We left the pagoda by a corridor leading through one of the gopurams into the street, immediately in front of the great choultry erected by Tirumalla Naik. It consists of an immense hall of granite, 300 feet long by 80, supported by upwards of a hundred pillars of the same stone, elaborately carved, and about thirty feet high. One of them is formed of a single block of granite. Figures of the Madura kings of the Naik dynasty are carved on these pillars, amongst whom is Tirumalla Naik, the founder of the edifice. One curious group of carved figures represents a tradition of the old Pandyan times. It is related that a rich farmer, living near Madura, had twelve sons, who passed their time in the chace. A wild hog once attacked them, killed some, and chased the rest to the vicinity of a sage engaged in meditation. The angry ascetic cursed them, declaring that, in their future life, they should be hogs themselves. They were born again as porkers, but Minakshi took pity on them, officiated as their nurse, and they became men with pig's heads, in which capacity they are sculptured on one of the pillars of the choultry. The pig-headed brethren were taught the arts and sciences, and were eventually advanced to the ministerial administration of the affairs of the Pandyan kingdom. The choultry was originally built as a magnificent approach to the temple, and to receive the image of the God Siva for ten days every year. It was crowded with people, and the spaces between the pillars were occupied by traders selling silks and cotton-cloths, turbans, bags for betel, and trinkets.
Next to the great pagoda and the choultry, the most interesting architectural remains of the former grandeur of Madura are the ruins of the palace of Tirumalla Naik. They consist of a large quadrangular court, now roofless,[454] but apparently once covered over, with side aisles supported by massive stone pillars, rendered almost double their original size by a thick coating of chunam, or lime made with pounded sea-shells, which takes a very fine polish, like marble. These columns are exceedingly handsome, and their capitals bear evidence of Italian design.[455] They are in double rows, and the roof of the aisles is most elaborately carved with mythological figures, originally painted in bright colours. Numerous green paroquets were screaming and flying about near the roof. At the end of this splendid court, opposite the street entrance, there is a broad flight of steps leading up to an inner hall, where columns of the same massive character support a richly carved roof. The whole building has an exceedingly imposing effect, and in the sombre melancholy of its decay it gives a grand idea of the former civilization of the Tamil people; but as the English Judge now holds his court in a portion of the ruins, we must not say, with the Persian poet,—
"The spider now weaves its web in the palace of Cæsar,
The owl stands sentinel on the watch-tower of Afrasiab."
Tirumalla Naik also constructed a great tank, about a mile outside the town, said to be the finest in Southern India. It is an exact square, with sides 300 yards long faced with granite, and flights of steps down to the water, at intervals. In the centre there is a square island, rising in broad flights of steps from the water, and covered with a grove of trees, above which rises the tall tower of a pagoda.
The town of Madura, situated on the banks of the river Vaigay, contains about 50,000 inhabitants. It is by far the cleanest and best built city that I saw in India, with fine broad streets, and houses with tiled roofs extending far beyond the walls, so as to form verandahs supported by poles. Here and there a house with an upper story, belonging to some wealthy citizen, rose above the rest; and in the bazars there was a strong sickly smell of spices. Madura is indebted, for its superiority over other Indian towns, to Mr. Blackburn, a former Collector, and the inhabitants have erected a lamp on a tall pedestal to his memory.
On the day of my visit to the pagoda, the streets were densely crowded, the women were decked out in all their finery, and those of the Brahmin caste had their faces hideously stained with saffron. It was a festival in honour of some cow or other, who had been turned into a rock, through the excess of her love for Nandi, the bull on which the God Siva rides. The religious feelings of the people are displayed in these festivals, and whether they worship and venerate the stone or wooden image, or the attributes of God-like virtue and wisdom which the emblems connected with the image are intended to represent, my observations led me to believe that, in all classes, there was a display of most undoubted sincerity. In connection with their religious observances, the people of Southern India feel very strongly on the subject of caste distinctions. The Brahmins are fair skinned, of Aryan descent, and comparatively strangers, having been barely a thousand years in the country.[456] Next come the Sudras, who represent the upper classes of the Tamil race. The Vellaler or agricultural caste comes next, and then the Maravar and Kallar, or robber castes. The Prince of Ramnad, who is hereditary guardian of Rama's bridge, belongs to the Maravars, and the Rajah of Tondiman to the Kallars. Below the robber castes are the Shanars or toddy-drawers, who are free and proprietors of land; then the Pariars[457] and chucklers or slaves; then the Korawars or vagrant basket-makers, and last of all the shoemakers and low-caste washermen.
The higher castes had recently been outraged by the Shanars having been allowed to go in procession along the road, on the occasion of a marriage at Arpucaté, a populous mercantile town in the Madura district. This was done in defiance of all ancient customs and usages connected with caste, which are clearly defined and acknowledged by all classes of Hindus. The high-caste people defend their feeling of exclusiveness by urging that the Shanars and Pariars are guilty of one or other of the five great sins, namely, killing the sacred cow, theft, drunkenness, adultery, and lying: for that the Shanars draw toddy, and the Pariars eat meat. They claim for immemorial custom the same authority that is given in England to common law, and declare that the Shanars never had the right of parading the streets in procession, with music and flags. In considering this question it should not be forgotten that the Shanars and other low castes will no more allow a man of still lower caste to overstep his privileges by one hair's breadth than will a Sudra or a Brahmin. Even the Pariars are a well-defined, distinct, and ancient caste, jealous of the encroachments of the castes both above and below them: they have strong caste feelings, and treat the caste of shoemakers with contempt.[458] Thus, if the Shanars and Pariars insist upon their own caste privileges, it is difficult to see why they should be permitted to infringe upon those of the castes above them; and it would seem that a feeling of content and satisfaction with our rule would be best promoted by ensuring to all classes of the community the exclusive enjoyment of their own peculiar usages and privileges.
Caste is one among many instances of the peculiar exaggerations in which the Hindu mind loves to indulge. The social distinctions which prevail in other countries are represented in India by this institution, in which those distinctions are, not altogether illogically, carried to an extreme point. Caste may be modified and rendered less harsh in its general outline; but it will never cease to exist. The Protestant missionaries, of course, declare war to the knife against it, as a system of falsehood and deceit, and an absurdity contrary both to reason and revelation. This may be true, as well as that Brahmins get drunk, and eat asafœtida-cakes in which buffalo flesh forms an ingredient, without losing their caste; but missionary denunciations of caste absurdity, and exposures of Brahminical irregularities, are not likely to make the slightest impression on the minds of a people with whom caste distinctions are hallowed by immemorial usage, and bound up in every act of their lives. The favourite missionary receipt is, therefore, to deprive Brahmins of their Enam or rent-free lands, to induce Government entirely to disavow caste, to put an end to all caste distinctions in jails, and to raise the Pariars and Chucklers from their degradation.[459] A very summary plan no doubt, but as impracticable as it would be impolitic and unjust.
After a most delightful visit at Madura, I started for Trichinopoly late one night, and found the road so execrable in some places, that it was necessary to go off into the fields, and make a long circuit. The country between Madura and Trichinopoly is chiefly cultivated with dry grain, but there are occasional patches of rice. Ranges of rocky hills intersect the plain, covered with underwood and low trees, which the natives are allowed to use for firewood, but, when they carry it off for sale, in cart-loads, there is a small duty. I walked most of the distance under the shade of the peepul and banyan-trees which line the road, and reached Trichinopoly after a journey of a day and two nights.