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diff --git a/old/50346-0.txt b/old/50346-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cdeeb6b..0000000 --- a/old/50346-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5716 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of India, by Otto Rothfeld - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Women of India - -Author: Otto Rothfeld - -Illustrator: M. V. Dhurandhar - -Release Date: October 30, 2015 [EBook #50346] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF INDIA *** - - - - -Produced by Julie Barkley and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - -[Illustration: A BOMBAY LADY] - - - - - WOMEN OF INDIA - - _BY_ - OTTO ROTHFELD, F.R.G.S., I.C.S. - - AUTHOR OF - ‘INDIAN DUST,’ ‘LIFE AND ITS PUPPETS’ - ‘WITH PEN AND RIFLE IN KISHTWAR’ - - _ILLUSTRATED BY_ - M.V. DHURANDHAR - - BOMBAY - D.B. TARAPOREVALA SONS & CO. - - _Printed in Great Britain - by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_ - - DEDICATED - WITH THE DEVOTION OF A LIFETIME - TO THE KINDEST OF FRIENDS - MRS ARGYLL ROBERTSON - A CONSTANT WELL-WISHER OF - INDIAN WOMANHOOD - - - - -Contents - - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. AS THEY ARE 1 - - II. MARRIAGE IN INDIA 15 - - III. THE HINDU WOMAN IN MARRIAGE 31 - - IV. THE LADIES OF THE ARISTOCRACY 61 - - V. THE MIDDLE CLASSES 89 - - VI. THE WORKING AND ABORIGINAL CLASSES 127 - - VII. THE DANCING GIRL 149 - - VIII. WOMAN’S DRESS 175 - - IX. THE MOVING FINGER 197 - - - - -List of Illustrations - - - NO. FACING PAGE - - 1. A BOMBAY LADY _Frontispiece_ - - 2. A PATHARE PRABHU 7 - - 3. WATER-CARRIER FROM AHMEDABAD 8 - - 4. SWEEPER 10 - - 5. FISHER WOMAN OF SIND 19 - - 6. MUSSULMAN ARTISAN FROM KÁTHIAWÁD 23 - - 7. PATHAN WOMAN 26 - - 8. BORAH LADY FROM SURAT 30 - - 9. A BRAHMAN LADY GOING TO THE TEMPLE 37 - - 10. FROM JODHPUR 44 - - 11. A MILL-HAND 53 - - 12. A MAHAR WOMAN 60 - - 13. LADY FROM MEWÁR 69 - - 14. RAJPUT LADY FROM CUTCH 76 - - 15. MAHRATTI LADY 78 - - 16. NAIR LADY 83 - - 17. MUSSULMAN LADY OF NORTHERN INDIA 87 - - 18. FROM BURMAH 90 - - 19. LADY FROM MYSORE 94 - - 20. A SOUTHERN INDIAN TYPE 97 - - 21. BENGALI LADY 99 - - 22. A NÁGAR BEAUTY 101 - - 23. JAIN NUN 108 - - 24. BHATIA LADY 110 - - 25. KHOJA LADY IN BOMBAY 112 - - 26. MEMAN LADY WALKING 117 - - 27. PARSI FASHION 124 - - 28. DYER GIRL IN AHMEDABAD 129 - - 29. MUSSULMAN WEAVER 131 - - 30. CAMBAY TYPE 133 - - 31. THE MILKMAID 135 - - 32. A FISHWIFE OF BOMBAY 138 - - 33. TODA WOMAN IN THE NILGIRIES 140 - - 34. GOND WOMAN 142 - - 35. BHIL GIRL 145 - - 36. DANCER IN MIRZAPUR 154 - - 37. MUSSULMAN NAUTCH-GIRL 160 - - 38. DANCER FROM TANJORE 165 - - 39. NAIKIN IN KANARA 172 - - 40. GIPSY WOMAN 177 - - 41. A GURKHA’S WIFE 181 - - 42. A GLIMPSE AT A DOOR IN GUJARÁT 183 - - 43. A WIDOW IN THE DECCAN 186 - - 44. A WOMAN OF THE UNITED PROVINCES 188 - - 45. IN THE HAPPY VALLEY OF KASHMIR 208 - - 46. A DENIZEN OF THE WESTERN GHAUTS 213 - - 47. A WORKING WOMAN AT AJMERE 216 - - 48. BORN BESIDE THE SACRED RIVERS 220 - - - - -As they are - - “Oh hail! O bright great God, in the form of that brown-eyed - beautiful thing before me, that fills me with astonishment and - laughter and supreme delight.” - - _A Draught of the Blue._ PROFESSOR BAIN. - - - - -Chapter I - -AS THEY ARE - - -Others had written even before Vatsyana the Wise wrote his “Gospel -of Love.” At that time the power of the Yávans and the Sákas was -outstretched over the land. They were peoples that had come out of -Persia and Bactria and obscure Scythia, many of them men with the blood -of those Ionian soldiers who had marched with Alexander and settled -with Eastern wives under Eastern skies. The teachings of Gautama, the -Indian prince, they had made their own; and to the countries in which -they ruled they had brought the peace of Buddha and the temperate -fruitions of Greece. On all the great trade-routes were monasteries -of Buddhist monks and large caravanserais for merchants and pilgrims. -Even as far as the sands of Lopnor, far across the roof of the world, -and to the Gobi desert, where the Chinese land begins, the tribes that -gave rulers to India had set their posts and planted their colonies. -On cunningly-sealed wedges of wood they sent their royal orders to -the wardens of their frontiers and on palm-leaves from the Indian -coasts they inscribed the lore that gave the illumination of God to -settlements on the mountains and in the Central Asian deserts. In -the shrines or stupas that they raised to Buddha, the wise teacher, -they had dadoes and frescoes painted in tempera by some Titianus or -Heliodorus from the Hellenized Levant, adventurers of a fine Grecian -courage, who scattered their harmonious energies and their joy in -life over the Indian world. Along the trade-routes marched merchants’ -caravans, burdened with silks and rare spices, that found their way -from China to the Black Sea or the precarious ports on the Arabian -Coast. - -“Women,” wrote the professors of love, in that time of peace and -enjoyment, “can be divided into four classes. There is she who is -a pure lotus, and she who is fair as a picture, she whom they call -hag and witch, and she who can be likened only to the female of the -elephant.” Of her who is as a lotus they wrote: “Her face is pleasant, -like the full moon: her plump body is tender as the mustard flower: -her skin is fine and soft as the golden lotus, fair and undarkened. -Bright and beautiful are her eyes like those of the antelope, clear-cut -and healthful. Her breast is firm and full and uplifted, and her neck -shapely: her nose is straight and delightful. The scent of her body -is like a lily newly burst. She walks delicately like a swan and her -voice is low and musical as the note of the cuckoo, calling softly in -the summer day. She is clothed in clean white garments and she delights -in rich jewels and adornments. She is gracious and clever, pious and -respectful, a lover of God, a listener to the virtuous and the wise.” - -Of the manner of living of a virtuous woman it is further written by -Vatsyana the Wise: “A virtuous woman that hath affection to her husband -shall in all things act according to his wishes as if he were divine. -She shall keep the house well-cleansed and arrange flowers of every -kind in the different chambers and surround the house with a garden -and make the floor smooth and polished, so that all things be meet -and seemly. Above all she shall venerate the shrine of the Household -Deities. To the parents of her husband she shall behave as is meet and -proper, speaking to them in few words and softly, not laughing loud in -their presence, but being always quiet and respectful without self-will -and contradiction. She shall always consider in the kitchen what her -husband likes and dislikes and shall seek to please him. Always she -will sit down after him and rise before him: and when she hears his -footsteps as he returns home, she will get up and meet him and do -aught that he desires. If her husband do wrong, she shall not unduly -reproach him, but show him a slight displeasure and rebuke him in words -of fondness and affection. And when she goes to her husband when they -are alone, she will wear bright coloured garments and many jewels and -anklets and will perfume herself with sweet ointments and in her hair -place flowers.” - -Many generations have passed and other races--Hunas and Gujjars and -Mongols--have invaded India. And asceticism has squeezed the people in -its dry hand, and there has been war and bigotry and pestilence. Yet -even now the teachings are not quite forgotten. Many a one there still -is among the women of India, of whom it can with truth be said: “She is -even as a golden lotus.” - -Now, again, the sovereigns of India rule over many regions and send -their royal messages to the uttermost ends of the earth. Again the -great trade-routes pass through India and the merchandise of East and -of West meet in the harbours of Bombay and Calcutta. Castes and peoples -feel their way to a common nationality and a fresher spirit, and before -their eyes breaks the morning light of a new Renaissance. And in the -women of new India the old texts revive to a more vigorous flesh and -spirit. - -[Illustration: A PATHARE PRABHU] - -Stand of an evening on the Queen’s Road in Bombay, looking over the -wide curve of Back Bay, where the lights of the city fade away into -the distances of the sea and on the right the hill throws its contour -against the darkening sky. They pass here, brightly-clad, quietly -smiling, modestly distant, the women of India at their newest and -most modern, yet in essentials formed by the ancient rule. They are -discarding perhaps the habits of dark ages of misrule and superstition, -but they cling none the less to the spirit of old India--to those -principles hallowed at its best and freshest age. In their cars -the wives and children of rich merchants glide through the crowd. -On the back seat, in the shadow of the cabriolet top, a glimpse of -gold-brocade can be caught or the tone of a fair brown skin. Here a -Bhatia lady passes, come originally from the hot plains of the Cutch -Peninsula, the wife of a millionaire cotton-spinner or a financial -agent. Or there, in gracefully-draped mantle[1] and Paris-made shoes -and stockings, a Saraswat Brahman lady or a Pathare Prabhu, with that -lustrous pallor that is brought by the warm breezes from the sea, goes -on her way to her club to play tennis or drink afternoon tea. Seated in -open carriages or strolling along the pavement to taste the freshness -of the sea-breeze, are hundreds of Parsi girls, in dresses of every -hue, with the heavy velvet borders that they affect, gossiping, nodding -to their friends, laughing and chattering. Poorer women dart across -the street, pulling children after them through the busy traffic, and -carrying their youngest on their hip astride. A sweeper woman brushes -fallen leaves into the gutter. Through all the noise of motors and of -the trains that dash along the disfiguring railway, the sound of a bell -clanged at the temple door by a worshipper may be heard and, at sunset, -the call to prayer from the minaret of a mosque. Behind a high wall, -half-way down the fashionable drive, a red light rises against the -darkness from the flames which consume the city’s dead. - - [1] The _sari_ has throughout this book been rendered by - the English word “mantle,” though as an equivalent it is - misleading. For a description of the _sari_ as it is, see - Chapter VIII. - -Chiefly the notes that strike are of nature and sex. These women are -so thoroughly women, beyond and above all else. Except perhaps among -the Parsis, where English customs have been sometimes too closely -copied, there is no trace of the beings, women in age, but stunted -and warped and with the ignorance of children, that, seen in other -countries, create an uneasiness as at the touch of something unnatural -and perverse. Here are the clear brows and smiling faces of those -who _know_, to whom sex is a necessary part of life, and motherhood -a pride and duty. They dress and adorn themselves, because they are -women, with a husband to please and to govern. Their sex is frank and -admitted: as women they know their place in the world and as women -they seek a retiring modesty. Their very aloofness, their seclusion, -gives them half their charm: and they know it. Not for them, for -instance, the dismal methods of American schools, where mixed classes -and a common play-ground rub away all the attraction of the sexes and -make their growing pupils dully kin like brother and sister. In India -women are so much valued and attain half their power because they are -only occasionally seen and seldom met. It is the rarest flowers that -are sought at the peril of life itself. It is for the women who live -veiled and separated that men crave, captives of passion at a first -quick-taken glance. A wife who is not the familiar companion of every -walk or game, who is never seen through the long business hours--with -what delight the husband, unjaded by the constant sight of women in -street or office, seeks her at last in the inner apartments where she -waits with smiles and flowers! - -[Illustration: WATER-CARRIER FROM AHMEDABAD] - -How natural they are--true, that is, to the natural instincts and -purposes of women, not without womanly artifice--is most apparent -from a contrast. Their shyness, even their self-consciousness with -men, is of a woman’s nature. Their love of jewelry, their little -tricks of manner, why, the very way they stand are, after all, the -natural derivatives of womanhood. Of motherhood they have no shame: -they celebrate marriage and childbirth frankly with a fine candour. -Their garments drape them in soft flowing lines falling in downward -folds over the rounded contours of the body--draperies full of grace -and restful. In Europe women still adhere to a deformity brought in -by German barbarism in the dark ages. With curious appliances, they -distort and misshape the middle of their bodies from quite early -childhood till--the negation of all beauty--in place of a natural human -figure appear two disjunct parts joined, as it were, mechanically -by a tightened horizontal band. From their passive acceptance of -routine, women will bear traditional deformity, in spite of illness -and the constant weariness of nervous disorders. What is difficult to -understand is that--with all their wish to please--they can endure -its patent ugliness. Pleasing is the contrast of the Indian mantle, -gracefully draped over head and shoulders and falling in vertical folds -to the feet, and of the gaily-stitched and neat little fitting bodice -of the Hindu lady. Her head with its smooth hair, decked with simple -gold ornaments or fresh flowers, half covered by the silken veil, is -well poised and beautiful. - -She poses on it no twisted straws, dyed in metallic colours, no -fantastic covering, hung with pieces of dead bird. - -The step of the Indian woman walking is a thing of joy. It has in it -nothing of the mincing awkward shuffle or of the disgracious manly -stride. But at her best see her walking in the country villages, where -her frame is trained to a graceful poise by the constant carriage of -water-pots balanced on her head as she steps unshod down the dusty -lanes or the sloping banks of the river. - -[Illustration: SWEEPER] - -In the villages, indeed, it is round the well that woman’s life -circles. Where the dry plains stretch away westward from Ahmedabad -over land cast back by the sea, the walls of mud-built villages stand -square against the blank horizon, where they were raised against the -raids of Kathi or of Koli freebooters. Here in the hot spring months -from March to July, before the grey rains turn the land to a sticky -swamp, the sun from dawn to its setting beats savagely; on the sand. In -these little townships, high-walled, with iron-studded gates, the women -have to seek the well early. An hour before the day, before even the -false dawn throws its silver flicker over the sky, they come from every -quarter to the one great well which supplies the place. Oh! the early -morning chatter which wakes one from his sleep! Ropes and buckets -splash upon the water and pot rings against brass pot. They come in -scores, of every caste and age, merchants’ wives and pretty _noblesse_, -cultivators and labourers, old women, widows and mothers, and little -naked children--how frail and tender their lines!--hardly able to -stagger homewards under the load. With hurried prattle they talk of the -night and the coming day, of the prices of the bazaar and the scandal -of a wanton neighbour or the coming visit of a priest. The day dawns -and the full white orb of the sun, white living heat like molten metal, -rises suddenly into the level sky. The women finish drawing water as -best they can and turn home. They walk straight, those women, two -copper pots balancing easily on the head, another large pitcher lightly -held against the hip, easily moving as they talk and smile. No wonder -if a young man, idly, may sometimes stroll towards the well. For some -there are who looking on these women of Káthiawád passing, with golden -skins and full oval faces, must say to themselves, as said Solomon, -“How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights: this thy -stature is like to a palm-tree and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.” - -Next to the well, it is at the temple that the life of a woman centres. -For her every thought and act is moulded from childhood to the day -of death by the present reality of religion. Her childhood is an -adoration, marriage a sacrament, wifehood an oblation: in motherhood -she finds at once sacrifice and worship: while life and death alike -are a quest and a resignation. Life, as to herself she interprets it, -is not so much action as a response to divine ordinance, receptive -and submissive. She awaits love and may yield to joy: but she expects -them as a handmaiden, humbly, without striving and without insistence. -And the daily ritual in which her life of service finds its symbol is -the scattering of flowers upon the images of God, the singing of His -praises, and the circumambulation of His sacred shrine. At the temple -she makes her humble vows, for a husband’s kindness or the supreme gift -of childbirth. And there, from the fulness of her heart, she pours out -thanksgiving for the blessings of her state. And if at the end perhaps -she die childless and a widow, it is not singular if she leave her -wealth to the further endowment of the temple and the greater glory of -God Rama and his Sita, the divine pair of her worship. - -The heroism of Indian womanhood has found its loftiest expression in -the Rajput nobility, with the great Queens who have fought and been -slain in battle or self-immolated on the funeral pyre: its piety is -a transfiguration in the Brahman and the merchant class: and woman’s -love with its transcendent ecstasy burns like a glowing ember on the -hearth of every soul. But for devotion to labour, uninspired by any -ideal other than its mere fulfilment, one turns to the menial castes -that, from century to century, have lived closest to their own soil. -Thus on the stony uplands of the Deccan, the women of the untouchable -Mahars--descended probably from some once ruling race, long tragically -overthrown--labour without respite in the hard fields at their -husbands’ sides. But, furthermore, they bear and suckle children, cook -the family food and do the work of their poor household. Ceaseless -labour it is, done without bitterness, in a humble resignation. A rough -life, yet not without redemption! Their hardships are recognized and -their pleasures shared: they stand side by side with their menfolk, -comrades by their service. They hold themselves upright, not without -the pride of service, and to the eye that comprehends, they have even a -rough attraction, like a picture by Millet, in their sturdy strength, -earthy and fruitful. - -The book of Indian womanhood has many pages, and each page is -different, one from the other. Living in a wide continent, the speech -of one group of women is not as the speech of another. And in faith -they are not one, nor in blood nor habit. But though the leaves of the -book are of various type, yet they are all of one shape, bound in one -cloth and colour. For to all of them, above all else, is contentment -with their own womanhood, faith in religion and the natural hope of -love. An unremitting devotion and an unfailing tenderness, that is -the Indian woman’s service in the world; and it is her loving service -that has given its best to the land. India has had great preachers and -great thinkers, it has had and has brave soldiers. But more than the -men, more even than their best and bravest, it is the women who have -deserved well of the country. What they have won is the respect with -which all men behave to stranger women. It is a rule of Indian manners -that they should pass unnoticed and unremarked, even in the household -of a friend, and, except perhaps among the lowest ruffians, there is -none who would offend the modesty of a woman even by a gesture or an -unseemly recognition. They can pass in the midst of crowds, as nurses -pass in the most evil back-streets, without molestation or insult. For -the women of India have raised an ideal, lofty and selfless, for all -to behold: and they have come near its attainment. And with all its -self-sacrifice and abnegation, with all its unremitting service, the -ideal is not inhuman nor is it alien to the nature of womankind. It -allows for weaknesses, it is kind to faults, and it aspires frankly to -the joys of a fulfilment deserved by service. Not without reason did -the writers of old India liken the perfect woman of their land to a -lotus, in that she “is tender as a flower.” - - - - -Marriage in India - - “Thilke blissful lyf - That is betwixe an housband and his wyf: - And for to live under that holy bond - With which that first God man and womman bond. - ‘Non other lyf,’ sayde he, ‘is worth a bene: - For wedlock is so esy and so clene, - That in this world it is a paradys.’” - - _Marchantes Tale._ CHAUCER. - - - - -Chapter II - -MARRIAGE IN INDIA - - -In all countries, for a woman marriage has a significance not only -greater than but different in quality from the significance it has for -a man. It is not merely that to the man marriage is only one incident, -however far-reaching in its effects and values, among the recurrent -vicissitudes of life; while to the woman, even if it be so regarded, -it is at least the most conclusive of all incidents--that from which -depends not alone her own comfort but rather the fulfilment of her -whole being and function. A man’s life is made up of the intermittent -pursuit of many a quarry at the impulse of divergent passions, -projected from time to time in varying light upon the evenly-moving -background of the sub-conscious activities. He studies and his soul is -engrossed in the niceties of the arts or the subtleties of philosophy. -He finds satisfaction for his intellect and even his emotions in the -choice of the fitting phrase for a description. At another time he -rushes to sport, and, for many hours in the day and many days in the -month, finds pleasant fatigue and final occupation in stalking the stag -through the forest with its dry crackling leaves. In administration -he makes a career: and he may be busy day and night with problems of -finance, the just use of authority or the thousand questions of policy -in a developing civilization. Whatever his profession may be, his work -engages the greater portion of his life and all his highest and most -useful energies. A man’s pulse quickens its beat rapidly, and as easily -falls again to a slow extreme of indolence and indifference. He does -his best and finest work in the hours of rapid energy. It is then that -he fulfils those functions of creation and fruitful activity which -appertain to the male in the self-ordered organization of the world. -But among those his union with his mate is not the most important. -Rather it may be called the expenditure of a superfluous energy. -He needs his mate only in the moments of excited passion, when his -energies, unexhausted by duties that he counts more valuable, are at -their strongest. But as a companion he values the woman that is given -to him mainly in the hours of repose and leisure--those periods when -the over-stimulated mind and body sink to the level of an indolent -passivity. Companionship he seeks that his surroundings should be easy -and congenial, when his work is done and he is weary. Again, when a man -marries, he either has loved or will love other women and he knows in -his heart that the wife, who is to share and make his home, can be only -one, though perhaps the tenderest and sweetest, of his loving memories. -Herein, for the woman who gives him her love, is the irony. Only with -the man to whom all love is ashes and who can never kindle the fierce -flame of passion, can she expect the sole and exclusive possession to -which she is inclined by her own nature. From the man who can promise -her his only love, the gift is of little value and his love but the -thin shadow of a spectre. But she knows the man whose love is as a robe -of purple or a diadem of rubies cannot be for her alone, wholly hers. - -[Illustration: FISHER WOMAN OF SIND] - -To the woman, however, marriage is the incident of all incidents, that -one action to which all else in life--even the birth of her first -male-child--is subsidiary and subordinate. She goes to her mate, in -shyness and modesty, as to one who for the first time shall make -her truly woman. At his touch the whole world changes and the very -birds and flowers, the seas, the stars, and the heaven above, put -on a different colour and murmur a new music. In a moment the very -constitution of her body alters and her limbs take nobler curves and -her figure blooms to a new splendour. Her mind and emotions grow: and -the dark places which she had feared are seen to be sun-lit and lofty. -Marriage is to her more than an incident, however revolutionary. It -is rather the foundation of a new life, indeed a new life itself. For -her, henceforth, her whole existence is but the one fact of being -married. It is her career, her profession, her study, her joy, her -everything. She lives no longer in herself but rather as her man’s -wife. “Half-body,” the Sanscrit poets say, not untruly of the married -woman. - -In India, even more than in Europe, certainly more than in Northern -Europe, marriage is to a woman everything. In early childhood she -becomes aware, gradually and almost unconsciously, of the great central -facts of nature. She lives in a household in which, along with the -earning of daily bread, all talk freely of marriages and the birth -of children. When a brother or sister is born, she is not excluded, -and no one tells her tales of mysterious storks or cabbages. As she -grows older, she hears the stories of Sita, the divine wife, and of -Sakuntala, the loved princess: and the glowing winds of spring and the -burning sun help to bring her to a quick maturity. Around her she sees -her girl friends given in marriage to flower-crowned boy bridegrooms, -brought on gold-caparisoned horses with beating of drums and bursting -fire-works and much singing to the bridal bower and the sacred fire. -She learns of widowhood and the life-long austerities imposed on a -woman whose sin-haunted destiny drags her husband to the grave. In the -household prayers she sees that her father needs her mother at his side -for the due offering of oblations and the completion of the ritual. Of -a woman unmarried, not a widow, she never hears and the very notion can -hardly frame itself on the mirror of her mind. No wonder that, with her -earliest reflections, she bends her thoughts upon the husband that is -to come and to be her lord, to whom she will hold herself affianced by -the will of God through all the moving cycle of innumerable deaths and -existences. - -Matrimony in India, in nearly every case, is stamped by one of -two types, the marriage-contract of the Mussulmans, or the unions -sanctified in the vast and extremely complex social system that is -comprised under the general name of Hinduism. In theory, legally one -might say, marriage among the Mussulmans of India is a contract that -should in no way differ from that practised in other countries of -Islam. A man and a woman bind themselves or are bound by a voidable -contract which confers certain rights of maintenance and succession, -in consideration of mutual comfort and cherishing. The contract, but -not its sanction and consequences, can be repudiated at the man’s will -and, subject to certain intelligible limitations, at the claim of the -woman. In all cases proper and ample provision is and must be made -for the children. The woman who is divorced, or widowed, is in no way -prevented from entering upon a fresh contract with another husband, -rather she is encouraged and assisted so to do. Broadly speaking, -this is the legal position in every Mussulman marriage. No other -world-wide system has ever been so reasonable and so human. It is a -legislation passed through the mouth of its Founder for all followers -of the faith, as human beings bound in their relations to other men -and women only by justice, which is the ultimate morality of the -world. The interpretation of the Legislator’s act has varied slightly -in the jurisprudence of the “Four Pillars of the Faith,” the talented -authors of the four great law-schools of Islam. Among the Shiah sect -in Persia, also, the rulings have been somewhat modified and extended -in the judge-made law of the ecclesiastical courts: and contracts -for temporary marriages--marriages limited to a stated, sometimes a -short, period--have for example been recognized and ratified. But these -are all variations which show the more clearly how, in essence, the -matrimony of Islam is a thing of law, an agreement for certain purposes -and with certain consequences, between human beings regarded in their -capacity as agents in a very human world. That this should be so is, in -fact, a necessary consequence from the whole character of Islam. For -the very essence of Islam is its rationalism. God created the world -that He might be _known_. From the children of Adam He expects praise -and He exacts obedience and resignation. By His strength and will He -divides among them their shares of blissful or unkind environment. -But in the activities of human life, when they have satisfied the -requirements of prostration to the All-Powerful Creator, He leaves -them free to move as they will under the guidance of the highest human -morality--justice. In the verses that are concerned with the relations -between man and man, the Book of the Qor’an is as rational as the -ethics of Aristotle or the commentary of a student. Even the Persian -mystics, that were clad in wool, the children of the Tasawwuf--they who -represent Indo-Aryan mysticism outcropping from the level calculations -of the Semitic faith--sought, in the main, only to modify the attitude -of man to God. In place of obedience, with its scale of service and -reward, they set up a spiritual ecstasy of love, and in this love they -hoped to unite the human consciousness with the divine thought of -which it is a manifestation and in which it seeks absorption. But the -way with its four stages of ascent, by which they pointed the road to -final union with absolute Being, rarely traversed the ethics of human -action in the phenomenal world. With the commands of justice and with -the contracts which made possible and legitimate the companionship and -love of man and woman they never really sought to interfere. - -[Illustration: MUSSULMAN ARTISAN FROM KÁTHIAWÁD] - -This then is the plan, clear, reasonable, and humane. But in the -practice of India, it must be confessed, there have been many -deviations. They live after all, the Mussulmans of India, among a -population, of which they form but the seventh part, highly religious, -mystical, seeing in all things magic and the supernatural. In great -part they derive from the castes and tribes of Hindu India, converted -to the creed by conquest, interest, or persuasion. Large sections -still retain and are governed by the Hindu customary law of their -former tribe. The rich Mussulman merchants of Bombay, who traverse the -ocean like other Sindbads and seek their merchandise in the Eastern -Archipelagoes or in the new colonies of the African continent, peaceful -merchants of whom a large sect still perpetuates the doctrines of the -Shaik of the Mountain and reveres the memory, without the practice, of -the Assassins, follow in their domesticities and the laws of succession -rules whose significance depends from the mystic teachings of the Hindu -sages. In Gujarát the Mussulman nobility preserve with respect the -names and practices of the Rajput chiefs from whom they are descended. -They marry within families of cognate origin and transmit their estates -and dignities by a rule that is widely apart from the jurisprudence -of Islam. But that marriage is indefeasibly binding on a woman for -all time, even after death’s parting, so that the widowed wife may -never seek another husband--these are ideas whose ultimate basis is a -view of the world as a thing moved and deflected by magic and magical -interpositions. Yet these opinions of the surrounding Hindu population -have invaded the Mussulman household also. The proud families which -claim direct descent from the Prophet of Arabia have in practice -created an absolute prohibition of remarriage. And in many families -of temporal rank the same veto is observed, as having in it something -exclusive and patrician. Even among the common people, it is only the -first marriage which is known by the significant name of “gladness,” -while the corrector Arabic term has been degraded with a baser meaning -to the marriage of a widow. In practice, too, the wise provisions of -the law for dowries and the separate maintenance of a wife have been -neglected, while divorce is much discountenanced and the claims of an -ill-used or insufficiently-cherished wife to a decree are ignored or -even forgotten. Child-marriage has become the rule, and consent to a -life-long bond under a contract which has come to be regarded almost as -inviolable, is only too often given on behalf of the young girl by a -relation indifferent to all except wealth and position. - -Yet such is the radiance, so purifying the chemistry of reason that, -in spite of superstition, it continues to oxidize and revive the -body which it permeates. The inroads of Mongol tribes from Central -Asia--recent and bigoted converts--laid low the body politic of Islam. -For five dark centuries Mussulman culture was turned into a wilderness. -In India Islam has been further obscured, as has been shown, by the -encroaching customs and feelings of peoples who conceived life on an -incompatible and magical apprehension. Yet the word of rationalism -was never wholly silent, and the thought of human justice in a world -of causation persisted, however feebly, to sweeten and humanize the -relations of men and women in the fundamental contract of matrimony. -The Mussulman woman in her family wields great power and influence. She -is consulted and made much of to an extent rare in most countries. The -words of the Qor’an are a constant inspiration to her husband; and he -knows himself to be bound to cherish as best he can the woman who is -described in Scripture as a field which he should cultivate and as a -partner to whom he owes kindness and protection. Under this inspiration -he can hardly fail to estimate at its highest the value of womanhood; -for even in heaven his promised reward includes the pleasures of -beautiful and enchanting women. Thus has Omar Khayyam written in the -188th Rubaiyat:-- - - “They say there will be a paradise and fair women and black-eyed virgins, - And there, say they, will be pure wine and honey. - So if we adore our wine and our beloved, why, ’tis lawful - Since the end of all this business will be even thus.” - -The Mussulman religion idealizes above everything manliness and the -manly virtues; and it certainly does not undervalue the place of sex -in human life. Now, it is the virile man who yields most readily to -the sway of woman. His very vigour impels him to her side: and in the -reactions from enterprise and affairs he wishes to be soothed by her -companionship and delight. So it is true that the Mussulman woman in -India has seldom cause for complaint within her household. The day’s -labour done, husband and children gather in the inner apartments, where -she rules, and devote themselves to her comfort and entertainment. - -Where she suffers, if at all, is from the too rigid custom of the -_purdah_ or female seclusion. What in India distorted the modest -injunction of the Prophet that women should veil their faces before -strange men to the excessive and even fantastic _purdah_ system, is a -question still hotly debated by Indian reformers and publicists. - -[Illustration: PATHAN WOMAN] - -Hindus accuse the Mussulman population of introducing the system: -Mussulmans point to the more rational habit of other Islamic countries -and lay the charge to the door of the Rajput nobility. Whatever may -have been the original cause, the results are sometimes ludicrous and -injurious. Applied as it is in the houses of nobles and rich merchants, -the custom is sufficiently tolerable and even advantageous. The ladies -have gardens in which to exercise their limbs: they drive in screened -carriages to see the town or enjoy the country breezes; they have -liberty to visit at all hours the houses of their women friends and -profit by their conversation. They have light and air and reasonable -freedom. Like many other points of aristocratic ceremony, the practice -of seclusion is valued largely by the inconvenience it causes to -others. It needs little knowledge of feminine nature to appreciate the -pleasurable sense of dignity it causes the wealthy _purdah_ lady when, -at a visit, she sees all male servants and even the owner of the house -sent hurrying to hide in remote corners while she makes her stately -progress from her carriage to her friends’ apartments. On her travels -she notes with pride the tumult in the crowded station when sheets -are held across the platform to seclude her from stranger eyes as she -slowly strolls to her compartment. But to apply the same etiquette to -the middle and the poorer classes is little short of madness. Yet there -are many parts of India, where the Mussulman population, and especially -their womankind, insist with melancholy pride on these observances, -whatever their poverty and decay. There are found in little crumbling -mud-hovels, clinging to the base of ancient forts and palaces, women -who spend their useless lives crouched in a dark ill-smelling room, -where the light of day and the breath of energy and aspiration can -never reach them. They bear feeble children: fall sick of a decline or -internal ailments: and go out in premature senility like a candle in a -choked tunnel. Fortunately the sturdy Mussulman peasantry of the north -know nothing of these follies: nor in Káthiawád and Gujarát do the -Mussulman artisans, who are here pictured, ruin their homes by this -disastrous aping of an aristocracy. But even with this drawback--one -maintained, it must be remembered, mainly by the same feminine lust -for pride and precedence which in England keeps the clerk’s wife from -cooking a dinner--it is in general true that the rationalism of the -system has produced mutual respect and affection, together with much -courtesy and chivalry, between the sexes. - -The Afghan or Pathan woman is in many ways apart from her Mussulman -sister of the real India of the plains. Strong, virile, courageous, but -treacherous and illiterate, the Afghan tribes are still narrowly within -the pale of savagery. They are hillmen, living in secluded valleys -or rocky fastnesses, with the virtues of their kind, but far removed -from those urbane polities which in all languages and races have set -the type of civilization. In Islam the word for civilization is as -much derived from the word for “city,” “Medinah,” as in the languages -that trace their descent from the Latins. Of gentler qualities the -Afghans have no share. But they have strong passions, great thirst -for love, and the freeman’s respect for others’ freedom. The woman is -caressed and petted, loved with a passionate love, loaded with gifts, -and then--when old age breaks her vigour--too often cast aside with -the callous thoughtlessness of the savage. The men are jealous and she -lives always under the shadow of a knife, the long, thin, sharp-edged -knife of the Pathan, so quickly drawn across the throat at the first -whisper of dishonour. Herself passionate and hot-tempered, she too -blazes out in sudden rages, and the small dagger that she carries is -not unseldom used. Passion and excitement, quick pulsing heart-beats, -fiery love, splashing like scarlet flames upon the dusty background, -and then the slow neglected downward track of