part ii

., _Parsis of Gujarat_. by the late Mr. Kharsedji Nasarvanji Seervai, J.P., and Khan Bahadur Bamanji Behramji Patel; M. Salomon Reinach's _Orphéus_; Rev. J. Murray Mitchell's _Great Religions of India_. The whole account of the customs and social life of the Parsis is taken from the excellent description in the _Bombay Gazetteer_.]

List of Paragraphs

1. _Introductory_. 2. _The Zoroastrian religion_. 3. _The Zend-Avesta._ 4. _The Zend-Avesta and the Vedas_. 5. _Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian Aryans_. 6. _The dual principle and the conflict between good and evil_. 7. _The dual principle derived from the antagonism of light and darkness_. 8. _The Zoroastrians in Persia_. 9. _Their migration to India and settlement there_. 10. _Their wealth and prosperity_. 11. _Marriage customs_. 12. _Religion_. _Worship of fire_. 13. _The Homa liquor_. 14. _Parsi priests_. 15. _The sacred shirt and cord_. 16. _Disposal of the dead_. 17. _Previous exposure of the dead, and migration of souls_. 18. _Clothes, food and ceremonial observances_.

1. Introductory.

The number of Parsis in the Central Provinces in 1911 was about 1800. They are immigrants from Bombay, and usually reside in large towns, where they are engaged in different branches of trade, especially in the manufacture and vend of liquor and the management of cotton mills and factories. [347] The word Parsi means a resident of the province of Fars or Pars in Persia, from which the name of the country is also derived.

2. The Zoroastrian religion.

Also known as Mazdaism, the Zoroastrian religion was that of the ancient Magi or fire-worshippers of Persia, mentioned in Scripture. It is supposed that Zoroaster or Spitama Zarathustra, if he was a historical personage, effected a reformation of this religion and placed it on a new basis at some time about 1100 B.C. It is suggested by Haug [348] that Zarathustra was the designation of the high priests of the cult, and Spitama the proper name of that high priest who carried out its distinctive reformation, and perhaps separated the religion of the Persian from the Indian Aryans. This would account for the fact that the sacred writings, which, according to the testimony of Greek and Roman authors, were of great extent, their compilation probably extending over several centuries, were subsequently all ascribed to one man, or to Zarathustra alone. The Zend-Avesta or sacred book of the Parsis does not mention the fire priests under the name of Magi, but calls them Athravan, the same word as the Sanskrit Atharva-Veda. The reason for this, M. Reinach suggests, is that the Magi had rebelled against Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, in the sixth century B.C., during his absence in Egypt, and placed a rival creature of their own on the throne. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, overthrew him and re-established the Persian kingdom in 523 B.C., and this may have discredited the Magian priests and caused those of the reformed religion to adopt a new name. [349] It is certain that Cyrus conformed to the precept of the Avesta against the pollution of the sacred element water, when he diverted the course of the river Gyndanes in order to recover the body of a horse which had been drowned in it, and that Darius I. invokes in his inscriptions Ormazd or Ahura Mazda, the deity of the Avesta. [350] On the subversion of the Persian empire by Alexander, and the subsequent conquest of Persia by the Arsacid Parthian dynasty, the religion of the fire-worshippers fell into neglect, but was revived on the establishment of the Sassanian dynasty of Ardeshir Babegan or Artaxerxes in A.D. 226, and became the state religion, warmly supported by its rulers, until the Arab conquest in A.D. 652. It was at the beginning of this second period of prosperity that the Zend-Avesta as it still exists was collected and reduced to writing, but it is thought that the greater part of the remains of the ancient texts recovered at the time were again lost during the Arab invasion, as the original literature is believed to have been very extensive.

3. The Zend-Avesta.

The language of the Zend-Avesta is the ancient east Iranian or Bactrian dialect, which probably died out finally in the third century B.C., modern Persian being descended from the west Iranian or Median tongue. The Bactrian language of the Zend-Avesta is, Haug states, a genuine sister of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Gothic. "The relationship of the Avesta language to the most ancient Sanskrit, the so-called Vedic dialect, is as close as that of the different dialects of the Greek language, Aeolic, Ionic, Doric or Attic, to each other. The languages of the sacred hymns of the Brahmans, and of those of the Parsis, are only the two dialects of two separate tribes of one and the same nation. As the Ionians, Dorians, Aetolians, etc., were different tribes of the Greek nation whose general name was Hellenes, so the ancient Brahmans and Parsis were two tribes of the nation which is called Aryas both in the Veda and Zend-Avesta." [351] The sections of the Zend-Avesta which remain are about equal in size to the Bible. They consist of sacrificial hymns, prayers and accounts of the making of the world, in the form of conversations between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. The whole arrangement is, however, very fragmentary and chaotic, and much of the matter is of a trivial character. It cannot be compared in merit with the Old Testament.

4. The Zend Avesta and the Vedas.

A cuneiform inscription discovered in the centre of Asia Minor at Ptorium proves that about 1400 B.C. certain tribes who had relations with the Hittite empire had for their deities Mitra, Indra, Varuna and the Nasatyas. The first two names are common to the Persian and Indian Aryans, while the last two are found only in India. It appears then that at this time the ancestors of the Hindus and Iranians were not yet separated. [352] Certain important contrasts between the ancient Zoroastrian and Vedic religions have led to the theory that the separation was the result of a religious and political schism. The words Deva and Asura have an exactly opposite significance in the two religions. Deva [353] is the term invariably used for the gods of the Hindus in the whole Vedic and Brahmanical literature. In the Zend-Avesta, on the other hand, Deva (Pers. _div_) is the general name of an evil spirit, a fiend, demon or devil, who is inimical to all that is good and comes from God. The part of the Avesta called the Vendidad, consisting of a collection of spells and incantations, means _vi-daevo-data_ or given against the Devas or demons. The Devas, Dr. Haug states, are the originators of all that is bad, of every impurity, of death; and are constantly thinking of causing the destruction of the fields and trees, and of the houses of religious men. "Asura, occurring as Ahura in the first part of Ahura-Mazda (Hormazd), is the name of God among the Parsis; and the Zoroastrian religion is distinctly called the Ahura religion, in strict opposition to the Deva religion. But among the Hindus Asura has assumed a bad meaning, and is applied to the bitterest enemies of their Devas (gods), with whom the Asuras are constantly waging war. This is the case throughout the whole Puranic literature and as far back as the later parts of the Vedas; but in the older parts of the Rig-Veda Sanhita we find the word Asura used in as good and elevated a sense as in the Zend-Avesta. The chief gods, such as Indra, Varuna, Agni, Savitri, Rudra or Siva, are honoured with the epithet 'Asura,' which means 'living, spiritual,' and signifies the divine in its opposition to human nature.

"In a bad sense we find Asura only twice in the older parts of the Rig-Veda, in which passages the defeat of the 'sons or men of the Asura' is ordered or spoken of; but we find the word more frequently in this sense in the last book of the Rig-Veda (which is only an appendix to the whole made in later times), and in the Atharva-Veda, where the Rishis are said to have frustrated the tricks of the Asuras and to have the power of putting them down. In the Brahmanas or sacrificial books belonging to each of the Vedas we find the Devas always fighting with the Asuras. The latter are the constant enemies of the Hindu gods, and always make attacks upon the sacrifices offered by devotees. To defeat them, all the craft and cunning of the Devas were required; and the means of checking them was generally found in a new sacrificial rite." [354]

Professor Haug adduces other arguments in this connection from resemblance of metres. Again the principal Vedic God, Indra, is included in the list of Devas or demons in the Zoroastrian scripture, the Vendidad. Siva and the Nasatyas or Ashvins, the divine horsemen of the Vedas, are also said to be found in the list of Devas or demons. Others of the Vedic gods as Mitra the sun, Aryaman, either another name for the sun or his constant associate and representative, Vayu the wind, and one or two more are found as Yazatas or angels in the Zend-Avesta. [355]

5. Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian Aryans.

Professor Haug's suggestion as to the cause of the schism between the Iranian and Indian branches of the Aryans is very interesting. He thinks that the Aryan tribes after they had left their original home, which was in all likelihood a cold country, led mainly a pastoral life, and cultivated only occasionally some patches of land for their own support. But when they arrived in the tract between the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, and the highlands of Bactria, which were suitable for permanent settlement, certain of them, who were the ancestors of the Iranian branch, forsook the pastoral life of their ancestors and became agriculturists. Others, the ancestors of the Indian Aryans, retained their nomadic habits, and took to the practice of making predatory incursions into the territories of the settled communities. Hence arose a bitter hostility between them; and as the success of the raiders was attributed to their religious spells and incantations, and especially to the consumption of the Soma liquor under the auspices of the God Indra, this part of their joint religion became hateful to the Iranians and led to the founding of the reformed Zoroastrian religion, in which special stress is laid on the virtue obtained from bringing land under cultivation, making enclosures and permanent settlements and protecting agricultural cattle. This is forcibly expressed in the saying, 'He who cultivates barley cultivates righteousness,' and others. [356] Finally the nomadic tribes left the common residence in the Central Asian highlands and migrated into India. It is not certain that scholars generally accept the above hypothesis.

