sitala, goddess of small-pox, the deity being a stone much worn; before it three female devotees made poojah in hopes of thereby obtaining immunity against or cure of the disease for themselves and relations—a practice adopted also and in like manner by the Chinese. Nangrah, or the temple of the seven planets, after which are named the days of the week, was old and dilapidated, not having been “restored” from the time of the Mahomedan conquest, A.D. 1017, when, like many others, it was much injured. A small, square-shaped tank, the Nand Kunka, is said to be the point of junction between the Ganges, Jumna, and “sacred” Suruswattee; but inasmuch as a similar union is assigned to Prague, i.e. Allahabad, tradition seems to be at fault somewhere. Hindoos believe that those who bathe in that Pool of Siloam at Benares attain immortality. An object of different kind visited by us was the Man Mundee, or old observatory erected by Rajah Jey Singh, A.D. 1693, at the same time as that at Delhi, and, like it, now ruined. On the way to cantonments is the house in which dwelt Warren Hastings, 1773–1781; at a little distance that in which, in 1799, Mr. Davis repelled single-handed the attack by followers of Wazir Ali,[260] after the latter had been deposed from the throne of Oude by Sir John Shore, at that time Governor-General.
At a distance of a few miles, on a plain anciently known as the Deer Park, are the ruins of Sarnath, a city said to date from the fourth century B.C., to have been the place where Sakya Muni first publicly preached the doctrines of Buddhism, and to have been destroyed by fire in the seventh century A.D. On a mound formed by ruins stood a pillar like that of the Birs Nimroud. A second pillar had on it carvings and scrolls peculiar to the Buddhists, whose style of architecture was subsequently adopted by the Hindoos, to be reproduced in their temples.
A sad and to me affecting visit was to the grave of my dear infant. As I wrote at the time of his deplored death, so now, many years thereafter, the impression of the loved child comes vividly upon me.[261]