old age, that is the -Afghan woman’s life. - -Mostly she is chaste and clings to her own man, till the last bullet -catches him full in the chest and his life gurgles out with the -bubbling blood. But she can also love greatly and superbly, like the -fine full-blooded creature that she is. There was such a girl once, a -child merely, fifteen years old, who from the barred windows of her -father’s house at Kabul, saw a young English officer ride past on his -charger with the ill-fated expedition. She came of royal stock and her -father was a chieftain of rank in the Amir’s service. Yet she learnt -the officer’s name, who can say with how many precautions and terrors: -and found he was still unmarried. When the troops left, she crept forth -too, this child of fifteen, and turned her face from her father’s house -and her people to follow the man she had chosen. She found her way -across the mountains by the wind-bitten passes, with little food or -shelter, till she reached the deserts of Sind and the wide stretches -of the Indus. Not till then was she safe from the avenging dagger. -Then slowly she traced her road till she came to the port of Karachi. -And there, in the new cantonment, with its strange avenues and houses, -she found the man whom she had sought. He, happily, was rich and of -distinguished family. He heard her story and married the brave girl who -had dared so much for his love. Then he brought her to England and had -her taught and trained, and she found favour at Court, and their lives -were happy. - -Such the Afghan woman can be. The love which she gets--and -gives--echoes in the poetry of Lawrence Hope. - - “You are all that is lovely and light, - Aziza,--whom I adore, - And, waking after the night, - I am weary with dreams of you. - Every nerve in my heart is tense and sore - As I rise to another morning apart from you. - I would burn for a thousand days, - Aziza, whom I adore, - Be tortured, slain, in unheard of ways - If you pitied the pain I bore. - … - Give me your love for a day, - A night, an hour; - If the wages of sin are death, - I am willing to pay. - What is my life but a breath - Of passion burning away? - Away from an unplucked flower? - Oh! Aziza, whom I adore, - Aziza, my one delight, - Only one night--I will die before day, - And trouble your life no more.” - -[Illustration: BORAH LADY FROM SURAT] - - - - -The Hindu Woman in Marriage - - ἀλλ᾿ ἐννοεῖν χρὴ τοῦ το μὲν γυναῖχ᾿ ὅτι - ἒφυμεν ὡς πρὸς ἄνδρας οὐ μαχουμίνα - ἔ πει τα δ᾿ οὕνεκ᾿ ἀρχόμεσθ᾿ ἐκ κρεισσόνων - καὶ ταῦ τ᾿ ἀκούειν κἄτι τῶνδ᾿ ἀλγίονα. - - _Antigone_, ll. 61 _seq._ - - “But we must reflect first that we were born a woman, - Not such as to strive against men: and then that as - we are ruled by them that are the stronger, we must - obey in these things and in things yet sorer.” - - - - -Chapter III - -THE HINDU WOMAN IN MARRIAGE - - -Marriage under the Hindu system is by no means easy to describe as -in actual fact it is. The definitions and classifications given in -the legal textbooks or Scriptures of the Hindus are little better -than abstractions--deductions from assumed premises of a theological -kind, with only a slender tie to the actual life of Hindu societies. -The difficulties of practice arise from the vast complexities and -fluid conditions of the great masses of peoples and races, with -divergent levels of culture and inconsistent ideas, that compose the -aggregate which for convenience is distinguished from all others by the -collective name of Hinduism. For Hinduism is, of course, in no real -sense a church or creed. It has no definite tenets and no articles -of dogma. The acceptance of a certain social system, centring upon -the existence of hereditary priesthoods with divinely-given powers of -interposition and interpretation, is its final criterion. This system -and its practical consequences once accepted, the man is free to -believe and follow what creeds or philosophies he may please. - -Yet through it all there is a certain rather vague and elusive unity -of idea, a spirit, one might say, that in various forms penetrates -and transmutes the varying material of creed and caste, of blood and -race with which it is presented. In essence this is the spirit which -regards the whole world as an unreal dream, an illusory changing -scene of transformations, stretched over the realities of a higher -ultimate world of Divine unity. Laws and customs are based not on a -reasoned pursuit of the good as existent in this life; but upon the -means, magical or supernatural, of acquiring merit in a supposed -ultimate universe of timeless and permanent reality reached after -final severance from the circle of birth and death. It is a spirit -diametrically opposed to that Greek thought which placed before man -as his final and only aim happiness or the excellent performance of -function in the world we know. Hardly less is it opposed to the Semitic -creeds which project the purposes and rewards of virtue into a similar -world of similar perceptions and individualities conceived as existent -on a higher plane attainable after death. For the unifying spirit of -Hinduism, so far as it can be grasped as in any way _one_, rejects -the world altogether as a reality and places its virtues not in any -reasoned balance of human rights and duties, but in the observance of -rituals and austerities commended by the authority of a hierarchy. - -Hence marriage also, as far as it approaches the ideal, is based upon -considerations that are non-rational and belong rather to a mystical -or supernatural way of regarding life. Marriage to the Hindu thinker -and idealist has nothing to do, in its ultimate causes, with the -preferences of one man or one woman, nothing to do with the pursuit -of happiness in a palpitating finite and human life. He sees in it -no free union of two human wills, joined for their own contentment -in an isolated human relation. Rather it is the connection of two -incarnations of the world spirit during an unreal moment of illusory -existence. The proper husband and wife are recognized and selected -by magical arts exercised under the authority of the Sacred Books -by certain classes of the priesthood. They are joined under a right -conjunction of the stars, interpreted by an hereditary expert in the -magic art of astrology. Their marriage is sanctified by miraculous -rites and blessed and transformed by the repetition of mysterious -Sanskrit phrases. They enter their new state purified as by a -consecration. In a word, they deal with a sacrament, not with a human -contract. It is not the satisfaction of human feelings that is sought, -but the fulfilment of a ritual duty to the family, in its relation to -the Divine Spirit. - -This view of marriage, as an ordained sacrament, is manifested -throughout the actual ceremonies of the wedding, at least among the -castes that claim the higher ritual ranks. The bride and bridegroom -must belong to the same subdivision of the caste and yet must not be -related by a common descent from the same mythical founder of the -family. Before they can be betrothed, the horoscopes must be studied -by an hereditary astrologer to see that the proposed union does not -traverse any of the influences of the stars in their conjunctions. -Nowadays it is true that horoscopes have fallen somewhat into neglect -among the more “advanced.” These allege that the time is wrongly -found on any horologe except the old-fashioned water-clock and they -insinuate--what is no doubt often true--that the verdict of the -astrologer depends upon his emoluments. Thus even the most advanced of -Hindus, if they do without such advice, do so on the ostensible ground -that horoscopes are incorrectly delivered, not that in themselves they -are unreasonable. Again the marriage is made between children, so -that desire or personal preference shall not disturb the ordinances -of heaven. The ceremony can take place only in the auspicious months -when the constellations of Jupiter and Venus are in conjunction with -the sun. At the wedding symbolic presentments of the boy’s and girl’s -ancestors make more clear the significance of the wedding, as a mere -phase in a family existence, in which the individual is as nothing and -the race is all. When the moment approaches, the bride and bridegroom -sit, face to face or side by side before the objects of worship, their -right hands joined, a strand of red cotton round their necks, a cloth -drawn as a screen between their faces. The priests chant Sanskrit -verses, while the astrologer consults the water-clock, which is needed -to read the exact sacerdotal hour. Then when the moment has come and -the cloth is drawn, the pair turn round the sacred sacrificial fire, -and the seven steps are taken which make the marriage indissoluble -and eternal. The bridegroom turns to his wife and utters the sacred -verse, “Oh! bride! give your heart to my work, make your mind agreeable -to mine. May the God Brahaspati make you pleasing to me.” Then for -himself he swears not to transgress, whether for wealth or love. And -then they go out and look upon the Polar Star, that star which guided -the first Aryan wanderers across Asia. - -[Illustration: A BRAHMAN LADY GOING TO THE TEMPLE] - -A marriage of this kind, so solemn and so sacramental, cannot in the -lifetime of its partakers be severed or dissolved. Only the will of -God, executed by the cold scythe of Death, can grant a divorce. Until -death come, the pair is inevitably joined, to labour and pray together, -and to engender and bear the children who in time shall release -their parents’ souls from the purgatory of unfulfilled duties. The -Hindu theory is a deduction from two principles, one, the unreality -of individual appearance, the second, the unworthiness of sensuous -illusion. - -Marriage is a union of ephemeral beings for the sake of family and -community, and for the attainment of a worshipful elevation over -sense and the world of illusion. It is at once a consecration and -an initiation. The absence of that strong sexual passion which we -have clad in the jewelled veils of poetry and have baptized in the -romantic waters of love is not to the Brahman eye an impediment or a -disappointment. At the most the hope is for an ordered affection and a -disciplined devotion. - -But the facts of human nature cannot with impunity be ignored. Ideals -based on a non-natural order of things may inspire noble poetry: but -they must fail when they are applied to large bodies of men and women. -Contracts founded upon causes and effects that are traced by reason can -be applied without much hindrance and at any rate without hypocrisy by -all those who can recognize facts. But there are few who are worthy of -or can benefit by a sacrament. The Hindu spirit has created splendid -images and has embodied in literature the characters of Sita and of -Damyanti, the wife who is all devotion and sacrifice, nobly courageous, -nobly patient. But, by its very distance from actuality, it leads in -the practice of every day to great hypocrisy and unnecessary hardship. -The danger has been foreseen by the lawgivers themselves: and they -have not dared to apply their ideal, even in theory, to others than -the highest castes of the hierarchy. For the warrior, the cultivator, -and the menial classes they have allowed different practices and -divergent ideals. Even in the practice of those Brahmans, to whom the -system should apply in its entirety, considerable concessions have -been authorized. In the unauthorized acts of every day life there -are even greater deviations. In one sense, of course, it may be said -that the theory of the highest Hinduism in regard to marriage is one -and indivisible; but marriage is, after all, the concrete contact and -companionship of a living, feeling man and woman, and the application -of the theory an affair of national character. Race and climate and the -influences of history have played their part in the Indian Continent -at least as much as in other regions of equal area. Even in the -priestly Brahman caste, the Brahman of the Deccan is as different from -him of the Punjáb as an Italian Marchese could be from a Prussian Graf. -They come from different strains, they live in different surroundings: -and the one bond is a common social system with some common ideals -under which they have both obtained their power. - -In general, it may be said that the ideal has been humanized and -softened in all those parts of India in which Rajput or Mussulman -influences have at any time been powerful. In such regions, in Gujarát, -for instance, or in Káthiawád, the people have never taken kindly to -the mere negation of desire. A certain practical genius has always -turned their glance to the fruits of the earth and the pleasures of -the senses. Commerce brought them wealth and the desire for comfort; -from chivalry they learnt the lessons of gaiety and enjoyment. Among -them beauty is esteemed and desired; pleasure sought or demanded. From -a wife is expected charm and companionship, passion and pleasure. She -is treated as a human being, with the ordinary human capacities and -frailties; and she can exercise power and influence by her charms. She -may be loved as a woman; and she is often the object of jealousy; but -she is seldom deadened by that chilling respect which shrivels fresh -desire. - -In the arid, ascetic Deccan, on the other hand, the woman is more -commonly disregarded. There she lives in an atmosphere where -sensuousness is reproached, though it may be practised. A man indulges -passion, if he do so at all, as a thing shameful in itself and -abominable, with stealth and self-abasement, in the grossest and least -urbane manner. If he yield to a sexual desire, it is without esteem or -regard for the partner in his sin. Towards the wife of a consecrated -marriage he preserves an attitude, which may be irreproachable, but -must certainly be unflattering to her womanhood. In the light of -religion, she may be regarded as a partner in a mystic union: but in -the household she is often little better than a housekeeper, contemned, -neglected, and never warmed by the glow of desire nor wooed with those -attentions by which men seek to please. Between Gujarát and the Deccan, -it is again the contrast, only intensified, between France and England. -On the one hand, power and pleasure and the charm of life--with perhaps -jealousy and a certain sense of the possibilities of human frailty. On -the other, coldness, a real contempt, and that callous reliance on an -unswerving chastity, which some have been pleased to call respect--and -which is so annoying even to the plainest woman. - -Religion again effects a distinction. Those who adhere to the worship -of Shiva, the God of Destruction, the Lord of Death, the Master of -Ascetics, are apt to turn from the goods of this life to a final -absorption in an abstract oneness. But in Krishna, the very human -incarnation of God the Preserver, the inhabitants of the richer and -more fertile tracts of the continent have found a congenial saviour. -From the devotees of his creed he demands only love, a constant and -all-absorbing offering of the heart: and he bestows upon them in return -the free ease of the world through which they are passing on the way -to the love-laden groves of Paradise. While the followers of the -theology that centres upon Shankar see the universe as one, an abstract -God-in-himself, indivisible, unchanging, a pure spirit that alone _is_ -and has being, and define the aim of life as, after reiterated births -into further action, the final liberation from the senses by absorption -into this infinite and unqualified spirit, the worshippers of Krishna -adopt a teaching which admits an eternal dualism. Force and nature, -spirit and matter, are to them an everlasting pair, which can never be -finally united. So they tend readily to a view of life in which man -and the Deity, as he can know Him, are circumscribed by nature, and -in which man can find salvation in the love of all things. And in the -love of all things, if there be inward grace, the enjoyment of the -nature that God has granted to the world must be allowable. Freedom is -attained when the enjoyment is unconditioned and the soul is wholly -united to the spirit of all nature. It is only the conditions of life, -and the need for transcending the wants of the world in order to reach -that grace in which God is directly felt, which can impose restrictions -and prohibitions. So, naturally enough, the disciple of the gracious, -kind, and loving Krishna is more likely to demand love from the -companion of life than the ascetic votary of Shiva. The practical -meaning of marriage is again very different in the warrior caste, now -represented by the Rajput clans. Comparatively recent invaders of mixed -Scythian and Turkish or Hunnish tribes, they almost alone in India have -become what in Europe is meant by a gentry or an aristocracy. Feudal in -their concept of the state, cavaliers and men-at-arms, seeking in war -a profession, in the acquisition of landed estates their fulfilment, -and in sport their relaxation, they have brought to the brown monotony -of India the splendour of gallantry, chivalry, and romance. Exempted -even by priestly ordinance from the oppressive asceticism that is in -general obligatory to the Hindu mind, they have formed for themselves -a code of honour coloured by the legitimate hopes and enjoyments of a -warrior clan. In the traditions of their caste they still preserve the -memory of the bride’s choosing. The suitors sat assembled, each in his -own place, in the palace hall, with sword and shield to his hand. The -curtain was uplifted and the bride stepped round the hall, a garland -of flowers on her arm. Then when she reached the man whom she chose to -be her own prince and beloved husband, she slipped the garland on his -neck. Thus they became man and wife, and no one could deny their will. -That time is long since gone, and no bride has now such a choosing. -Yet to this day the heroines of all Indian plays and the great women -of Indian poetry are all of the Rajput class. Marriage is with them -even now a practice adapted to the aristocratic temper partly from the -earlier Brahman books and partly from the traditions of Central Asia, -tinged also by the fashions set by Mussulman emperors in the Courts at -Delhi. Polygamy is recognized as lawful and is practised by the Ruling -Chiefs and the richer of their cadets. The maid-servant may be the -concubine of her master and the dancing girl who enlivens the Courts is -often in private a mistress. But great is the power of the wife behind -the curtain, deep and warm-blooded the love she hopes to win, great -also her valorous devotion. And through the whole fabric runs a woof as -of old, half-faded brocade, a thread of chivalry and pure reverence and -protective delight. A strand of silk at the wrist may make the Rajput -gentleman at any moment the knight-errant of a lady whom he shall never -see, and for whom his honour shall yet be as a brother’s. - -But to the Rajput lady of a ruling house there is one special terror. -If death puts his finger on her husband, her life is too often -overwhelmed to an extent unnecessary and cruel. For herself remarriage -is forbidden: and a love-affair is often requited with secret poison by -her husband’s successors. For there are many who still hold that the -family honour can be stained indelibly by a woman’s lightness. Then -in her husband’s place may sit on the throne a rival’s son, who from -childhood has had his ears filled with bitterness. Her jointure may be -insufficient; even an administration is only too often unsympathetic -or unduly sparing of money; or the successor may by force or intrigue -attenuate the estate that was bequeathed. She finds interest no -doubt in the management of the lands that form her jointure, but her -seclusion places her largely in the hands of interested advisers. As -a rule, the downfall is more lamentable even than that of the Dowager -in Europe, except perhaps in Royal families. Suicide (_Sati_) on the -funeral pyre was in the past almost a release for the Rajput widow. -Among the smaller Rajput yeomanry, the case is better. Remarriage is -not unseldom allowed. At the worst, the wife has had no rival and -her own child succeeds; while, failing children, she finds with her -relatives the respect and kindness to women which is general in this -caste of manly gentlemen. - -[Illustration: FROM JODHPUR] - -Another group consists of the lower, but thoroughly Hinduized, working -castes. These run from the very low untouchable castes who are the -usual domestics of the European officer to the skilled artisan and -the cultivator. Their matrimonial regulations are a compromise (like -most compromises hardly “working”) between Brahman theory, economic -necessity, and obsolete primitive custom. They are influenced vaguely -by the usual ideals. Widow remarriage is however tolerated and -commonly practised, though somewhat looked down upon in the popular -regard. When the parties to the association are working men and women, -miserably poor for the most part, illiterate and unprogressive, it -follows naturally that the action of the system is conditioned mainly -by economics. Toil and labour, in field or factory or shop, is the -part of both, and the woman’s household work and the assistance of -the growing children are incentives to and conditions of the marriage. -They have no leisure for the finer sensibilities and, like the poor -in all countries, must have an eye ever open to the needs of food -and nutrition. Without much education and with little capacity for -refined emotion, it is not unnatural if there is sometimes disunion, -and if they seldom attain the heights. The husband in his cups may -occasionally beat his wife, or may have to sit with bowed head before -the storm of her boisterous abuse. Yet they compare favourably with -similar classes in other countries; and at the worst they shame the -terrors of European slums, the brutal wife-kickers and procurers who -lurk in the blind alleys of industrial life. It is true indeed that -the rapid growth of industrial labour in India also has adversely -affected the marriages of that class and that only too often an unhappy -union ends in elopement or prostitution. Generally, however, it may be -said that the Hindu husband even in this class seldom descends to the -grossness and cruelty so often found in the lower quarters of European -cities: while the wife forms and maintains a higher standard of womanly -conduct and devotion. An easier toleration marks their conjugal -relations and the Hindu character at its worst is commonly free from -the extremer modes of brutality. - -Among the aboriginal tribes, the Bhils for instance, marriage is still -in a very fluid condition. The actual form that in practice it takes -depends inevitably on the extent to which the tribe has succumbed to -Hindu or rather Brahman influence. As it becomes subjected to that -influence, and as in consequence it aims at raising its rank within -the Hindu social system by the aping of higher castes, so it the more -readily adopts the worst accretions to Hindu matrimony, child-marriage, -for instance, and large dowries. But in general it may be said that -marriage among such tribes is a free association between youthful -adults, promulgated by certain payments of money or service to the -bride’s parents and relieved, if barren or unhappy, by an almost -unrestricted right of divorce. Pre-nuptial chastity is hardly looked -for, and neither man nor girl is much blamed for an early slip. After -marriage chastity is the usual rule. The attitude is in practice not -very dissimilar from the reasonable and natural outlook of the Scottish -peasant; and, as in Scotland, the net result is a state of general -happiness, easy and equal companionship, and very remarkable mutual -trust. The woman has much weight in affairs and not unfrequently holds -the purse. As in the country districts of Scotland, prostitution is -unknown, and the cruel ruin of a woman who has loved too soon is -practically unheard of. Widows of course remarry, and there is much -homely love between husband and wife and parents and children. - -Another system still survives among the inhabitants of the southern -coast lands where the Arabian Sea beats against the palm groves of -Malabar. Here the tribes of the Nairs, formerly warlike and still -brave, headed by the ruling house of Travancore, maintain a marriage -system that dates from the earlier Dravidian culture which preceded -the Aryan invasions. Both among the Nairs--the noble class--and among -the priests, the Nambutiri Brahmans, an ecclesiastical and land-owning -aristocracy of peculiar sanctity, the customs of matriarchy prevail -in various degrees. Among the Nairs, for several centuries, the law -was of polyandry, pure and simple, the wife having several husbands -according to her own good pleasure. In late years the actual habit of -polyandry is to all intents defunct and only in very few cases, if -at all, could a Nair lady be found who consorts with more than one -husband. But succession is still traced through the female line and a -boy succeeds to his mother’s brother, not to his father. And in other -subtler ways the effects of polyandry are still manifest. Perhaps the -most curious survival is that the religious ceremonial of marriage--an -expensive and public rite--is performed at an early age with a man, -with whom the girl has no other connection than formal participation -in this ineffective sacrament. Much later comes what, in the European -sense, would be called the real marriage, with the husband whom she is -to cherish. This is a contract, entered into freely by both parties, -dissoluble at will. One of the elements of its popularity and success -is in this very freedom which has given the Nair ladies a position -enjoyed by few other Indian women. An attempt absurdly made to limit -this freedom by legislation, which gave an option to the parties -by an act of registration to introduce the usual disabilities of a -rigid matrimony, has proved an utter failure. An accompaniment of -the polyandrous or matriarchal system, which still prevails, is that -husband and wife do not live together. The Nair house is the abode of -a whole large family, based upon joint descent from a common female -ancestor. In the house or family mansion the apartments of the women -are together and are entirely separate from that part of the house in -which the men live. In this house the husband has no part or share; -but he comes to visit his wife in her apartment just as she goes -occasionally to visit him in the similar household in which, by his -descent on the mother’s side, he has a right to live. On the freedom -of choice exercised by a Nair lady in her mating there is little -restriction, save only the one that she must not choose a man of lower -station. - -The Nambutiri Brahmans, on the other hand, though they live among -the Nair tribes and are their priests, have gone no further than a -compromise between this system and the arrangements usually prevalent -among Brahmans. The results, like those of most compromises, have -been disastrous. Only the eldest son of a family marries. The rest, -when study of Scripture and the practice of ascetic simplicity -prove unsatisfying, seek consolation in indiscriminate seduction. -The immediate results of a theory so unnatural are polygamy, -burdensome dowries, marriages for wealth alone, and the seclusion and -bondage of women. In spite of the simplicity and candour of these -Brahmans--qualities which make them personally loveable even to -those who deplore their influence--their community has been gravely -injured by such marriages. Only the simplicity of their desires and the -earnest conservatism of their faith have made them tolerate a system so -unnatural and injurious. They bow with pious resignation to the will of -God, by which they mean the results of their own human folly. - -Bitter must the contrast be to the secluded and austere Nambutiri -ladies when they see their Nair neighbours at the annual winter -festival which commemorates the death of Kámdev, the Hindu God of Love. -Long before daybreak, every Nair girl of any position is out of bed -and goes with her girl friends to the nearest tank. Plunging into the -water together, they sing in unison the song which is sacred to the -God of human hearts. As they sing, they beat the water, with the left -hand held immediately under the surface and the right brought down -upon it in a sloping stroke, splashing and sounding deep. Stanza after -stanza, song after song they sing till the first light of dawn peeps -over the cocoa-nut palms. Then they go back to their homes to dress in -their best and enjoy their holy day. They darken their eyelids with -collyrium and make their lips red with betel leaf. In the gardens they -play on swings with their friends. Then they sit down in merriment and -enjoyment to the noon-day meal of arrowroot and molasses with ripe -yellow plantains and green cocoa-nuts. Afterwards they again sing and -dance, while all good husbands on this day of days visit their wives in -their family mansions and make themselves pleasant to the ladies of -the family and bring little presents and friendly good wishes. - -This system, strange though it appears to those who are familiar only -with Jewish and Teutonic customs, has been particularly successful in -securing the ends of every marriage--comfort, free development, and -the worthy upbringing of healthy children. In no class in India is -education better appreciated and more widely shared by the sexes. Every -Nair girl is sent to the village school, her education as much a matter -of course as her brothers’; while there are many who have matriculated -at the Madras University. At the same time, by the universal admission -of those who know them, there are few women in India who have greater -charm or exercise as valuable an influence on the manners and morals of -society. - -Marriage in Hindu India is, therefore, very various both in practice -and in theory according to the locality and the race or caste. -But regarded as a whole it presents, one may say, some common -characteristics. It is invariably a religious rite, sanctioned by -magical ceremony, really sacramental. Only in castes which allow -a widow to remarry is the second union divested of most of this -supernatural sanction, to become almost a free contract. Again -marriages are in general arranged by the parents or relations--with -the advice of priests and astrologers--while the husband and wife -are still children, either in real childhood or shortly after their -puberty. Further, in all the higher castes, and in lower castes as -they assume or usurp a higher position, widows are forbidden a further -marriage. Normally the idea of marriage in the classes in which Brahman -influence is most firm is accompanied by a certain ascetic thought, -which holds sensuousness and enjoyment to be something debasing and -earth-bound. The world of action being illusory and unreal, and each -action entailing its answering reaction, deliverance from illusive -appearances and absorption into the one final reality can be gained -only by passive withdrawal from activity. But all action springs from -desire: and the strongest and most attractive of desires is love. -Hence in marriage there should be no overpowering desires, none of -those impulses of emotion which keep the man bound during thousands -of incarnations to the idly-turning wheel of illusion. Only as a -deliverance from conflicting desire and as the means of continuing -family life is marriage in itself to be valued. Its happiness and -fruition are to be sought not in the tumults of passion but in the calm -and ordered affection of a disciplined and worshipful pair. From the -husband protection and self-restraint are due; from the wife to the -lord, whom heaven has given her, unflinching devotion, constant respect -and obedience, unwavering chastity. - -But in some castes and places the ideal has been altered largely -by feudalism and chivalry, by luxury and an appreciation of human -happiness, and by the influences of a kindly humanizing belief. There -we find love welcomed and pursued, and the beauteous wife elevated -like a substantiation of that Krishna-spirit in which man attains on -earth to the love which is unending. - -In general, Hindu marriage does undoubtedly, to a marked extent, reach -very closely to the purposes which it seeks. In general, it produces a -very real, if somewhat colourless, affection, an affection maintained -by common interests and the great bond of constant association. The -defects which it has are in the main the excrescences of a religious -system, such as are apt to grow wherever reason is displaced by -theological or supernatural commandment. When rationalism grows strong -enough to question the authority of priestly ordinance and tradition, -it will be possible without any very serious effort to prune them -safely from the sturdy trunk of Hindu life. - -[Illustration: A MILL-HAND] - -Child-marriage is, of course, that one of all its features which has -been most violently attacked. But it may be doubted whether those -who have attacked it have always had a clear understanding of its -significance. Real child-marriage--the wedding of children who have not -yet reached puberty--is after all nothing more than an indefeasible -betrothal. And in itself it is a logical and natural deduction -from a theory which postulates the selection of the bridal pair by -supernatural agency, working either through the divinations of an -astrologer or through the parents’ careful affection. Any element of -personal choice and free-will would be repugnant to the underlying -thoughts and must to a large extent be subversive of the social and -moral superstructure. Free-choice could be introduced generally only by -a substitution for Brahman regulation of something quite other--as the -warrior castes, for instance, extorted for themselves from a submissive -hierarchy a different scale of moral values. Moreover, in practice -child-marriage has some clear advantages. For it allows the wedded -pair to be brought up together, as children only, in their parents’ -houses, till in time they become habituated to each other’s company -and affection, while gradually they come to know and learn their place -in those large households to which their future lives belong. The -Hindu married couple can live in no independent isolation like the -European. Rather they will be but one unit of a great family household -managed on behalf of all by its eldest members. The real marriage, -the consummation of their growth to man and woman, comes much later, -after many years perhaps, when the parents at last give their consent -to the grown student and the healthy maiden who helps daily in the -household tasks. Rather it is not the child-marriage that is so much to -be deprecated as the marriage that succeeds, as in some castes it does, -too quickly upon puberty. For, by an unhappy ignorance, puberty is in -India only too often thought, as it was thought in the Europe of the -Renaissance, to be maturity; and the marriage thus concluded is at once -made real. - -In fact, in both cases what is needed is a little more scientific -knowledge and the embodiment of the knowledge in the Penal Code. Cases -occur only too frequently of the martyrdom of young brides, not so -much from cruelty, or even from uncontrolled passion, as from sheer -ignorance of scientific fact. It has become a superstition, supported -of course by the usual authority, that puberty means maturity, not -merely for love--which would be sufficiently misleading--but even for -child-bearing. Here it is that rational education must enter the field. -In a country in which knowledge is luckily not accounted shameful, it -is easy for education to explain that puberty is only the beginning of -a new period, and that love’s first blossoms must not be followed by -too early fruit. - -In this respect the practice of Hindu marriage unhappily does show a -fault of the most serious and terrible kind. If education has still -much to do, the state of the law most certainly requires improvement. -It is sometimes said that the Penal Law of India at present does -not give adequate protection to girls who, for various reasons, are -unmarried. But silence is usually kept about the far more serious fact -that it provides practically no protection to the married girl. In -her case the age of consent has actually been fixed at twelve; and no -child of more than twelve can claim protection from the law against -the brutality of the man to whom she has been married. Obviously the -limit of age for the protection of girls should be the same in all -cases, whether she be married or unmarried, whether she be the victim -of the man to whom she has been joined beside the sacred fire or of -one who owes her no special duty. It is the most obvious confusion of -thought which fails to see that the offence, if it is one, is exactly -the same, whether or not a mystical ritual has been first observed. The -_thug_ was no better than a common strangler because he first prayed -to Bhavani before he murdered. The offence is the same in all cases; -the punishment should, if anything, be more severe to the man who is -peculiarly bound in duty and in honour to cherish the woman he has made -his wife. The State is now prepared to protect against perversion a -class of women who, on an outside estimate, do not exceed one-hundredth -of the population and who _ex hypothesi_ are of a position and -character somewhat less than reputable. But the State denies its -protection to the other ninety-nine women of each hundred, the mothers -of the country, the honoured helpmates of its households. - -The harshness is made the greater by vices which, though forbidden, -have in practice become common. The sale of daughters is an offence -against which the sacred writings of the Hindus strongly and -consistently inveigh. Yet in only too many cases parents do little -else than sell their girls in marriage to the highest bidder. The sums -of money which they demand and which they use, not for the daughter’s -benefit, but for their own, are so large that they are forced to accept -a suitor of sufficient substance without regard to fitness or religious -sanction. Of the higher classes many nowadays revolt against such -conduct, which they recognize to be wicked and despicable. But in the -lower castes it is still general. The inner motive of such actions -is, of course, the ignorance, quite as much as the selfishness, of -the father. Too ignorant to comprehend that a human soul is an end in -itself and that a daughter is also a free human being, he looks on her -with besotted eye as a mere instrument of his own betterment. Hand in -hand with this evil, and dependent from it, is the terrible practice -of giving young brides to elderly husbands. In no other country could -the results be more disastrous or the girl-wife more unhappy. Vallabh, -the Gujaráti poet, has expressed that wretchedness in a beautiful song, -which has had some influence in abating this social evil. From it the -following lines are quoted, addressed to the Goddess Mother:-- - - “Goddess mother, old is the husband thou hast given me, - Mother, accursed is this coming to life of mine. Alas, what more can - I say? - Goddess mother, a little child am I and he a great lumbering, aged man, - My youth is like a blossom and my husband is a shrivelled mummy. - Mother, mine are just sixteen years and he has seen his eighty. - Goddess mother, of a winter’s night there is many a taste one feels, - But doltish is old age, and my husband is deaf and dumb. - Goddess mother, sportive am I and would like to play and I make my eyes - twinkle, - But, mother, he, he says, ‘I’ll beat you,’ and lifts his stick in his - hand. - Old is my husband, mother, what good can come out of age? - Goddess mother, on the festival all the girls are gaily dressed and - merry, - But my husband is tired and weak and ugly, and I bend my head in shame. - Mother, my hair is black and his head is all white or grey. - My youth is at its blooming and already my life is