6. The dual principles and the conflict between good and evil.

The most prominent feature of the religion of Zarathustra is the dual principle of good and evil and the conflict between them. Ahura Mazda is the supreme deity, the creator of the world, and Ahriman or Angro Mainyush is the evil one, his constant opponent. A perpetual struggle proceeds between them, extending over the whole of creation, and will continue for a period of 12,000 years. The virtuous lives and prayers and sacrifices of men help the cause of Ahura Mazda, while every bad action and all kinds of ceremonial impurity constitute an assistance rendered by them to Ahriman. Not only virtue, courage, charity humility and kindness to animals, when displayed by men, are held to reinforce Ahura Mazda, but also such useful acts as cleaning a field for cultivation, digging a canal or building a bridge. The animals are also divided into good and bad, the latter being considered the creation of Ahriman and designated the seed of the serpent. The bad animals include tigers, snakes, cats, wolves, frogs, mice, ants and others, and to kill them is to perform a virtuous act in the cause of Ahura Mazda. Among good animals dogs and agricultural cattle appear to be the chief. The division is very imperfect, and it would seem that the classification does not extend to birds and fish. Most trees are good, but their bark is evil. Hail, snow and all kinds of diseases are believed to be the work of Ahriman and his evil spirits. [357] As all ceremonial impurity renders assistance to the evil one, the Parsis are very careful in such matters, as will be noticed subsequently. Ahura Mazda is assisted in his struggle for the good by six Amesha-Spentas or good spirits, who are something like archangels. They consist of the spirits of cattle, fire, metals, the earth, health and immortality. With the first four of these some moral quality or attribute as truth, wisdom and the curing of diseases is now associated. Another great spirit Sraosha is the judge of the dead. Similarly Ahriman is assisted by six arch-fiends and a whole host of evil spirits (Deva and Druj) of all kinds, against whom men have to be perpetually on their guard. One of the principal bad spirits is Aeshma Deva, the roaring demon, who appears to be the Asmodeus mentioned in the Apocrypha. At the end of the period of struggle Ahura Mazda will engage in a final contest with Ahriman and will conquer with the help of the Archangel Sraosha, who will overcome the demon Aeshma. A virgin will then conceive and bring forth the second Zoroaster as a Messiah, who will cause the resurrection of the dead. The good will be separated from the bad, but the punishment of the latter will not be eternal; and after the purification of the world by a general conflagration all humanity will unite in the adoration of Ahura Mazda. [358] Meanwhile after death the souls of all men are weighed and have to pass over a narrow bridge called Chinvad. The good souls, lightened by the absence of sin, find it a broad and easy path to heaven, while to the bad ones, weighed down with their sins, it becomes narrow as a razor's edge, and they fall over into hell. M. Salomon Reinach points out that their beliefs have several points of resemblance with those of Judaism, but it is not easy to say which religion has borrowed from the other. [359] The word paradise, according to Dr. Haug, comes from _pairidaesa_ in the Zend-Avesta and means a park or beautiful garden protected by a fence.

7. The dual principle derived from the antagonism of light and darkness.

It is noticeable that Ahura Mazda is considered as luminous and good, and Ahriman as gloomy and bad. Ahura Mazda, according to Darmesteter, can be traced back to Asura, the supreme god of Indo-Iranian times, and is the representative of Varuna, Zeus or Jupiter, that is the sky or heavens. Similarly Ahura Mazda is described in the Zend-Avesta as righteous, brilliant, glorious, the originator of the spirit of nature, of the luminaries and of the self-shining brightness which is in the luminaries. Again he is the author of all that is bright and shining, good and useful in nature, while Ahriman called into existence all that is dark and apparently noxious. Both are complementary as day and night, and though opposed to each other, are indispensable for the preservation of creation. The beneficent spirit appears in the blazing flame, the presence of the hurtful one is marked by the wood converted into charcoal. Ahura Mazda created the light of day and Ahriman the darkness of night; the former awakens men to their duties and the latter lulls them to sleep. These features of the good and evil spirits seem to point to the conclusion that the original antithesis which is portrayed in the conflict between the principles of good and evil is that of night and day or darkness and light. The light of day and all that belongs to it is good, and the darkness of night and that which belongs to it evil. As already seen, Ahura Mazda is considered to be equivalent to Varuna or Zeus, that is the god of the sky or heavens. Originally it seems likely that this deity also comprised the sun, but afterwards the sun was specialised, so to speak, into a separate god, perhaps in consequence of a clearer recognition of his distinctive attributes and functions in nature. Thus in the Zoroastrian religion Mithra became the special sun-god, and may be compared with Vishnu and Surya in India and Apollo in Greece. In the Avesta the sun is addressed as the king. [360] Ahura Mazda speaks of the sun-deity Mithra as follows to Zoroaster: "I created Mithra, who rules over large fields, to be of the same rank and dignity as I myself am (for purposes of worship)." The only visible emblem of Ahura Mazda worshipped by the Parsis is fire, and it would seem that the earthly fire, which is called Ahura Mazda's son, is venerated as the offspring and representative of the heavenly fire or the sun. Thus Ahura Mazda may have been originally an old god of the heavens, and may have become the abstract spirit of light from whom the sun in turn was derived. If, as is now supposed, the original home of the Aryan race was somewhere in northern Europe, whence the Iranian and Indian branches migrated to the east, the religious tenets of the Parsis may perhaps have arisen from the memory of this journey. Their veneration of fire would be more easily understood if it was based on the fact that they owed their lives to this element during their wanderings across the steppes of eastern Europe. The association of cold, darkness and snow with Ahriman or the evil one supports this hypothesis. Similarly among the Indian Aryans the god of fire was one of the greatest Vedic gods, and fire was essential to the preservation of life in the cold hilly regions beyond the north-west of India. But in India itself fire is of far less importance and Agiri has fallen into the background in modern Hinduism, except for the domestic reverence of the hearth-fire. But Zoroastrianism has preserved the old form of its religion without change. The narrow bridge which spans the gulf leading to heaven and from which the wicked fall into hell, may have originally been suggested by the steep and narrow passes by which their ancestors must have crossed the mountain ranges lying on their long journey, and where, no doubt, large numbers had miserably perished; while their paradise, as already seen, was the comparatively warm and fertile country to which they had so hardly attained, where they had learnt to grow corn and where they wanted to stay thenceforth and for ever.

8. The Zoroastrians in Persia.

In Persia itself the Zoroastrian faith is now almost extinct, but small colonies still survive in the towns of Yezd and Kerman. They are in a miserable and oppressed condition and are subjected to various irritating restrictions, as being forbidden to make wind towers to their houses for coolness, to wear spectacles or to ride horses. In 1904 their number was estimated at 9000 persons. [361]

9. Their migration to India and settlement there.

The migration of the Parsis to India dates from the Arab conquest of Persia in A.D. 638-641. The refugees at first fled to the hills, and after passing through a period of hardship moved down to the coast and settled in the city of Ormuz. Being again persecuted, a party of them set sail for India and landed in Gujarat. There were probably two migrations, one immediately after the Arab conquest in 641, and the second from Ormuz as described above in A.D. 750. Their first settlement was at Sanjan in Gujarat, and from here they spread to various other cities along the coast. During their period of prosperity at Sanjan they would seem to have converted a large section of the Hindu population near Thana. The first settlers in Gujarat apparently took to tapping palm trees for toddy, and the Parsis have ever since been closely connected with the liquor traffic. The Portuguese writer Garcia d'Orta (A.D. 1535) notices a curious class of merchants and shopkeepers, who were called Coaris, that is Gaurs, in Bassein, and Esparis or Parsis in Cambay. The Portuguese called them Jews; but they were no Jews, for they were uncircumcised and ate pork. Besides they came from Persia and had a curious written character, strange oaths and many foolish superstitions, taking their dead out by a special door and exposing the bodies till they were destroyed. In 1578, at the request of the Emperor Akbar, the Parsis sent learned priests to explain to him the Zoroastrian faith. They found Akbar a ready listener and taught him their peculiar rites and ceremonies. Akbar issued orders that the sacred fire should be made over to the charge of Abul Fazl, and that after the manner of the kings of Persia, in whose temples blazed perpetual fires, Abul Fazl should take care that the sacred fire was never allowed to go out either by night or day, for that it was one of the signs of god and one light from among the many lights of his creation. Akbar, according to Portuguese accounts, was invested with the sacred shirt and girdle, and in return granted the Gujarat priest Meherji Rana an estate near Naosari, where his descendants have ever since been chief priests. [362]

