* Candi Ráo, Candi Ráo of Carpa, or Caddapa.) The most general practice on formal occasions is that common in most parts of Asia, of adding the father's name to that of the son; but this practice may, perhaps, have been borrowed from the Mussulmans. An European reader might be led to call a person indifferently by either of his names, or to take the first or last for shortness; but the first might be the name of a town, and the last the name of the person's father, or of his cast, and not his own. Another difficulty arises, chiefly among the Mahometans, from their frequent change of title; as is the case with our own nobility. CHAP. XI. The Hindús in general burn their dead, but Funerals. men of the religious orders are buried in a sitting posture cross-legged. A dying man is laid out of doors, on a bed of sacred grass. Hymns and prayers are recited to him, and leaves of the holy basil scattered over him. If near the Ganges, he is, if possible, carried to the side of that river. It is said that persons so carried to the river, if they recover, do not return to their families; and there are certainly villages on the Ganges which are pointed out as being entirely inhabited by such people and their descendants; but the existence of such a custom is denied by those likely to be best informed; and the story has probably originated in some misconception. After death, * Men's offices also often afford a distinguishing appellation. BOOK the body is bathed, perfumed, decked with flowers, and immediately carried out to the pyre. It is enjoined to be preceded by music, which is still observed in the south of India. There, also, the corpse is exposed on a bed with the face painted with crimson powder. In other parts, on the contrary, the body is carefully covered up. Except in the south, the corpse is carried without music, but with short exclamations of sorrow from the attendants. The funeral pile for an ordinary person is not above four or five feet high; it is decorated with flowers, and clarified butter and scented oils are poured upon the flames. The pyre is lighted by a relation, after many ceremonies and oblations; and the relations, after other observances, purify themselves in a stream, and sit down on a bank to wait the progress of the fire. They present a melancholy spectacle on such occasions, wrapped up in their wet garments, and looking sorrowfully on the pyre. Neither the wet dress nor the sorrow is required by their religion: on the contrary, they are enjoined to alleviate their grief by repeating certain verses, and to refrain from tears and lamentations.* * The following are among the verses: "Foolish is he who seeks permanence in the human state, unsolid like the stem of the plantain tree, transient like the foam of the sea." "All that is low must finally perish; all that is elevated must ultimately fall." Unwillingly do the Manes taste the tears and rheum shed The Hindús seldom erect tombs, except to men who fall in battle, or widows who burn with their husbands. Their tombs resemble small square altars. The obsequies performed periodically to the dead have been fully explained in another place.* I may mention here the prodigious expense sometimes incurred on those occasions. A Hindú family in Calcutta were stated in the newspapers for June, 1824, to have expended, besides numerous and most costly gifts to distinguished Bramins, the immense sum of 500,000 rupees (50,000l.) in alms to the poor, including, I suppose, 20,000 rupees, which it is mentioned that they paid to release debtors.t СНАР. XI. It is well known that Indian widows sometimes Sattis. sacrifice themselves on the funeral pile of their husbands, and that such victims are called Sattis. The period at which this barbarous custom was introduced is uncertain. It is not alluded to by Menu, who treats of the conduct proper for faithful and devoted widows, as if there were no doubt about their surviving their husbands. It is thought by some to have been recognised in ancient authorities, particularly in the Rig Véda; but others deny this con by their kinsmen: then do not wail, but diligently perform the obsequies of the dead."— Colebrooke, in Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 244. *Book I. p. 80. + Quarterly Oriental Mazagine for September, 1824, p. 23. Book V. 156, &c. BOOK IIL struction of the text. It certainly is of great antiquity, as an instance is described by Diodorus (who wrote before the birth of Christ), and is stated to have occurred in the army of Eumenes upwards of 300 years before our æra. The claim of the elder wife to preference over the younger, the Indian law against the burning of pregnant women, and other similar circumstances mentioned in his narrative, are too consistent with Hindú institutions, and the ceremonies are too correctly described, to leave the least doubt that Diodorus's account is authentic, and that the custom was as fully, though probably not so extensively, established in the time of Eumenes as at present. The practice is ascribed by Diodorus, as it still is by our missionaries, to the degraded condition to which a woman who outlives her husband is condemned. If the motive were one of so general an influence, the practice would scarcely be so rare. It is more probable that the hopes of immediately entering on the enjoyment of heaven, and of entitling the husband to the same felicity, as well as the glory attending such a voluntary sacrifice, are sufficient to excite the few enthusiastic spirits who go through this awful trial. It has been said that the relations encourage self * See Translations by Rája Rám Móhan Roy, pp. 200-266. See also Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 205., and Professor Wilson, Oxford Lectures, p. 19. + Diodorus Siculus, lib. xix. cap. ii. The custom is also mentioned, but much less distinctly, by Strabo, on the authority of Aristobulus and Onesicritus. immolation for the purpose of obtaining the pro- The mode of concremation is various in Bengal, the living and dead bodies are stretched on a pile where strong ropes and bamboos are thrown across them so as to prevent any attempt to rise. In Orissa, the woman throws herself into the pyre, which is below the level of the ground. In the Deckan, the woman sits down on the pyre with her husband's head in her lap, and remains there till suffocated, or crushed by the fall of a heavy roof of logs of wood, which is fixed by cords to posts at the corners of the pile. The sight of a widow burning is a most painful one; but it is hard to say whether the spectator is СНАР. XI. |