wrecked. - Goddess mother, why was I not strangled at birth, why was I not poisoned? - Yet if my husband die, it is my part to be true to death. - Nay, Goddess mother, with joined hands I pray at thy feet, - When I am born again, give me a husband that is young and strong.” - -But as long as society tolerates the acceptance of money by a bride’s -father, so long will there be parents to be tempted by gold to sanction -their children’s ruin. And even then there will persist a deeper -reason. For girls are all early married and widows may not marry a -second time. So, even against his will, an elderly man is forced, if he -wishes to have the legitimate and socially-sanctioned companionship of -a woman, to seek in marriage one of the young girls who alone are in -India available for a suitor. - -The prohibition of widow remarriage has also been bitterly attacked, -often by those Indians who, from education or environment, have been -affected by rationalism, sometimes by those who find a false pride -in the imitation of foreign custom. But the prohibition is not of -course universal. Those castes which have not yet set up a claim -to the higher ceremonial purities, are free to compound with human -desires by a second marriage, devoid of sacramental significance. It -is in the higher classes that the woman may have to pay for the pride -of caste by her individual austerities. Yet against the prohibition -of widow remarriage may be set the terrific wastage in Europe of -chaste and unmarried women. It has not at least entailed upon Indian -society that narrowing and unnatural education which Europe has seen -itself forced to accept, with all its consequent evils, and which is -perhaps inevitable if chastity is to be required as their highest and -sometimes their only virtue from women who are in every case condemned -to a lengthy and, in a vast number of unhappy cases, to a life-long -celibacy. In India a woman is at least allowed to _know_ and to be -natural; for an early marriage gives her in her ripening maturity the -fitting fulfilment of her womanhood. And, even at the worst conjunction -of destiny, the ideal of devotion crystallized in an unbroken widowhood -is, in itself, no ignoble aspiration. The unflinching veneration that -a son gives to his widowed mother is in India no small recompense for -her sacrifice to a sacred duty. Widowhood is recognized by all as a -state--divinely imposed--of austerity and atonement. But it has its own -quiet rewards in the family home, with its sense of duty done, like a -nun’s or a Sister of Mercy’s. It is harsh in those castes, which have -merely adopted a custom, when the inspiring ideal is not felt living -in their hearts, deep and intense. And it is also harsh in those cases -where the original thought has been warped by an exaggerated deduction -or where punishment is too rigorously exacted for illicit infringement -of the rule. At least in the case of the child-widow, betrothed indeed -by a sacrament, but never really wedded, some speedy relaxation of -the rule appears desirable: and it is probable that, with the decay -of faith and with the new scepticism about blessings conveyed by an -astrologer’s predictions, some such amendment will soon ensue. - -A deeper objection to the Hindu system is one which has been seldom, -if ever, expressed. Racially, the absence of that natural selection -which expresses itself in sexual desire, cannot but be detrimental. -It is perhaps vain to expect a vigorous childhood to be born from -unions in which healthy desire is replaced by the coldness of duty or -by an instinct that has not been transfigured by personal attraction -and selection. The difficulty is inherent in a system which bases -its selection upon the supernatural and rejects the natural call of -spirit to spirit and sense to sense. And yet it must be confessed, not -without shame, that a careful selection by parents, if it could be -trusted to be rational and disinterested, might be no more injurious -than the restricted and illusory choice, too often made in ignorance, -which so far seems to be the only substitute that civilization has -learnt to provide. In general, it may be said that the Hindu rules -of marriage are, in the ordinary sense of happiness, as conducive -to the happiness of the spouses as the fast transforming systems of -modern Europe, and that their happiness is less self-centred and more -altruistic. Romantic love is, after all, most commonly, even in Europe, -the short-lived flower of life in one sex and one class. Marriage -must everywhere be in practice limited and artificially restricted. -Economic conditions are very near the base of most marriages; and -even in the richer classes must be a main constituent of the bride’s -decision. Moreover, for the lasting purposes of marriage, affection -is no bad substitute for love--affection and the sense of destined -consecration. It may at least be asserted that, in general, among the -upper castes of India the mingled feeling of duty and devotion is as -strong as, and perhaps more stable than, in the corresponding sections -of English society. In many places, however, and in many castes, the -soft bloom of companionship and emotion is bruised by the brutality of -a first union with a partner before unknown and undesired. Nor can it -be denied that the gnostic asceticism, to which Indian idealism has -so often condescended, has killed, where it could, that joy in a free -humanity which alone can invest marriage with the flaming beauty of -love. When the value of love is considered as an inspiration to art and -chivalry and, indeed, to every creative activity, then the loss, thus -self-inflicted, will appear in all its gravity. It may well be that the -deathly slumber of the arts in modern India is to no small extent due -to spiritual conditions which exclude and condemn the love which is -profane, and is therefore alive and immortal. - -[Illustration: A MAHAR WOMAN] - - - - -The Ladies of the Aristocracy - - “Love in full life and length, not love ideal, - No, nor ideal beauty, that fine name, - But something better still, so very real - That the sweet model must have been the same. - - And oh! the loveliness at times we see - In momentary gliding, the soft grace, - The youth, the bloom, the beauty which agree, - In many a nameless being we retrace, - Whose course and home we know not nor shall know - Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below.” - - _Beppo._ LORD BYRON. - - - - -Chapter IV - -THE LADIES OF THE ARISTOCRACY - - -What exactly it is which constitutes an aristocracy, at any -given time or place, is not always easy to define. In Europe, in -general, aristocracies are based upon the survivals of feudal fiefs -or sometimes upon Court distinctions--but how greatly altered, -broadened, twisted, and transmuted! In India special considerations -have arisen to complicate the question. For all through Indian -society there run, on different curves, double classifications, -each traced by divergent forces. On the one hand, as in all human -societies--unhappily imperfect--lies the great universal distinction -which one calls rank, distinction of power, that is, and official -authority, with distinction of wealth as accompaniment or even as sole -qualification. On the other side lie the less natural--shall they -be called unnatural?--distinctions of a hierarchic classification, -peculiar to this continent and the Hindu faith. In this hierarchy, -the classification is not by power as tested and exercised in the -world, open and plain to all men, but by a claim to power over -supernatural forces, acquired by religious merit, not necessarily in -the individual life but perhaps in lives assumed to have occurred in -past transmigrations. But, as the saint spends in study and prayer -the hours during which conquerors are active with sword or sceptre, so -religious merit does not necessarily bring wealth or authority--with -which indeed it should be incompatible. Moreover, religious austerities -and abnegations spring from or produce a character, to which the vices -and virtues of a feudal aristocracy are alike opposed. So though -the Brahman is in the hierarchy of caste by universal recognition -infinitely the highest, so much indeed above all others as to be by -mystic ordinance “twice-born,” though he is ceremonially pure as purity -itself, though his life is sacred and his blessing a reward, his curse -a menace and a doom, yet in no actual sense can his caste be said to -form an aristocracy. A few there are among the caste who have risen to -royal state and rule lands as princes; but even in them the qualities -of human leadership are overwhelmed by the traditions of a scholar race -and a consecrated people. - -Actually, therefore, it may be said--if words are used in the usual -sense--that the aristocracy of India is composed of the Mussulman -nobility and of the second or Kshatriya class of Hindus, the ruling and -fighting houses of the land. And of these at once the most interesting -and the most important are the tribes known collectively under the name -of Rajputs, “sons of kings,” as the word would read in English. They -are, of all the people of India, the most gallant and picturesque. -Almost they are Indian chivalry itself. In India, the homes properly -speaking of the Rajput tribes are in Márwár, Mewár, and Káthiawád, in -the tracts, that is, which stretch from the centre of the Continent to -the sands of Sind and down to the base of the Peninsula, as well as in -the province that projects into the Ocean to the West. From the desert -of Bikanir and Jodhpur, where water has to be sought by shafts hundreds -of feet below the level of the scorching sand, to the forests and glens -and rocks of Mewár and to the fertile plains that roll across Gujarát -to the Arabian Sea, they rule or hold their lands on service tenures, -and hunt and shoot and make love and yearn for battle. Bikanir, -Jodhpur, Rutlam, Jamnagar, Baria, and how many other names there are -that in the Great War have made dear the Rajput clans! They have borne -the flag as fighting gentlemen to France and Flanders, to East Africa, -and the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates. The recital of their deeds -and glory is a task, alas! for other pens. Be it for these lines to -make something plain of the manner of their daily life at home. - -But first a few words must be written of their history. For without -some such knowledge, there can be no understanding either of India or -of the qualities for which the Rajput stands. Modern India, as it is -now known, came to shape in the nine hundred or thousand years that -passed from the day of Alexander to the Mussulman conquests. Before -that period there was an India, still reflected in the Scriptures and -in the living beliefs of the people, when Aryan immigrants furnished -rulers and priests to dark Dravidian masses, cousins of those who still -people the South Sea Archipelagoes, peoples who even now form the -staple of the Southern Indian population, those who speak Tamil and -Telugu and migrate as labourers not only to Ceylon but even to Fiji and -Jamaica and Trinidad. But after the division of Alexander’s Eastern -Empire, that vast half-obscure series of invasions began which changed -the face of the greater part of the Indian continent and altered all -the constituents of its population. From the Bactrian Empire and its -Hellenized inhabitants, came Menander with the Ionians--Yávans as they -are known in Indian history. From the Oxus valley and Central Asia -came the Scythian Sákas and the Kusháns. And all of these accepted -the Buddhist faith and ruled kingdoms and helped learning and founded -new families. Then, in the end of the fourth and throughout the fifth -centuries, this India already so transformed, was flooded by the -vaster, all transmuting hordes of Gujjars and White Huns. Each horde in -turn swept into its embrace something of its predecessors, each being -widely mixed and composite. So to the last in all those conquering -peoples--and the Huns were a people on the move and not an army--there -were elements of Greek and Turk, Avar and Mongol, and Persian and -Caucasian--all the elements in short that go also to make up Eastern -Europe and its nations. Those were the peoples from whom descend the -Kshatriya caste of modern India, these fine well-mannered fiery -sportsmanlike Rajputs, who are the pride of their country. They look -like any Hungarian nobleman or Georgian chief; and all the centuries -spent in enervating climates and an austere faith have not taken from -them their dash and passionate fervour. - -They are Kshatriyas now, it has been said, these Rajputs from -Central Asia. For from of old the classic, if academic, division of -the Indian peoples has been supposed to be in four great caste or -class abstractions, of which the second or warrior class is known as -Kshatriya. And in fact it was into this caste that the invaders were by -artful priests assumed to be adopted. The first hordes, from Bactria -and the Oxus, had become followers of Buddha, a casteless faith in -which the Brahman priesthood lost its privileges. But the later comers, -the Gujjars and Huns, with their adoration of fire and sun and moon, -were quickly persuaded to the Hindu system and the acceptance of the -Brahman priesthood. So they slew as they conquered and extirpated the -adherents of the reformed creed. And for reward they obtained the -rank of Kshatriya and genealogies of the true Aryan breed. Those who -were soldiers and founded states or formed the fighting men-at-arms -of the clan maintained the rank, and are the Rajputs of to-day. The -rest, as they settled down to trade or craftsmanship or as each by -the succeeding horde was engulfed, and, where it was not absorbed, -oppressed, brought to the multitudinous castes of upper India that -Rajput element which is still strongly marked by Scythian tribal names -and even by customs or appearance. It was a clan system, something -like the Highland clans. Just as Macdonalds or Camerons absorbed into -themselves earlier Picts or later broken septs, so did even the proud -Sesodias of Udepur, one must suppose, take into their tribe in the -first rush of conquest many converted Sákas or Kusháns, broken tribes, -it may be, who were useful recruits, or perhaps at times some powerful -leaders. As the Highlander going to Glasgow or the Lowlands, lost his -nobility and became artisan or weaver or tradesman, marrying with -the common people and shedding his pride and distinctions, so of the -Central Asian fighting tribes there were many who descended to the -common level of the working population. - -[Illustration: LADY FROM MEWÁR] - -Now the Rajput tribes for over a thousand years have been the kernel -of Indian aristocracy. They have lofty genealogies which trace their -trees to roots in mythology, to birth from fire or the personified -sun and moon. The god Krishna, a Kshatriya chief, indeed, of real -but hidden fact, mixed inextricably with the ancient concept of a -cloud-god, powerful in some forgotten Aryan home, has his place -as divine progenitor in many a family tradition. They have their -professional bards who sing the epics of their race and preserve the -records of their families and descent. For a thousand years they have -spent the lustres fighting, tumultuous, each chief with his following -against his neighbour, always divided, yet throughout in no mere lust -of acquisition but in the spirit of a sport, sought for its own sake, -governed by the rules of chivalry. Throughout Rajputana and Káthiawád, -their castles stand on every eminence. Thence they could sally forth -upon a foray, or in them, if the worst befell, sustain a brief siege. -Younger sons either went out to carve themselves a career and perhaps -a kingdom with the sword or received an appanage, half-independent, in -which they governed as vassal princes. The chief ruled with a power -absolute and arbitrary; but he had to rule as a father among his -children. The clan obeyed, as a child obeys his father; yet withal -there was always a curious feeling of equality. They were all of the -same blood, they felt, high or low, born to carry arms, all gentlemen; -and the chief was no better than his poorest brother, except that -God had given him as eldest of the older line the right of decision -in affairs. For their estates the clansmen paid by service, each -according to his fief serving in person or with subordinate horsemen -and men-at-arms. To this class belong the women who have been India’s -heroines, the women whose names survive in story, brave with the brave, -tender and true. Best known of all, perhaps too well-known again to -bear mention, are Padmini, the princess of Mewár, and her no less -courageous companions and maid-servants. For she was beautiful, of a -beauty so surpassing as to bring ruin to her own people. ’Alá-ud-din, -the great conqueror, heard of her fame and contrived to see her -features in a mirror. Then, having looked, he swore that she must be -yielded to his passion or, if not, that Chitor, the capital of Mewár, -should fall. Finally, when it was no longer possible to resist and -the impregnable fort was only too clearly pregnable by the enemy, -Padmini called the wives and daughters of the fighting men and told -them what was in her mind. In the vaults deep within the core of this -strange hill fortress, they piled wood and straw and built themselves -a vast pyre. Then with a farewell to the soldiers who were to charge -in one last sortie upon the enemy, the women went down the steps to -the supreme offering and laid themselves upon the logs of burning wood -and died. In this way the women of Chitor--without one to shrink or to -draw back--preserved for all time the memory of Rajput honour and the -exaltation of Rajput womanhood. - -Even to-day, without a doubt, there are within the _zanánas_ of Mewár -many women of a spirit no less sublime. The honour of the family, that -is a sacred flame which they feed in their hearts with ever renewed -fuel of self-sacrifice and devotion. That is a repute, which, even -when they sin, they seek to preserve intact; and they know only too -well that infraction of this law brings with it death. The women live, -with few exceptions, in the strictest seclusion, seeing no male person -except their husband and occasionally an uncle or a brother. But, in -despite of privacy, the fame of their conduct is whispered abroad and -their influence in affairs is only too often felt, even by Political -Agents and Residents. In a chief’s household, there may be two or three -wives, each with her separate establishment and her appanages. The -management of her estates alone demands a good deal of intelligence and -force of will. Handicapped as she is by being forced to converse with -her stewards through a curtain, behind which she remains invisible, it -is remarkable with what ability many a Rajput wife or widow controls -the administration of her funds, though sometimes unhappily she may -become the victim of fraud or specious appearances. The popular -estimation of the Rajput ladies’ talents is shown in the Gujaráti -proverb, “The clever woman’s children are fools, and the foolish -woman’s children are clever,” in which the former is the Rajput woman -with her impetuous and often imprudent sons, and the latter the cunning -Bania trader with his usually awkward and futile mother. - -Only experience can show how deep, and sometimes how perverted, is the -respect for family honour; how hard the duty imposed upon women to -preserve it above all things else at any cost. Some years ago, a young -Rajput gentleman in an access of insane rage murdered his stepmother -in her room. He had a sister, a girl of eighteen, still unmarried, who -was sitting beside the pair and saw the murder done before her eyes. -As it happened, a Government officer was near the place, got early -information, and by a forced ride through darkness over forest tracks -was able to reach the scene of the murder by midnight. He went at once -to the girl’s quarters and, while respecting the custom of purdah, -insisted upon speaking to her in person. The girl was still shaken -by the murder that she had witnessed, her nerves upset, her night -sleepless, her mind a vortex of cruel impressions. Under the skilful -questioning, she soon broke down, and--told the truth! She recounted -the facts as they had happened; and the facts were that her brother, -the head of the family, was a murderer. But thereafter the girl -remained unmarried, no Rajput of lineage, however poor, being found to -accept in marriage a Rajput maiden who by the mere truth had fixed in -the public eye a stain on the family name. - -Of Rajput wooings there is still many a romantic story to be told. In -one of the smaller states there had been some talk of marrying the -daughter of the house to a greater chief. The young lady, a girl of -about fifteen, exceptionally beautiful and graceful, well-educated, -a writer of excellent letters both in her own and in the English -language, managed to get hold of a photograph of the proposed -consort and incontinently fell in love with the pictured image. The -negotiations met with unexpected difficulties and the project all but -fell through. The young chief, who had not seen her, was indifferent -and accepted an offer from a more powerful state, where he married -the young princess, almost a child. This was so far from damping the -other lady, that it served only to inflame her further. The greater -the difficulty, the more determined she was to win the man whom she -now loved with a bitter passion. She wrote, she intrigued, she guided -the negotiations herself, she entreated and schemed and insisted. At -last she was successful, and the young chief came to wed her as his -second wife. Throughout the ceremony, he was indifferent, almost bored. -From his manner it was plain that he married only as a duty, because -he was a gentleman, bound to a promise which he may have thought -himself cheated into giving. But, the ceremony over, he went according -to custom to eat the first meal with his new wife and for the first -time to see her face and listen to her speech. In less than an hour -everything was changed. Fired by her immediate charms, he burst all -the bonds of etiquette and carried his bride off to his own tents. He -made her his queen and put her like a seal upon his heart. For the -child whom he had formerly married there was little thought, and the -new bride, who for so many years had loved him from his portrait with a -passionate eagerness, became the ruler as well as the loving servant of -her prince. - -The daily lives of these Rajput ladies of Mewár and Márwár may not -have many deep interests but they are by no means empty. Among the -greater chiefs, the woman’s life is the usual life of palaces, with -luxuries at command and with corresponding duties. There are servants -to order and affairs to manage. Most ladies read and hear recitations; -maid-servants sometimes sing; and children have to be cared for and -tended. Sewing is a common amusement in which most Rajput women are -expert. Occasionally a Rajput girl is heard of who, in the remoter -districts, goes out riding or even shooting, dressed sometimes as a -man, though seldom indeed can such amusements, in a caste which follows -the seclusion of women, be entertained after childhood. There are, -however, among advanced chiefs with modern ideas not a few instances -in which there is a tennis-court in the palace grounds for the ladies, -where the wives play together or with their husband and his nearest -relations. And there are some rare States where even the semblance of -seclusion is being discarded and the ladies drive abroad or shoot big -game in the jungle. - -These, however, are the liberties of the great. Among the lesser -nobility, where riches are usually wanting and position has to be -maintained by a stricter observance of traditional rule, the manner -of life is busier, with less need of pleasure-seeking. In such a -minor country-house, the wife will usually rise with the sun. If her -mother-in-law is alive, she goes first to her room and wishes her a -good morning. Then comes, what is in all such households a duty of -first importance, the care of the dairy-farm with its noble white cows. -The milk and whey is always distributed to servants and dependents by -the lady herself. That done, she has a bath and says a short prayer for -her husband, sees the children have their breakfast, and visits the -kitchen. The proudest nobleman’s wife would think shame of herself, -if she did not superintend the cooking and at need take a hand in the -baking of cakes and special delicacies. She sees to it that her husband -and all male guests--usually numerous--have their breakfast before she -herself eats her meal with her women. In that hot land, all sleep who -can in the middle of the day, and the Rajput woman is no exception. -When a couple of hours later she rises, she seeks for some amusement -for the afternoon. All Rajput ladies are brought up from childhood -to the strictest care of their persons and are taught even physical -exercises. Before they are married they have learnt every device by -which they can preserve or heighten their beauty and every art by -which to sharpen their husbands’ zest and devotion. For this purpose -there are many things they learn which in Europe would be disapproved. -But it is largely due to this care that they are faultlessly neat, -fair, and attractive, and that so often their beauty lasts to advanced -years. Thus in the quiet afternoon hours one of the frequent amusements -is to inspect and brush clothes. Ladies keep large wooden chests, -hasped and bolted with iron and often beautifully carved, very like -the bridal chests of the Italian Renaissance. In them are stored the -clothes in whose neatness and beauty they place their vanity. One by -one they are taken out by the maid-servants and dusted and shown to -the mistress and refolded and put back. It is a poor woman indeed who -does not have at least fifteen to twenty skirts, from the cheaper -cotton or red Turkey cloth to the richest silks and gold embroidery. -Mantles _(Saris)_ are at least as many and of bodices there may be -forty or fifty. The maid-servants who fold the clothes are a notable -institution. Rather household slaves than servants, born and bred in -the house, and almost of pure Rajput blood themselves, they are the -intimates of their mistress. One or two of them there will always be -who have been her affectionate companions since childhood and have, -on marriage, accompanied her to her new home. Such a girl is the -lady’s confidant and constant comrade, who looks to all her comforts, -rubs her down after her bath and does skilful massage, knows all her -secrets, brings her all rumours of the world, sleeps at her side in her -husband’s absence, and is her much cherished friend. Often, especially -in youth, the two spend their afternoons sewing together. Amongst the -Rajputs of Káthiawád, besides the pretty bodices that they often sew -themselves, it is the custom for girls to embroider fringed strips of -cloth for hanging across doors or squares to fasten upon walls for use -as ornament at marriages and festivals. Little pieces of glass or mica -are let into the embroidery and the patterns very much resemble those -still sewn by peasant women in Hungary, whither they were also brought -from the same tribal centres of Asia. Reading, visiting, chatting take -up the rest of the day till evening approaches. Then the Rajput woman -puts on her richer dresses and her jewelry and gets ready for dinner -and the night. - -[Illustration: RAJPUT LADY FROM CUTCH] - -The Rajput women of Káthiawád and Cutch deserve some special mention, -both for their beauty and their exceptional cleverness. Beautiful they -are above all other women of India except only in Kashmir, fair with -a rich fresh golden tint of skin, with full soft eyes, and with long -black hair. In their apparel they are particularly tasteful, and the -green hues that they specially affect set off their complexion at its -best under the Indian sky. Of their intelligence there is no doubt, and -throughout the Rajput country they are respected for their talents and -perhaps, shall we add, feared for their intrigue. Jealous and ambitious -to a fault, they are not ignorant even of the use of poison; and at -least it is a proverb that “She marries the land, not the man.” Gallant -and courageous they are, even in evil, and it is not so long ago that -the tale was told of a not-virtuous princess that night after night in -the dark hours saddled a riding camel with her own hands in the stable -and rode six miles out to join a lover, and before dawn, another six -miles back, unseen, unknown, with the threat of a dagger-thrust, if -discovered, always in her mind. But when well-beloved and cherished, -these Rajput women are charming companions and faithful, assiduous -helpmates. - -Besides the tribes who can claim to be Rajputs of authentic origin, -descended as was said from the Central Asian invaders who transformed -ancient India to its present type, it follows reasonably enough from -the constitution of the tribal entities and from the eternal facts -of power and sovereignty, that there are many others who put forward -a claim more or less substantiated to a similar recognition. Such are -the slightly later invaders of similar strains who came to India from -Scythia by a different road, the Jhadejas of Cutch and Káthiawád, for -instance, with their frequent marriages with Mussulmans. These have -at least a perfectly legitimate title to the name by a sort of cadet -copyhold. The hill Rajputs of the Himalayas, among whom for generations -survived the last indigenous school of Indian painting, can also fairly -put forward a claim based on historical descent. But in addition, -throughout Northern India, whenever by the fortune of circumstance a -new tribe, not yet included as a caste in the orthodox Hindu system, -has attained to princely power, the claim to true Rajput ancestry, -for a time overlaid and obscured by the dust-layers of adversity, is -propounded and defended. Minstrels in India are no less complacent -than genealogists and heralds in Europe; and a ruling chief can have -a mythical founder of his line disinterred from unknown records as -readily as can a British peer. Instances are many and notorious; but it -would be invidious to retail cases, where very often the tribe or its -ruling family are in every way worthy of inclusion. - -[Illustration: MAHRATTI LADY] - -Among the Hindu aristocracy not yet fully recognized as Rajput, perhaps -the most notable are the Mahrattas. Cultivators of the arid Deccan -highlands, their swift-raiding horsemen carved out many a principality -in the last three centuries. Several regiments of the Indian army -are recruited from these stern and hardy tribes, and the Mahratta has -fought steadily and well on the Euphrates and the Yser. Among the -ruling chiefs, the generosity, loyalty, and gallantry of H.H. the -Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior, in particular, have now become famous -throughout the world. - -Besides the ruling chiefs, the Mahratta tribes have a number of -families of lesser nobility, above the mass of poorer farmers and -peasants. Five of the tribes boast a purer birth and loftier ancestry; -while in all ninety-nine tribes or branches of the race are counted. -But in all tribes, far greater is the distinction between gentle and -simple than among the Rajput clans. The Rajput clans form a real -brotherhood in which, in many senses, each man is as good as another, -wealth and power being accidentals only upon the leading strain. Over -the whole social life is the tradition of the feudal fief and tenure, -where all hold as gentlemen by their soldiers’ service. Among the -Mahrattas there has never been this history of feudal aristocracy. -And even more perhaps, a certain democratic tendency and a certain -proneness to claim “rights” in the true democratic spirit, make it -natural for those who have attained nobility to distinguish themselves -by a haughtier aloofness. In many ways this tendency has affected -the Mahratta woman. It has introduced the _purdah_ or seclusion for -one thing among a people to whom it is not natural, first among the -nobility, and now to a modified degree among the richer or prouder -of the farmer class. Among the mass it hardly exists even in name. -More obvious still is the difference in appearance between the _lady_ -and the _woman_. The latter is like the generality of the Deccan -population--one sect of Brahmans alone excepted--dark, stunted, -hardly attractive. The former is fair, graceful, sometimes singularly -charming. Seen at her best (and there are now not a few who in the -disuse of seclusion in the more modern houses may be so seen) she -is intelligent if quiet, winning though a trifle austere, grave and -refined. The Mahratta lady lacks the open, ready smile and frank -feminine fascination of the Rajput, but she has her own severer appeal. -There is something in her always that is virginal. She goes through -life as if unconscious of evil or at least as one deliberately and -finely passing by with eyes unnoticing. Almost she reminds one of the -girl-student resolute upon her way to lectures. Or--shall we say?--in -her is something of the Florentine school, in the Rajput princess the -full rich bloom of Venice. - -But in the Peninsula where it narrows to a cape against Ceylon there -still survives an earlier segregated India, untouched, or almost so, -by Scythian immigration. It never knew those tribal communities, now -broken up and regrouped and again assimilated, which left behind as -their living memorial the strenuous organism of the Rajput clans. -In the south, where the green of the rice-fields gleams bright -like emerald, and traffic moves slowly upon great waterways, a -world survives, two thousand years old, fallen perhaps a little to -decrepitude, of indigenous Dravidians--caste-ridden, they, from the -first known times--and rarer immigrant Aryans. And in that world out -of the teeming millions of the Dravidian population, akin perhaps in -remote ages to the inhabitants of the South Seas, the nobility are the -Nairs. Aristocracy they can hardly perhaps be called with propriety, -since they themselves do not claim to rule as being best. Rather they -derive their nobility, by their own showing, from the fact that they -were deemed worthy by the Aryan priests, whom they acknowledge to be -the highest of mankind. The Nairs are a community, rather than a caste -or tribe, with powers of assimilation. A large infusion of Aryan blood, -obtained from the favours of the priesthood whom they venerate, has -given them a peculiar distinction from the Dravidian masses. - -In the “Relations of the Most Famous Kingdom in the World,” which was -published in the year of Grace 1611 by Master Johnson, this southern -nobility was abundantly described: “It is strange to see how ready -the souldiour of this country is at his weapons: they are all gentile -men and tearmed Naires. At seven years of age they are put to school -to learn the use of their weapons, where, to make them nimble and -active, their sinews and joints are stretched by skilful fellows and -anointed with the oyle sesamus. By this anointing they become so light -and nimble that they will wind and turn their bodies as if they had -no bones, casting them forward, backward, high and low, even to the -astonishment of the beholders. Their continual delight is in their -weapon, persuading themselves that no nation goeth beyond them in skill -and dexterity.” They are no longer warriors and the only soldiers of -Nair caste are the household brigade maintained by H.H. the Maharaja of -Travancore. But they are still brave, and in their play the sword and -buckler and the bow and arrow keep their place. - -Nowadays it is the women who have won the higher fame. Seldom in -any country can there have been a womanhood that has received such -universal eulogy. From the earliest histories of Malabar to the latest -writings of French tourists, the chorus, of praise has been a monody. -Old Duarte Barbosa, writing centuries ago his “Description of the -Coasts of East Africa and Malabar,” already clothed his impression -in admiring words. Most of all he notes that “they are very clean -and well-dressed women and they hold it a great honour to know how -to please men.” This careful cleanliness and a certain grave sort of -neatness are indeed recurrent in every description. The bath is to them -a very article of faith and they bathe not daily but, almost it might -be said, hourly. Beside each house is a large private tank or pond of -masonry with broad stone steps leading to the water, and there are few -moments in the hot daylight hours when it does not resound to a woman’s -laugh. They use the nuts of various saponaceous plants to free hair and -skin from the slightest impurity; and no robe, however slightly soiled, -is ever worn again till it is thoroughly cleaned by the washerwoman. -A scrupulous cleanliness and a fastidious neatness--a total impression -of almost hieratic purity--this exhales from the Nair woman like an -emanation. By their grave simplicity an English official was inspired -to a pretty compliment, as he toiled through some red-tape Census -Report with much talk of “excess of females” in the Nair population. -“They could never be accused,” he reported with mock indignation, “of -an ‘excess of females.’ The most beautiful women in India, if numerous, -could never be excessive.” - -[Illustration: NAIR LADY] - -The general picture of grave and simple purity is heightened by the -appearance of their houses, each aloof and separate with a certain -quiet dignity in its own grounds. A bathing tank and a garden, -these are the first conditions of every household; and the garden -is luxuriant with the great rough stems of the jack-fruit tree, the -graceful areca and cocoa-nut palms, and bright green, broad-leaved -banana plants. To the east is the gate, through the garden, to the -house, with a stile to cross and a gate-house or lodge at its side. -The house itself, with its large household all related through the -female line, has on the ground floor its kitchen and store-rooms, an -open courtyard, and a large dining-hall. And above, with two separate -staircases, lie on one side the women’s, on the other the apartments -of the men, segregated entirely one from another. In such houses with -all their numerous family-members, brothers and sisters and cousins -and aunts and children always growing up, a certain quiet discipline -and an instinctive order, from being a duty, becomes a constant habit. -Comfort and tranquillity, if they are to be had, exact self-effacing -restraint and gentle deference to others’ wishes and requirements. -Whatever is boisterous and impulsive, the self-assertive and the crude, -has had to be effaced and smoothed away, as pebbles shaken together -in a bag lose their sharp edges. The manners that result are quiet -and self-contained, a little solemn perhaps, as of people traversing -a cathedral, but sweetened by human charity and a pleasant touch of -worldly irony. - -The dress is simple in the extreme, a single white cloth that reaches -from the waist to the knee. This for long ages has been the sole -honoured dress of the Nair lady, above all fear as she is and above -reproach. That in all public places she should go boldly and unashamed, -with no self-conscious daring, but simply and modestly, with the -upper part of her body uncovered before all men, has been the law of -her community. Only jewelry she wears, a gold or silver chain, even -a gold belt about her waist, gold bosses in her ears, and a necklace -whose pendants are as the cobra’s hood upon her neck. Sometimes, -however, especially in these later days, and when she travels to other -provinces, she throws a cloth over her shoulders and bosom, with a -certain shyness, as of something coquettish and immodest. - -Amusements too are simple, but to their thinking plentiful and quietly -enjoyable. All girls are taught to read and write, and not a few are -highly educated. They are in general on the happiest terms with their -husbands, whom they do not see too much and whose affections are not -blunted by the daily usage of a common household and the dulling -minutiae of daily life. When, however, there is incompatibility, they -separate simply and naturally without unkindness to seek a better loved -mate. In leisure hours, swinging, two or three merry girls on the same -swing, is a favourite amusement, and singing and dancing are often -enjoyed, especially at the great autumn festival when the house is -filled with presents and each one gives every one else a yellow cloth -or a toy or an ornament. Prettiest of all their amusements, however, -and most symbolic of all that quiet, so sweetly singular life on the -backwaters of the south, is that of flower-decoration. In the early -morning the children of the large household go into the fields to -gather flowers and bring them back in armfuls. Then all sit down in -the courtyard, and with their gathered blossoms make bright decorative -patterns on the walls and floor. Best loved of all is a flower-carpet -over which they raise a booth, gaily festooned with other flowers. When -all is complete, the neighbours are asked to come in and admire; and -they compare it with their own in turn. But the finest flowers of all -are the sweet gravely tender women of Malabar. - -When he turns to the Mussulman aristocracy of India, the European -finds himself on ground more familiar, as it is more similar to the -landscape of his own social existence. These chiefs and nobles are the -descendants--in most part--of soldier adventurers who, as generals or -as governors under the Emperors of Delhi, or as rebels and fighters -for their own hand, achieved estates and even principalities. They -have no caste or tribe to distinguish them from their fellows, but owe -their position to their authority and landed interest. As sons of Adam, -they hold, all men are in essence equal, but Destiny has apportioned -sovereignty to one and to another beggary. They rise and fall, as in -Europe, too, heritages are wasted and fortunes won; and they rely upon -no mystic ordinance and no hieratic ceremonial for their prestige. The -frank acceptance of the world as it is, _facts_ alone one would say -having importance, makes the Mussulman gentleman and his family appear -figures fully human and comprehensible. Polygamy and the seclusion of -women alone cause disparities, superficial even these in many respects. - -[Illustration: MUSSULMAN LADY OF NORTHERN INDIA] - -The permission to marry up to four wives is in practice seldom -utilized. The commandment to treat all wives alike, with equal favour -and cherishing, in itself makes righteous polygamy by no means easy. -But a more actual obstacle is the natural jealousy of the woman and -her great influence. There are few Mussulman ladies whose husbands are -not just the least thing “henpecked.” And few of them will allow a -rival to enter the zanána without a struggle. Only in a few of the most -powerful courts is it prevalent to any conspicuous degree; and in such -royal households where it exists, it flies often in the face of Holy -Scripture no less than human sense and comfort. It is then a vice and -not an observance. Seclusion--the “purdah”--exists with a severity far -exceeding modern Turkey or even Egypt, and still more in excess of the -Prophet’s teaching; but it falls short of the unreasoning stringency -of the Rajput code. It is relaxed for one thing by the recognition in -each case of certain persons who stand “within the enclosure,” as it -is called, or in other words are free to meet the women of the house -unveiled. In this circle are included a large number of male relatives -and even, in a few cases, the husband’s most intimate friends, as well -as servants brought up from childhood within the family. Moreover, the -restriction becomes less oppressive when it is relieved by the wide -freedom to visit women-friends which is generally sanctioned. Veiled -though they drive through the streets and unseen, there are few things -which are not noted by the keen eyes behind the peep-holes in the -shrouding cloak. - -The Mussulman girl of the better class is in early childhood taught -to recite prayers and to read the Qor’an in Arabic, though without -understanding of the words she reads. As she grows older she is -usually taught more, and attains a fair knowledge of Urdu, while, if -she shows signs of greater capacity, she will often learn Persian as -well. To read simple books in Urdu and Persian is at least a common -accomplishment, and there are not a few who can themselves read or, at -least, understand the elegant odes of Hafiz. In household management -and the care of her children the Mussulman lady is able to find -incessant occupation, while there is no one who more appreciates the -pleasures of a garden with runnels of flowing water under a tropic -sky. She rises very early, and shortly after dawn she is to be found -among the roses in the walled garden. Chess and backgammon are frequent -amusements. In talismans, omens, charms and the evil eye she has -an unshakable belief, which survives every trial. And in her later -years she looks forward to the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, with all -its difficulties and hardships, as the last and best employment of -a well-spent life. Something there is truly noble in that figure of -an old lady, veiled in white, facing, after a long life behind the -curtain, the crowded port, the steamer, and the desert Bedouins. But -sweetest picture of all in the womanhood of the Mussulman nobility is -the growing girl, not yet a woman, in coloured silk trousers, long -robe, or shirt of fine Dacca muslin, and velvet cap gold-embroidered, -as she sits cross-legged beneath a shady tree and recites aloud -from the silk-covered Qor’an that is open before her on its carved -sandalwood rest. - - - - -The Middle Classes - - “Things never changed since the time of the Gods, - The flowing of water, the way of love.” - - _Japanese Song._ LAFCADIO HEARN. - -[Illustration: FROM BURMAH] - - - - -Chapter V - -THE MIDDLE CLASSES - - -In a vast empire with a population of over three hundred millions, in -area a continent, with some thirty-five main languages and of dialects -none can say how many, with different religions and with cultures -divided from each other by centuries of progress, anything like an -adequate description of the middle-class woman would be a task beyond -human power, and its perusal beyond the patience of the most enduring -reader. Less difficult by far would it be to head a chapter “The middle -classes of Europe,” and, within its limits, after running from Greece -and Roumania to Spain and England, to scale the heights upon which, -like an inspiration, the womanhood of France sits enthroned. But there -are at least some essentials in which the womanhood of the Indian -middle classes becomes congruous, differing therein from the women of -other countries, Europe for instance, or America or China. Perhaps it -may be tried by the selection of a few types, with the aid of contrast -and analysis, in some way to express their essential atmosphere and -habit. - -Burmah must, one finds, go to the wall, not most certainly for any -fault of its own but because it lies so far apart from the total of -Indian life. For administration it is placed within the confines of -the Indian Empire, but with the Indian peoples its people has no lot -or part. To omit it seems almost a pity, so frankly independent are -its women and so fascinating--free above the women of most nations and -consonant to an unusual degree with ultimate human ideals. One sees -such a little Burmese lady sometimes, but how rarely, in India, the -wife perhaps of some English officer or of a high Burmese councillor, -so a picture may stand as reminder of smiling daintiness, like some -porcelain figurine glazed and tinted in the furnace of human freedom. - -In India proper, of the middle classes, the most important, and perhaps -the most enigmatic, figure is the Brahman’s. The class is certainly an -aristocracy in one, the etymological, sense. For it is as being best -that they hold power and the power that they hold is, even to this -day, most undeniable. Aristocracy--“rule of the best”--of those rather -who are admitted to be best--if this be indeed a meaning true to fact, -then the Brahmans should be included in or alone comprise that rank. -With many of them their very appearance, their gait and self-composure, -support the role. With steady untroubled eye, straight nose and -sensitive nostril, fair skin, “pride in their port” and self-restraint -in every gesture, they move through the mass of common men, as if -conscious of a higher mission. By the sacred thread across the shoulder -they proclaim themselves twice-born, once from a mortal womb and once -again at an auspicious hour in childhood by initiation to the sacred -mysteries. Calm and indifferent, serene with a careful precision -and habit of restraint, they incarnate in their manner something of -absolute repose, as if untouched by the mundane ebb and flow. Withal -they are not in any customary sense a nobility. Perhaps, it may be -said, they have transcended even nobility. In any case the proudest -noble must at times, and some must constantly, admit the ascendancy, -spiritual though it be, of these born preceptors. The greatest ruler -will eat food cooked by the poorest Brahman beggar; but no Brahman, -desperate with the pangs of destitution, would accept even a glass of -water from a monarch’s jug, the mere touch being a profanation to the -nutriment of sanctity. In Southern India, where the Brahman, immigrant -from Aryan races, was most successful in exploiting the indigenous -population by the means of religious awe, the Nair nobility are abject -in their recognition of this hierarchic superiority. In every word of -speech the Nair throws himself, as a clod of mud, before the Brahman’s -feet to be trampled and contemned. His house becomes, in speaking to -a Brahman, his poor dunghill and the Brahman’s house his palace; his -teeth are dirty in his speech, and the Brahman’s pearls; his sleep is a -mere falling into snores, and the Brahman’s an honourable slumber. - -But in ordinary speech, in Europe and no less in India, the concept -of nobility or aristocracy in its worldly relations implies other -qualities. A certain tinge of feudal tradition colours our thought; -and a nobleman is always conceived primarily as a fighter and a leader -of his own men in his own estate. Love of sport, a certain careless -gaiety, an eupeptic cheerfulness and a happy enjoyment, face to -face with a world in which nothing really matters, coupled with the -readiness to do the duties of his station and to die for honour, these -are qualities that make up the mental picture. - -It is not to such a class that the Brahman belongs. To life and the -pleasures of life, he stands as a pillar of negation. Not here and -now one conceives him beckoning, but in a reality transcending all -appearance in duty and existence. Privation is for him the highest rule -and participation in the world is at most an inexorable concession to -accidental forces. The Brahman’s life must, in semblance at least, be -one of constant abstention, rigidly guarded. The show of enjoyment and -the joy of healthy natural life must be repressed or at least veiled -discreetly. Between him and mere sensual humanity he has dug a gulf, -impassable. - -[Illustration: LADY FROM MYSORE] - -Of Brahmans only a few are by ordination priests. The majority fill the -professional classes, as administrators, clerks, astrologers, scholars, -physicians, lawyers, and the like. Some are money-lenders and not a -few are cultivators of the soil. There are even rare Brahman houses -which, in spite of religious prohibition, have usurped the thrones -of princes. But in all there exists not only a sense of solidarity -as being sanctified, but also this ideal of abstention, leading in -practice not unseldom to a grave and measured hypocrisy. As a whole -they are the professional class of India, they and the rival caste, -the Kayasthas or “scribes,” and maintain with admirable earnestness -the tastes and pursuits of an intellectual, idealizing, and temperate -order. Mental discipline, the suppression of the impulsive act, a habit -of restriction so incessant as to become almost instinctive, these they -have to a degree almost overwhelming. - -Among Rajput women one finds certainly the highest development of the -individual with the greatest charm and the fullest humanity, and it is -they, almost alone, who have achieved the heroic. But to India as a -whole the ordinary ideal of woman in her relation to social function is -represented by the more reticent figure of the Brahman. She is woman as -in his life the ordinary man would wish to find her, quiet, devoted, -managing and pious. - -Nowhere is the Brahman woman so true to the type presented in this -ideal as in the Madras Presidency and in the Bombay Deccan. And never -is she so true to herself as when she goes, sedately, to the temple. -In her hand she carries the brass tray on which she has put her humble -offerings of ochre powder and flowers with a wick burning beside -them; and she goes looking neither to the right nor to the left. She -rings the bell which summons the God’s attention to his worshipper -and walks the prescribed ceremonial steps round the idol with a grave -unquestioning dignity. And her whole life is one unceasing round of -service, in which humility is elevated by an ever-present sense of -Divine ordinance. To the lowly in heart she feels--almost one might say -she knows, so strongly does she feel--belongs the kingdom of heaven. -In service to find fulfilment, even happiness, that is her God-given -mission. She grinds corn and cooks, carries water and washes the -house, nurses her children, waits upon her family, as also she draws -ornamental patterns with white and red chalks upon her door-step, all -with a humble pride and joy in the singleness of her devotion. In -poorer houses, in the houses of far the greater number of her class, -she is at work all day from long before the first-dawning till at last -at night she falls into the deep slumbers of exhaustion. There are few -who keep servants, except for an occasional old woman who comes to help -with the rougher tasks. And in addition to the household labour, she -is forced, too early, to premature childbirth, and protracted nursing. -For charm and coquetry, for all the arts by which woman gladdens life -and creates a liberal society, she has, if she had the inclination, no -spare time or energy. She ages early, spent by exhausting labour and -the recurring burden of unregulated childbirth, unwarmed by joy, unlit -by passion. - -[Illustration: A SOUTHERN INDIAN TYPE] - -But the bare life of poverty and unending labour is illumined by a -spiritual exaltation. With the performance of their service the million -Saint Theresas of the Deccan are able to find within their hearts a -satisfying happiness. Like nuns, by an austere self-repression, they -avert their eyes from humanity and the human purposes of life; and when -they are forced to see, they persuade themselves to despise. They live -as it were in a spiritual cloister. But even in this world they are not -altogether without reward, though it comes late in life. The love and -devoted kindness of her sons, that is the one constant meed of service -upon which the woman counts. And there are few things more impressive -than an Indian son’s look when he turns to his mother or the tone in -which, even years after her death, he speaks of his childhood at her -side. And in old age when she in turn, with her husband, succeeds -to the management of the large joint family household, she finds a -peaceful joy in the ordering of their simple life and the caresses of -her clustering grandchildren. At the end, when death lays her to sleep -at last, she dies in the hope of an untroubled peace, as one who has -accomplished a lengthy service not without pain and effort. - -Such perhaps most truly are the women of India, as through a large -continent the greatest number of its inhabitants would like to see -them. Not for this world, they might say, is the labour; not for love -and enjoyment and greater power and finer emotions and self-development -and the glories of nature do they thirst. Of the fervours of youth and -the vivid joys of mere active BEING, of the fine harmonies between soul -and sense in expanding, self-perfecting human functions, of a humanity -that should be self-sufficient, free in the face of the eternal -universe and glad in the fight for mastery with obstructive matter, -they have not even a conception. To an Indian Antigone no chorus would -sing of human power and magnitude. Only the preacher would instruct in -humility and abnegation. - -Even the richest Brahman women of the South spend their leisure hours -in a manner that accords with the common ideal. Relieved of the more -exhausting house-work by the labour of the servants, they spend the -afternoon hours when they are at rest in the reading of the Purans, -those grosser Scriptures or, one might perhaps with truer comparison -say, those Hagiologies in which priests have deformed the too subtle -tenets of Hindu theosophy with the flesh of mythology. In the reciting -of these legends, and in lengthy prayers and ritual performance the -wealthy Brahman lady is content to find the entertainment of her -leisure. - -The same ideal of service and privation is to be found no less in -Bengal, sweetened however and softened like the more languid air. -There is something hard, even cruel perhaps, in the arid Deccan -plain with its burning dry winds and its stony hill-sides, and its -stern, thrifty, self-centred people. Its asceticism is harsh and -rough, the sour ferment as it were of crude souls in fear of a fierce -Deity, looking by abnegation to secure the grace that alone can give -salvation. The spirit is that, almost, of a Hindu Calvinism, savagely -abnegatory. A softer piety, as of some Italian nunnery among roses and -olive trees over the blue sea, inspires the womanhood of Bengal. They -have a devotion no less intense, their service and self-sacrifice is -no smaller; but they are filled also with the pity that assuages and -the love that makes things sweet. To be kind and tender in a world -which, with all its evil and pain, is pervaded by a loving and merciful -Providence, such is the spirit in which they render service. The large -houses of Bengal, embowered in trees, have a claustral peace as well as -labour. The lives of the women in them are coloured by the tender light -of pity and affection. Often in the warm nights under the star-strewn -sky, young girls creep to each other and whisper little gaieties. - -[Illustration: BENGALI LADY] - -In general, among the middle classes of Bengal, women practise a -seclusion that is, however, not too rigid. It is a seclusion like -that of classic Athens, not savagely jealous as it still is in many -Rajput houses. But with the renaissance that in the last fifty years -has so greatly altered life in this great province, many have learnt -to discard orthodoxy and with it the traditional restrictions. At -Benares, especially, many a Bengali lady can be seen walking openly to -the temples and the sacred river. Always she bears a perfect courtesy -and a rounded balanced dignity. Of the newer school, too many perhaps -have aspirations gleaned from the lighter English novels which they -eagerly read--dreams for whose passage the ivory gates of Hinduism -were never meant to open. But deep in the hearts of all--far deeper -than such fashions--are the images of Sita and Sakuntala. Some play -tennis and ride, some there are who return from English schools and the -smarter section of London society with the gossip of Ranelagh or the -bridge club and a wider taste for amusement. But there are none who -discard the tenderness and soft devotion of their native womanhood. -Nowhere in India have there been so many marriages between English -and Indian; nowhere have they been more successful. The number of -women really educated, appreciative of art and literature, a few even -themselves poets and writers, is out of all comparison large; and the -artistic rebirth in Bengal must to some extent have been shaped by the -influence of women’s grace on the social world. Without departing from -the prescribed fields of service and abnegation, they take their part -in every important movement--sometimes perhaps unwisely! But at times -they have brought untold benefit by their acts. So a few years ago did -the brave girl who by the sacrifice of her own life slew a great social -evil--the purchase of men at the price of ruinous dowries. It must -at least be conceded that the women of Bengal, descendant from mixed -races but long since truly Indian, have clothed the sacerdotal ideal in -vestment of soft and womanly grace. But there are other parts of India -where even the Brahman woman has diverged from this ideal, or--should -one not rather say?--has transfused into it the feelings and robust -sensuality of a more vigorous nature. Where the late conquerors from -the North have settled, where rich plains bear wheat and millet, and -fields are hedged with the milk-bush and the cactus, where the great -trees make the country seem like an English park, and the air bites -cold in the winter mornings when a skin of ice crackles on road-side -pools, where in the hot months the sun hangs like a disc of brass -over the panting earth, there the pulse beats stronger and a larger -nature sways the will. Women there have their claims as well as duties; -and from life they demand, besides the right to serve, a broader power -also and a rich fulfilment. They wish for love and to be loved, and -even in their service they aspire to govern. For their womanhood they -claim at least some freedom. The texts are still the same; but they are -commented by a bolder temperament. The distinction holds good perhaps -for all the women of real Hindustan--for the lusty graceful women of -Allahabad, for instance, and the upper Ganges Valley. - -[Illustration: A NÁGAR BEAUTY] - -But nowhere can this fine and active type be better studied than in -the Nágar caste of Káthiawád and Gujarát. The Nágar community came -to India with the last Scythian hordes; and almost at once, at the -great fire baptism of Ajmer, attained the rank of Brahmans. To this -day, so high do they hold themselves above all others, they hardly -trouble to use the title Brahman, but call themselves merely Nágar, -with a proud simplicity, as who would say, “I am the Prince.” For -centuries they have held the appointments of the State and been famous -as administrators. They are to be found in every rank and in every -department of the public services, clever, courteous, receptive, and -self-confident. Their pride has become a byword among other castes; and -their success has made them the mark of envy and dislike. But there -can be no question of the ability with which they have held their -position, nor of the keen, progressive intellect that guides their -interests and activities. They have an eager humanity, and a keen -understanding of worldly good and evil, and are above the hypocritical -renunciations and pessimistic sanctity of a priestly class. Literature -they hold in honour; and the creative instinct, which leads many of -them to administration as the career in which man expresses his active -will through the minds and morals of mankind, forces others of their -community to self-expression in thought and language. If renunciation -there be, it is here, not for a mere negation, in itself fruitless; -but to the end of a greater realization in the material given by -humanity. In this dynamic will, the women have a proportional share. -Ambitious and intellectual, they partake in the interests of their -families and encourage or advise their husbands and their children. -For the achievement of purpose they are ready for every sacrifice; but -the consciousness of larger interests ennobles the sacrifice as it -humanizes the purpose. They too serve, as every Hindu woman seeks to -serve, and the Nágar wife, like her sisters, will cook and wash and -stand aside before her man and wait upon his meals. But her devotion -is shaped by a less trammelled intellect, and she claims in return an -immediate recompense of love and attention. - -Very beautiful are the Nágar women, and their beauty is the theme of -countless songs and ballads. Fair with a rich golden vivid fairness, -like the colour of ripe wheat, with dark eyes in whose depth glows -a spark of passion and round which humour and laughter play, with -full petulant lips, figures finely rounded and firmly plump like -the quail, with, graceful movement and slender limb, the whole lit -up by intelligence and comprehension and a touch of conscious charm, -the Nágar woman presents a picture that remains unforgotten. Even -laborious study seems to have no power to rob her of her looks, and -the girl-graduate is fresh and graceful, as if she had never bent over -Euclid or deductive logic. One meets them so at times in Ahmedabad or -Baroda, in the houses of the highest officials, clever, well-read, -well-bred, with perfect manners and astounding beauty, like some memory -of the Italian Renaissance, taking no small part in the establishment -of an urbane and liberal society, and like the _donne_ of Boccacio they -return to their homes to serve and cherish their husbands. And of love -they can repeat the whole gamut. Indeed, the keynotes of this society, -with all its undertones of Hindu abnegation--as in Florence, too, -one imagines an undercurrent, not too discordant, from Savonarola’s -denunciations--are not unlike Italy in the great age. Women have -similar duties with a touch of the same implied seclusion; they have -the same intrigues and stolen pleasures, the same essentially natural -poise in life; they are now even beginning a similar application -to learning and poetry. And of love too they have no lesser lore -and experience than those ladies who, finely natural and fittingly -acquiescent in their sex, gladdened and made illustrious the Courts of -Mantua and Ferrara. - -Even more beautiful than the women in the Nágar caste are their -charming and delightful children. With the round oval of their faces, -the fair bloom of their skins, the growing intelligence that dances -in their eyes, they at once captivate all who look. In general up to -the age of eight or ten they remain naked (though an unfortunate new -fashion, imitated from customs made necessary by the cold grey skies -of England, tends to hamper their free beauty in ugly and unwholesome -clothes), and the light movement of frail gold-browned limbs in the -Indian air is sheer refreshment to the eye. Devotion, then, the Nágar -woman certainly stands for, devotion and the due and harmonious -fulfilment of the duties of her station. A woman she is always, fully -and truly womanly. But she is far above the mere privative of empty -abnegation. Beauty she knows and values, and she is not ignorant or -afraid of the power that kindly beauty can exercise in the affairs of -men. Learning she can recognize and honour; literature she assists; -even of art, she is not, like her sisters, much afraid. In Gujarát from -of old the dainty custom has remained by which on certain festivals, -the feast of lamps for instance, ladies of the highest classes meet in -the open streets of the residential quarters and chant choral songs -while they move round in a circle, beating time with their hands and -bending gracefully up and down. They sing of spring and flowers and the -sports of girl-friends in palace-gardens. But in the large industrial -cities which in the last generation have risen upon the older towns -with their restricted social circles, the publicity of the streets has -become inconvenient. The Nágar ladies in Ahmedabad, for instance, have -taken a leading part in transferring the old songs to larger concert -halls in clubs and similar places, and at the same time raising the -standard and artistic value of the performance. Those who have ever -heard such a concert must be grateful for a movement full at the same -time of beauty and colour and sweet sound along with modesty and -perfect taste. For a higher social life, with heightened enjoyments and -a rational freedom, for self-development and wider interests, yet well -within the limits that nature prescribes for woman, distinct from the -far other limits set to man by his divergent functions, for a life that -has in it something of Greece as well as the main ideals of Hinduism, -the Nágar woman, for all the illiberal asceticism of the Brahman -tradition, may emphatically stand. - -In the mercantile classes the same ideals persist, deflected however by -the incidents of their livelihood and to an even greater extent by a -profound difference in spiritual aspect. Of the Hindu trading classes -by far the most important and the most ubiquitous are the merchants -of Márwár, of Gujarát, and of Cutch. All follow one of two sects, the -Vaishnava or the Jain--the latter in essence a different religion, -originally indeed a protest against Hinduism but now little more than -a sect, another ripple, so to say, on the waters of national faith. -Both at any rate are protests against Brahman orthodoxy and the gnostic -philosophies of essential Hinduism. Numerically and in its effects, by -far the more important is Vaishnavism. In the form in which it has -been adopted by the trading classes, it is the belief that by love -alone can God be realized. It centres upon Krishna, that tender and -sportive figure, in whom the God Vishnu again came to earthly life, -and in whom are enshrined the memories of a once-living hero. On Him -mythology and popular song have lavished their softest endearments -and their most entrancing images. In His name have been composed the -voluptuous love-poems of many generations; and the dalliances of -Krishna with the milk-maids and His beloved Rádha are the constant -theme to which Indian passion turns for lyrical expression. They are -the familiar accompaniment in childhood as in age of the merchant’s -women-folk. In Vaishnavism such as this the devotee throws himself, as -a suppliant, on God’s grace and love alone. He acknowledges indeed his -innate incapacity to apprehend the Godhead, but he aspires at least -to feel something of His Glory in those ecstasies of self-abandonment -which can be likened on this earth only to the passionate love of -man and woman. In their prayers too they associate with the God that -consort Lakshmi or Rukhmini, who gives wealth and prosperity--the -benign divinity who with her lord preserves and maintains all living -things and in loving-kindness intercedes for all who seek by love -and submission to realize the Divine in the universe, be their sins -manifold as the sands upon the shore. - -In every land, of course, the pursuit of wealth as such must be -opposed to higher spiritual activities and loftier aspirations. For -the merchant the end must be the acquisition of riches for its own -sake. All other purposes are either means or incidents. He must treat -men and women as means and not as ends in themselves. He can have -for humanity none of that respect which is felt by him who, as equal -among equals, seeks as his end human perfection, or even by him who, -again one of many equals, works, as he thinks, by pain and self-denial -for the greater glory of God. Where acquisition is the supreme good, -all else must be subordinate. And the methods of acquisition are -really two-fold, either by careful saving and the starving of desire -to accumulate useless metal tokens which are the equivalents of -untasted pleasures, or by wilder speculation quickly to capture the -wealth which, exchanged, can buy luxury and material gratification. -Side by side, in the same class of men, the two methods can be seen. -Extravagant abstention and extravagant lavishness, a fulfilment that -is material or an abstention that is no less material, these in -all countries are the marks of the merchant class. But they can be -mitigated in their effect, as they were in the Italian Renaissance by -the almost superstitious devotion of all ranks to the newly-exhumed -classic ideal. In India this mitigation is given by the creed of -Krishna and of love. Materialized though it has to be when refracted -through the mind of man the acquisitive, it is still an influence, -nicely attuned to the receiver, for something finer and ennobling. What -there is of good, charity and spiritual significance in the merchant’s -life (and it is after all much) is mainly drawn from a faith which, -even when interpreted in a too material sense, could hardly be replaced -for its worshippers by any other _credo_. In modern Europe the -aristocratic ideal has for the richer merchant something of the same -significance and mitigating value. But for those outside the circle in -which this ideal can be operative there is no other thought to raise -and enlarge the spirit. - -It is not difficult to see how all these influences must react upon -the woman’s life. The effects are further complicated by the fact -that child-marriages are still the rule, and that only too often, in -a trading class, the young bride is sold by her parents for large -sums to an aged bridegroom. Among the larger number of the class, -probably, acquisition is sought by rigid economy. The young wife finds -herself stinted, therefore, of every comfort and even of the dresses -and ornaments that by nature every woman desires. The husband holds -the purse and makes almost all purchases himself. A few rupees only -can reach the wife, and for these she has to account. Even if her -husband is young, long hours in the shop, constant poring over account -books, and little exercise only too soon make him obese and feeble. -The only real interests are house-work, in which she has no final -voice, and frequent, often ill-natured, gossip. On the other hand, she -has this of advantage that her menfolk, weighing the world as they -do by its material fruits, ascribe to women the first place in their -pleasures. She is, therefore, in spite of all, able sometimes to -attain a real power that is discordant with her ostensible position. -The passion is for the sex in general, not for the individual woman; -for a mere satisfaction of sense, not for a spiritual individualized -love of the fitting mate. But a shrewd woman can play upon the passion -and make it serve her own purposes. And when the trader’s wife does -manage to attain such influence, she uses it unsparingly for her own -satisfaction. Many a comedy of manners is played, unseen, on the dark -stage of the merchant’s house. There are not a few husbands who, -whether from love of gain or from sheer terror of their wives, shut -their eyes complaisantly to divagations damaging to their honour. The -practice common to many money-lenders of keeping burly Mussulman, often -Afghan, servants in their households, is anything except an incentive -to female virtue. - -[Illustration: JAIN NUN] - -Among the merchants who follow the Jain religion, however, these -conditions apply with less force. Their life is simpler and the -imagination is unheated by the constant thought of loving ecstasy. -The Jain _sadhvis_, a class of nuns recruited both from the unmarried -and the widowed, bear a character that is far above reproach. With -shaven heads and in yellow garments, a little square of cloth usually -tied upon their lips to save them from inhaling the smallest insect, -they wander through the country, begging and singing hymns, nowhere to -remain above four days, leading a life of austerity for the glory of -the spirit. They are irreproachable like Sisters of Mercy, and like -Sisters of Mercy they can move safely among the roughest crowds, -protected by the respect of all. Something of their simple and humble -piety has penetrated to all ranks among the Jains; and the ladies of -the Jain millionaires of Ahmedabad, owners of large cotton factories -and masters of men and money, live their simple lives in the midst of -riches with purity and quiet modesty. - -Amongst the richest of the merchant class are the Bhatias, who -gain rather by daring speculation than by niggardly effort. On the -race-course, as in the exchange and cotton market, they are conspicuous -figures, with a certain pleasing _bonhomie_ and easy good-fellowship. -The Bhatia women play a part in the social life of modern India that -is hardly less conspicuous. Orthodox in the extreme, they are strict -followers not of the ascetic but of the more human sect. They are -able, therefore, to be strict in observance and orthodox in belief -without abdicating the rights and enjoyments of humanity. They attend -diligently to religious services and in the early hours of the -morning the ways that lead to the Krishna temple are thronged with -their carriages. To the High-priests, in whom they see the divinity -incarnate, they give an adoration that is almost boundless. But, with -all this, they claim from life the fulfilment of their humanity and -their womanhood. Moreover, they demand something of excitement and -palpitant emotion. A few there are who, like their menfolk, gamble, and -there is none who will deny herself the excitement of jewelry and fine -clothes, diaphanous fabrics half disclosing the limbs they cover. The -worst offshoot of their orthodoxy is the practice of infant marriage; -and there are few sections of the community in which young girls are -so often married to old men, the parents profiting by the bride-price. -As the remarriage of widows is forbidden, it follows necessarily that -in the Bhatia caste there is a number, quite excessive, of young -widows, in the first bloom of fresh maturity, often left with great -fortunes. Fortunately for society, these widows, so numerous are they -and the conditions of their marriage so manifestly unfair, have been -able collectively to repudiate the hardships that enmesh the orthodox -Brahman who has lost her husband. Among the Bhatias, there are few -shaven heads! Neat and well dressed, with pleasing face and figure, -perhaps too consciously demure, they strike an attractive note in the -complex harmonies of modern India. The system by which they are married -is hardly elevating and is opposed not only to the ideals but also to -the commandments of the sacred texts; but a commercial class cannot -get away from its own limitations. It is at least a great deal gained -that it should be alleviated by a sensible appreciation of life and joy -and by a degree of freedom which, though not of the highest and inmost -kind, is more humanizing and liberal than the negatives of material -self-denial. Self-control, control, that is, of and by the inner self -in harmony with ultimate nature, is no doubt the concomitant of the -highest liberty; but any liberty, even any licence, is better than the -denial of the actual living self. - -[Illustration: BHATIA LADY] - -In the rich province of Gujarát, the home of so large a proportion -of the merchants of India, there is a festival which embodies in its -observance much of the inner feeling of the Indian woman. During the -rains, for one waxing moon, the days are sacred to that Goddess, who -represents the all-pervading energy of nature, the spouse of Shiva, -the Great God, the ultimate Destroyer. During these days the maidens -of middle-class Gujarát worship the Goddess with an eye fixed upon the -attainment of the perfect husband. The little girls go in groups and -bathe and pray, and they make the vow that is the Vow of Life. They may -be as young as six or seven or eight, but year after year they renew -the vow till they are married. Throughout the day they have to sit in -a darkened room, reflecting upon the Goddess and upon the supreme boon -of a good husband, but at times resting their minds by nursery tales -or songs or innocent games with cards and dice. Then every morning -they bathe again in the pond or river, where rival groups of girls -make jokes upon each other and laugh and play. The many songs are the -most touching part of the whole festival. And these songs represent a -marriage