10. Their wealth and prosperity.

The Parsis had begun to settle in Bombay under the Portuguese (A.D. 1530-1666). One of them, Dorabji Nanabhai, held a high position in the island before its transfer to the British in the latter year, and before the end of the seventeenth century several more families, of whom the Modis, Pandes, Banajis, Dadiseths and Vadias were among the earliest, settled in the island. To the Gujarat Parsis more than to any class of native merchants was due the development of the trade of Bombay, especially with China. Though many Parsis came to Bombay, almost all continued to consider Surat or Naosari their home; and after its transfer to the British in 1759 the Surat Parsis rose greatly in wealth and position. They became the chief merchants of Surat, and their leading men were the English, Portuguese and Dutch brokers. Shortly afterwards, owing to the great development of the opium and cotton trade with China, the Parsis made large profits in commerce both at Surat and Bombay. After the great fire at Surat in 1857 Bombay became the headquarters of the Parsis, and since then has had as permanent settlers the largest section of the community. The bulk of the native foreign trade fell into their hands, and the very great liberality of some of the leading Parsis has made their name honourable. They secured a large share of the wealth that was poured into western India by the American War and the making of railways, and have played a leading part in starting and developing the great factory industry of Bombay. Many of the largest and best managed mills belong to Parsis, and numbers of them find highly paid employment as mechanical engineers, and weaving, carding and spinning masters. Broach ranks next to Bombay in the prosperity of its Parsis; they deal extensively in cotton, timber, fuel and the manufacture of spirit from the flowers of the mahua tree. [363] From the Bombay Presidency the Parsis have spread to other parts of India, following the same avocations; they are liquor and timber contractors, own and manage weaving mills and ginning factories, and keep shops for retailing European stores, and are the most prosperous and enterprising section of the native population. Two Parsis have become members of Parliament, and others have risen to distinction in Government service, business and the professions. The sea-face road in Bombay in the evening, thronged with the carriages and motor-cars of Parsi men and ladies, is strong testimony to the success which the ability and industry of this race have achieved under the encouragement of peace, the protection of property and the liberty to trade. Though they have a common Aryan ancestry and their religion is so closely connected with Hinduism, the Parsis feel themselves a race alien to the Hindus and probably have no great sympathy with them. Their wealth and position have been mainly obtained under British rule, and the bulk of them are believed to be its warm adherents. The Parsis now make no proselytes, and no regular provision exists for admitting outsiders to their religion, though it is believed that, in one or two cases, wives taken from outside the community have been admitted. They object strongly to the adoption of any other religion, such as Christianity, by members of their body. The Parsis are notable for the fact that their women are very well educated and appear quite freely in society. This is a comparatively recent reform and may be ascribed to the English example, though the credit they deserve for having broken through prejudice and tradition is in no way diminished on that account. The total number of Parsis in India in 1911 was just 100,000 persons.

11. Marriage customs.

Polygamy among the Parsis has been forbidden by the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act of 1865. The remarriage of widows is allowed but is celebrated at midnight. If a bachelor is to marry a widow, he first goes through a sham rite with the branch of a tree, as among the Hindus. Similarly before the wedding the bride and bridegroom are rubbed with turmeric, and for the ceremony a marriage-shed is erected. At a feast before the wedding one of the women beats a copper dish and asks the ancestral spirits to attend, calling them by name. Another woman comes running in, barking like a dog. The women drive her away, and with fun and laughing eat all the things they can lay their hands on. Prior to the rite the bride and bridegroom are purified in the same manner as when invested with the sacred shirt and cord. The bridegroom wears a long white robe reaching to his ankles and a white sash round his waist; he has a garland of flowers round his neck, a red mark on his forehead, and carries a bunch of flowers and a cocoanut in his right hand. At every street corner on his way to the bride's home a cocoanut is waved round his head, broken and thrown away. He sets his right foot in the house first, and as he enters rice and water are thrown under his feet and an egg and cocoanut are broken. At the wedding the couple throw rice on each other, and it is supposed that whoever is quickest in throwing the rice will rule the other. They are then seated side by side, and two priests stand before them with a witness on each side, holding brass plates full of rice. The two priests pronounce the marriage blessing in old Persian and Sanskrit, at each sentence throwing rice on the bride's and bridegroom's heads. At intervals in the midst of the blessing the bridegroom and bride are asked in Persian, 'Have you chosen her?' and 'Have you chosen him?' They answer in Persian, or if they are too young their mothers answer for them, 'I have chosen.' [364]

12. Religion. Worship of fire.

The religious ritual of the Parsis consists of the worship of fire. The fire temples are of a single storey and contain three rooms. On reaching the outer hall the worshipper washes his face, hands and feet, and recites a prayer. Then, carrying a piece of sandalwood and some money for the officiating priest, he passes to the inner hall, in which a carpet is spread. He takes off his shoes and rings one of four brass bells hanging at the corners of the room. The priest also rings one of these bells at each watch when he performs worship. He then proceeds to the threshold of the central fire-room, kneels there, and again standing begins to recite prayers. None may enter the fire-room except the priests. Here the fire is kept always blazing in a silver or copper urn on a solid stone pedestal, and is fed day and night with sandal and other commoner woods. A priest is always present, dressed in long white robes, his hands covered with white cloths and his face veiled. The worshipper lays down his offering of sandalwood at the entrance, and the priest takes it up with a pair of tongs, and gives him some ashes from the urn in a silver or brass ladle. These the worshipper rubs on his forehead and eyebrows. On concluding his prayers, which are in the Avesta language, he walks backward to where he left his shoes and goes home. A Parsi man never allows his hearth fire to go out, and if he changes his residence he carries it with him to the next place of abode.

13. The Homa liquor.

Like the Hindus, the Iranian ancestors of the Parsis revered the sacred liquor made from the Soma or Homa plant. It was considered a panacea for all diseases, and many stories about the miraculous effects obtained from drinking the juice are contained in a hymn of the Zend-Avesta composed in its honour. According to Dr. Mitchell [365] the offering of Homa is still made at Parsi temples, though apparently some substitute must have been obtained for the original plant, which does not grow in the plains of India. At any rate the offering and sacrificial drinking of the liquor were probably continued so long as the Parsis remained in Persia. As this is a comparatively cool country, the bad effects of alcohol did not perhaps become apparent to the Parsis as they did to the Hindus in the plains of India, and hence the sanctity attaching to the liquor underwent no similar decline. From this it perhaps results that the Parsis have no feeling at all against alcohol, and drink it for pleasure, like Europeans. Both the toddy of the date-palm and mahua spirit are freely consumed at their feasts, while the rich members of the community drink European wines and spirits. As any dealing in alcohol is practically prohibited to high-caste Hindus and also to Muhammadans, and low-caste Hindus have hitherto scarcely ever been literate, the Parsis on account of this peculiarity have found a profitable opening in the wholesale liquor trade, and until recently have had very little effective competition to face. This is perhaps a reason for their special addiction to it, and also for their engaging in the sale of European stores and wines.

14. Parsi priests.

The Parsi priests form a hereditary caste, and are all supposed to be descended from one Shapur Sheheriar, who with his sons and grandsons, one of whom translated the Zend-Avesta into Sanskrit, are believed to have been among the first Parsi settlers of the priestly caste at Sanjan in north Thana. The training of a priest consists of learning substantial portions of the Zend-Avesta by heart, and in going through elaborate ceremonies of purification, in which the drinking of _nerang_ and _nerangdin_, or cow's and bull's urine, being bathed, chewing pomegranate leaves and rubbing the same urine and sand on his body are leading features. Priests always dress in white and wear a full beard. They must never shave the head or face, and never allow the head to be bare nor wear coloured clothes. If a priest's turban happens to fall off, or if he travels by rail or sea, his state of purity ends, and he must go through the whole ceremony of purification again and pass nine days in retreat at a temple. [366] The principal business of a priest, as already seen, is the tending of the sacred fire in the temples, and he also conducts marriage and other ceremonies.

15. The sacred shirt and cord.

Parsi boys and girls are received into the Zoroastrian faith between the ages of seven and nine. The child is purified by being bathed, sipping bull's urine and chewing a pomegranate leaf, and makes the profession of belief in the faith. He or she is then invested with the sacred shirt, _sadra_, and the sacred cord or thread called _kusti_. The shirt is of thin muslin, with short sleeves and falling a little below the hip. The sacred cord is of wool, and can be made only by the wives and daughters of Parsi priests. [367]

16. Disposal of the dead.

The Parsi method of exposing the dead in Dakhmas or towers of silence to be devoured by vultures has often been described. It has objectionable features, and the smaller communities in the interior of India do not as a rule erect towers of silence, and are content simply to bury the dead. It seems probable that the original custom was simply to expose the dead on waste land, the towers of silence being a substitute which became necessary when the Parsis began to live in towns. This hypothesis would explain some points in their funeral customs recorded in the _Bombay Gazetteer_. The dead body is washed, dressed in an old clean cloth and laid on the floor of the house, the space being marked off. If the floor is of earth the surface of this enclosed space is broken up. If the floor is of cement or stone one or two stone slabs are set on it and the body laid on them; it is never laid on a wooden floor, nor on stone slabs placed on such a floor. The space where the body was laid is marked off, and is not used for a month if the death occurs between the eighth and twelfth months of the year, and for ten days if the death occurs between the first and seventh months. The last are said to be the hottest months. [368] It would appear that these rules are a reminiscence of the time when the body was simply exposed. It was then naturally always laid on earth or rock, and never on wood, hence the prohibition of a wooden floor. The fact that the spot where the body is now laid in the house is held impure for a shorter period during the summer months may be explained on the ground that all traces of the decaying corpse, after it had been devoured by wild animals and vultures, would have been dried up by the sun more quickly at this time than during the winter months. In the latter period, as the process would take longer, the place in the home is similarly held impure for a month, as against ten days in summer, though at present neither the sun nor weather can possibly affect a site inside the house. The fact that when the floor is of earth the site for the corpse is broken up may indicate that it was formerly laid on rough waste ground, and not on a floor beaten smooth, though it might also be simply a means of avoiding contamination of the floor. But if this was the object it would be simpler to avoid letting the body come into contact with the floor at all. The corpse may still be wrapped in an old cloth because it was originally exposed in the cloth worn at death. The body is carried to the tower on an iron bier by special bearers; if the journey is a long one a bullock cart may be used, but in this case the cart must be broken up and the pieces buried near the tower. Before the funeral starts a number of priests attend at the house and recite the prayers for the dead. During the service a dog is brought in to look on the face of the dead. The mourners follow in the usual manner, and on arrival at the tower the bearers alone take the corpse inside and lay it naked on one of the slabs, which are built in circular terraces in the interior. The mourners must be purified at the tower by pouring a little cow's urine into their hands, and on returning home they wash their face and hands, and recite a prayer before entering the house. They must bathe and have their clothes washed before these are again used. When a married man dies his widow breaks her glass bangles and wears only metal bracelets, and so long as she remains a widow she takes no part in any festal celebrations. Every morning for three days after a death rice is cooked and laid in the veranda for dogs to eat. No other food is cooked in the house of death, the family being supplied by their friends. During these three days prayers are said for the dead several times a day by priests, and kinsmen pay short visits of condolence. On the third day a meeting is held in the house and prayers are said for the dead; trays of flowers and burning incense are placed before the spot where the body lay, and a list of charitable gifts made by the family in memory of the dead man is read. On the fourth day a feast is held specially for priests, and friends are also asked to join in it. A little of the food cooked on this day is sent to all relations and friends, who make a point of eating or at least of tasting it. On the tenth and thirtieth days after death, and on monthly anniversaries for the first year, and subsequently on annual anniversaries, ceremonies in honour of the dead are performed. [369]

