from the miseries of a widow-life. Choitunya must have witnessed and deplored the horrors of Sutteeism, and lamented the degradation of Hindoo females, before he could have had the incentive to interest himself in the amelioration of their condition. To him is due the credit of having first introduced that great social reform-the re-marriage of Hindoo widows, a measure which must be acknowledged to have an indirect tendency towards the suppression of Sutteeism. The liberal-minded Akber is said to have 'permitted. widows to marry a second time, contrary to the Hindoo law; above all, he positively prohibited the burning of Hindoo widows against their will, and took effectual precautions to ascertain that their resolution was free and uninfluenced. On one occasion, hearing that the Rajah of Jodhpoor was about to force his son's widow to the pile, he mounted his horse and rode post to the spot to prevent the intended sacrifice.' But he cannot claim the merit of originality in these measures. must have caught the cue from Choitunya, who preceded him by half a century, and whose doctrines had produced a great impression upon the age. The honour of the first innovator and reformer can never be denied to Choitunya, who left the plant to grow upon a sluggish soil. To Pundit Eswara Chundra Bidyasagur, should be conceded the credit of having revived a measure which had gone into desuetude, of making a dead letter take a fresh effect, of giving to it a political significance through the assistance of the legislature, of displaying the most energetic exertions, and a most

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Choitunya worshipped.

35

unexampled self-denial, especially amongst the Bengalees, in the carrying-out of that measure, and of maintaining his ground against disheartening crosses, losses, and disappointments. Justly has he entitled himself to be remembered by the Hindoo widows-and the rude portion of lower society has popularized his name in ballads sung about the streets, and in the borders of cloths chiefly esteemed by women, but history shall award the first place to Choitunya, and the next to him.

Old Menu was for burning and turning the dead into vapours. But Choitunya seems to have set aside his rule, and brought sumajs, or burials, into fashion. The most eminent of his followers have all of them the honours of sepulture done to their ashes. The sumaj is something between a Mahomedan burial and Menu's incremation. It entombs only a bone or the ashes of the dead. The sumaj of Joydeva has the priority of all in Bengal.

To nothing does Nuddea owe its celebrity so much as for its being the scene of the life and labours of Choitunya. On inquiring about the spot of his birth, they pointed to the middle of the stream which now flows through Old Nuddea. The Brahmins here revere him as an extraordinary man, but deny his incarnation. His own followers regard him as an Avatar, and pay to him divine honours. They have erected to him a temple, and placed in it his image with that of his great coadjutor, Nityanunda. One-fifth of the population of Bengal are now followers of Choitunya. Nearly

all the opulent families in Calcutta belong to his sect. He resuscitated Brindabun, and extended his influence to that remote quarter. But his tenets exercise their greatest influence in Bengal, where they have spread far and wide even up to Assam. Though he may not have succeeded in producing a general re-action in favour of the re-marriage of widows, he has put down Tantricism, its crimes and scandals, with a complete success. It is now rare to hear of Bhoyrubee-chuckras-none dare to incur the odium of their celebration, and become objects of derision. His successors, the Gossains, are still held in great veneration, and maintained by contributions from the flock. The innovations of Choitunya have produced an important era in Bengal, which deserves a prominent notice that history has not yet taken. His sect may justly boast of many illustrious names, of eminent scholars, and men of parts and learning. Choitunya's followers are known by the name of Byragees. The genuine Byragee is at once known from other men by his shaven head with a tuft in the middle, his naked person scarcely hid by any clothing, his body covered with prints of Heri's name and feet in ghooteen, his numerous strings of beads, his rosary and evertwirling fingers, his smooth face, his soft manners, his urbane speech, and his up-turned nose at the name of fish. The Brahmin and the Bygaree have no sympathy between themselves. Each is the jest and butt of the other. The anti-caste movement inaugurated by Choitunya has been taken up by the Kurtavajas. Young Bengal filibusters about intermarriage, but nevertheless

The worship of Kali.

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the antipathy between a Kayest and Bunya is as strong as between a Hindoo and Mussulman.

From the temple of Choitunya we had to pass through a deserted quarter, where a hardly discernible trace of debris was pointed out as marking the site of Agum Bagish's abode. He it was who, Jupiter-like, first produced the image af Kali from his creative fancy, and instituted the worship of the female generative principle under that form. There is an impression that Kali is the goddess of the aborigines, and that she has been worshipped from the pre-Vedic ages. But a study of the history of the Hindoo religion, and its various phases, is highly suggestive of the foreign origin of Hindoo idolatry. The worship of sacti seems to have been introduced from the Egyptians and Assyrians, and the image of Doorga is unquestionably a modified type of Ken and Astarte. The image of Kali is an original of the Hindoos, the worship of which is inculcated in the Upa-Poorans, written at a considerably later period than the Poorans, which first originated the idolatry of the Hindoos. In the worship of Kali may be traced the first origin of Tantricism, and her image may have been first set up by Agum Bagish in Nuddea. The age of this sage is not remembered to clear up all doubts upon the subject; and it is also to be questioned whether the quarter in which the site of his house is pointed is a part of old Nuddea that has been spared by the river.

In proof of the great antiquity of Nuddea, the Brahmins show you their great tutelary goddess called

Pora-mace, a little piece of rough black stone painted with red ochre, and placed beneath the boughs of an aged banian tree. She is said to have been in the heart of the jungles with which Nuddea was originally covered, and to have suffered from the fire which Rajah Kasinauth's men had lighted up to burn down the jungles. The naturally black stone is supposed by them to have been charred by fire. The banian tree is at least a hundred years old. It is a proof that the river has not encroached upon this quarter of old Nuddea. Near Pora-maee, has been put up a very big image of Kali by Rajah Krishna Chunder Roy in a lofty temple.

The wealthiest man in Nuddea is a brazier by birth and profession, but who has risen to be a millionnaire. He has more than eight hundred braziery shops in all the principal towns and villages of Bengal, Orissa, and Hindoostan. In his house we saw a Kam-dhenú, reminding of old Vashishta's Nandini. The Kam-dhenú is a rare animal, which receives greater justice at the hands of Brahmins than of naturalists. It is a cow which gives milk without breeding, and is worshipped for its copiousness.

Much of Nuddea's fame rests upon its being an ancient seat of learning, which has exercised a great influence upon the politics, morals, and manners of the Bengalees. It is chiefly noted to be the great school of Niaya philosophy. But it has produced scholars in law, whose opinions still regulate the disposal of Hindoo property in Bengal, and rule the fate of Hindoo widows.