of free choice, in which the girl chooses a husband from her -suitors. How different from the present practice! Year after year, -till they are married, they sing these songs. And who shall say how -far this dream of choice may remain to mould their actions, even after -the forced marriage that awaits them? The need of marriage at least, -its supreme value to a woman’s life, that is always before their eyes -from early childhood; and marriage is bound up with religion, with -the personal gifts of the divine and happy wife of the Greatest God. -But in the very songs, sanctioned by the goddess, the cry is always -for the chosen mate, the giver of love and happiness. Little wonder -if at times the grown girl, now become conscious, learns to know the -difference between the husband selected under social conventions by -her parents for his worldly circumstance and the man who, unsuitable -perhaps in wealth or temperament, is yet nature-chosen to be the mate -of her desires and the beloved of her heart. For the parents’ choice is -not always wise, and among sinful mankind there are not a few who will -sacrifice a daughter’s welfare to their own profit. - -[Illustration: KHOJA LADY IN BOMBAY] - -Of the Mussulman middle classes, the most conspicuous are the Bohras -and the Khojas. Both belong to different branches of the Shiah -sect, that sect which is to Islam what the Catholic Church is to -Christianity. Both also are the descendants of Hindu communities which -were converted in fairly recent times to the faith of salvation. Among -the Khojas, especially, many Hindu customs have survived, and their -law of succession in particular is not the law of the Qor’an but the -survival of Hindu tribal custom. At this moment, perhaps, theirs is -the most interesting of these communities, both because by their -practical talents they have obtained a place of political leading among -Indian Mussulmans and because they are--with the exception of a small -reforming branch--the religious followers of H.H. the Agha Khan, a -prince so nobly known by his loyal efforts in the War. - -The Khojas, “honourable gentlemen” as the name means, come in the main -from Gujarát and Bombay. But they are scattered now through all the -bigger trade centres of India--Calcutta, Nagpur, Sind and the Punjáb. -They have not, however, confined their enterprise to the Indian Empire, -but have made settlements in the East wherever the British flag gives -its subjects protection. They have crossed the mountain passes to Hanza -and Dardistan; they have sailed to Zanzibar and the Persian Gulf; -they have penetrated into Arabia; they maintain business connections -with Singapore, China and Japan, and even with England, America and -Australia. Many of the great commercial interests of India are in their -hands, and in business they bear an excellent reputation for integrity -and punctuality. Their representatives have an important place in the -Legislative Councils of Bombay and of the Government of India. In -social life, they are something of epicures, and their clubs are not -only hospitable but are well-managed and furnished. The best of food -and the best of wine will always be found at any entertainment given by -these generous and liberal merchants. They enjoy literature and still -more music and dancing; and they are among the most tasteful supporters -of those arts. Many among them have now forsaken commerce for the -liberal professions. - -The Khoja woman is hidden in seclusion behind the _purdah_. The few -that are to be seen are as a rule somewhat below the middle height and -are of a graceful, but not altogether healthy, slightness. They are -well educated and are good housekeepers, known for their neatness and -management. As Mussulmans they are of course married under a system of -free contract, but unfortunately for them Hindu tradition has been too -strong, and they suffer in practice from many of the disabilities of -their Hindu sisters. Remarriage after widowhood is in practice almost -unknown; and divorce is so discountenanced that its relief is seldom -sought. On the other hand, the ascetic idea is at least absent, and a -wife expects and a husband is prepared to give constant attention and -all possible comfort. They have a force of character which merits this -attention; and their features, with arched head and broad forehead, -strong chin, and large lustrous eyes, are the index of their character. - -Of other trading classes of Mussulmans, the Memans, also converts from -Hindu castes in Sind, Káthiawád and Cutch, deserve notice, if only for -their charity and piety. All Memans, women as well as men, hope to -perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and habitually visit the Chisti Shrine -at Ajmer. And for their large secret charities the women, no less than -the men, have a well-deserved reputation. - -Among the large body of middle-class Mussulmans of the usual Sunni -sects, those who claim to be descended from foreign invaders and -who are at least not directly traceable to any special wholesale -conversion, the position of women is on the whole satisfactory and -agreeable. Every family has its poor relations and dependants so -that, even when she is childless, the mistress of the house is seldom -lonely. The morning she spends at her toilet and in seeing to the -day’s marketings and looking to the kitchen. At meals all the family, -men and women alike, meet and eat together. Sometimes, even, a -much-favoured friend of the husband’s, a trusted and intimate friend, -may be introduced to the inner, unveiled circle. After the midday meal, -a rest; then sewing and talking; then games of backgammon and chess -make the afternoon pass. The evening dinner then needs looking to, -and after dinner it is common to hear or read tales and romances or -religious books. Children may also take up much of the woman’s time; -and among Mussulmans as a rule the wife may count upon a loving, almost -a passionate, husband, except in the unhappy cases where differences of -temperament produce a real antipathy. In that case she can always try -to force a divorce from his hands, though the practice varies with the -social circle. That the pressure of Indian influences has forced upon -them child-marriage, followed only too often by premature consummation; -that the intentions of the Prophet in regard to divorce and widowhood -have often been neglected; and that the rule of veiling has been -interpreted with a superstitious irrationalism, quite opposed to the -teachings of the law, are disabilities under which the Mussulman -woman of the middle classes still has in part to suffer. But she is at -least oppressed by no tradition of renunciation or asceticism, and she -has, in favour of her fulfilment and just cherishing, text after text -in the sacred Book. The recent tendency to a purer Islamic practice, -hand in hand with the growth of rationalism, offer her hope of early -liberation from extraneous bonds and of development as a free human -agent. The women of Islam have as guide rules of law, sanctioned by -revelation, which if practised are more rational and more insistent on -justice and human freedom than any other precepts ever codified into -statutes. It is to be hoped that the recent advance and rationalistic -movement in Islamic countries will secure the happiness that should -follow intelligent practice of a humane code. The devastation caused by -Mongol invasions and ravages and the subtle perversions induced by an -alien atmosphere have to be repaired and eradicated; but there is no -intrinsic reason why the social system of Islam should not again reach -and surpass the high level it commanded in the days of Al Ma’mun. - -[Illustration: MEMAN LADY WALKING] - -In a review of the middle classes of India, it would be impossible -to omit the rich and influential sect of Parsis. Descendants of the -ancient inhabitants of Persia, expelled after the Mussulman conquest, -followers of Zoroaster and worshippers of fire, they reached the -west coast of India after many perils, to be finally protected by a -Hindu Rána or prince. Small in numbers, for many centuries they lived -in the main by agriculture, though there were a few among them who -achieved a name in arms. With the coming of the British they changed -their pursuits and their social habits. Commerce had heretofore been -strictly protected by the exclusive guilds of the Hindu merchants. Its -doors were now thrown open. Moreover, the British official required -body-servants, if possible of good class. The Hindu was precluded -from accepting such an occupation by caste rules of purity and caste -prohibitions. The Zoroastrian religion left the Parsi free from such -scruples. Many members of the community, by commerce direct and by -the assistance that gratitude was ready to bestow, were soon able to -insinuate themselves into positions which they maintained by their -adaptability and their commercial integrity. In shipbuilding they -excelled, and both in this and in the kindred trade of ship-broking -they accumulated many fortunes. The liquor trade was their monopoly; -and, aided by the privilege of exclusive distilling and a monopoly of -sale, it was remunerative to an undreamt degree. By the end of the -eighteenth century, an old traveller notes, practically the whole of -Malabar Hill, the most fashionable and only really enjoyable portion of -Bombay had already passed into the ownership of rich Parsis. Throughout -the nineteenth century their wealth and their importance grew. - -One of the most striking qualities of the Parsi community is its -aptitude for imitation. With the advent of British rule, this facility -stood them in good stead. It was not long before English education -became general and almost universal among them, while by their prompt -acquisition of the minor conventions of manners, they easily opened -the doors of European society. In consequence it was not long before -they attained a position of social importance, based upon solid -grounds of wealth and education. The Parsi woman was not left behind -in the advance of her caste. Many women studied diligently and even -passed the examinations of the University. In general they demanded -a liberty such as they read of in English novels, and fancied they -could see among their English friends. They refused to marry except at -their own choice. For the dull details of household management they -expressed contempt and considered their duties done when they looked -to the furnishing and decoration of their houses. In dress, the Parsi -woman has contrived no less to modify her own costume, originally a -slightly altered form of the Hindu woman’s, in imitation of European -fashion. She still retains the mantle or _sari_, but it is hemmed with -a border imported from London or Paris. An outer lace shirt is draped -like a blouse under the mantle. The trousers, which she has to wear -under her skirt by customary prescription, are so curtailed as to be -invisible, and the feet are thrust into silk stockings and Louis Quinze -shoes. Her jewelry is of European pattern, usually second-rate, and -she despises the beautiful antique designs of the Indian goldsmith as -“old-fashioned.” - -The Parsi woman has in the past been greeted by an amount of praise -from European writers which, though intelligible, is yet almost -extravagant. It was natural to be pleased at so conscious an -imitation, especially in a generation when most Europeans had no doubt -of the superiority of their own civilization and were prone to judge -the merits of other races, like missionaries, by their aptitude for -assimilating its products. They could, after all, always clinch the -argument by pointing irrefutably to the triumphs of the Albert Memorial -and the Crystal Palace. In a country where few women of the better -classes appear in public and beauty is seldom displayed, the spectacle -of many gaily-dressed ladies, with graceful drapery, promenading along -an Indian street with the freedom of a popular sea-side resort at home, -gave almost as much pleasure and pride to the gratified Englishman as -it did to the girls’ own parents. It has required closer inspection and -broader judgment of East and West to notice the cracks that stretch, -no doubt inevitably, across the charming picture. New liberties, -imitation not always too wisely conceived, above all sudden commercial -prosperity--these have had their advantages. But they also have their -countervailing losses. - -At the bottom of such disadvantages as appear is no doubt the broad -fact that the community as a whole consists of business men. There are -of course individuals who have adopted the learned professions and are -solicitors, doctors, barristers, and judges. But even they live in a -society and probably in a family circle which is wholly commercial; and -even their successes are estimated by the money they bring in. In many -ways Parsi society is like the Jewish society that is to be found in -the larger cities of Europe. But the Jews as a community are devoted -to the arts and have a ripe sense of emotional and spiritual values. -They respect learning and artistic expression. Even those--the greater -number--among them who are engaged in business frankly enough recognize -their inferiority to thinkers and artists. Again the Jews have always -had a tradition of aristocracy among themselves, and in recent years -have sought every opportunity of mingling with the nobilities of the -countries to which they belong. The best among them have, therefore, -raised themselves by art and letters and by an aristocratic code -far above the narrow vices of a commercial middle class, and it is -only the lower strata who continue to display the typical defects of -“business life.” But the Parsis have unfortunately so far missed these -mitigations. They have not, and, within the memory of history, they -have never had, the tradition of an aristocracy. They are separated -from the indigenous nobility, not only by religion, but by interest -and custom, and the difference has been deepened by their partiality -for an Anglicized mode of life. Though a few among them have done good -work, they have no real liking for learning and art. Hence there is -hardly a community in the world, except perhaps in the United States -of America, which bases its standards so largely upon wealth. Men are -esteemed mainly by what they have managed to acquire; precedence is -allowed according to size of income; the business man takes rank over -the professional; and a memorandum of their richest men is inscribed -on each Parsi’s heart, as on tablets of brass. - -These are defects which are not unnatural when a small and isolated -community finds itself confined to commerce and is from its history -devoid of higher interests. They are defects which do not alter the -fact that not a few among the Parsis, especially those who have for -generations reposed upon inherited wealth and have taken to the learned -professions, are charming men and women and true and worthy friends. -Among those who have such a position--who do not aspire to dazzle -fashion in the wealthiest circles and do not require to increase their -incomes by further trading--the women are attractive by their education -and their rational freedom. They preserve a place of dignity and -reserve, while quietly taking from life the benefits it offers to a -liberal mind. They may even rise above the touchy vanity which is all -too common. - -It must, however, be admitted that Parsi womanhood has suffered -harm from the excessive imitation of English habits--or what are -taken to be such. From the nature of the case, because of their own -inclinations and environment, the English life they have sought to -imitate has inevitably been that of the middle classes. And the effect -has been heightened by the enormous consumption of English novels -among Parsi women. Owing partly to national character and partly to -the demoralizing secret censorship which broods over the publishing -world, nearly all English novels have to be “pretty-pretty” falsehoods, -distorted away from the facts of life and the truths of nature. The -consequence has been to produce a dangerous mental confusion in which -spirituality and idealism are suppressed and replaced by a fruitless -sentimentality. Reality on the other hand is known and presented only -in the shape of hard cash. The harm done by such popular writings is -not so apparent in England, where they are part of the normal tissue -wastage of the nation. In a foreign and not immune constitution, they -produce rapid inflammation. One finds therefore among Parsi women, as -one does among the women of the United States, a mentality in which -impracticable and silly sentimentalism is mixed up inextricably with -a thirst for the solid advantages of wealth. They sigh for courtships -of the kind depicted in their favourite “literature,” with scores of -“dears” and “darlings” scribbled over scented letters, with moon-calf -glances and clammy squeezings of hands; they and the heroes of -their fancy get photographed together like any German _braut_ and -_brautigam_; they enter marriage with a blind eye turned to the hard -realities of human nature, to discipline for instance and duty, but -with the expectation of finding a husband on his knees to pamper every -wish and petulance. Yet at the same time, the Parsi, like the American, -girl will not let herself slide into these sentimentalities till she -is assured of her admirer’s income and position. Both restraints--that -which keeps her from love till she knows how money stands, and that -which keeps her during her courtship within the bounds of technical -chastity--come easy enough as she is, with a few honourable exceptions, -free from passion. She would never give herself to the wild love of -Romeo and Juliet or the abandoned ecstasy of Tristan and Isolde. -Hermann and Dorothea, or a drawing-room ballad, would appeal more -readily to her sympathies. That in England there is also another -type of womanhood, truer and greater, she does not know--how could -she? That there are girls of a fine candour and simplicity who are -taught in childhood to obey and to have quiet, effacing manners, who -respect a father whom they see controlling a large estate, honoured -in Parliament, perhaps governing a great dependency, who are bred in -a society of equals in which true and natural superiorities alone, -whether of age or seniority, of success in the hunting-field or in -the council, are admitted and publicly recognized, that such girls -bring to their husbands with their love, respect, and the heritage of -discipline, that as wives, while expecting to find fulfilment and the -realization of their hopes, they are ready to subserve the higher and -enduring interests of a family, of such facts and such nobilities of -life--worthy indeed of imitation if such there must be--there can be -little knowledge. Vital facts are not always plain upon the surface, -and in England no class is so quiet and unobtrusive as the one which -really counts. - -[Illustration: PARSI FASHION] - -The prevalence of a money standard in their lives has introduced among -the Parsis the great evil of excessive dowries. Generally speaking, -it may almost be said, no Parsi young man will marry a bride unless -her parents come down with a large settlement, and scandalous stories -are sometimes told of the means employed to extort larger sums from -the father. The girl whose family is poor--be she as beautiful as -Shirin and virtuous as an angel--stands in every danger of being -left a spinster. Day by day the probabilities against marriage grow -heavier, and the number of unmarried Parsi women of mature age goes -on increasing. Alone of all the peoples of India among them the -reproachful name of “old maid” can be used. The numbers of unmarried -women are already so great that this has become a serious danger to the -community, as for that matter it is among the upper middle classes of -Great Britain. “Old maid-ism” must have its consequences: hysteria and -other illness is on the increase; and the suffragette may soon become -as actual a terror and a retribution to the Parsis as she has been in -England. If this should ever happen, then climate and the surrounding -environment are likely to make the pathology of the situation even more -critical in India. - -The marriage law which governs the Parsis is very much the same as -that which exists in England. Marriages are strictly monogamous, and -divorce can be given only by the decree of a public Court of Law on -grounds nearly the same as those admitted in the English Courts. In -practice early marriage has ceased to exist, and indeed marriages, as -in England, are as a rule contracted at far too late an age. The same -causes which lead so often to women remaining unmarried, have also -raised the average of age. - -Parsi life presents, therefore, the picture of a society in which -woman have many seeming and some actual advantages, but in which, -on the other hand, they are more and more rapidly plunging into -unforeseen but very real evils. They have great liberty, a liberty -greater, or at least less restrained, than is enjoyed by the women of -the better classes in England or in France. They can have education -and the pleasures of a liberal mind. In accepting a husband they are -ostensibly allowed full freedom of choice, though in practice they -are of course limited by the usual considerations, by the importance -attached to wealth, and, especially, by the great difficulty of -securing any husband at all. They have the advantage of being trained -to mix without shyness in all societies. But, even apart from a certain -self-assertiveness which at times distresses their best admirers, -they have to suffer from the growing probability of a life-long -spinsterhood. Only too many will have to face the final misfortune of a -wasted and infructuous life. - -The community is distinguished by its loyalty and its generosity; -and Parsi women, as well as men, play their part in that lavish -distribution of charity for which their race has become famous. It -could be hoped that, without foregoing what they have gained in -education and position, they should also preserve fresh the emotional -values of sweet and disciplined womanhood and be able to secure those -timely and assured conjugal relations which must be its fulfilment and -best reward. - - - - -Working and Aboriginal Classes - - “Sweetly the drum is beaten and - Sweetly the girl comes to draw water: - Sweet is the ochre on her forehead: - Sweet is her bodice of silk: - Sweet is her charming footstep. - Ohé! the cakes baked by the girl: - Sweet is the girl with her infant child. - Lo, her dress is wet and clinging from the water - And she is adorned with tassels of jewels: - On her hands are bracelets - And her feet are enriched with anklets.” - - _Rowing Song of the Fisher Kolis._ - - “A palmer came over the mountains and sat down under a barren tamarind - tree - Then he got him three stones and placed a pot upon them. - He went to the midst of the town to ask alms and played his pipe as he - went. - The sound of his pipe reached the ear of Rádha. - She ran towards her father and towards her mother: - ‘You are my father and my mother: I am going off with this palmer for my - man.’ - ‘Do not go, my dearest daughter, I will give you all you want. - Cows and buffaloes will I give and for your service four hand-maidens.’ - ‘What should I do with your cows and buffaloes? - What should I do with your four maid-servants? - For such a man have I prayed to God for full twelve years.’” - - _Marriage Song of the Fisher Kolis._ - -[Illustration: DYER GIRL IN AHMEDABAD] - - - - -Chapter VI - -THE WORKING AND ABORIGINAL CLASSES - - -If it was difficult in any way to summarize the varying conditions of -the middle classes and to present with anything like unity some picture -of their women, to attempt the same for the lower classes is to face -difficulties that are in fact insuperable. The middle classes, as in -all countries, are much conventionalized, and are always busied with -a conscious effort to live up to an ideal that may be misapprehended -or incomplete, but is still in the main intelligible. The differences -that exist are either geographical or sectarian--differences due -to tradition and development in differing environment, in varying -faiths, for instance, and doctrines. The lower classes, especially -the aboriginal tribes, still stand so narrowly on the circumference -of the Hindu system that, with a literal eccentricity, they evade the -attraction of conventional rule and regulation. They are governed -by customs, often of immemorial antiquity, which may be outside the -orbit of Hindu precept, and by superstitious fears which lead to -sudden and capricious divagations. The main criterion of their status -and the chief factor of divergence in their lives is the degree to -which they have accepted Hindu Law or, to put it more exactly, the -Brahman customs recorded in Sanscrit scriptures and stereotyped in the -decisions of the Law Courts. - -Broadly speaking, throughout India proper, the lower classes that -stand within the Hindu system are the offspring of mixed Scythian and -Dravidian parentage. But neither term can be taken too strictly. In -Scythian may be included not only the hordes of White Huns, Gujjars, -and Kusháns, but even some remote trace of earlier conquerors of Aryan -race: Dravidian is little more than a collective name for the dark -peoples who, before the dawn of history, were in possession of the -Indian continent. From the two races in mixed and varying proportion -are sprung the artisans and respectable cultivators of India, probably -even the untouchable and degraded castes that cluster in dirty hovels -on the outskirts of every village. In the far south they are almost, if -not quite, Dravidian; in the north-west, where the five rivers flow, -they are nearly pure Scythian. Between the two extremes are a multitude -of shades and a multitude of customs. Even the Mussulman lower classes -are in the main descended from the same constituents. Converts to -Islam though they are and legally free to marry as they please among -believers, they have usually restricted themselves to their fellows and -have continued the line unbroken as it ran in the days of idolatry. The -pretty dyer girl whose bright clothes and open smiling face is so much -a feature of Ahmedabad, for instance, is by descent no different from -her Hindu sisters. Where she has altered, where her gait is more free -and her glance more bold and frank, the change is due to that influence -of belief upon physique, to which far too little attention has so far -been paid by the professors of anthropology. This influence of mind -upon body can be seen in Europe where the Jews, descendants of so many -peoples and, at least as far as Eastern Europe is concerned, mainly -Ugro-Turkish by race, have yet by an unanimous and constant habit of -thought largely acquired the marked cast of features which is called -“Semitic.” In India the Mussulman population is a living instance -of the same modification of the physical by the mental. The change -has been too much ignored by a science which, from its mathematical -prepossessions, thinks only in things that can be weighed or counted -and neglects forces which must be measured by a subtler calculus. - -[Illustration: MUSSULMAN WEAVER] - -The Mussulman weaver women, again, bear sons who are known for their -turbulence and who strike home in every sectarian riot. Yet the Hindu -weavers of the same kin are quiet and even timid. The handsome Sunni -Bohora women of Broach and Cambay, converted descendants of the -prevailing caste of Hindu cultivators in the province, are famous not -only for their looks--and striking is their bold beauty--- but also for -their virile energy and resolution. - -In the Hindu artisan and cultivating classes, the status of women -is most affected by the social position accorded to the caste as a -whole. The higher the importance of the caste and the more it acquires -wealth and consideration, the more quickly it accepts child-marriage -and--what is socially even more important--the prohibition of widow -remarriage. These in India are the tests of fashion; and each caste, or -even any single section of a caste, as it finds its position improving, -confirms and establishes it by the fresh burden that it throws upon -its womankind. For the enhanced consideration gained by wealth, and -the ceremonial purity which can be bought by wealth, the women pay. -Life-long widowhood is the price extorted from the individual for the -social prestige of the class. - -In the last thirty years a remarkable and quite the most important -feature of Indian history has been the rapid growth and extension of -Hinduism. Yet, so easy and natural has it been, it has passed almost -unnoticed. There are many in Europe who believe that Indian castes -are fixed, immanent, and immutable. And this belief is upheld with -conviction by almost every Indian. Yet nothing could be more erroneous. -The concept of caste is no doubt ancient and of a strength so confirmed -that it can almost with propriety be called permanent. Yet the actual -castes--the things that _are_--are fluid in the extreme and are in -constant movement, while the boundaries of the system have recently -had vast extensions. The ease of communication given by railways has -brought the central Brahman influences home to every hamlet in the -continent, till whole tribes that were formerly hostile have been -persuaded to adopt the name and many of the customs of the Hindu. At -the same time new thoughts of Indian nationality and solidarity, born -of English education, have roused in the higher and educated classes -a real desire to comprise within the Hindu fold peoples from whom -their fathers would have shrunk as from foreign and debased savages. -But the idea round which the whole caste system revolves is that of -marriage. Far above the maintenance of ceremonial purity, far above -mere restrictions on food and water, stands, as the one essential -rule of caste, the limitation of lawful marriage to a fixed circle of -descent, real or fanciful. And with this limitation, which is of the -very essence of Hinduism, goes a certain view of marriage as magical, -sacramental. Thus each additional conversion of a strange tribe to the -Hindu system brings fresh adherents in great numbers to what, more or -less clearly adumbrated, is at least a reflection of the Brahman ideal -of womanhood. To coarser minds and to tribes not much advanced beyond -the savage, only a thin ray of the ideal can penetrate. Among such -tribes the woman may remain free for some long time from the trammels -of the higher law. - -[Illustration: CAMBAY TYPE] - -For that law can be tolerable only when it is fully comprehended. But -as they advance in civilization and the conversion to Hinduism is -solidified, as it were, by developing education, so the ideal, more -and more clearly grasped, begins to be followed in practice. It is at -this stage that child-marriage and the unrelieved doom of widowhood are -introduced. New India therefore presents the paradox that while in the -upper class a few, gained to the cause of rationalism, allow widows to -remarry, discarding almost with violence the old sanctions and the old -beliefs, side by side in the great mass of the people the prejudice -daily grows and millions now forbid remarriage who thirty years ago -would never have dreamt of the restriction. - -But as a whole the properly Hinduized lower castes have no great -interest to the observer. The conduct of the women is as close as -possible an imitation of the better class, deflected as in all -countries by poverty and labour and by the inevitable roughness and -coarser understanding of their class. To trace in detail the full -recent growth and development of such a caste might have its interest, -but would transgress the purpose and limits of this book. Of especial -interest, should anyone attempt it, would be the development, of the -dairyman and milkmaid class in India. Divided into many septs, and -in some instances differing now in race, they are descended from the -Scythian tribes of Gujjar and Ahir. It would be interesting to trace -them from the uplands of Kashmir, where they still roam, through the -Gangetic plain to Káthiawád, where among many pretty women their -women--Cháran and Rabári--are perhaps the most beautiful, and where -their men are genealogists and bards, and stand surety for the treaty -bonds of kings. Even in appearance, and greatly still in custom, they -have much of the high mountain air of the great plateaux on the roof of -Asia, where once they wandered with their sheep over dry, wind-swept -uplands. - -[Illustration: THE MILKMAID] - -More homogenous and far more thoroughly imbued in the Hindu tint -are the striking fisher or Són Koli caste of the western coasts. -The collective name of Koli covers a multitude of tribes--not yet -fully embraced in the Hindu caste system--whose unity of name and -manifold distinction in fact forms one of the most difficult of the -unexplained problems of Indian ethnology. A century ago most of their -tribes were freebooters, cattle-lifters, caterans. Many Koli families -won themselves little principalities, and some have got themselves -recognized among the Rajput clans. Others are peaceful cultivators, -and there are many who live as labourers by the sweat of their brow. -But to this day there are some who prefer crime, and will even board -a running train to rob the goods waggons. All of them have, perhaps, -some strain of descent from an earlier race--Kolarian, or call it what -you will--settled in India before the Aryan invasions. But it is clear -that, though they retained a tribal organization, they must in great -but varying proportion have mingled with and assumed the characters of -other races. In places they are hard to distinguish from the aboriginal -Bhil; in other regions--in Káthiawád, for instance, and the salt plains -where the receding sea has made way between Gujarát and Sind--they seem -rather to be the residue of a Rajput soldiery, common soldiers perhaps, -not ennobled by a diplomatic victory, or married to women of some -earlier tribe. At any rate among some of these tribes there subsist -traces of customs foreign to the rest of India, such as the rule of -marrying an elder brother’s widow or of the younger brother, even -before her widowhood, sharing in her favours. - -But of community with those wilder clans there is now little trace in -the customs of the fisher tribes who live upon the shore that stretches -from north of Bombay City down towards the Malabar coast. In the past a -certain fondness for piracy was perhaps a solitary sign of a probable -connection. From their appearance, however, it is clear that they are -the descendants of a people as widely distinguished on the one hand -from the darker farming and labouring castes who form the major part of -the population, as on the other they are from the grey-eyed and pallid -Brahmans of the coast who are its spiritual aristocracy. Distinguished -physically from the other inhabitants by their light-brown complexion, -the round curves of their faces, and their smiling expressions, they -are equally distinguished by their occupation, their separate dialect, -and their aristocratic constitution. It is also clear that from the -date of their settlement on the coast-line, they have kept themselves -unusually unaffected either by the amours or by the moral and mental -ideals of the surrounding population. History is not plain in the -matter of their arrival on the coast, but a probable inference from -tradition is that most of the present day Kolis are descended from -immigrants who came down from the hills some four hundred years ago. It -was only about two centuries ago, under the rule of the Peshwas, that -they entered the fold of Hinduism, and they themselves say that they -were first taught to know the Gods at that time by one Kálu Bhagat, an -ascetic who had himself been of their tribe. - -They are peaceful enough now, but they are still bold sailors, and -it is their fishing-boats which bring the daily catch to the Bombay -market. The men are handsome and well-built, with curious scarlet caps, -like an ascetic’s, which are the distinctive uniform of their class. -But, as would seem in all countries to be the case with fisher-folk, -where the man toils on the sea and on shore rests and smokes in -idleness, in the daily round of life it is the woman who counts most. -At home she is mistress, and she takes the earnings of her man and -gives him what he needs for his drink and smoke. She carries the fish -to market and drives her bargain with keen shrewdness. She does not -lose as a saleswoman by the attraction of her smiling lips, showing -her sound white teeth, and of her trim, tight figure. The dress is -striking. The skimpy mantle or _sari_ is slung tight between the legs -and over the upper thigh, so that every movement of limb and curve of -figure shows in bold lines, as the fisherwoman carries her basket on -her head to the crowded market. The freedom and strength that they -draw from the ocean is preserved by a customary law which allows women -a reasonable liberty. In many ways the Koli fishwife is as fine and -independent as her sister of Newhaven in Scotland. Like her, she has -her share of her husband’s drink when there are guests in the house or -the sorrow of the swirling, driving rain is forgotten in a cheering -glass. On their right hand these women wear a silvern bracelet of -peculiar and heavy shape such as is worn by no other caste. No other -bangle or bracelet, ornament or jewel is worn on that hand; and the -absence of such adornments is for them a sign of the covenant under -which God protects his fishers from the perils of the deep. - -Among the fisher-folk marriages are seldom contracted till after -puberty and the bridegroom is usually required to have attained at -least twenty years. For they hold that a youngster below that age -cannot work as he should at oar and sail, if he have a wife to cherish. -The wife is usually consulted by her parents and asked whether she is -willing to accept her suitor. Widows are of course allowed to marry -again, and a full divorce is granted to a husband only if his wife be -taken in adultery. In other cases, only orders of what can be called -“judicial separation” are passed--with the same natural results that -in England follow upon such decrees. Among the many castes of India, -there is usually a constitution which can fairly be called democratic; -disputes are decided and case-law made by an elected tribunal. The -fisher-folk have other ways. The final decision in their caste rests -with an hereditary headman aided, but not bound, by assessors. He -gives decrees of divorce, in which the claims of the wife are treated -with more justice than would be got from an elected and therefore -hide-bound tribunal. In all cases of desertion, misuse, cruelty and -neglect, whether accidental or intended, the wife can get a speedy -separation by the order of the headman. On him again rests the duty -of providing for all orphan girls and finding them good husbands. -Further, the headman, sitting by himself “in chambers,” has the right -of protecting women who become mothers without being wives, of fining -their paramours, and of finding them husbands to cover their disgrace. -There are signs, unhappily, of the power passing--to be replaced by -the usual elected body and rules derived more strictly from Brahman -custom. But in the meantime women fare well, and their own bright -faces, their healthy children, and their contented husbands all testify -to the value of a practice as sane as it is unusual. Happiness readily -expresses itself in song, and the songs of the fisher-folk are stirring -and tuneful. They sing them in a dialect of their own, apart from the -written language; and on their festivals it is inspiriting to hear the -choruses of men and women joyfully chanting these songs of the sea. - -[Illustration: A FISHWIFE OF BOMBAY] - -Of aboriginal tribes pure and simple--creatures untamed and almost -untouched by the various civilizations that one