17. Previous exposure of the dead, and migration of souls.

Some of these customs are peculiar and interesting. It has been seen that for three days the home is impure, and no food is cooked in it except what is given to dogs; and since on the third day offerings are made on the spot where the body lay, it seems to be supposed that the dead man's spirit is still there. On the fourth day is the funeral feast, in which all relations and friends join, and after this the house becomes pure, it being presumably held that the dead man's spirit has taken its departure. For these three days food is cooked in the house and given to dogs, and immediately after the man is dead a dog is brought in to look at his face. It has been suggested that the manner of laying out the body recalls the time when it was simply exposed. But when it was exposed the body would have been devoured principally by dogs and vultures, and the customs connected with dogs seem to arise from this. The cooked food given to dogs for three days is perhaps a substitute for the flesh of the dead man which they would have eaten, and the display of the body to a dog is in substitution for its being devoured by these animals, who now that it is exposed in a tower of silence no longer have access to it. It has further been seen how during the marriage rites, after an invitation has been issued to the ancestors to attend, a woman comes in barking like a dog. The other women drive her away and laughingly eat everything they can lay their hands on, perhaps in imitation of the way dogs devour their food. This custom seems to indicate that the Parsis formerly believed that the spirits of their ancestors went into the dogs which devoured their bodies, a belief which would be quite natural to primitive people. Such a hypothesis would explain the peculiar customs mentioned, and also the great sanctity which the Parsis attach to dogs. On the same analogy they should apparently also have believed that the spirits of ancestors went into vultures; but it is not recorded that they show any special veneration for these birds, though it must be almost certain that they do not kill them. The explanation given for the custom of the exposure of the dead is that none of the holy elements, earth, fire or water, can be polluted by receiving dead bodies. But, as already stated, towers of silence cannot be a primitive institution, and the bodies in all probability were previously exposed on the ground. The custom of exposure probably dates from a period prior to the belief in the extreme sanctity of the earth. It may have been retained in order that the spirits of ancestors might find a fresh home in the animals which devoured their bodies; and some platform, from which the towers of silence subsequently developed, may have been made to avoid defilement of the earth; while in after times this necessity of not defiling the earth and other elements might be advanced as a reason justifying the custom of exposure.

18. Clothes, food and ceremonial observances.

Parsi men usually wear a turban of dark cloth spotted with white, folded to stand up straight from the forehead, and looking somewhat as if it was made of pasteboard. This is very unbecoming, and younger men often abandon it and simply wear the now common felt cap. They usually have long coats, white or dark, and white cotton trousers. Well-to-do Parsi women dress very prettily in silks of various colours. The men formerly shaved the head, either entirely, or leaving a scalp-lock and two ear-locks. But now many of them simply cut their hair short like the English. They wear whiskers and moustaches, but with the exception of the priests, not usually beards. Neither men nor women ever put off the sacred shirt or the thread. They eat the flesh only of goats and sheep among animals, and also consume fish, fowls and other birds; but they do not eat a cock after it has begun to crow, holding the bird sacred, because they think that its crowing drives away evil spirits. If Ahura Mazda represented the sun and the light of day, the cock, the herald of the dawn, might be regarded as his sacred bird. Sometimes when a cock or parrot dies the body is wrapped in a sacred shirt or thread and carefully buried. Palm-juice toddy is a favourite drink at almost all meals in Gujarat, and mahua spirit is also taken. Parsis must never smoke, as this would be derogatory to the sacred element fire. [370]

Saiva, Shaiva, Sivite Sect

_Saiva, Shaiva, Sivite Sect_.--The name given to Hindus who venerate Siva as their special god. Siva, whose name signifies 'The Propitious,' is held to have succeeded to the Vedic god Rudra, apparently a storm-god. Siva is a highly composite deity, having the double attributes of destroyer and creator of new life. His heaven, Kailas, is in the Himalayas according to popular belief. He carries the moon on his forehead, and from the central one of his three eyes the lightning flashes forth. He has a necklace of skulls, and snakes are intertwined round his waist and arms. And he has long matted hair (_jata_), from which the Ganges flows. It seems likely that the matted locks of the god represent the snow on the Himalayas, as the snow is in reality the source of the Ganges; the snow falling through the air and covering the peaks of the mountains might well suggest the hair of a mountain-god; and this interpretation seems to be accepted in Mr. Bain's _In the Great God's Hair_. Siva has thus three components from which the idea of death might be derived: First, his residence on the Himalaya mountains, the barren, lifeless region of ice and snow, and the cause of death to many pilgrims and travellers who ventured into it. Secondly, he is the god of the moon, and hence of darkness and night, which are always associated with death. In this light he might well be opposed to Vishnu, the god of the sun and day, and the source of growth and life; their association as the two supreme deities representing the preservation and destruction of life, would thus, to some extent, correspond to the conflict of good and bad deities representing light and darkness among the Zoroastrians. Thirdly, Siva is a snake-god, and the sudden death dealt out by the poisonous snake has always excited the greatest awe among primitive people. The cobra is widely revered in India, and it is probably this snake which is associated with the god. In addition the lightning, a swift, death-dealing power, is ascribed to Siva, and this may have been one of his earliest attributes, as it was probably associated with his Vedic prototype Rudra. Whether Siva obtained his character as a god of destruction from one only of the above associations, or from a combination of them, is probably not known. Two great forces lend the deity his character of a god of reproduction, the bull and the phallic emblem. The bull tills the soil and renders it fertile and capable of bringing forth the crops which form the sustenance of mankind; while the phallic emblem is worshipped as the instrument of generation. It is believed that there is a natural tendency to associate these two objects, and to ascribe to the bull the capacity of inducing human fertility as well as the increase of the earth. It is in these two attributes that Siva is worshipped in the rural tract; he is represented by the emblem referred to standing on a circular grooved stone, which is the _yoni_, and in front of him is a stone bull. And he is revered almost solely as a beneficent deity under the name of Mahadeo or the Great God. Thus his dual qualities of destruction and reproduction appear to be produced by the combination in him of different objects of worship; the Himalayas, the moon, the cobra and the lightning on the one hand, and the bull and the emblem of regeneration on the other. Other interesting characteristics of Siva are that he is the first and greatest of ascetics and that he is immoderately addicted to the intoxicating drugs _ganja_ and _bhang_, the preparations of Indian hemp. It may be supposed that the god was given his character as an ascetic in order to extend divine sanction and example to the practice of asceticism when it came into favour. And the drugs, [371] first revered themselves for their intoxicating properties, were afterwards perpetuated in a sacred character by being associated with the god. Siva's throat is blue, and it is sometimes said that this is on account of his immoderate consumption of _bhang_. The _nilkanth_ or blue-jay, which was probably venerated for its striking plumage, and is considered to be a bird of very good omen, has become Siva's bird because its blue throat resembles his. His principal sacred tree is the _bel_ tree, [372] which has trifoliate leaves, and may have been held sacred on this account. The practice of Sati or the self-immolation of widows has also been given divine authority by the story that Sati was Siva's first wife, and that she committed suicide because she and her husband were not invited to Daksha's sacrifice. [373] Siva's famous consort is the multiform Devi, Kali or Parvati, of whom some notice is given elsewhere. [374] The cult of Siva has produced the important Sakta sect, who, however, venerate more especially the female principle of energy as exemplified in his consort. [375] Another great sect of southern India, the Lingayats, worship him in the character of the _lingam_ or phallic emblem, and are noticeable as being a Sivite sect who have abolished caste. The Sivite orders of Gosains or Dasnamis and Jogis also constitute an important feature of Hinduism. All these are separately described. Apart from them the Hindus who call themselves Saivas because they principally venerate Siva, do not appear to have any very special characteristics, nor to be markedly distinguished from the Vaishnavas. They abstain from the consumption of flesh and liquor, and think it objectionable to take life. Their offerings to the god consist of flowers, the leaves of the _bel_ tree which is sacred to him, and ripe ears of corn, these last being perhaps intended especially for the divine bull. The sect-mark of the Saivas consists of three curved lines horizontally drawn across the forehead, which are said to represent the _tirsul_ or trident of the god. A half-moon may also be drawn. The mark is made with Ganges clay, sandalwood, or cowdung cakes, these last being considered to represent the disintegrating force of the deity. [376]

Sakta, Shakta Sect

_Sakta, Shakta Sect_.--The name of a Hindu sect, whose members worship the female principle of energy, which is the counterpart of the god Siva. The metaphysical ideas of Saktism are thus described by Sir Edward Gait: [377]

"Saktism is based on the worship of the active producing principle, Prakriti, as manifested in one or other of the goddess wives of Siva (Durga, Kali, Parvati) the female energy or Sakti of the primordial male, Purusha or Siva. In this cult the various forces of nature are deified under separate personalities, which are known as the divine mothers or Matrigan. The ritual to be observed, the sacrifices to be offered, and the _mantras_ or magic texts to be uttered, in order to secure the efficacy of the worship and to procure the fulfilment of the worshipper's desire, are laid down in a series of religious writings known as Tantras. The cult is supposed to have originated in East Bengal or Assam about the fifth century."

Dr. Bhattacharya states [378] that the practical essence of the Sakta cult is the worship of the female organ of generation. According to a text of the Tantras the best form of Sakti worship is to adore a naked woman, and it is said that some Tantrics actually perform their daily worship in their private chapels by placing before them such a woman. A triangular plate of brass or copper may be taken as a substitute, and such plates are usually kept in the houses of Tantric Brahmans. In the absence of a plate of the proper shape a triangle may be painted on a copper dish. In public the veneration of the Saktas is paid to the goddess Kali. She is represented as a woman with four arms. In one hand she has a weapon, in a second the hand of the giant she has slain, and with the two others she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies, she wears a necklace of skulls, and her only clothing is a garland made of men's skulls. In the Kalika Puran [379] the immolation of human beings is recommended, and numerous animals are catalogued as suitable for sacrifice. At the present time pigeons, goats, and more rarely buffaloes, are the usual victims at the shrine of the goddess. The ceremony commences with the adoration of the sacrificial axe; various _mantras_ are recited, and the animal is then decapitated at one stroke. As soon as the head falls to the ground the votaries rush forward and smear their foreheads with the blood of the victim. It is of the utmost importance that the ceremony should pass off without any hitch or misadventure, [380] and special services are held to supplicate the goddess to permit of this. If in spite of them the executioner fails to sever the head of the animal at one stroke, it is thought that the goddess is angry and that some great calamity will befall the family in the next year. If a death should occur within the period, they attribute it to the miscarriage of the sacrifice, that is to the animal not having been killed with a single blow. If any such misfortune should happen, Dr. Bhattacharya states, the family generally determine never to offer animal sacrifices again; and in this way the slaughter of animals, as part of the religious ceremony in private houses, is becoming more and more rare. If a goat is sacrificed, the head is placed before the goddess and the flesh cooked and served to the invited guests; but in the case of a buffalo, as respectable Hindus do not eat the flesh of this animal, it is given to the low-caste musicians employed for the occasion. Wine is also offered to the goddess, and after being consecrated is sprinkled on every kind of uncooked food brought before her. But the worshipper and his family often drink only a few drops. The Saktas are divided into the Dakshinacharis and Bamacharis, or followers of the right- and left-handed paths respectively. The Dakshinacharis have largely abandoned animal sacrifices, and many of them substitute red flowers or red sandalwood as offerings, to represent blood. An account of those Bamacharis who carry sexual practices to extreme lengths, has been given in the article on Vam-Margi. The sect-mark of the Saktas is three horizontal lines on the forehead made with a mixture of charcoal and butter. Some of them have a single vertical line of charcoal or sandalwood. In the Central Provinces Sakta is a general term for a Hindu who eats meat, as opposed to the Vaishnavas and Kabirpanthis, who abjure it. The animals eaten are goats and chickens, and they are usually sacrificed to the goddess Devi prior to being consumed by the worshippers.

Satnami

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin of the sect_. 2. _Ghasi Das, founder of the Satnami sect_. 3. _The message of Ghasi Das_. 4. _Subsequent history of the Satnamis_. 5. _Social profligacy_. 6. _Divisions of the Satnamis_. 7. _Customs of the Satnamis_. 8. _Character of the Satnami movement_.

1. Origin of the sect.

_Satnami Sect_ [381] (A worshipper of the true name of God).--A dissenting sect founded by a Chamar reformer in the Chhattisgarh country of the Central Provinces. It is practically confined to members of the Chamar caste, about half of whom belong to it. In 1901 nearly 400,000 persons returned themselves as adherents of the Satnami sect, of whom all but 2000 were Chamars. The Satnami sect of the Central Provinces, which is here described, is practically confined to the Chhattisgarh plain, and the handful of persons who returned themselves as Satnamis from the northern Districts are believed to be adherents of the older persuasion of the same name in Northern India. The Satnami movement in Chhattisgarh was originated by one Ghasi Das, a native of the Bilaspur District, between A.D. 1820 and 1830. But it is probable that Ghasi Das, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, got his inspiration from a follower of the older Satnami sect of northern India. This was inaugurated by a Rajput, Jagjiwan Das of the Bara Banki District, who died in 1761. He preached the worship of the True Name of the one God, the cause and creator of all things, void of sensible qualities and without beginning or end. He prohibited the use of meat, lentils (on account of their red colour suggesting blood) of the brinjal or eggplant, which was considered, probably on account of its shape, to resemble flesh, and of intoxicating liquors. The creed of Ghasi Das enunciated subsequently was nearly identical with that of Jagjiwan Das, and was no doubt derived from it, though Ghasi Das never acknowledged the source of his inspiration.

2. Ghasi Das, founder of the Satnami sect.

Ghasi Das was a poor farmservant in Girod, a village formerly in Bilaspur and now in Raipur, near the Sonakan forests. On one occasion he and his brother started on a pilgrimage to the temple at Puri, but only got as far as Sarangarh, whence they returned ejaculating '_Satnam, Satnam_.' From this time Ghasi Das began to adopt the life of an ascetic, retiring all day to the forest to meditate. On a rocky hillock about a mile from Girod is a large _tendu_ tree (_Diospyros tomentosa_) under which it is said that he was accustomed to sit. This is a favourite place of pilgrimage of the Chamars, and two Satnami temples have been built near it, which contain no idols. Once these temples were annually visited by the successors of Ghasi Das. But at present the head of the sect only proceeds to them, like the Greeks to Delphi, in circumstances of special difficulty. In the course of time Ghasi Das became venerated as a saintly character, and on some miracles, such as the curing of snake-bite, being attributed to him, his fame rapidly spread. The Chamars began to travel from long distances to venerate him, and those who entertained desires, such as for the birth of a child, believed that he could fulfil them. The pilgrims were accustomed to carry away with them the water in which he had washed his feet, in hollow bamboos, and their relatives at home drank this, considering it was nectar. Finally, Ghasi Das retired to the forests for a period, and emerged with what he called a new Gospel for the Chamars; but this really consisted of a repetition of the tenets of Jagjiwan Das, the founder of the Satnami sect of Upper India, with a few additions. Mr. Chisholm [382] gave a graphic account of the retirement of Ghasi Das to the Sonakan forests for a period of six months, and of his reappearance and proclamation of his revelation on a fixed date before a great multitude of Chamars, who had gathered from all parts to hear him. An inquiry conducted locally by Mr. Hira Lal in 1903 indicates that this story is of doubtful authenticity, though it must be remembered that Mr. Chisholm wrote only forty years after the event, and forty more had elapsed at the time of Mr. Hira Lal's investigation. [383] Of the Chamar Reformer himself Mr. Chisholm writes: [384] "Ghasi Das, like the rest of his community, was unlettered. He was a man of unusually fair complexion and rather imposing appearance, sensitive, silent, given to seeing visions, and deeply resenting the harsh treatment of his brotherhood by the Hindus. He was well known to the whole community, having travelled much among them; had the reputation of being exceptionally sagacious and was universally respected."

3. The message of Ghasi Das.

The seven precepts of Ghasi Das included abstinence from liquor, meat and certain red vegetables, such as lentils chillies and tomatoes, because they have the colour of blood, the abolition of idol worship, the prohibition of the employment of cows for cultivation, and of ploughing after midday or taking food to the fields, and the worship of the name of one solitary and supreme God. The use of _taroi_ [385] is said to have been forbidden on account of its fancied resemblance to the horn of the buffalo, and of the brinjal [386] from its likeness to the scrotum of the same animal. The prohibition against ploughing after the midday meal was probably promulgated out of compassion for animals and was already in force among the Gonds of Bastar. This precept is still observed by many Satnamis, and in case of necessity they will continue ploughing from early morning until the late afternoon without taking food, in order not to violate it. The injunction against the use of the cow for ploughing was probably a sop to the Brahmans, the name of Gondwana having been historically associated with this practice to its disgrace among Hindus. [387] The Satnamis were bidden to cast all idols from their homes, but they were permitted to reverence the sun, as representing the deity, every morning and evening, with the ejaculation 'Lord, protect me.' Caste was abolished and all men were to be socially equal except the family of Ghasi Das, in which the priesthood of the cult was to remain hereditary.