after another have -shaped humanity in the Indian continent--there are many still left -in the wilder forests and mountains. But the latest of the great -civilizations that have reached India has set in action forces -which they can no longer elude. A law that is at once impartial -and all-embracing and a railroad system which, in search of trade, -penetrates the jungle and tunnels through the rock, have brought even -their homes within the economy of modern life. They are being quickly -sucked into the vortex of Hinduism, to emerge half-stifled as a menial -class. As at the touch they leave their strangeness and their jungle -ways, they sink to the lowest scale among the civilized, where once, -with all the dangers of wild animals and exposure to disease, they -had at least been free of the forest. Among the smaller aboriginal -tribes the Todas of the Nilghiri mountains are conspicuous. For one -thing they are an instance which reduces to absurdity the inferences -of an anthropology too subject to abstractions and too reliant on -skull-measurement. For anthropologists of that school have found the -measurements of the Todas to be exactly Aryan--the one thing which--(if -the word is to have any meaning at all) they cannot be. The Todas are -a small tribe now, some 700 persons in all. They support themselves by -rearing buffaloes, whose milk and cheese they sell to the residents of -the neighbouring sanatorium, recently built upon a mountain plateau -that for hundreds of years had been thought impenetrable. In the spring -they scatter with their herds through the pastures of the uplands and -return to their dirty huts in the rainy season. But the touch of the -finger of civilization has crushed their loins, and the decay of this -curious tribe is too far advanced to be arrested. Drink, opium, and -poverty have contributed to their ruin, and the tribe is scourged by -the ravages of a disease to which they were new. The women are vicious -without emotion, and mercenary without disgust. Miscarriages are -frequent, and those children who see the light are born diseased, are -left neglected, and die like flies. - -[Illustration: TODA WOMAN IN THE NILGIRIES] - -Of all the aboriginal peoples--more important even than the Gond -peoples and the Gond Rajas of Central India--the greatest and the -most impressive are the Bhil tribes. They can be traced from the first -dawn of history; and in all the Sanscrit poems, Bhil queens hospitable -to errant Aryan knights are as needful an incident as Bhil archers, -liker devils than men, shooting their death-dealing arrows from behind -rock and bush. They held kingdoms and had founded temples, reservoirs -and towns when first they met the fair warriors from the north. Then -they were driven forth and hunted and slain, and their homes were -made desolate and they took to the forests as broken men, their hand -against all others. Century after century they lay hidden in their -lairs, coming forth only to rob and raid, cruel and merciless since -they themselves were dealt with cruelly and without mercy. Yet one -thing they were always, autochthonic, like some primeval force in whom, -if all could have their rights, the soil and its title must to the -end be vested. And so it is that to this day they have by a curious -prescription a symbolic function at the coronation of Rajput princes. -When a ruler first ascends his throne, by a Hindu custom, a mark of -ochre is printed on his brow by a priest as an auspicious omen and a -sign of fortune. But for the Rajput chiefs who rule in the country that -was once the Bhils’, the mark must be made by blood pricked from the -finger or toe of a Bhil tribesman or his sister. Even the first and -proudest chief in India, the Mahárána of Mewár, does thus acknowledge -the autochthonous race whom he displaces but who hold the prior right. - -From Mewár the Bhil tribes reach west to the confines of Gujarát and -south to the Deccan plateau. Their status varies as the land they -occupy is more or less open and cultivated. In the forests they are -independent and self-sufficient, ruled by their own tribal custom, -rough perhaps and uncultured, but merry, equal one to the other, -not unprosperous. In the civilized tracts, where economic forces of -competition have free-play and Hinduism has prevailed, they have sunk -to the position of a proletariat, supporting themselves on labour such -as they can get and by theft whenever possible. They lose their virtues -at the contact and merge on the untouchable masses of the lowest Hindu -castes, with the same vices and the same imitative rules and customs. - -[Illustration: GOND WOMAN] - -On the hills and in the forests of the Rewa Kántha States and -Mewár, however, the Bhils are seen at their best--sporting, loyal, -happy wildmen of the woods. They have no villages like the Hindu -plainsmen--close-crowded and ill-smelling. Each family has its own -homestead in the clearing, a hut of logs grass-thatched, overgrown -by the creeper-gourd with its yellow flowers. The men are skilled in -the use of bow and arrow and love to roam the forests after game. -They follow the tracks by which wild animals move at dawn from the -valleys, and they know each lair or water-hole. The women also know -the forest, where they collect grass seeds to be ground to flour, and -where they gather the luscious fleshy flower of the mhowra tree to cook -into cakes or distil into fiery liquor. They keep large numbers of -cattle and every homestead has its own fowls and chickens. Two enemies -only prey upon them, the leopard who seizes the grazing calf, and the -anopheles mosquito which injects into their blood the malaria that ages -and kills them early. For the rest while the years are good and the -seasons kindly and the rain comes in good time and falls sufficiently, -they are happy and free from care. But when there is scarcity, they -die of famine, save for the relief brought to their doors by British -administration. Among the hill tribes, where they still distinguish -themselves from the Hindus, the Bhil woman has much freedom. When she -has long passed puberty, at seventeen say or eighteen, she marries -pretty much as she pleases. They are, in a pale copy of the Rajput -feudal chivalry, divided into clans and have the religious prohibition -of marriage within the clan. The girl must, therefore, choose a husband -from another family. But the clan descents are rather vague and -blurred, and the prohibition does not in practice hamper their choice -seriously. Outside of this limit, at any rate, they marry with their -heart. Only the intending bridegroom must make the girl’s father a -customary payment of money or of cattle, often stolen in a raid from -some lowland village. If he cannot pay, however, he has the option of -doing seven years’ service in the father’s house, as Jacob did for -Leah. During that time he is free of the girl, though he is not fully -married till the end, and he lives in the house more as a dependent -poor relation than a servant. Till they are married, the girls are not -expected to be too strictly virtuous. While they are young, their sport -with neighbours’ boys is merely smiled at indulgently as “the play of -children.” Even when they have ripened to real womanhood--“and then -Chloe first learnt that what had happened near the forest was but the -play of shepherds”--they still wear the white bodice which shows them -to be girls unclaimed by any man, and no one looks too closely to their -actions. When once, however, they have chosen their husband and settled -down to marriage, it is rare indeed that there be thought of any other -man. Rare above all is it, if there have been children of the marriage. -If, however, there should be trouble, divorce is easily arranged by -a small payment to the husband and the wife is free to marry another -man. A widow of course is no less free to marry, and a young woman -never remains in widowhood. Men and women live on very equal terms, -and there is much good-humoured affection between husband and wife and -children. Not unlike is it to the life of the Scottish peasant and his -wife, an easy freedom in youth leading to a homely and loving marriage. -The money that they earn is often kept by the house-wife, who allows -her man so much per week for drink, the chief diversion of the Bhil. -She also is none too strict and likes her glass at a festival. But the -woman is usually temperate, while the man only too often drinks to a -wild excess. - -[Illustration: BHIL GIRL] - -The Bhil women, deep-breasted, broad, their large thighs showing bare, -look fit to be the mothers of sound children, healthy and strong. -Pleasant and even comely they appear, with their flat, good-natured -faces and their plump limbs, their features a little coarse perhaps, -but sonsy. Their hair lies low on the brow in a pleated fringe, caught -on the crown by a bell-shaped silver brooch. They are fond, like all -savages, of adornment, and layer upon layer of glass beads, dark blue, -white and crimson, lie heavy over neck and breast. Heavy bands of brass -circle the leg from knee to instep, and clash and tinkle as they move. -A coarse cloak of navy blue, draped from the head over the body, is -tucked up into the waist-band, leaving the thighs half-bare. They look -men boldly in the face, with candour and self-reliance. - -The Bhils, both men and women, are fond of a joke, and nowhere in India -is laughter heard more freely and more readily. The more Rabelaisian -the joke, it must be allowed, the better they relish it; and women are -as openly amused by an indecency as men. Their songs are not always -lady-like, and a wedding song gives them full scope for merry ballads, -of a sort common in Europe up to the seventeenth century but foreign -to the drawing-rooms of to-day, which have room only for a Zola or an -Ibsen. Laughter the Bhils have and loyalty, good-nature and simple -hearts. What they have in their minds they speak openly; and plain -words can surely be forgiven, when the thought is straight and true. - -Dancing is one of the great amusements of the Bhils, both men and -women, and they should be seen dancing at the spring Saturnalia, the -festival of the Holi. They light a large bonfire of teak-wood logs, -throwing into the flames handfuls of grain as an offering to the local -goddess. Then the dance proceeds round the blazing fire. The men carry -light sticks in their hands, which they tap against each other, at -first slowly and listlessly, as they begin to circle slowly round. In -the centre the drummers stand, beating the skins in wild harmony. Then -the dance grows wilder and always wilder, and the dancers shout the -shrill whoop, not unlike the Highlander’s when he dances, a yell which -quavers from the compressed throat through quickly trilling lips. As -the time quickens, the sticks are beaten faster upon each other, and -the dancers move three steps forward, then a turn, then three steps -forward, once again. The women also dance round and round, and their -shrill voices begin a song. The men follow the words and reply, verse -to verse, in a weird antiphony. When the fun becomes louder, the men -join hands in a circle and the women climb up by their clasped hands -till on each man’s shoulders there stands a woman, her hands also -joined to her neighbour’s, and the whole circle revolves to the tune -of some village song. When they are not dancing, jests and jibe are -bandied freely between the younger lads and their girls, and now and -again a loving look or touch is rewarded with a ringing box on the ears. - -But, with all their freedom, the Bhil women have their pride and -virtue. From their womanhood and independence they will not readily -derogate, even if the price be heavy. And not seldom the stranger, -some stall-fed Hindu from a fatter land, has learnt this to his cost. -There was such a one, a Charge Officer, who administered (or was -supposed to) a relief camp in the Bhil country during a famine year. -Being well-fed and lazy, pampered and a fool, he thought he could -have his will of the bold, “unlady-like” forest women who were forced -by famine to seek relief at his hands. So he cast a lecherous eye on -one who was young and fair and had a merry laugh. And being fat and -foolish, he put the alternative to her bluntly, as such a man would, -with no nonsense about it. If she was not pleased, she could look out -for herself elsewhere. So she smiled a merry smile and fixed an hour -when he should meet her in the forest. But when he got there, he found -not her alone whom he sought but with her a round dozen of her women -friends. And each one had a good, fresh-cut stick in her hand. Then -they explained to him at some length, and with free and appropriate -gesture, that they knew exactly where to use a stick with most effect. -Their language was distinctly daring, but they left him clear about -their meaning. And that after all is the main thing. It took him quite -a long time to get home after they had done with him, and crawling -through the jungle is not pleasant going. Even when he was dismissed -from his employment a couple of days later, the impression of their -arguments was still acute. But there were hopes that in time he would -begin to understand the character of the Bhil woman. - -Such manners and such characters it would be difficult to find -elsewhere in India. With the general Hindu ideal of service, chastity, -and effacement they have no common ground. Yet it cannot be doubted -that here is a life which makes for happiness and, in its own way, -for self-realization. The Bhils are wild and uncultured, of course, -and they have to suffer from the fevers of the forest and from wild -animals. Of luxury they know nothing and their pleasures are primitive -and rather coarse. But they are contented. The wife loves her man and -the husband cherishes his wife with a very real fondness and even with -respect, and they have a cheerful pride as they watch their children -play and grow strong and upright. They share their hardships and their -small joys fairly and equally. They tend their garden with a kindly -contentment; and at night, their labour done, they drink their glass -and have their jest, and go to bed in the forest clearing tired and -comfortable. And when the Bhil does rob a travelling merchant and -is caught, it is for his wife alone that he yearns in the dreary -separation of the prison. - -Civilization, if it comes to the Bhil from the East, brings with it -child-marriage and Brahman law and caste degradation; if from the West, -it brings the factory and the industrial slum. Drunken and thrift-less, -oppressed by customs which he cannot understand, he finds himself -submerged in the lowest proletariat, exploited and despised. Can -civilization give anything to the Bhil better than what he has?--ease -and liberty! - - - - -The Dancing Girl - - “She measures every measure, everywhere - Meets art with art. Sometimes as if in doubt, - Not perfect yet and fearing to be out, - Trails her plain ditty in one long-spun note - Through the sleek passage of her open throat, - A clear unwrinkled song: then doth she point it - With tender accents, and severely joint it - By short diminutions.” - - _Music’s Duel._ CRASHAW. - - “Nowadays Indian ‘reformers’ in the name of ‘civilization and - science’ seek to persuade the _muralis_ (girls dedicated to the - Gods) that they are ‘plunged in a career of degradation.’ No - doubt in time the would-be moralists will drive the _muralis_ - out of their temples and their homes, deprive them of all - self-respect, and convert them into wretched outcastes, all in - the cause of ‘civilization and science.’ So it is that early - reformers create for the reformers of a later day the task of - humanizing life afresh.” - - _Sex in Relation to Society._ HAVELOCK ELLIS. - - - - -Chapter VII - -THE DANCING GIRL - - -For the women of India an independent profession is a thing almost -unknown. Here are no busy typewriters, no female clerks, no barmaids. -The woman spends her whole life in a home, supported and maintained, -her father’s as a child, then her husband’s, or else one of those -large joint households in which every woman of the family, widowed -or married, finds her place. If she is poor, she may have work to do -in plenty, besides the care of her house and children. She may sew -or go out to help in richer households; often she joins her husband -in his work, and you may see the potter’s wife fetching earth and -carrying bricks, or the washerman’s wife drive his laden ox. Sometimes -she labours in the field, busily weeding or bent double as in the -water-covered muddy patch she transplants the young rice-shoots. But in -none of these tasks does she work for herself, alone and independent, -at a trade chosen by her own taste. She labours as one member of a -higher unit, the family of which she is a part, and she knows that by -her efforts she helps to feed and clothe her children or to add to -the funds controlled by the head of the joint family. Even domestic -service, in the European sense of the word, hardly exists. Ruling and -noble families have their maid-servants, but these are not independent -women hired under a contract, enforceable at law. They are women born -and bred in the palace, bound by affection and upbringing, hereditary -house-servants, almost slaves. They are treated as of the family, are -paid by food and clothing, by presents and the final gift in marriage -to a male servant. Only a few, a very few there are, widows mainly, -usually Mussulman, who can in the Western sense of the word be called -servants. - -In recent years changes in ideas, and still more changes in social -economy, have produced a few women in regard to whose work it is -possible to use the words “independent profession.” There are even -a few lady doctors, Parsis mainly, in whose case the imitation -of European customs and the resultant obstacles to marriage have -facilitated study and the adoption of a career. There are far more who -are teachers--always underpaid--in girls’ schools, or nurses--also -underpaid--or midwives. Largely these are Brahman widows, who, -repudiating the austerities of traditional belief, have found a more -useful life by these labours, and relieve their relatives of the charge -of their support or bring up their children by their own praiseworthy -efforts. - -But even these are still exceptions to be counted by hundreds, by -thousands at the most, out of all the three hundred millions of India’s -population. For the women of India, it may almost be said, there -is only one independent profession open, one that is immemorial, -remunerative, even honoured, and that is the profession of the dancing -girl. There is hardly a town in India, however small, which has not -its group of dancing girls, dubious perhaps and mediocre; and there is -not a wedding, hardly an entertainment of any circumstance, at which -the dancing girl’s services are not engaged. And it may be added that -there is hardly a class so much misjudged or a profession so much -misunderstood. - -For long generations and in many countries the dancing girls of India -have been the theme of poets and stock figures of romanticism. In -Indian literature it was of course natural that they should find a -place. And in fact, from the earliest Sanscrit poets down to the -novelists and play-wrights of modern Bengal or Gujarát, there are -few dramas in which a dancer does not play a role. Often the part is -pathetic, even tragic, while it is usually edifying and pietistic. The -courtesan who, urged by the eloquence or attraction of a pious ascetic, -finds the grace of God and abandons art for austerity and the palace -for the hermitage, is one of the recurrent conventions of the Indian -classics. In one of the best-known of Mahrathi poems, there is such a -picture, expressed with vigour and emotion. Converted to self-denial -and renunciation, the dancing girl, once beautiful, lies alone, dirty -and squalid, without food, in a witch-haunted graveyard, affrighted by -ghosts, tormented by spirits of evil, yet uplifted by the love of God -and blessed by her memories of the saint whose coldness was to her -the sign of a higher adoration. But in the literature of Europe the -bayadère, to use a name corrupted from the Portuguese, has also been a -frequent and a luxurious figure. In the romantic fancies of the late -eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, she was, both in France -and Germany, a personage on whom poets lavished the embellishments -of their art. Her hazy outlines they bespangled with the imagery of -fiction and the phantasies of invention. She was a symbol for oriental -opulence, a creature of incredible luxury and uncurbed sensuousness, -or tropic passion and jewelled magnificence. From her tresses blew the -perfumes of lust; on her lips, like honey sweet, distilled the poisons -of vice; hidden in her bodice of gold brocade she carried the dagger -with which she killed. - -Divest her of poetic association. Rob her of the hues cast by the -distant dreams of romanticism. Strip her even of the facts of history -and the traditions of the Indian classics. Yet she remains a figure -sufficiently remarkable. Not tragic and certainly not gay, she embodies -in herself so much of India, both its past and present, that without -understanding her life and significance it is impossible to comprehend -the social whole which she explains and commentates. - -[Illustration: DANCER IN MIRZAPUR] - -The very name of dancing girl, it must be noted, is a misnomer. For as -an artist she finds expression primarily in song, not in the dance. -In the Indian theory of music, dancing is but an adjunct, one rhythm -the more, to the sung melody. It is the singer’s voice which, is -the ultimate means of music, her song which is its real purpose. To -embellish its expression and heighten its enjoyment the singer takes -the aid of instruments, the pipe, the strings, the drum and not least -of the dance. Regarded in its first elements, the dance is one means -the more of marking the time of the melody. Throughout the Indian -dance the feet, like the tuned drums, are means to mark the beats. -The time is divided into syllables or bars and the dancer’s beating -feet, circled with a belt of jingling bells, must move and pause in -the strictest accordance. The right foot performs the major part, the -left completes the rhythmic syllable. But further by her dance the -singer’s art is to make more clear and more magnetic the meaning of -her song. With her attitudes and gestures she accords her person to -her melody and sense, till her whole being, voice and movement, is but -one living emotion. Her veil half-drawn over her features, her head -averted, a frown wrinkling her brow, she portrays modesty recoiling -from a lover. With joined hands uplifted to her forehead, with body -bent, and eyes cast upon the ground, she accompanies the hymns of -worship and resignation to God’s will. With quickly moving gesture, -she marks the harsher sounds of rage or mortified indignation. Even -pleasure and the tenderer joy she represents by the softly swaying body -and slow waving movements of her upturned hands. But it is not enough -that gesture should be natural and appropriate. Mere realism would not -harmonize with the songs and instrumental music to which it is an -accompaniment. Its crudities would be out of tune, conspicuous, even -brutal. The dancer’s gestures and pantomime must be soft, rhythmic, -and restrained. Like every other art, dancing too has its economy -and its self-restraint. And the way to this ideal harmony is through -the simplifications of convention and the discipline of a graceful -technique. The dancer has to learn by painful practice to move her -limbs in harmony with the rhythms of her melody, to avoid all that -is abrupt or unsymmetrical. Each pose should be that of a statue, -emotion poising in a harmony of line and balance. In order to attain -this complete accord of movement and melody, this union of grace and -emotional expression, it is necessary to conventionalize the means by -strict attention to the material presented to the creative artist--in -the case of the dance, the youthful female figure. As in a painting, to -the trained eye, a line presents the transition between two differently -lit surfaces, so in the dance, by an habitual agreement between the -spectator and the performer, certain simple movements are made to evoke -wider imaginations. Indian dancing, like every art, must have its -own conventions. But they are conventions finally based upon actual -mimicry, simplifications, one may say, of natural movements. They are -attained by the exclusion of all that is superfluous, leaving only the -essential curve or contour of the movement. They are the actual made -spiritual, by the excision of all excess, by the suppression of the -uncouthness which defective material and stiff muscles force upon -human action. The movements of the Indian dancer bear to the primitive -gestures of men and women, in the moments of actual impulse, the same -relation as the simplified form of Indian painting and sculpture bear -to the realities of living flesh and blood in light and shadow. To -the European the conventions are difficult to understand, as they -presuppose a different training; and in him they do not readily awake -the required emotion. For European art has for many centuries been in -the main realistic, concerned above all with the material appearance of -things and actions. The art of the East, on the other hand, has in all -its leading schools sought the spiritual, striving with the jejunest -outlines to interpret the significance which may underlie the outward -clothing of form and colour and surface. Moreover, the oriental eye -has a natural aptitude for decorative pattern, to which the excessive -devotion of the Indian intellect to deduction and abstract analysis -affords a parallel. The artist, therefore, does not rest content -with simplification but further seeks to manipulate the conventions, -through which he realizes his spiritual meaning, into a symmetric and -decorative pattern. The same tendencies appear in the dance, when -practised as an art, in India. - -There are two great methods of artistic dancing in India which -correspond to the main geographical distinction of the continent -and can be called the Peninsular and the Northern. The Peninsular -or Southern has its home and training-ground in Madras, where the -temple dancing girls, the “servants of God” as they are called in the -vernacular, follow their fine tradition. The old Hindu city of Tanjore -with its exuberant temple is the centre of the school, to which it has -given its name. The other or Northern method is at its highest in the -cities of Delhi and Lucknow, more secular in its purpose, yet more -austere in its expression. - -In the North where the girls, wearing an adaptation of the Mussulman -dress, are mostly of that faith and have no bond with any temple -or religious institution, the dance or gesture-play is strictly -subordinate to the song. The artist moves back and forward a few -steps as she sings, the feet of course always beating the time, -while her hands are raised or lowered and her fingers grouped in a -few conventional poses, gracefully artificial or simply decorative, -but with no present actuality and little stimulus to emotion. The -pleasure of the spectator is in the main intellectual, the effect of -reminiscence and association, while he interprets the meaning of which -the movements are suggestive but abstract symbols. At the end of the -verse the dancer floats softly round the circle of spectators, with -coquetry in her eyes, extorting applause by a quick virtuosity of steps -and pirouettes, which have little relation to any living and real -passion. - -The Peninsular school, on the other hand, gives the dance in and by -itself a far higher value and more extended field. It is far more than -the mere visible decoration of a sung melody. It has a life of its -own, often wild and passionate; and has its own instant appeal to -independent emotions. Often the dance is in itself the pantomime of a -whole story, the meeting and love of Krishna and Rádha, for instance, -at the river’s side. The melody of the instruments is a suitable -accompaniment and the voice does little more than supply a pleasing -refrain. Sometimes it is a mere rhythmic and decorative reconstruction -of everyday actions, the mimicry, harmonious and graceful, of a boy -flying a kite or of a fluttering butterfly. The dancers move lightly -and quickly over the floor, their steps diversified, their gestures -free and natural. Upon their features play the lines of hope and joy, -of sorrow and disdain. Then as the story closes, in a final burst of -melody, their voices rise with the instruments that accompany in a last -_forte_ repetition of the refrain or motive. - -Thus in the Peninsular or Tanjore school the art of dancing, though -also, of course, dependent upon conventionalisms of gesture and -movement, and significant of meanings which it suggests rather than -imitates, has a more actual appeal to emotion and a less fettered -freedom. It has a finer spontaneity, a freer flow of imagination. At -its best, it is a splendid school of dancing, the only method perhaps -worthy to be put beside, though below, the magnificent creations of the -Russian ballet. - -From the point of view of art, however, even the Tanjore dancing girls, -and still more the performers of the Northern school, have certain -defects, which could be removable if the players and public had a -finer sense of artistic purpose. The women themselves are too often -of little education, illiterate, with their tastes uncultivated. A -good voice and some natural grace, with training only in technique, -may make a pleasing enough dancer but cannot produce an artist. For -any excellent attainment a higher cultivation is required. Another -difficulty, peculiar to India, is that many experts will, from -superstitious fear or jealousy, refuse to impart their secrets to a -pupil or a novice. But worst of all by far is that lack of artistic -sensibility, general in modern India, which is satisfied by the tricks -of virtuosity and has no recognition of sincerity and deeper beauty. -In song the faults are obvious and regretted. High notes are screamed -out with the utmost effort of the singers’ lungs to the amazement and -admiration of the groundlings, while the practice of slurred arpeggios -at the highest speed obscures the roundness of the voice in the true -melody. Given a good voice, a girl is only too soon trained to these -efforts, on which in a few years her natural gifts are squandered. -Smooth and easy singing and finished phrasing are little valued by the -side of those difficult but unbeautiful accomplishments. Similarly in -the accompanying dance violent gestures, strained poses, or undue and -difficult effort ravish praise that should more correctly be given to -sincere emotion and an easy and natural rhythm. A dead conventionalism, -emphasized and over-strained by difficult contortions, has repressed -the development of the art, especially in the northern, more abstract -method. - -[Illustration: MUSSULMAN NAUTCH-GIRL] - -Another great drawback against which Indian professional dancing -struggles is the lack of a public that itself is given to dancing. For -every art the great safeguard and vivifying influence is a popular -practice of its easier forms. Music flourished in Italy and in Germany, -where every person sings. Poetry becomes great when behind it there -is a living growth of popular ballads or lyrics. The Russian ballet -has made its wonderful achievement because every peasant dances with -vigour and even with grace, and in the summer nights in every village -young men and women dance. In India popular dancing has for many -centuries been moribund, even dead. At the festival of the new Hindu -year, in a few parts of India, groups of ladies sing songs in unison -as they circle to a slow measure or rhythmic step. Occasionally in the -_zanánas_ of the richer families the ladies dance what is known as a -Rásada. Each catches her neighbours’ hands and they move round and -round in a circle bowing, slow in the beginning and faster to the end. -These are the palace dances, now almost disused, of which can be read -in Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation of the Chaurapanchasika.-- - - “Yet now, this but abides, to picture smoothly - How in the palace-dance foremost she paced: - Her glancing feet and light limbs swayed demurely - Moon-like, amid their cloudy robes; moon-faced, - With hips majestic under slender waist, - And hair with gold and blooms braided and laced.” - -In villages among the lower classes there is also at stated seasons -some rustic dancing, even with men, of a rough and boisterous kind. -But generally speaking, popular dancing there is none. “No one dances -unless he is drunk,” the Indian gentlemen might mutter with the too -grave Roman. - -Still, granting these deficiencies of environment and allowing for -all imperfections and desired improvements, dancing remains the most -living and developed of existing Indian arts. In the Peninsular school -above all, India has a possession of very real merit, on which no -appreciation or encouragement can be thrown away. It is something -of which the country can well be proud, almost the only thing left, -perhaps, in the general death-like slumber of all imaginative work, -which still has a true emotional response and value. It sends its call -to a people’s soul; it is alive and forceful. - -All the more tragic is it, a very tragedy of irony, that the dance--the -one really Indian art that remains--has been, by some curious -perversion of reasoning, made the special object of attack by an -advanced and reforming section of Indian publicists. They have chosen -to do so on the score of morality--not that they allege the songs and -dances to be immoral, if such these could be, but that they say the -dancers are. Of the dances themselves no such allegation could, even by -the wildest imagination, possibly be made. The songs are pure beside -the ordinary verses of a comic opera, not to mention a music-hall in -the capital of European civilization, Paris. The dancing is graceful -and decorous, carefully draped and restrained. But the dancers, it is -true, do not as a rule preserve that strict code of chastity which -is exacted from the marrying woman. How the stringency or laxity -of observance of this code by a performer can possibly affect the -emotional and even national value of her art and performance has not -been and cannot be explained. Art cannot be smirched by the sins of its -followers; the flaws in the crystal goblet do not hurt the flavour of -the wine. - -In the Peninsula of India dancing and professional singing is first of -all a religious institution, bound up with the worship of the Gods. To -every temple of importance are attached bands of six, eight, or more -girls, paid in free gifts of land or in money for the duties which they -perform. They are recruited in infancy from various castes and wear -the ordinary garments, slightly more ornamental, of the Indian lady of -those regions. In certain castes the profession is hereditary, mother -bringing up daughter in turn to these family accomplishments. In other -cases, as in the great temple of Jejuri in the Deccan, children are -dedicated by their parents to the service of God and left when they -reach a riper age to the teaching and superintendence of the priests. -Twice a day, morning and evening, they sing and dance within the temple -to the greater glory of God; and at all the great public ceremonies and -festivals they play their part in the solemnities. Teaching is imparted -by older men, themselves singers, who take in hand the training of -small groups of girls. In some cases a form of marriage is performed, -for the fulfilment of traditional religious obligation, with a man -of the dancer’s caste, with an idol, or even with a sacred tree. But -the ceremony entails no ethical obligations, such as apply to the -real married woman. The dancers are regarded, being independent and -self-supporting, as freed from the code which applies to women living -in family homes and maintained by the work and earnings of a father -or a husband. It is their right to live their lives as they will, -for their own pleasure and happiness, unrestrained by any code more -stringent than that of an independent man. - -[Illustration: DANCER FROM TANJORE] - -Besides Tanjore, the old Portuguese possession of Goa and the -neighbouring districts bordering on the ocean, where the forests and -rocks of the Western Ghauts drop sharply to the rice-lands of the -shore, are famous for the excellence of their singers. Here they are -known under the name of Naikins or “Ladyships,” and have a position of -no little respect. Though they like to trace their origin in their own -sayings to those nymphs who in heaven are said to entertain the Gods, -the truth is that they are largely recruited from other classes, whose -children they purchase or adopt. They live in houses like those of -the better-class Hindus, with broad verandahs and large court-yards, -in which grows a plant or two of the sacred sweet basil. Their homes -are furnished in the plain style of the Hindu householder, with mats -and stools and wooden benches and an abundance of copper and brass -pots and pans and water vessels. Only they wear a profusion of gold -ornaments on head and wrists and fingers, a silver waist-band, and -silver rings on their toes, and they make their hair gay with flowers. -Their lives are simple and not luxurious; but the days are idled away -in the languorous ease of the tropic sea breezes, a land of repose, a -lazy land. They rise late, they bathe, they eat rice-gruel, and talk -and sleep. The long afternoon is passed in more chatting and in their -constant enjoyment of chewing betel leaves, till after dinner they go -out to sing and dance to a late hour of the night. It is a life of -quiet ease, uneventful, indolent no doubt, but hardly dissipated. And -of course in all worship and religious observance they are devout and -orthodox, fearing the Gods, and reverent to the officiating priesthood. - -Now when some Hindu reformers object to the employment of such women in -the temples of God and deny the efficacy of song and dance as adjuncts -of religious emotion, it would of course be impertinence for the -follower of another creed to express an opinion. The rubrics of prayer -are between the worshipper alone and his God. If they preach that -worship and oblation are for those only who have made asceticism their -practice and who have turned their faces from the world to the pure -concept of divinity, they are obviously within their rights: and the -question must be decided by a congregation of fellow-worshippers. Even -if they desire to bar the temple-door to women, who have taken no vow -of chastity and hope for salvation without closing their ears to love, -they are entitled to do as they like with their own, if they can obtain -a consensus of believers. Observers of other creeds would willingly, -if without impropriety they could have a voice, join in deploring the -abuse, in some temples, of the custom of dedication; for girls thus -dedicated, as at Jejuri, are often too numerous for the purposes of -the temple-service and are thrown upon the world, without adequate -artistic training, almost, one might say, with none, to make their -way as best they can. When this happens, though Hindu society treats -the devotees kindly and gives them easy admission to good houses, yet -their dearth of artistic accomplishment, the refusal of support by the -temple to which they are ascribed, and the pressing needs of sustenance -must often force the unfortunate girl to a distasteful trade. But to -include these among dancing girls in the proper sense is hardly fair. -The motives of dedication are different and are exclusively religious, -while the custom has arisen from the old Hindu tradition of appointing -a girl to take the place of a son. The trained singer who succeeds to -an appointment in a temple is in a very different position, and her -life is as a rule