4. Subsequent history of the Satnamis.

The creed enunciated by their prophet was of a creditable simplicity and purity, of too elevated a nature for the Chamars of Chhattisgarh. The crude myths which are now associated with the story of Ghasi Das and the obscenity which distinguishes the ritual of the sect furnish a good instance of the way in which a religion, originally of a high order of morality, will be rapidly degraded to their own level when adopted by a people who are incapable of living up to it. It is related that one day his son brought Ghasi Das a fish to eat. He was about to consume it when the fish spoke and forbade him to do so. Ghasi Das then refrained, but his wife and two sons insisted on eating the fish and shortly afterwards they died. [388] Overcome with grief Ghasi Das tried to commit suicide by throwing himself down from a tree in the forest, but the boughs of the tree bent with him and he could not fall. Finally the deity appeared, bringing his two sons, and commended Ghasi Das for his piety, at the same time bidding him go and proclaim the Satnami doctrine to the world. Ghasi Das thereupon went and dug up the body of his wife, who arose saying '_Satnam._' Ghasi Das lived till he was eighty years old and died in 1850, the number of his disciples being then more than a quarter of a million. He was succeeded in the office of high priest by his eldest son Balak Das. This man soon outraged the feelings of the Hindus by assuming the sacred thread and parading it ostentatiously on public occasions. So bitter was the hostility aroused by him, that he was finally assassinated at night by a party of Rajputs at the rest-house of Amabandha as he was travelling to Raipur. The murder was committed in 1860 and its perpetrators were never discovered. Balak Das had fallen in love with the daughter of a Chitari (painter) and married her, proclaiming a revelation to the effect that the next Chamar Guru should be the offspring of a Chitari girl. Accordingly his son by her, Sahib Das, succeeded to the office, but the real power remained in the hands of Agar Das, brother of Balak Das, who married his Chitari widow. By her Agar Das had a son Ajab Das; but he also had another son Agarman Das by a legitimate wife, and both claimed the succession. They became joint high priests, and the property has been partitioned between them. The chief _guru_ formerly obtained a large income by the contributions of the Chamars on his tours, as he received a rupee from each household in the villages which he visited on tour. He had a deputy, known as Bhandar, in many villages, who brought the commission of social offences to his notice, when fines were imposed. He built a house in the village of Bhandar of the Raipur District, having golden pinnacles, and also owned the village. But he has been extravagant and become involved in debt, and both house and village have been foreclosed by his creditor, though it is believed that a wealthy disciple has repurchased the house for him. The golden pinnacles were recently stolen. The contributions have also greatly fallen off.

Formerly an annual fair was held at Bhandar to which all the Satnamis went and drank the water in which the _guru_ had dipped his big toe. Each man gave him not less than a rupee and sometimes as much as fifty rupees. But the fair is no longer held and now the Satnamis only give the _guru_ a cocoanut when he goes on tour. The Satnamis also have a fair in Ratanpur, a sacred place of the Hindus, where they assemble and bathe in a tank of their own, as they are not allowed to bathe in the Hindu tanks.

5. Social profligacy.

Formerly, when a Satnami Chamar was married, a ceremony called Satlok took place within three years of the wedding, or after the birth of the first son, which Mr. Durga Prasad Pande describes as follows: it was considered to be the initiatory rite of a Satnami, so that prior to its performance he and his wife were not proper members of the sect. When the occasion was considered ripe, a committee of men in the village would propose the holding of the ceremony to the bridegroom; the elderly members of his family would also exert their influence upon him, because it was believed that if they died prior to its performance their disembodied spirits would continue a comfortless existence about the scene of their mortal habitation, but if afterwards that they would go straight to heaven. When the rite was to be held a feast was given, the villagers sitting round a lighted lamp placed on a water-pot in the centre of the sacred _chauk_ or square made with lines of wheat-flour; and from evening until midnight they would sing and dance. In the meantime the newly married wife would be lying alone in a room in the house. At midnight her husband went in to her and asked her whom he should revere as his _guru_ or preceptor. She named a man and the husband went out and bowed to him and he then went in to the woman and lay with her. The process would be repeated, the woman naming different men until she was exhausted. Sometimes, if the head priest of the sect was present, he would nominate the favoured men, who were known as _gurus_. Next morning the married couple were seated together in the courtyard, and the head priest or his representative tied a _kanthi_ or necklace of wooden beads round their necks, repeating an initiatory text. [389] This silly doggerel, as shown in the footnote, is a good criterion of the intellectual capacity of the Satnamis. It is also said that during his annual progresses it was the custom for the chief priest to be allowed access to any of the wives of the Satnamis whom he might select, and that this was considered rather an honour than otherwise by the husband. But the Satnamis have now become ashamed of such practices, and, except in a few isolated localities, they have been abandoned.

6. Divisions of the Satnamis.

Ghasi Das or his disciples seem to have felt the want of a more ancient and dignified origin for the sect than one dating only from living memory. They therefore say that it is a branch of that founded by Rohi Das, a Chamar disciple of the great liberal and Vaishnavite reformer Ramanand, who flourished at the end of the fourteenth century. The Satnamis commonly call themselves Rohidasi as a synonym for their name, but there is no evidence that Rohi Das ever came to Chhattisgarh, and there is practically no doubt, as already pointed out, that Ghasi Das simply appropriated the doctrine of the Satnami sect of northern India. One of the precepts of Ghasi Das was the prohibition of the use of tobacco, and this has led to a split in the sect, as many of his disciples found the rule too hard for them. They returned to their _chongis_ or leaf-pipes, and are hence called Chungias; they say that in his later years Ghasi Das withdrew the prohibition. The Chungias have also taken to idolatry, and their villages contain stones covered with vermilion, the representations of the village deities, which the true Satnamis eschew. They are considered lower than the Satnamis, and intermarriage between the two sections is largely, though not entirely, prohibited. A Chungia can always become a Satnami if he ceases to smoke by breaking a cocoanut in the presence of his _guru_ or preceptor or giving him a present. Among the Satnamis there is also a particularly select class who follow the straitest sect of the creed and are called _Jaharia_ from _jahar_, an essence. These never sleep on a bed but always on the ground, and are said to wear coarse uncoloured clothes and to eat no food but pulse or rice.

7. Customs of the Satnamis.

The social customs of the Satnamis resemble generally those of other Chamars. They will admit into the community all except members of "the impure castes, as Dhobis (washermen), Ghasias (grass-cutters) and Mehtars (sweepers), whom they regard as inferior to themselves. Their weddings must be celebrated only during the months of Magh (January), Phagun (February), the light half of Chait (March) and Baisakh (April). No betrothal ceremony can take place during the months of Shrawan (August) and Pus (January). They always bury the dead, laying the body with the face downwards, and spread clothes in the grave above and below it, so that it may be warm and comfortable during the last long sleep. They observe mourning for three days and have their heads shaved on the third day with the exception of the upper lip, which is never touched by the razor. The Satnamis as well as the Kabirpanthis in Chhattisgarh abstain from spirituous liquor, and ordinary Hindus who do not do so are known as Saktaha or Sakta (a follower of Devi) in contradistinction to them. A Satnami is put out of caste if he is beaten by a man of another caste, however high, and if he is touched by a sweeper, Ghasia or Mahar. Their women wear nose-rings, simply to show their contempt for the Hindu social order, as this ornament was formerly forbidden to the lower castes. Under native dynasties any violation of a rule of this kind would have been severely punished by the executive Government, but in British India the Chamar women can indulge their whim with impunity. It was also a rule of the sect not to accept cooked food from the hands of any other caste, whether Hindu or Muhammadan, but this has fallen into abeyance since the famines. Another method by which the Satnamis show their contempt for the Hindu religion is by throwing milk and curds at each other in sport and trampling it under foot. This is a parody of the Hindu celebration of the Janam-Ashtami or Krishna's birthday, when vessels of milk and curds are broken over the heads of the worshippers and caught and eaten by all castes indiscriminately in token of amity. They will get into railway carriages and push up purposely against the Hindus, saying that they have paid for their tickets and have an equal right to a place. Then the Hindus are defiled and have to bathe in order to become clean.

8. Character of the Satnami movement.

Several points in the above description point to the conclusion that the Satnami movement is in essence a social revolt on the part of the despised Chamars or tanners. The fundamental tenet of the gospel of Ghasi Das, as in the case of so many other dissenting sects, appears to have been the abolition of caste, and with it of the authority of the Brahmans; and this it was which provoked the bitter hostility of the priestly order. It has been seen that Ghasi Das himself had been deeply impressed by the misery and debasement of the Chamar community; how his successor Balak Das was murdered for the assumption of the sacred thread; and how in other ways the Satnamis try to show their contempt for the social order which brands them as helot outcastes. A large proportion of the Satnami Chamars are owners or tenants of land, and this fact may be surmised to have intensified their feeling of revolt against the degraded position to which they were relegated by the Hindus. Though slovenly cultivators and with little energy or forethought, the Chamars have the utmost fondness for land and an ardent ambition to obtain a holding, however small. The possession of land is a hall-mark of respectability in India, as elsewhere, and the low castes were formerly incapable of holding it; and it may be surmised that the Chamar feels himself to be raised by his tenant-right above the hereditary condition of village drudge and menial. But for the restraining influence of the British power, the Satnami movement might by now have developed in Chhattisgarh into a social war. Over most of India the term Hindu is contrasted with Muhammadan, but in Chhattisgarh to call a man a Hindu conveys primarily that he is not a Chamar, or Chamara according to the contemptuous abbreviation in common use. A bitter and permanent antagonism exists between the two classes, and this the Chamar cultivators carry into their relations with their Hindu landlords by refusing to pay rent. The records of the criminal courts contain many cases arising from collisions between Chamars and Hindus, several of which have resulted in riot and murder. Faults no doubt exist on both sides, and Mr. Hemingway, Settlement Officer, quotes an instance of a Hindu proprietor who made his Chamar tenants cart timber and bricks to Rajim, many miles from his village, to build a house for him during the season of cultivation, their fields consequently remaining untilled. But if a proprietor once arouses the hostility of his Chamar tenants he may as well abandon his village for all the profit he is likely to obtain from it. Generally the Chamars are to blame, as pointed out by Mr. Blenkinsop who knows them well, and many of them are dangerous criminals, restrained only by their cowardice from the worst outrages against person and property. It may be noted in conclusion that the spread of Christianity among the Chamars is in one respect a replica of the Satnami movement, because by becoming a Christian the Chamar hopes also to throw off the social bondage of Hinduism. A missionary gentleman told the writer that one of the converted Chamars, on being directed to perform some menial duty of the village, replied: 'No, I have become a Christian and am one of the Sahibs; I shall do no more _bigar_ (forced labour).'

Sikh Religion

List of Paragraphs

1. _Foundation of Sikhism--Baba Nanak._ 2. _The earlier Gurus_. 3. _Guru Govind Singh_. 4. _Sikh initiation and rules_. 5. _Character of the Nanakpanthis and Sikh sects._ 6. _The Akalis._ 7. _The Sikh Council or Guru-Mata. Their communal meal._

1. Foundation of Sikhism--Baba Nanak.

_Sikh, Akali_.--The Sikh religion and the history of the Sikhs have been fully described by several writers, and all that is intended in this article is a brief outline of the main tenets of the sect for the benefit of those to whom the more important works of reference may not be available. The Central Provinces contained only 2337 Sikhs in 1911, of whom the majority were soldiers and the remainder probably timber or other merchants or members of the subordinate engineering service in which Punjabis are largely employed. The following account is taken from Sir Denzil Ibbetson's _Census Report of the Punjab_ for 1881:

"Sikhism was founded by Baba Nanak, a Khatri of the Punjab, who lived in the fifteenth century. But Nanak was not more than a religious reformer like Kabir, Ramanand, and the other Vaishnava apostles. He preached the unity of God, the abolition of idols, and the disregard of caste distinctions. [390] His doctrine and life were eminently gentle and unaggressive. He was succeeded by nine _gurus_, the last and most famous of whom, Govind Singh, died in 1708.

"The names of the _gurus_ were as follows:

1. Baba Nanak 1469-1538-9 2. Angad 1539-1552 3. Amar Das 1552-1574 4. Ram Das 1574-1581 5. Arjun 1581-1606 6. Har Govind 1606-1645 7. Har Rai 1645-1661 8. Har Kishen 1661-1664 9. Teg Bahadur 1664-1675 10. Govind Singh 1675-1708

2. The earlier Gurus.

"Under the second Guru Angad an intolerant and ascetic spirit began to spring up among the followers of the new tenets; and had it not been for the good sense and firmness displayed by his successor, Amar Das, who excommunicated the Udasis and recalled his followers to the mildness and tolerance of Nanak, Sikhism would probably have merely added one more to the countless orders of ascetics or devotees which are wholly unrepresented in the life of the people. The fourth _guru_, Ram Das, founded Amritsar; but it was his successor, Arjun, that first organised his following. He gave them a written rule of faith in the Granth or Sikh scripture which he compiled, he provided a common rallying-point in the city of Amritsar which he made their religious centre, and he reduced their voluntary contributions to a systematic levy which accustomed them to discipline and paved the way for further organisation. He was a great trader, he utilised the services and money of his disciples in mercantile transactions which extended far beyond the confines of India, and he thus accumulated wealth for his Church.

"Unfortunately he was unable wholly to abstain from politics; and having become a political partisan of the rebel prince Khusru, he was summoned to Delhi and there imprisoned, and the treatment he received while in confinement hastened, if it did not cause, his death. And thus began that Muhammadan persecution which was so mightily to change the spirit of the new faith. This was the first turning-point in Sikh history; and the effects of the persecution were immediately apparent. Arjun was a priest and a merchant; his successor, Har Govind, was a warrior. He abandoned the gentle and spiritual teaching of Nanak for the use of arms and the love of adventure. He encouraged his followers to eat flesh, as giving them strength and daring; he substituted zeal in the cause for saintliness of life as the price of salvation; and he developed the organised discipline which Arjun had initiated. He was, however, a military adventurer rather than an enthusiastic zealot, and fought either for or against the Muhammadan empire as the hope of immediate gain dictated. His policy was followed by his two successors; and under Teg Bahadur the Sikhs degenerated into little better than a band of plundering marauders, whose internal factions aided to make them disturbers of the public peace. Moreover, Teg Bahadur was a bigot, while the fanatical Aurangzeb had mounted the throne of Delhi. Him therefore Aurangzeb captured and executed as an infidel, a robber and a rebel, while he cruelly persecuted his followers in common with all who did not accept Islam.

3. Guru Govind Singh.

"Teg Bahadur was succeeded by the last and greatest _guru_, his son Govind Singh; and it was under him that what had sprung into existence as a quietist sect of a purely religious nature, and had become a military society of by no means high character, developed into the political organisation which was to rule the whole of north-western India, and to furnish the British arms their stoutest and most worthy opponents. For some years after his father's execution Govind Singh lived in retirement, and brooded over his personal wrongs and over the persecutions of the Musalman fanatic which bathed the country in blood. His soul was filled with the longing for revenge; but he felt the necessity for a larger following and a stronger organisation, and, following the example of his Muhammadan enemies, he used his religion as the basis of political power. Emerging from his retirement he preached the Khalsa, the pure, the elect, the liberated. He openly attacked all distinctions of caste, and taught the equality of all men who would join him; and instituting a ceremony of initiation, he proclaimed it as the _pahul_ or 'gate' by which all might enter the society, while he gave to its members the _prasad_ or communion as a sacrament of union in which the four castes should eat of one dish. The higher castes murmured and many of them left him, for he taught that the Brahman's thread must be broken; but the lower orders rejoiced and flocked in numbers to his standard. These he inspired with military ardour, with the hope of social freedom and of national independence, and with abhorrence of the hated Muhammadan. He gave them outward signs of their faith in the unshorn hair, the short drawers, and the blue dress; he marked the military nature of their calling by the title of Singh or 'lion,' by the wearing of steel, and by the initiation by sprinkling of water with a two-edged dagger; and he gave them a feeling of personal superiority in their abstinence from the unclean tobacco.

"The Muhammadans promptly responded to the challenge, for the danger was too serious to be neglected; the Sikh army was dispersed, and Govind's mother, wife and children were murdered at Sirhind by Aurangzeb's orders. The death of the emperor brought a temporary lull, and a year later Govind himself was assassinated while fighting the Marathas as an ally of Aurangzeb's successor. He did not live to see his ends accomplished, but he had roused the dormant spirit of the people, and the fire which he lit was only damped for a while. His chosen disciple Banda succeeded him in the leadership, though never recognised as _guru_. The internal commotions which followed upon the death of the emperor, Bahadur Shah, and the attacks of the Marathas weakened the power of Delhi, and for a time Banda carried all before him; but he was eventually conquered and captured in A.D. 1716, and a period of persecution followed so sanguinary and so terrible that for a generation nothing more was heard of the Sikhs. How the troubles of the Delhi empire thickened, how the Sikhs again rose to prominence, how they disputed the possession of the Punjab with the Mughals, the Marathas and the Durani, and were at length completely successful, how they divided into societies under their several chiefs and portioned out the Province among them, and how the genius of Ranjit Singh raised him to supremacy and extended his rule beyond the limits of the Punjab, are matters of political and not of religious history. No formal alteration has been made in the Sikh religion since Govind Singh gave it its military shape; and though changes have taken place, they have been merely the natural result of time and external influences.

4. Sikh initiation and rules.

"The word Sikh is said to be derived from the common Hindu term Sewak and to mean simply a disciple; it may be applied therefore to the followers of Nanak who held aloof from Govind Singh, but in practice it is perhaps understood to mean only the latter, while the Nanakpanthis are considered as Hindus. A true Sikh always takes the termination Singh to his name on initiation, and hence they are sometimes known as Singhs in distinction to the Nanakpanthis. A man is also not born a Sikh, but must always be initiated, and the _pahul_ or rite of baptism cannot take place until he is old enough to understand it, the earliest age being seven, while it is often postponed till manhood. Five Sikhs must be present at the ceremony, when the novice repeats the articles of the faith and drinks sugar and water stirred up with a two-edged dagger. At the initiation of women a one-edged dagger is used, but this is seldom done. Thus most of the wives of Sikhs have never been initiated, nor is it necessary that their children should become Sikhs when they grow up. The faith is unattractive to women owing to the simplicity of its ritual and the absence of the feasts and ceremonies so abundant in Hinduism; formerly the Sikhs were accustomed to capture their wives in forays, and hence perhaps it was considered of no consequence that the husband and wife should be of different faith. The distinguishing marks of a true Sikh are the five _Kakkas_ or _K's_ which he is bound to carry about his person: the _Kes_ or uncut hair and unshaven beard; the _Kachh_ or short drawers ending above the knee; the _Kasa_ or iron bangle; the _Khanda_ or steel knife; and the _Kanga_ or comb. The other rules of conduct laid down by Guru Govind Singh for his followers were to dress in blue clothes and especially eschew red or saffron-coloured garments and caps of all sorts, to observe personal cleanliness, especially in the hair, and practise ablutions, to eat the flesh of such animals only as had been killed by _jatka_ or decapitation, to abstain from tobacco in all its forms, never to blow out flame nor extinguish it with drinking-water, to eat with the head covered, pray and recite passages of the Granth morning and evening and before all meals, reverence the cow, abstain from the worship of saints and idols and avoid mosques and temples, and worship the one God only, neglecting Brahmans and Mullas, and their scriptures, teaching, rites and religious symbols. Caste distinctions he positively condemned and instituted the _prasad_ or communion, in which cakes of flour, butter and sugar are made and consecrated with certain ceremonies while the communicants sit round in prayer, and then distributed equally to all the faithful present, to whatever caste they may belong. The above rules, so far as they enjoin ceremonial observances, are still very generally obeyed. But the daily reading and recital of the Granth is discontinued, for the Sikhs are the most uneducated class in the Punjab, and an occasional visit to the Sikh temple where the Granth is read aloud is all that the villager thinks necessary. Blue clothes have been discontinued save by the fanatical Akali sect, as have been very generally the short drawers or Kachh. The prohibition of tobacco has had the unfortunate effect of inducing the Sikhs to take to hemp and opium, both of which are far more injurious than tobacco. The precepts which forbid the Sikh to venerate Brahmans or to associate himself with Hindu worship are entirely neglected; and in the matter of the worship of local saints and deities, and of the employment of and reverence for Brahmans, there is little, while in current superstitions and superstitious practices there is no difference between the Sikh villager and his Hindu brother." [391]