happy and prosperous. The example of other countries -has shown how an art may gain by the support of a Church, and how, in -the absence of countervailing circumstances of popular understanding -and enthusiasm, the withdrawal of ecclesiastical patronage may -cause its decline and even its ruin. The Reformation in Europe, -for instance, whatever its benefits to a new growing world in other -matters, swept without doubt like a devastation over the rich fields of -human imagination and like a tempest obliterated the aesthetic emotions -in which the human soul attains its highest. In India, in the absence -of a humanism such as Europe could imbibe from Athens, the dependence -of art upon religion is more strait and isolated, while the very forms -of Indian art are moulded in a supernatural conception of the universe. -So subtly poised is it upon this pinnacle, that the mere touch of the -freethinker and reformer, one fears, may send it shattered to the -ground. - -In the North, it has been said, the dancing girls have no connection -with religious institutions, though, as it happens, their artistic -conventions are more abstract and less sensuous. Mostly they are -Mussulmans by belief or are Hindus who have adopted Mussulman ways and -manners. They do not belong to colleges or groups but live alone and -independently, earning their living by their art, without support from -any temple. At the same time it is the custom in many parts to invite -them to perform at the shrine of some dead saint during the annual -celebrations. They sing on such occasions songs of a sacred kind, -psalmodies of praise to God and His Prophet, poems well known in the -Urdu language. They chant also the odes of the Sufis or Persian mystic -poets, in which the adoration of the Deity is clothed in the language -of love, and the praises of wine are metaphors for the ecstasies of -the Spirit. Usually the dancing girl lives alone in her own house, some -balconied and flat-roofed house in the crowded bazaar, where she can -overlook the movement of the town and mark the doings of her world. -There is little that escapes her prying eyes, and the musicians in her -pay, the barber who lives in the street and the seller of betel leaves -keep her posted in all the city scandals. There is constant coming and -going to her doors, and in the afternoon admirers from the younger -nobility and professional men drop in to pass the time and smoke -and laugh a few hours away. Sometimes her house becomes a centre of -intrigue where palace revolutions or doubtful conspiracies are hatched -under her friendly eye by young men, who lounge on her cushions beside -the trellised window. The room is heavy with the sweet, over-perfumed -smoke of the black tobacco paste which she smokes in her silver-mounted -hookah. When she drives out at evening, police-constables salute her. -In most Native States such dancing girls, two or three or four, are an -appanage of the royal retinue, and are paid salaries or retaining fees -on a generous basis. Such a girl will ordinarily get one hundred to -one hundred and fifty rupees per month from the State--the salary of a -Police Magistrate--with gifts on special occasions. In exchange she has -to sing twice or thrice a week when the chief calls for her, but with -his permission she may always perform at other houses where she can -earn larger fees. Some chiefs are famous for their taste, and a girl -tries to secure an engagement for a year or two in such a Darbar to -establish her reputation for the future. In many cases these dancers, -as they grow older, marry one of their lovers and settle down to the -quiet life of the respectable Mussulman lady behind the _purdah_. -Sometimes they adopt a clever and pretty girl and train her, half as -maid and half as companion, in the mysteries of their art, till she in -turn becomes a singer and helps to keep her mistress and teacher, with -no little piety and charity, in her old age. - -Modern opponents of dancing, however, with their influence on a -population which has few artistic tastes and a marked bent for economy, -have already done much to degrade the profession and are gradually -forcing girls, who would formerly have earned a decent competence -with independence and an artist’s pride, into a shameful traffic from -very want. Day by day the number of those women is growing less who -alone preserve the memory of a fine Indian art. And, as they lose the -independence earned by a profession, day by day more women are being -thrust into the abysmal shame and destitution of degraded womanhood. -An Indian proverb already sums up this peculiar item of the “reform -programme” thus: “The dancing girl was formerly fed with good food in -the temple; now she turns somersaults for a beggar’s rice.” - -But, for the delineation of Indian life and society, the position of -the dancing girl must be envisaged from a loftier altitude. It is only -from such an aspect that her portrait can be said to complete and -interpret the gallery of Indian womanhood. - -In the long history of human development occasional licence appears as -necessary to mankind as the habitual routine of morality. Convention -and self-restraint have been accepted and adopted for mutual -convenience; but, by an impulse as natural as it is healthy, man has -from time to time escaped from his stagnation through the orgy. Even -the savage, with his underfed body and atrophied sensibilities, finds -a periodic outlet for the starveling powers and ambitions hidden in -his breast by some spring or autumn festival at which, by one wild -orgy, he overleaps the fears and trammels of magical prescription and -intoxicates himself, for a brief space, into a freer manhood. When -savagery ends and barbarism begins, the orgy becomes something of an -institution, as it did in the Christian Church of the Middle Ages or -in the Holi of India. But as civilization grows more refined, it is -for the spirit rather than the body that the outburst into freedom is -demanded. In a cultured community it is a sort of cerebral licence -which is excited and assuaged by the orgies of the imagination. The -theatre and music, painting and poetry by their stimulation purge the -soul of those emotions which, unrelieved, would sour and make ill the -spirit. In a state where man is bound hand and foot to a mechanical -routine of wage-earning, he must seek through the excitement of his -imagination that explosion of emotion followed by quiescence, by -which the fermenting activities of his mind and body can alone find -their needed relief. Among the agents that rouse this excitement and -in turn satisfy it are to be ranked high the rhythm and music of -the dance, with the spectacle of graceful limbs and pretty faces, of -dresses such as are seen in dreams and jewelry rich beyond phantasy. -Every man at some time in his life has woven his fairy tales of hope, -and there is none so dull but has pictured a goddess to his fancy. Now -the woman who toils in his house and shares his interests may be ever -so tenderly loved and cared for, but she is his own help-mate, of his -own sturdy flesh and blood. Hardly--except perhaps for a space in the -first blossoming of new love--can he clothe her familiar being with the -robes and colours of his dreaming fancies. But in the trained actress -with her artful graces and her aloofness, he sees one who responds to -those secret aspirations, and gives them room to expand and calms and -soothes them, till at last, the spectacle ended, and his mind reposed, -he returns to his home in peace for the further routine of workaday -existence. - -Now where life is free and unrestricted, among the powerful and the -leisured, every hour has its variety and desire may be satisfied -without awaiting any special occasion. But when existence is narrowed -to routine and one day is like another, then indeed the soul must -sometimes soar to an illusion of wild wind-driven liberty. Man has to -guide his plough in the furrow; but not to look to the sky and its -currents at the turning!--better death at once than such weariness. And -it is the finer creative spirits, the men that think and produce, who -are quickest crushed by the unbroken rule of abstinence. In India the -general tone is brown, the light grey-brown of dusty plains and dry -fields and villages of sun-baked mud. The ritual of to-day is that of -yesterday, and will be that of to-morrow. The same prayers, the same -labours, the same plain food, the same simple house and furnishings. -Simplicity, abstinence, repression, the rejection of all that is -superfluous, these are the notes of ordinary life. There is contentment -enough as a rule. The wife is faithful and devoted, the children play -and grow up and get married, the cattle pull the plough and the soil -bears the corn. It produces on the whole a contented resignation, -this life, with its austere simplicities and its overhanging haze of -asceticism. But even then there are times when the self will out and -the lulled nerves begin to stir and tingle and stab with a bitter pain. -There is no social life as in France and upper-class England, where -ladies of wit and reading, graceful, well-dressed, trained to charm -and please, quicken the minds and respond to the sympathies of a wider -circle, while at the same time imposing a fine code of manners and -a tactful moderation. The wife, devoted and affectionate as she is, -must usually be first the _house-wife_, busied with a narrow routine, -limited in experience, bounded by babies and the day’s dinner. In most -classes she is illiterate and she has few of the accomplishments which -amuse and distract. Even in Athens, the city above all of urbanity, -as the married woman was secluded and domestic like the Indian, the -female _comrade_, the _hetaira_, with her witty talk and her song and -accomplishments was a necessity of social life. In old India also this -need was known, as can be read in the traditional poetic histories, and -the dancing girl, the _gunika_ as they called her, was the recognized -teacher to young princes of manners and of chivalry. Those days are -past; but even now the dancing girls, by the admission even of a -missionary,[1] “are the most accomplished women among the Hindus. They -read, write, sing and play as well as dance.” They dress well and -modestly, they know the arts of pleasing, and their success is in the -main due to the contrast by which they transcend the ordinary woman -and to the illusions they can give. They do not, therefore, merely -fulfil a need but also represent an ideal. Even apart from their art -and its high imaginative value, as almost the only living art in India, -they respond in a larger sense to a real need of society. To stifle -a class of women, living their own lives in independence, graceful, -accomplished, often clever, to degrade them, to make them outcastes and -force them into shameful by-ways, is not merely to sin against charity; -it is also a blunder against life. - - [1] The Rev. M. Phillips, “Evolution of Hinduism,” 1903. - -[Illustration: NAIKIN IN KANARA] - -The existence of such a class, regarded in the light of ultimate -truths, may fall far short of the perfect state. But the remedy in -any country lies not in their repression and degradation, the most -disastrous of all attempts. It lies in the freedom and education of -the married woman. When the married woman also is freed from the -oppression of narrow codes and the dull monotony of house-work, when -she too is able to be accomplished and graceful, witty and artistic, -free to choose as she pleases and to be true to her nature, then no -doubt the professional beauty must by the mere weight of facts become -extinct. But what nation, what society will risk the experiment? and -what conditions can make it possible? This at least is clear that -where a rigid matrimonial system, supported by all the sanctions of -religion and inspired by a tradition of asceticism, is fast entrenched -and fortified, where woman is limited and narrowed to the duties of a -housekeeper or a mother, there the fulfilment of the deeper cravings -of human emotion and the satisfaction of artistic sensibilities will -depend upon a class that has in it much which is not ignoble. - - - - -Woman’s Dress - - “Upon my right hand did stand the Queen in a vesture of gold - wrought about in divers colours.” - - _Psalm XLV._ - -[Illustration: GIPSY WOMAN] - - - - -Chapter VIII - -WOMAN’S DRESS - - -Dress in India can be comprised within a few typical forms. Fashion, -which in Europe is so frequently variable and occupies itself with -line and contour, is in India far more stable and persistent. Fashion -exists, of course, as in every land where women live and grow and -change. But it busies itself rather with what may be called the -accidents than with the essentials of attire. In the choice of colour -the women of India display a rich variety; and selection, though less -subject to sudden and violent alteration, is governed by those moods of -temperament which are generalized under the name of fashion. No less -operative is changing temperament upon the designs of jewelry and the -choice of gems to set in gold. Even in respect of the textures which -women choose for their clothes, there are collective changes of mood -and mode to be noticed. But in point of dress and adornment, as in most -other activities, in India there is a governance by authority and a -quasi-religious sanction which is foreign to the strongly individualist -tempers of the West. The shapes and to some extent even the colour of -dress and the design and manner of wearing jewelry are among those -distinctive marks of social rank and ceremonial purity, in a word of -caste, which are guarded jealously as if almost sacrosanct. It is only -in the additions and embellishments permitted upon the normal habits -of the caste that the human personality finds room for self-display. A -woman must first of all make her dress conform to the approved habits -of her class. That done, she is free to express her own tastes and -talents within the range of such permissible colours and superfluous -ornaments as do not alter the essential lines of her costume. - -The interest of dress centres mainly upon the human psychology of -which it is one among many other expressions. And it is not a little -surprising that this inner and living bond has so often escaped the -writers who have made costume their subject. Dress, regarded as form -and colour only, has no doubt its own value to the painter. Like -every arrangement in which selected hues or lines are grouped for the -creation of a new beauty, it has an emotional appeal apart from its -meaning or history. The uses of drapery in sculpture and the sensuous -pleasure given by rich velvets and gold brocades in the paintings of -Titian or Veronese are instances of the fascination of clothes, merely -on their decorative side. But an intenser interest comes to being when -dress is known to be also the expression of a character that in one -sense may be called individual but may with more reality be regarded as -part of a vast national life. - -For by its very nature dress is a means selected to heighten the -attraction of the sexes for each other. The use of clothes as a -protection against the extremes of climate is merely secondary and is -even something of a reproach to natural adaptation. It is as adornment, -and in its purpose of attraction, that it has its real and ultimate -meaning. That dress comes to be used incidentally to preserve modesty -does not affect its primary purpose. Modesty itself is one of the -secondary properties of love and one of its most powerful weapons. But -it is when mankind becomes sophisticated that the value and function of -modesty are properly understood; and it is then that dress and ornament -are so designed as to combine their direct and, under the guise of -modesty, their indirect attractions. It follows, therefore, that in any -people the use of the means of attraction which are supplied by dress -and jewelry must correspond to the attributes of the persons whom it is -desired to attract. If the dress did not conform to some inbred desire -in those who see it, it could have no power to please; even it might -become repellent. But similarity of birth and training tends to mould -the majority of each nation to something of an average, and it is after -all as a response to the desires of the average person that dress is -designed. It responds, therefore, to the psychology of the people in -which it is found. - -Looked at from this aspect, the fundamental difference between the -costumes of European and of Indian women becomes at once more deeply -significant. In Europe, during the long centuries that have succeeded -the fall of Rome, one quality above all has clung to dress, that -is, _bizarrerie_ of form. The Teutonic barbarians who uprooted the -Mediterranean civilizations and imposed in their place those tribal -feudalisms and customary rules from which Europe is not yet fully -freed, seem whether from their primitive particularism or their -inborn brutality to have largely been lacking in the sense of form. -Symmetry and simplicity were conceptions beyond their northern brains -and outside their temperament. Even to this day the German (who -with least admixture of blood or education represents the primeval -Teutonic savage) is hardly able by any effort of reason to comprehend -the meaning of these words. In essence, it would seem, his mind is -formless, vague, amorphous. So in their buildings, the Goths could -find no use for purity of form. What they sought always and with a -great effectiveness achieved was a shape, or rather a conglomeration of -shapes, complicated and exaggerated, with lengthy spires and cumbrous -altitudes, that should be curious, awful, and _bizarre_. They never -sought to soothe the mind. Their churches do not so much attract -attention, but capture it, as it were, by an audacious ravishment. -And as this purpose was congenial to their own psychology, so did -they win their effect among their own and kindred peoples. Similarly -their women, if they were to excite the desires of men habituated to -bloodshed and the strong stress of war, had to take their attention by -storm, with the aid of the fantastic and unexpected in their costume. -Without the subtlety of imagination and finesse to excel by a fine -harmony or a graceful nicety, they were forced upon the extravagant -and exuberant. The lines of their dress were not designed to be -congruous with the human body or to agree in beautiful drapery, but -were meant rather to amaze the onlooker by a sudden onslaught upon his -vision. At any cost they were to be effective--to produce, that is, an -immediate effect by the strangeness and extravagance of their form. -In regard to colour they had less invention and hardly any taste; and -the grey skies of the north are not suited to the richer hues. So it -was to contortions of line and form that they had recourse. However -mitigated, these are characteristics that remain to this day. Even -in modern dress, the lines tend to be abrupt and exaggerated, and an -ever-changing fashion varies them in a discordant manner. Every ten -years, it has been said, the shape of womankind, as it is visible, -changes in Europe. Each new change means, of course, an attempt to -capture attention by a novel attitude. This is the cause that, out of -the whole nineteenth century, it was only for a few years under the -Consulate and early Empire that woman’s dress appears tolerable to an -artist’s eye or even, upon reflection, to the common man or woman. - -[Illustration: A GURKHA’S WIFE] - -Indian dress, on the other hand, has this in common with the -classic style, that it is simple in form and harmonious. It exacts -no distortions or deformities. It veils the body but it does not -misrepresent it. Still less does it attempt to substitute a fictitious -for a natural line. But while the Indian mind, like that of the -classic Mediterranean peoples, approves a natural simplicity of design, -unlike the other, it delights in a profusion of extraneous ornament. -Even the monstrous temples of the South are in essence simply planned, -but they are overlaid and even overloaded with masses of strange -carving and decoration. Indian psychology, in this not dissimilar from -the Teuton, has a craving for the wonderful and _bizarre_. The people -are of those that look for miracles. But, by a fortunate dispensation, -they are content to leave the pure lines of form undisturbed--a quality -that keeps them in regard to the broad facts of life true to nature. -For their wayward fancies they find scope in _bizarrerie_ of colour and -external decoration. Thus the Indian woman wears dresses that in shape -are easy and simple and beautiful, but she seeks further to attract by -a marvellous variety of colour and a curious adornment. - -[Illustration: A GLIMPSE AT A DOOR IN GUJARÁT] - -The limits of the _bizarre_ as it appears in India are probably reached -in the dress of the _Banjara_ women. They belong to a tribe that, -far from unmixed, has in it much of that gipsy race, which has also -migrated across the Sind deserts and Asia Minor to the furthest corners -of Europe. For centuries they were the carriers of India, transporting -salt and opium and grain on their pack-cattle along the trade-routes -across the continent. They have settled down now, some of them, in -little settlements where, under their own chieftains, they till the -soil and deal in cows and buffaloes. But many of them are wanderers to -this day, daring smugglers, dangerous when they are cornered, often -even thieves and robbers. The men are especially handsome, with a free -and fiery look, and a manly air. But the women also are not by any -means unattractive, and the striking dress they have chosen, with its -bold colours and its swinging skirt, sets them up well and handsomely. -The pity is that they will wear it till from age and dirt it drops off -with its own corruption. The bright colours they affect reach their -limit in the pleated skirt with its glaring reds and yellows, a motley -that has in it something of the clown or mountebank. The bodice in -no real sense fulfils its part but is rather a bright-decked screen -dropping from the neck to just below the waist-line, stiffened with -pieces of glass and thick stitching. The mantle which they adopt, -unlike that of most Hindu women, is short, like that of the Mussulman, -but coarser. Their jewelry is peculiar to themselves, and in shape -strange and striking. It is worn about the head in great profusion, so -that the twinkling cunning face seems almost set in silver. The hair -has two pleats at each side into which tassel-like ornaments of silver -are hung. But most _bizarre_ of all is the horn or stick, twined into -their hair, which rests upon the head and props up their mantle like a -tent. Originally perhaps designed to give the head a better protection -against the eastern sun, it has now acquired a religious significance -and is never doffed, even at night in bed, except by a widow. That -with this inconvenient attachment, they still can balance by its nice -adjustment heavy pots of water on their heads is one of the minor -wonders of the Indian country-side. The Banjara encampment with its -boldly-clad and boldly-staring women, also it may be added with its -strong fierce dogs of special breed, is a sight too picturesque ever to -be forgotten, especially in a country where life tends in the villages -to a brown monotone. - -The _bizarre_ is again to be found prevailing even over form on the -Mongolian borderland of Northern India. In Nepal, whence come the brave -Gurkha soldiers of our wars, dress, like the shape and decoration of -the wooden temples of the people, has in it something alien to the -normal lines of Aryan and Indian womanhood. And the strangeness is -heightened by the quaintness of the jewelry and the uncut turquoises in -which they delight. - -But in most of India proper the essence of dress is simple. Shoes are -not in general worn, though loose wide slippers of velvet or of leather -may be sometimes seen. The natural result is that the foot retains -a beauty which can never be expected when it is cramped by constant -pressure. The working woman, tramping miles along the roads or over -fields, with heavy burdens on her head or her child upon the hip, -loses of course too quickly the springing instep and sinks to a flat -and sprawling foot. But in the higher classes, or among the womanhood -whom caste preserves in a moderate seclusion, the foot is small, -well-curved, and light. It is a thing of infinite fascination, tinted -perhaps with the henna’s pink, almost like a flower. Even aged women -there are to be seen, their faces worn and wrinkled, who still have the -unspoilt feet of youth and well-born blood. Among the richer ladies of -the greater cities, where it is smart to be “advanced,” Parisian shoes -and silken stockings are nowadays worn, at least out of doors--a habit -enforced by the security thus gained against plague infection; but the -greater number still preserves the foot free and beautiful. - -For the rest, among Hindu women the dress consists of three portions -only, never more, though they may be only two. These are a skirt, -a bodice, and a mantle. The skirt is not very different from the -petticoat of Europe in cut, but may either drop simply or be made up in -accordion pleats, something as a kilt is pleated, so cut as to stand -out a considerable way at the ankle. The latter shape, worn mainly by -the women of Márwár, but in painting invariably given to Rádha and the -loves of the god Krishna, is most beautiful with its brush and swing. -The skirt is fastened plainly by a silken cord tied fast at the waist -and is sometimes girdled by a silver belt. The Indian bodice again is -designed in the main to support the breast whose form it defines and -even, by its pattern, accentuates. It may either fit all round the -person, fastening in front by buttons or a ribbon, or be a covering for -the chest only, put on from the front and tied across the open back by -two tapes. But the most distinctive feature of all is certainly the -glorious drapery of the _sari_, which has been translated “mantle” -in default of a better word. The _sari_ is an article of dress as -distinctive as the Spanish mantilla and as difficult to wear with -the right charm and manner. It is an oblong of material, hemmed when -possible at one side with gold embroidery and edged with a sort of -closed fringe. When, as is most common, it is worn with a skirt, -its length is about fifteen feet and its breadth about three. When, -however, as in a contrasting style, it has by its intricacies to take -the place of an absent skirt as well, it measures some twenty-five feet -in length. It is to these mantles that the Indian lady devotes her -deftest thoughts and on them, within the limits conceded by caste and -fashion, that she displays her personal tastes. Their hues and patterns -have an infinite range. Some are in plain natural colours, white or -red or blue--solid, unbroken colour, not least beautiful in the stark -sunlight. Others are delicate cotton prints, flowered and sprigged and -dainty. Sometimes they are printed in a bold decorative pattern, formal -and conventional. Neutral and half tints at times mix in a bewildering -wealth of hue, till the eye is at a loss to know whether the ground -be green or pink or purple. The border may be a plain hem-stitch or a -two-inch broad piece of gold brocade, sumptuously woven in the acanthus -pattern or in the shape of birds and flowers. But in the draping of the -mantle, so simple in cut yet of such infinite variety, consists the -highest art and the true expression of personality. One end is taken -round the waist a couple of times and tucked into the waist-band at -the centre, falling to the feet in formal folds; the other passes over -head and shoulder, with the breadth decorated and displayed across the -upper half of the body. In the management of the upper half lies the -true secret. It must show the full beauty of the cloth, yet by a sort -of innocent accident, without a hint of ostentation. At the same time -it must be loose enough to allow graceful folds to drop naturally from -the head to the shoulders, and tight enough to sit close at the breast -whose curves it accentuates while it seems to veil. Enough but not -too much of the bodice must be shown with a fine nicety. The border -is at times allowed to turn carelessly up, till the gold armlet above -the elbow can be seen even on the covered right arm. At one moment, a -modest gesture brings the mantle across the face, as in shy courtesy -before an elder or an illustrious man; in a crowd it is draped to hide -both arms and conceal the figure; when it slips, it is quickly drawn -forward over the head with a charming pretence of timidity. The Márwári -woman by a trick peculiar to herself makes of her mantle a screen held -open between two fingers, through which only her lustrous eye appears, -melting and languorous; and in the armoury of every Indian woman the -mantle by its nice management is the chief instrument of love. - -[Illustration: A WIDOW IN THE DECCAN] - -The short mantle, worn as described, should of course imply a skirt. -But in the south of Gujarát, from Surat to Bombay, whether from the -steamy warmth of the climate or from some subtle change of mood, -ladies of the richer classes, while continuing to drape the mantle -in the same graceful way, have of late years given up the usage of a -skirt and wear at most a trim lace petticoat. The effect is not unlike -that of a recent ephemeral fashion in Western Europe. Seen in the bold -Indian sunlight, the double thicknesses of light silk or cotton are -little less transparent than a veil of gauze and limbs are revealed in -a shadowed fulness, which is less modest than it is suggestive. - -In the Central plateau, however, and the south of India the skirt is -also dispensed with by a fashion that can claim at once antiquity -and respectability. There it is the long mantle, twenty-five feet in -length, which is worn. Of thick coarse silk and dark solid colour, it -is so draped as to be caught between the legs in a broad, low-hanging -fold, tucked loosely at the back. Its folds are carefully arranged to -leave a double thickness, marked by the border of the mantle, over -the upper part of the legs. It is a style inherited from a remote -antiquity, descendant from the dresses seen even on Buddhist carvings -in the great rock temples of the Deccan. Beautiful it can hardly be -called, with its effect of a divided skirt and its too clumsy folds -and thicknesses; but it is certainly not frivolous. Rather perhaps -should one say that it is eminently respectable, with its sameness -and stiff conventionality. The pressure of the ascetic ideal is shown -even more strongly in the monotonous colours, dark blue usually or -dark green, which are the ordinary wear in those parts of the country. -To the artist the costume, one would think, had little value; yet -that it can be idealized is seen from the effects achieved in the -simplifications of early sculpture. This contrast in dress between the -southern part of the Peninsula and Gujarát or Northern India reflects -once again that contrast in belief and character which has already, -perhaps with a too frequent repetition, been remarked. This monotony -of asceticism is even more noticeable in the south in the dress of -widows (poor creatures with shaven heads, their limbs untouched by a -single jewel!)--a dress of a mantle only, white or of a strange dull, -dingy red--a dress that kills all looks and attractions, save where the -light of religious duty, nature overcome, makes the starved face seem -spiritual. - -[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE UNITED PROVINCES] - -In the dress of Mussulman women the main feature is that trousers are -substituted for the Hindu skirt. They may be wide and baggy, cut in -loose full curves from the hips to the tighter openings at the ankles, -a style not too precise to be devoid of all attraction. Or, as worn by -ladies of the Upper Indian aristocracy and by other women who lay claim -to Moghul descent, they may sit tight like gloves from ankle to knee, a -fashion at once ugly and repellent. It would be difficult, even after -long reflection, to design a style of dress so unbecoming to a woman’s -gait and figure, so crudely frank, so hideously unsuggestive. A bodice -may or may not be worn, as Hindu influence is more or less strong. A -long fine shirt, half open at the neck and falling to about the knee, -is an invariable article of dress, which on a young woman fits well and -gracefully. In former days, and even now among the older-fashioned, -a long full-pleated skirt and jacket in one was worn above the other -garments, fitting tight to below the breast, then from the high-set -waist-line spreading out in wide stiff pleats like a broad petticoat. -Over her head the Mussulman lady wears a shawl or mantilla, less long -than her Hindu sister’s mantle, which is made of the finest textures -and is dyed in the most delicate of colours. It is the full dress of -the Mussulman lady that, except in Southern India, the dancing girl has -made her own for professional uses and embellished with every device of -pattern and every richness of material. - -It would be interesting to digress here, in relation to Indian dress, -upon that long conflict between the _decolleté_ and the _retroussé_, -which in Europe has from time to time been settled by the successes -of the former. But a full discussion would go beyond the purpose and -necessary limits of this book. Briefly it may be said that, in this -matter too, Indian dress quite correctly expresses the difference -which subsists between the present European and immemorial Indian -temperament. For, with reasonable exceptions, it may be said that in -India, on the whole, no special feelings, either of modesty or the -reverse, attach to the lower limbs. The skirt is, therefore, not the -hampering, stiff garment that it usually is in Europe. But the upper -half of the body, on the other hand, has a far greater significance -than in Western Europe. And this it is which has made the use of the -covering mantle or _sari_ the most distinctive feature of Indian -costume. - -Dress even in its simplest form has been seen to have its sectarian -meaning and restrictions. A widow for instance, at least among orthodox -Brahmans in the Peninsula, is limited to certain solid colours, -never black or dark blue, red as a rule, or white. And every woman -is restricted to definite shapes and cut. To transgress beyond these -limits would be to offend against caste rules with a sanctity defended -and sanctioned by a caste tribunal. But greater significance attaches -to the use of jewelry. Some stones are valued for this or that magical -virtue; certain metals can or must be used only at definite times and -places: some shapes of ornament are bidden or forbidden to a certain -caste. The prohibition against wearing gold upon the feet is the most -obvious instance. Here a value of a magical kind, as a purifying agent, -is ascribed to the metal, and its use was not allowed on limbs where it -might be contaminated by the dust and dirt of the road. Only in royal -families is the prescription ever disregarded; and even then only by -few. - -Of forms and modes of ornament peculiar to one caste and partly at -least sanctified by superstition, something has already been said in -describing the fisher and the gipsy women. But instances might be -multiplied without end. Each section nearly of the community has at -least one peculiar jewel, associated with a religious festival or a -caste ceremony or belief. Perhaps the most obvious examples are the -charms and talismans freely worn by all classes of Mussulman women. -In these the stones and their settings are the symbolic expressions -of deep and mysterious thoughts and the instruments of a magical -significance. On amulets of white jade or carnelian are inscribed -in Arabic characters the highest names of the Most High. On other -cartouches are engraved the sacred symbols of the Jewish Cabbalists, -just as Hindus draw and venerate that sign of the Swastika which from -the time of the Bronze Age has presented the beneficent motions of -the sun. They have little boxes of chased gold in which are enclosed -written charms to protect the wearer from the malice of jinns and the -malevolence of the evil eye. On heart-shaped plates of silver they cut -the sacred hand which persists in the escutcheon of Ulster baronets, -and on others are inscribed the name of “Tileth” and the injunction, -“Adam and Eve away from here.” - -But the use of jewelry has a religious tinge no less among Hindus. It -is for instance a common belief that at least a speck of gold must be -worn upon the person to ensure ceremonial purity. Thus in Northern -India there are castes where married women wear plates of gold on some -of the front teeth; while it is general when preparing the dead for -the burning to attach a gold coin or ring to the corpse. Moreover, the -wearing of jewelry by women is prescribed by the sacred text which -says: “A wife being gaily adorned, her whole house is embellished, but -if she be destitute of ornaments, all will be deprived of decoration.” -This again is one reason why there is so little change in the design. -Variety there is, and indeed the number of ornaments, each with a -different name and use, is almost bewildering. But in each kind the -design passes from one to another generation almost unchanged, and -the craftsman has no need to devise new forms and varying settings. -What has been worn by the grandmother will be equally pleasing to the -grand-daughter. When there is change and variety, it is only in the -large commercial cities, where European patterns are being exploited to -the ruin of indigenous craftsmanship. - -The bracelet is the most significant and the nose-ring the most -peculiar of Indian ornaments. For bracelets are above all the visible -sign of marriage. Young girls before their wedding may wear bangles of -many kinds: but the first act of widowhood is to discard them all. Some -which are made of lac are peculiar to the married woman, and next to -them in significance are the bangles of variegated glass which are so -much appreciated. On the husband’s death these are at once shattered; -and the same breaking of bangles is the accompaniment of divorce. The -nose-ring, as it is called in English, is only seldom in shape a ring. -In Northern India indeed, in certain castes, a real ring of large -diameter passes through the cartilage; and its effect is not beautiful. -But in most places and classes, it is not so much a ring as a small -cluster of gems affixed by one means or another to the nostril. That -worn most commonly in the Deccan--a sort of brooch with a large almost -triangular setting--is also clumsy and unbeautiful. Another type, worn -by the cultivators of Gujarát, is like a button in which the jewelled -top screws, through a hole bored in the nostril, into the lower half--a -form no less ungainly. But Mussulmans adopt a different and more -graceful form. Through the central cartilage of the nose a small gold -wire passes on which drops a jewel, at its best a fine pear-shaped -pearl, dangling down to the central curve of the upper lip. But the -prettiest of all--a real aid this to a pretty face--is a small stud -of a single diamond or ruby fixed almost at the corner of the left -nostril. Here it has the value of a tiny beauty-spot, more attractive -by its sheen, and draws the eye to the curve of a finely-chiselled nose -and down to the petulant smiling lips. - -Among the most beautiful of Indian ornaments are the _champlevé_ -enamels made by Sikh workers who have found a home in the pink city -of Jaipur. In golden plaques they scrape little depressions which -they fill with oxides of various metals, fixed by the nicely-varied -temperature of fire. Gems also are worn in great profusion by the -richer classes, though little by those who have to regard their -ornaments also as an investment. To the poor of course the purchase -of silver or gold jewelry is still the only form of saving with which -they are familiar and in which they have confidence; and it is quite -impossible even to guess the millions of bullion hoarded unproductively -in this form in India. In regard to gems, many a superstitious belief -still remains. Thus it is believed that in an evil conjunction of the -sun the ruby is propitious, while the diamond is remedial against the -baleful influences of the moon. On the day of the week named after Mars -or War, the coral should be trusted, and the zircon is efficacious -against Mercury known as Buddha. The pearl is specially designed for -wear when Jupiter is dangerous. The cat’s eye deflects the radiances of -Venus and in the ascending node the emerald is sovereign. This lore of -gems is set out at length in the _Ruby-garland_ of Maharaja Surendra -Mohan Tagore. - -The graceful dress and finely-designed jewelry of the Indian women is -a covering and an embellishment, suitable and, as a rule, singularly -attractive. But the person that is so covered receives no less care. -An almost scrupulous personal cleanliness is observed by nearly every -woman. Among the gipsy and criminal tribes indeed clothes are worn -until they drop off from age; and the untouchable castes who perform -the lowest menial services and cluster in sordid hovels outside the -village also leave much to be desired. In the crowded slums of the -industrial cities, too, it is to be feared, there are many, especially -of the professional beggars, who from vice or dulled apathy allow -themselves to become foul and loathsome. But even the worst of these -could perhaps be equalled in the mean streets of Europe. These degraded -classes once out of account, however, there is no question that the -niceties of personal cleanliness are followed in all ranks with a fine -devotion which can be equalled only in the upper class of Europe. In -some points they may put even those to shame though they cannot vie -with the modern luxury of the English or French lady’s bath, with its -sponges and gloves and powders and perfumed salts. Washing in India is -a religious ordinance, scrupulously observed, and the body is cleansed -with water and made smooth like bronze with orpiment and tinged with -henna and perfumed with the essence of flowers, till it is a mirror of -purity, worthy of adornment and respect. - - - - -The Moving Finger - - “A creed is a rod - And a crown is of night, - But this thing is God - To be man with thy might, - To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit and live out thy life - as the light. - … - I bid you but _be_. - I have need not of prayer; - I have need of you free - As your mouths of mine air, - That my heart may be greater within me, beholding the fruits of me - fair.” - - _Hertha._ SWINBURNE. - - - - -Chapter IX - -THE MOVING FINGER - - -The aim of this book has been as far as possible to show the Indian -woman as she is, living and acting and expanding. But life, properly -speaking, cannot be represented. Representation must always be of -something that is already past and therefore lifeless and mechanical. -It breaks off and pins down, like a specimen in a museum, a mere -fragment out of the moving continuity of life. So a photograph for -instance, when it impresses a discontinuous moment on the plate, merely -fixes something which is artificial and unreal. Perhaps in literature -it would be impossible to give vitality to the picture of an Indian -woman, unless in the form of poetry or prose fiction. But the picture -would then be endowed with personal character and an individual shape. -Here it was desired rather to analyse national characteristics and to -display the varieties of Indian womanhood and their values. It was -necessary, therefore, to embody the typical rather than the personal -and to lose something of concrete reality in the effort to generalize -usual habits of mind and body. It is, however, true that neither man -nor woman can ever be so well known, as through the ideals which -they feel. In those ideals, in the spirit with which they meet the -incidents of life, consists all that is most real and permanent in -their actions. Other desires and emotions, peculiar to the individual, -which help to make his whole concrete life, are after all unharmonized -and, as it were, accidental. Essential are the thoughts which guide -his purposes and the social atmosphere in which he breathes. Regarded -in this way, the womanhood of India appears on the whole to be moving -in all its million lives towards a more or less similar ideal, more or -less clearly recognized as the social class rises or sinks in education -and self-consciousness. There are, of course, exceptions. The nobility -of Southern India form a social back-water, fed by other traditions -from a secluded source. There are wild tribes on whose crude minds the -common thought has hardly yet had time to become operative. And the -Mussulman population is, at least in name, ruled by an ethic far more -rationalistic and liberal. Yet there is not a class which in some form -or other, however indirectly, has not had to submit to the supremacy of -an ideal which in its purer lines is truly national. With the increased -ease of communication and the rigidity given to accepted Brahman -custom by the Courts of Law and common education, the movement towards -the same ideal throughout the various communities has become more -marked and rapid. Peculiarities of caste and race tend to be swamped -in the general current. In a few cases, new diversities have come -into existence, where, for instance, some of a small highly-educated -class have revolted against traditional restrictions or sought a new -salvation in the close imitation of European customs without a European -environment. It is in the comprehension of these ideals, manifested in -typical castes and classes, and of the social atmosphere that any real -image of Indian womanhood can alone be formed. - -But it is not enough to see a woman in her girlhood and growth, in her -love and marriage, and in her relations to her family and society. To -grasp her as she really is she should be seen also as a mother. For if -love is a duty of womanhood, biologically the function of motherhood is -even more important. It is the most decisive of all her functions in a -primitive society. As the race advances, it does not lose its place, -but beside it ascend other functions, first and most essential that -of love or wifehood, and afterwards that of polishing and refining a -mixed society. In value to each life and each generation, the greatest -of these is certainly love; and the successful wife or mistress -ranks higher in art and literature and with the finer spirits and -civilizations than even the best of mothers. For the former implies -gifts which are not only rarer but also emanate from higher and nobler -qualities of mind, while it responds to needs which are felt above all -by loftier natures. Maternity, on the other hand, is the instinct of -reproduction in action, controlled by intelligent care and affection. -It is not peculiar to the human being but is as strong a force in -the animal. It is of course essential, like everything else that is -primeval in our life; for humanity is broad-based upon the animal. But -wifehood is a conception of the creative human intellect, a specialized -object of human feelings. The perfect beloved is an ideal form created -by a developed intellect and fastidious emotions. - -Hence the worth of a nation’s womanhood can best be estimated by the -completeness with which they fulfil the inspirations of love and its -devotion. And judged by this standard, the higher types in India need -fear no comparison. Whenever race and belief have combined to resist -the mere negatives of ascetic teaching, there is a rich literature of -love, there is a mastery of rapture, and with it the constant service -of undying devotion. - -Yet fully to estimate the value of her life, it would be necessary also -to watch the Indian woman in her performance of a mother’s functions. -The strength of her desire for children, the warmth and selflessness -of her affection, the extent of her care and teaching, her readiness -or unwillingness herself to learn the needs of childhood, above all, -the place in her heart that she affords her children--all these are -factors which should be not merely weighed or analyzed but actually -felt by a creature intuition. But only another woman could have such -comprehension or attain such intuition. No man--even in regard to the -women of his own country, where he is illuminated by the examples of -his mother and his wife--could have the needed sympathy, the necessary -similarity of feeling, to comprehend the woman’s emotions to the child -she bears and over whose growth she watches. It would be impossible to -attempt the task in a foreign country of women by whose side one has -not grown from infancy. - -Some points, however, which lend themselves to any observation, -may be noted, all the more since they have not infrequently led to -misunderstanding. It is the case undoubtedly that every Indian woman, -whatever her rank or race, has a clamorous wish to bear children, above -all a son, for her husband’s sake. “How many children have you?” is -the first question every woman asks another. In order to get children -they go on pilgrimages and tolerate austerities, they give alms to -beggars and are deluded by impostors. A childless woman becomes only -too readily the butt of scorn and even of her own self-reproach. Not -to have borne a son is to the Indian woman to have missed her vocation -and have failed in life. She has a certainty of belief--“She knows” -she would say--that it is her function, even hers, to have children; -and if she be fruitful, she counts herself blessed. From these data, -it has often been inferred that Indian women in all classes have an -overpowering desire for motherhood and are especially mastered by the -maternal instinct. But that this inference is wholly just, may well be -doubted. - -In the upper classes at least it must be admitted that the woman wishes -for children because of reasoned and intelligible motives, and that -these motives are so strong as to overcome any instinctive passions. -And a will moved by a mere calculation of reason may be as powerful as -and even more effective than an act of will which, really responds to a -deep and eternal, unreasoned, self-creating emotion. The Indian woman -at any rate has every reason to desire to be a mother, above all the -mother of a son. Hindu science and philosophy have never hidden from -her that, regarded as a living being merely like any other animal, her -primary function is to continue the race. And religion has impressed -this teaching upon every mind by the legend that a man’s soul can be -released from the torments which follow death only by the prayers -and ritual of a living son. Moreover, she fears that barrenness may -impose the presence of a second wife, a rival in that love to which, -after all, she gives first place. Then, again, the end may prove to be -subjection to another woman’s son, heir to his mother’s hatreds. Or at -the best there is the pressure of religious faith--to think herself -accursed, if she has no child, while even her husband may in time -shrink from her as from a being judged by the doom of God. All these -are motives which can be weighed by the intellect but which move desire -and will-power. Yet their action does not in itself show that the -instinct of maternity is strong beyond the usual. - -It is true of course that little girls in India in their games are -accustomed to play at being mothers and cook for imaginary children -and put their dolls to bed, and in a word play as girls do all over -the world. But so they play also at being wives and greeting their -husbands and bowing to a mother-in-law. When it is considered how -early they learn the secrets of life and how few their other games and -amusements can be, it is hardly astonishing that motherhood should -enter soon in their thoughts and pastimes. But the European child is -at least as ready to play with dolls and as fond of mothering her pets -with a mimicry to which her instincts call her. Where the European girl -differs is that marriage enters little into her thoughts and games, -love in any real sense hardly at all; whereas the Indian girl from -childhood has her mind filled with glad anticipations, and responds -to the name of marriage with a ready and not altogether unconscious -emotion. Even from the example of the child, then, the inference would -rather be that the instinct for love is quickly developed than that the -maternal instinct is stronger than in other peoples. - -There are considerations of many kinds which go to show that the desire -for love is first in the Indian woman’s heart, at least in the higher -and better nurtured classes. In England for instance it is really now -the case--largely owing to the defects of a highly artificial education -and partly from the evils produced by bad economic conditions--that -there are quite a number of women who would desire to be mothers -but who actually look upon marriage and love as a distasteful and -unpleasant preliminary. Such a perversion of view, it can at once -be said, is unknown in India--not only unknown indeed, but even -inconceivable. Every woman may wish for a child, but she wishes first -and above all for the blessing of a loving husband, and she desires -the child mainly to satisfy and conciliate the man to whom she gives -herself joyfully. - -Again it is striking that the whole long record of Indian literature -contains hardly one picture of a mother’s love, and is dumb even -about the longing at her heart for a child. Erotic poetry is full and -voluminous and the love of man and woman is sung in burning words in -thousands of lyrics, while it is also depicted with a more objective -grandeur in numerous epics. Hardly any European literature, at least -since Alexandria, can vie with this literature of love in volume and -intensity. But in the poetry of the West, mother’s love has had its -honoured place. In the letters of India it is almost absent. - -It is sometimes suggested in India, and it may perhaps be true, that -in the castes which allow divorce, a mother’s affection for her child -is a passion stronger than her love for her husband. It would indeed -sometimes seem in those classes that she would more readily choose to -sacrifice the father than the child. But it does not follow that the -cause lies in the freedom of divorce, even though it be a factor which -co-operates in the result. For in practice the Hindu castes which allow -divorce are almost all of the lower class--in some cases not much above -the savage, ignorant, of a slow sensibility, unstimulated by the arts -and luxuries of civilization. Their passions have not yet much refined -above the elemental. For that fine and ennobling love which is the -fruit of advanced culture they have not yet developed the capacity. But -the maternal instinct remains among them in all its primitive strength. -And it has not to divide its sovereignty with the emotions of a later -culture. Relatively its force is greater, because undivided. - -But, it must be said, in no class does maternal affection arouse, as -it should, that persistent and laborious effort to tend and educate, -which is its worthiest criterion. The Indian mother is lavish with -her caresses and endearments, as in other moods she may fly into fits -of uncontrolled anger. But, except for the lengthy period of nursing, -sometimes three and ordinarily two years, to which she is willing -to devote herself, she shows only too little of that continuous and -intelligent care which is expected from a mother. Largely no doubt this -is due to ignorance. She has not--one might with justice say she is not -allowed to have--the knowledge which is needed to be a good mother. -She is unaware of the most elementary requirements of sanitation and -health. Worse still, she has not been trained to know the importance -of compelling good habits and regular discipline in early childhood. -Again, though she is usually an affectionate, she is not often an -inspiring, mother. She is probably at her best as she sees her children -fed with the food she has cooked herself, giving to each the tit-bits -that she can, looking lovingly to their comforts, herself waiting till -all are done before she sits down to her own meal. This is the memory -that lingers most closely in the Indian’s mind as the man grows older -and leans on retrospect. To most European children the remembrance that -is dearest is that of his mother stooping over his cot to kiss him -good-night, radiant in beauty, clad in silks and laces, with the gleam -of white shoulders and precious stones to set off the soft curves of -her dear face, before she leaves for a dinner, a theatre, or a ball. -He is proud of her looks, so transformed, and of her charm, proud that -he belongs to a being so splendid and so wonderful. But to the Indian -the picture that recurs is of ungrudging kindly service. And perhaps -the prolonged nursing period, bad as in other respects it is--bad -especially for the over-taxed mother--serves to draw closer the bond -between her and the child, already conscious of its own existence. -Certain it is that the Indian son, as he grows up, forbears ever to -judge his mother. Of Indian women generally, or of the mothers of -other men, he may complain for their ignorance and their disregard of -matters which he has taught himself to consider necessary; he may even -with some unfairness blame them for a want of steadfast purpose and -regularity, which is by no means peculiar to their sex. But for his own -mother he preserves a constant respect and loving solicitude. - -[Illustration: IN THE HAPPY VALLEY OF KASHMIR] - -Yet, all said and done, it is not in motherhood, but rather in her -love, that the Indian woman has reached her highest achievement. -The devotion and self-sacrifice which are hers form a triumph of -the spirit; and she clothes these virtues with sensuous charm and -transcendent ecstasy. She gives freely of herself with both hands, by -service and surrender, by wistfulness and delight. - -It is in the quality of social charm that the Indian woman is most -often lacking. For the man she loves she can command every grace. -She can be coaxing, caressing, kind, gentle, tender, submissive, -all in one. Even to the stranger, alone in her family as guest or -dependent, she shows herself solicitous and kindly, with a pleasing -quiet charm that comes from the heart. But she has not the habit of -social entertainment or that special training, so much a matter of a -quickened intelligence, which is required to set general acquaintances -at ease or to lead a conversation which should be at once comprehensive -and light. She has no general coquetry and is often without that ease -of manner and unconstrained grace of movement in a crowded room, -which can hardly be acquired otherwise than by the habitual usage -of good society. This lapse from complete achievement marks itself -most strongly in the intonations of her voice. For it must, alack, be -admitted that the Indian woman’s voice is her weak point. Here are -few of those soft, round, low but clear mezzos and contraltos which -like bronze bells sound so deliciously in a European drawing-room. The -voice in India seems seldom to have that steady control and rounded -_timbre_ which is gained from the repression of strained and uneven -notes and the modulation of all tones to one easy key. The Indian girl -is not even taught to sing and knows nothing of voice production. What -little she does sing, untaught or worse than untaught, is more often -a scream than a real melody. Good voices are almost the monopoly of -the professional dancing girl. Hence even in ordinary conversation, -a lady’s speech tends to harsh and abrupt sounds, shrill and not -beautiful. Her intonation is only too often an antidote to the charms -of her fastidious neatness and her kindly eyes and smile. - -Society, it must be said, and social converse had in India ceased -to exist some fifteen hundred years ago. It does not happen that a -company of men and women meet on easy terms for entertainment with -the pleasures of light and familiar conversation, not learned, never, -please heaven, didactic or instructive, but clever, witty, illumined -by intuitions and swift generalizations, light of touch, and near to -laughter. Nor is anything known of that innocent coquetry of well-bred -womanhood, which seeks no particular stimulations but appeals for a -general admiration, impersonally given to that fine spirited, finely -attractive being who is the last word in luxury and taste and womanly -moderation. - -In India as one knows it--whatever it may have been in the remoter age -pictured in the caves of Ajanta--the aspirations of women have taken -a different course through a more placid water. Where they steer is -no ebb and flow of conflicting purpose and sometimes, as they pass -listlessly to the shore, it looks almost as if the roadstead had come -to a stagnation. And yet--yet the course is set correctly and the sun -is rightly taken. It may be that the horizon is viewed too low and -that the profundities of the human spirit are not yet plumbed; but the -Indian woman crosses the waters of life on a line true to her nature -and her functions. - -There is in all the Indian languages which derive from Sanscrit a word -whose habitual usage is significant of a whole attitude to life, by -whose meaning alone it is possible to understand the position sought -by and accorded to womanhood. It is the word “_dharma_” which has -been constantly mistranslated into English as “religion.” But when -an Indian speaks of “_dharma_” he means really the duties, divinely -imposed if you like or valid in nature, of his station. Between this -“_dharma_” and that, between the “_dharma_” of his own class or sex and -that of others, he draws a sharp distinction. In England, too, this -sense is not unknown and the great landlord, for instance, speaks with -right of the duties of his position, contrasting them with a broad -distinction to those of the merchant, for example, or the workman. -_Noblesse oblige_ is a proverb that has been applied in all countries. -But throughout Western thought there runs the idea that duty and morals -must at bottom be one and the same for all. It is only, one might say, -as a concession that the special duties of each station are recognized; -and at most they are referred rather to the accidentals of life, to -those supererogatory virtues which may be expected, like magnanimity -or liberality from the rich and powerful, or that exceptional patience -and humility which many persons seem to expect from the needy and -unfortunate. The basic more permanent rules of moral conduct are -regarded as something absolute, unalterable, unconditioned. Even the -differences of sex are forgotten in the abstract contemplation of fixed -moral laws. In practice, of course, facts have often compelled peoples -to admit that differences do exist in the application of rules of -conduct. Thus, to take a recent instance, in the crisis of war public -opinion has allowed that even the supreme duties of citizenship press -with divergent force upon married and unmarried men. Similarly it -was until recently recognized by all and is even now by the greatest -number that there are matters in which the conduct of men and women -cannot be the same and that the same rights and duties cannot be -applied indiscriminately to both sexes. But the recognition was seldom -more than tacit. It was never co-ordinated, at least in England, to a -reasoned view of life. It was not built upon a deliberate analysis of -natural differences in function and in sensory and nervous force. It -tended rather to be a mere concession to passing conditions of life. -Thought, when it was explicit, dwelt chiefly upon abstract ideas of -equality and equal duties. Some writers even tried to explain away -the differences of character between men and women by referring them -to mere accidents of environment, to women getting a less thorough -education, for instance, or less of a chance in life, as it was -called. It was not openly and clearly recognized that the natures and -functions of men and women were different in essentials, and that the -rules of conduct must in consequence be relative to different needs and -purposes. - -[Illustration: A DENIZEN OF THE WESTERN GHAUTS] - -In India, the way in which “_dharma_” is understood has made such a -mistake impossible. From its implications it is believed by all, or has -until the last few years been believed, that duty must necessarily be -relative to function and must correspond with fitness to inner nature. -A distinction so obvious and primary as that of sex can in consequence -be ignored by none except a few recent abstract thinkers. The rights -and duties of women are defined in relation to the activities which are -imposed on them by the principles of their nature; and the ideal which -is painted is in harmony with the natural laws of flesh and spirit. -Modesty, self-sacrifice, tenderness, neatness, all that is delicate -and fastidious, those are qualities which have a natural propriety. -To play her modest part in the family household quietly, to sweeten -life within the radius of her influence, to serve her children, to -please the man to whom she is dedicated, to receive pleasure in her -love, and find happiness in the pleasures that she gives, that is a -woman’s “_dharma_”--her fitting performance of function. It is not, of -course, that Hinduism does not know that men and women are alike in -respect of certain faculties and both alike distinguished from other -living creatures. But it has laid more stress upon the differences -in function. It has been able to see that the being of each separate -man and woman is one and indivisible, and that sex is not a mere -distinction added or subtracted but rather the shape in which the -whole living, acting human creature is cast and moulded. This, which -is the teaching of India’s philosophies, is also the practical wisdom -of her peoples. And this it is which has kept Indian women so superbly -natural, so calmly insistent on their sex. In Northern Europe, it -may perhaps be said, the evolution of womanhood has more rapidly -progressed, in response to a quickly developing environment; but in as -far as it has rejected nature and inner law, it may the rather tend -to be in fact a _devolution_, a turn or twist _from_ the road and not -a progress. In India evolution has been slow, cramped by unnecessary -superstitions and arbitrary abstentions, but in its main lines at least -it is consistent and natural. Its form is not unsuitable; though it -still has to be filled with a larger and richer content. - -But the content of life in India is in truth already being enriched. -Her women are no mere abstractions, fixed and immovable, to be -delineated by thin conventional lines. Rather must they be thought of -as a mass of concrete, distinguishable, living human beings, moving as -a whole towards a larger freedom. Only a century ago when the greatest -of German thinkers, Hegel, wrote his “Philosophy of History” he could -with no little truth say that “Indian culture had not attained to -a recognition of freedom and inner morality,” and could assert that -in the Indian soul there was “bound up an irrational imagination -which attaches the moral value and character of men to an infinity -of outward actions as empty in point of intellect as of feeling, and -sets aside all respect for the welfare of men and even makes a duty -of the cruellest and severest contravention of it.” Women of course -in all countries are far more conservative than men and are more -readily content to sink the needs of personality in a general level -of unruffled action. Yet even among the women of India a new spirit -of liberation from external limitations is becoming visible and an -aspiration to an excellence that shall be from within. In spite of -caste distinctions, in spite of the forced rigidity of the marriage -system, in spite of all the mental unrest and error of the educated -and the practical inertia of the unread, in spite of all this and much -more, it would now be far from true to say of them as a whole that they -are unconscious of inward freedom and inward law or are blind to the -needs of human welfare in the conditions of human life. - -But this inner freedom and external amplitude need not be sought and -will not be gained in the imitation of foreign manners and customs. -Such imitation can never be anything but unnatural and inharmonious; -and the castes which have tried it have not succeeded in avoiding -evil consequences. A better way is to revert to the ancient ideals -which still inspire all that is good in later practice. Dark ages -of ignorance have pruned and pinched the older, freer spirit, by -superstitious and absurd asceticisms and misinterpreted authorities. -Only the ruling castes have enlarged themselves from the bondage by -their more virile audacities. In general even the primitive and natural -classes, as they raise their status and become reflective, succumb -to the same narrowing limitations and impose upon their womankind -disabilities which are external and mechanical but which they see -current in the higher Brahmanized classes. Yet in the older, nobler -days, the Indian women had a life larger by far and more rich in -fulfilment. To regain this, which after all is still a living ideal, -and to ennoble and enlarge it further through that Greek thought--that -inspiring humanity and breath of happiness--which is the life-giving -element of European science and civilization, that were indeed an -end worthy of a fine tradition. To cut away from the bonds of fears -and artificialities and non-human hopes and terrors and seek only to -_be_, wholly and fully, in the harmony of nature and function and -sane development, preserving the eternal virtues of womanhood, and -finely conscious of a proud tradition--by some such purpose surely -might it be possible to secure safe continuity and social health -while attaining a progressive and extended activity that should not -be alien or discordant. But the timidities of crude asceticism must -first be overcome. A generation must arise which can comprehend -that self-control is not abstention, far from it, but is found only -when, a free soul, governing itself by its own laws, seeks its own -satisfaction and the development of all its functions in its free -activities. To deny human nature, for any price however fanciful, is -more harmful by far than the “Fay ce que Voudras” of any Abbaye de -Thelème. - -[Illustration: A WORKING WOMAN AT AJMERE] - -Of the narrow and incongruous privations with which the old ideals -were overlaid in the later decadence many still remain. Most cruel -and least defensible of all is the prejudice, common in all classes -except the highest and not unknown even there, against the enjoyment -of literature and art. Music is discountenanced, pictures are never -seen, even reading and writing is thought unwomanly. When not only the -charming likeness drawn of women in old books is remembered, but in -actual life also one sees the fine harmony achieved by those ladies, -Rajputs perhaps or Nágar Brahmans, who can recite and enjoy poetry -and even sing or play instruments--with what far greater happiness to -themselves and the men they love!--it should be plain how great is the -national loss wrought by this empty deprivation. Of all the European -countries, it is in France that women have most nearly attained that -final excellence which both accords with the true tradition of Western -life and is not out of harmony with their nature. There a sane and wise -worldliness has led to an incessant regard to neatness and careful -management, an avoidance of all that is wasteful or excessive. And -French life of course pivots upon a mixed society, easily mingling in -graceful and polished intercourse--an urbane fellowship in a human -_civitas_, a citizenship in whose enjoyment, it might almost seem, -lies the last test of civilization. Hence the French woman, for her -part, has trained herself or been trained to be the instrument of -a symphony of urbanity and well-bred fellowship, giving of her own -characteristic qualities to be an inspiration and a standard to the -creative art. Yet, with it all, she is emphatic of her sex. From the -highest to the lowest class, one may see her, neat, well dressed, -choice in adornment, lavish of love. But she is also tirelessly ready -to serve, in her house-keeping as in affairs, devoted to the family of -which she is the living bond, an affectionate but careful mother who is -honoured and loved by her sons with a pure and tender fervour. For in -France, in spite of the general European tendency to moral absolutes -at least in theory, the balanced sanity and practical wisdom of the -people has never failed to recognize the different spheres and powers, -qualities and weaknesses, of men and women. And further, Greek thought -and an unbroken Roman tradition have kept alive in France the ideal of -a temperate and steady fruition of a world that is made for mankind. -In India conditions are different and there is no tradition of mixed -society with an easy untrammelled exchange of ideas. Yet even within -the limits of the family, it might be thought, the added enjoyment -and the larger and finer interests that would be gained by some such -acquaintance with books and music and paintings, and the nobler -emotions thus won, should seem desirable to all who can think at all. - -Controversy has raged fiercely in India round this question of woman’s -education. The number of women who can even read and write, if all -classes in the whole country are regarded, is a negligible quantity, -so small it is; and there are vast tracts in which even Brahman girls -remain wholly illiterate. There are many to this day who bitterly -oppose even the teaching of letters to girl-children. That this can be -the case is of course due to the ignorance of their parents. They have -not yet been able to grasp, nor do they know their own ancient history -to sufficient purpose, that reading and writing is the birth-right -of every human being and a necessary condition of all intelligence -and rational development. They are not aware that the ancient ideal -contemplated no such renouncement. And quite without cause they -fear that instruction for a few years in the elements of education -would interfere with the routine of family life and the customs of -marriage. They have perhaps never had it clearly put to them how simply -this instruction could be fitted in with the usual programme of an -ordinary household and how it need imply no departure from existing -practice in other matters. But indefensible though this opposition -to elementary instruction must be, the objections against further -education are unfortunately by no means without excuse. For it must -with bitterness be confessed that the modern world, at any rate in -Europe, has not yet devised any suitable system of higher education -for girls, has indeed rather busied itself with what is unsuitable -and injurious. “Advanced thinkers” and “social leaders” have a way of -shutting their eyes to scientific results; and facts are hard things -which a flabby age prefers to ignore. So girls have been encouraged -to emulate boys and young men in every sort of examination within the -same curriculum, without heed of their earlier precocity, different -method of nervous activity and smaller reserve force, to the detriment -of health and natural talents and to their unfitting for their own -purposes and functions. It is this which Indian parents, with an eye -open to facts when they are so broad and natural as the facts of sex, -have apprehended, however dimly, and as it were unconsciously. They -have guessed what higher education must in all probability mean in -India, as long as European education remained unchanged. And they -would not let their girls run the risk of an education which might -distort, rather than develop, their sex. Late events served further to -deepen this strong and instinctive distrust; and it is indisputable -that the excesses of an unhappy section of English women with abnormal -aspirations have set back the cause of women’s education in India by -many decades. - -[Illustration: BORN BESIDE THE SACRED RIVERS] - -The misfortune is that in India opposition does not confine itself to -a particular and, one hopes, a temporary phase of secondary education; -nor does it recognize that in all countries, and especially in India -with its universal and early marriage, the question of higher -education can affect only a very small number of the total. The feeling -of dislike is instinctive and intuitional rather than a reasoned -criticism, and it has crept on like a cloud of smoke over the whole -field of elementary education. Necessarily it has also obscured all -view of a possible, better indigenous method of higher education, which -should at once be consonant with the traditions of ancient India and -the needs of women in Indian society. Such a system appears now to have -been set under way in the wonder-working country of Japan, and with -little change might probably be made suitable to Indian conditions. It -deserves at least to be studied without prejudice and with a settled -understanding of the requirements of the land and of the small classes -of women who would directly benefit. - -In spite of all obstacles, due partly to the decay of older customs, -partly also to imported confusions, it may be hoped that before long -it will be admitted that every girl must be taught to read and write. -And one may even hope that a higher education will ensue which, without -slurring over a woman’s earlier precocity and special talents, without -ignoring her specific duties as wife and mother, without forgetting the -peculiar needs and excellences of her mind and body, will in addition -make her more liberal, better instructed, a worthier companion and a -nobler inspiration. In India happily a girl is already allowed to know -the facts of life and her emotions are at least natural. But such an -education as one foresees would teach her to know more clearly and -with scientific truth how to be at once a pleasing and happy wife and a -good mother. She, and through her the children whom she trains, would -learn the evils of premature or too constantly recurring childbirth and -how to avoid them easily. She would know also how to protect her family -from uncleanly surroundings and unwholesome habits. She would not -unlearn but rather be taught even better the necessary arts of cooking -and of sewing, the latter nowadays in many cases almost unknown. But in -addition she would also learn to appreciate the beauties of language -and of craftsmanship, to hear and understand great poetry, and to feel -her whole being thrill to a more glorious harmony in response to the -call of the fine arts. She would still--like the Nair ladies of whom -old Duarte Barbosa wrote--“hold it a great honour to please men.” Yet -she would please not merely by her passion and purity and service, but, -keeping these, would also create a higher attraction of the spirit. -Thus would the lotus women of India be in truth such that of each it -might be said: “She walks delicately like a swan and her voice is low -and musical as the note of the cuckoo, calling softly in the summer -day.… She is gracious and clever, pious and respectful, a lover of God, -a listener to the virtuous and the wise.” - - “It may be all my love went wrong-- - A scribe’s work writ awry and blurred, - Scrawled after the blind evensong-- - Spoilt music with no perfect word.” - - _The Leper._ SWINBURNE. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of India, by Otto Rothfeld - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF INDIA *** - -***** This file should be named 50346-0.txt or 50346-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/3/4/50346/ - -Produced by Julie Barkley and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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