5. Character of the Nanakpanthis and Sikh sects.

It seems thus clear that if it had not been for the political and military development of the Sikh movement, it would in time have lost most of its distinctive features and have come to be considered as a Hindu sect of the same character, if somewhat more distinctive than those of the Nanakpanthis and Kabirpanthis. But this development and the founding of the Sikh State of Lahore created a breach between the Sikhs and ordinary Hindus wider than that caused by their religious differences, as was sufficiently demonstrated during the Mutiny. In their origin both the Sikh and Nanakpanthi sects appear to have been mainly a revolt against the caste system, the supremacy of Brahmans and the degrading mass of superstitions and reverence of idols and spirit-worship which the Brahmans encouraged for their own profit. But while Nanak, influenced by the observation of Islamic monotheism, attempted to introduce a pure religion only, the aim of Govind was perhaps political, and he saw in the caste system an obstacle to the national movement which he desired to excite against the Muhammadans. So far as the abolition of caste was concerned, both reformers have, as has been seen, largely failed, the two sects now recognising caste, while their members revere Brahmans like ordinary Hindus.

6. The Akalis.

The Akalis or Nihangs are a fanatical order of Sikh ascetics. The following extract is taken from Sir E. Maclagan's account of them: [392]

"The Akalis came into prominence very early by their stout resistance to the innovations introduced by the Bairagi Banda after the death of Guru Govind; but they do not appear to have had much influence during the following century until the days of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. They constituted at once the most unruly and the bravest portion of the very unruly and brave Sikh army. Their headquarters were at Amritsar, where they constituted themselves the guardians of the faith and assumed the right to convoke synods. They levied offerings by force and were the terror of the Sikh chiefs. Their good qualities were, however, well appreciated by the Maharaja, and when there were specially fierce foes to meet, such as the Pathans beyond the Indus, the Akalis were always to the front.

"The Akali is distinguished very conspicuously by his dark-blue and checked dress, his peaked turban, often surmounted with steel quoits, and by the fact of his strutting about like Ali Baba's prince with his 'thorax and abdomen festooned with curious cutlery.' He is most

## particular in retaining the five _Kakkas_, and in preserving every

outward form prescribed by Guru Govind Singh. Some of the Akalis wear a yellow turban underneath the blue one, leaving a yellow band across the forehead. The yellow turban is worn by many Sikhs at the Basant Panchmi, and the Akalis are fond of wearing it at all times. There is a couplet by Bhai Gurdas which says:

Siah, Sufed, Surkh, Zardae, Jo pahne, sot Gurbhai;

or, 'Those that wear black (the Akalis), white (the Nirmalas), red (the Udasis) or yellow, are all members of the brotherhood of the Sikhs.'

"The Akalis do not, it is true, drink spirits or eat meat as other Sikhs do, but they are immoderate in the consumption of _bhang_. They are in other respects such purists that they will avoid Hindu rites even in their marriage ceremonies.

"The Akali is full of memories of the glorious day of the Khalsa; and he is nothing if he is not a soldier, a soldier of the Guru. He dreams of armies, and he thinks in lakhs. If he wishes to imply that five Akalis are present, he will say that 'five lakhs are before you'; or if he would explain he is alone, he will say that he is with 'one and a quarter lakhs of the Khalsa.' You ask him how he is, and he replies that 'The army is well'; you inquire where he has come from, and he says, 'The troops marched from Lahore.' The name Akali means 'immortal.' When Sikhism was politically dominant, the Akalis were accustomed to extort alms by accusing the principal chiefs of crimes, imposing fines upon them, and in the event of their refusing to pay, preventing them from performing their ablutions or going through any of the religious ceremonies at Amritsar."

7. The Sikh Council or Guru-Mata. Their communal meal.

The following account was given by Sir J. Malcolm of the Guru-Mata or great Council of the Sikhs and their religious meal: [393] "When a Guru-Mata or great national Council is called on the occasion of any danger to the country, all the Sikh chiefs assemble at Amritsar. The assembly is convened by the Akalis; and when the chiefs meet upon this solemn occasion it is concluded that all private animosities cease, and that every man sacrifices his personal feelings at the shrine of the general good.

"When the chiefs and principal leaders are seated, the Adi-Granth and Dasama Padshah Ka Granth [394] are placed before them. They all bend their heads before the Scriptures and exclaim, '_Wah Guruji ka Khalsa! wah Guruji ka Fateh!_' [395] A great quantity of cakes made of wheat, butter and sugar are then placed before the volumes of their sacred writings and covered with a cloth. These holy cakes, which are in commemoration of the injunction of Nanak to eat and to give to others to eat next receive the salutation of the assembly, who then rise, while the Akalis pray aloud and the musicians play. The Akalis, when the prayers are finished, desire the Council to be seated. They sit down, and the cakes are uncovered and eaten by all classes of the Sikhs, those distinctions of tribe and caste which are on other occasions kept up being now laid aside in token of their general and complete union in one cause. The Akalis proclaim the Guru-Mata, and prayers are again said aloud. The chiefs after this sit closer and say to each other, 'The sacred Granth is between us, let us swear by our Scriptures to forget all internal disputes and to be united.' This moment of religious fervour is taken to reconcile all animosities. They then proceed to consider the danger with which they are threatened, to devise the best plans for averting it and to choose the generals who are to lead their armies against the common enemy." The first Guru-Mata was assembled by Guru Govind, and the latest was called in 1805, when the British Army pursued Holkar into the Punjab. The Sikh Army was known as Dal Khalsa, or the Army of God, _khalsa_ being an Arabic word meaning one's own. [396] At the height of the Sikh power the followers of this religion only numbered a small fraction of the population of the Punjab, and its strength is now declining. In 1911 the Sikhs were only three millions in the Punjab population of twenty-four millions.

Smarta Sect

_Smarta Sect_.--This is an orthodox Hindu sect, the members of which are largely Brahmans. The name is derived from Smriti or tradition, a name given to the Hindu sacred writings, with the exception of the Vedas, which last are regarded as a divine revelation. Members of the sect worship the five deities, Siva, Vishnu, Suraj or the sun, Ganpati and Sakti, the divine principle of female energy corresponding to Siva. They say that their sect was founded by Shankar Acharya, the great Sivite reformer and opponent of Buddhism, but this appears to be incorrect. Shankar Acharya himself is said to have believed in one unseen God, who was the first cause and sole ruler of the universe; but he countenanced for the sake of the weaker brethren the worship of orthodox Hindu deities and of their idols.

Swami-Narayan Sect

1. The founder.

_Swami-Narayan Sect._ [397]--This, one of the most modern Vaishnava sects, was founded by Sahajanand Swami, a Sarwaria Brahman, born near Ajodhia in the United Provinces in A.D. 1780. At an early age he became a religious mendicant, and wandered all over India, visiting the principal shrines. When twenty years old he was made a Sadhu of the Ramanandi order, and soon nominated as his successor by the head of the order. He preached with great success in Gujarat, and though his tenets do not seem to have differed much from the Ramanandi creed, his personal influence was such that his followers founded a new sect and called it after him. He proclaimed the worship of one sole deity, Krishna or Narayana, whom he identified with the sun, and apparently his followers held, and he inclined to believe himself, that he was a fresh incarnation of Vishnu. It is said that he displayed miraculous powers before his disciples, entrancing whomsoever he cast his eyes upon, and causing them in this mesmeric state (Samadhi) to imagine they saw Sahajanand as Krishna with yellow robes, weapons of war, and other characteristics of the God, and to behold him seated as chief in an assembly of divine beings.

2. Tenets of the sect.

His creed prohibited the destruction of animal life; the use of animal food and intoxicating liquors or drugs on any occasion; promiscuous intercourse with the other sex; suicide, theft and robbery, and false accusations. Much good was done, the Collector testified, by his preaching among the wild Kolis of Gujarat; [398] his morality was said to be far better than any which could be learned from the Shastras; he condemned theft and bloodshed; and those villages and Districts which had received him, from being among the worst, were now among the best and most orderly in the Province of Bombay. His success was great among the lower castes, as the Kolis, Bhils and Kathis. He was regarded by his disciples as the surety of sinners, his position in this respect resembling that of the Founder of Christianity. To Bishop Heber he said that while he permitted members of different castes to eat separately here below, in the future life there would be no distinction of castes. [399] His rules for the conduct of the sexes towards each other were especially severe. No Sadhu of the Swami-Narayan sect might ever touch a woman, even the accidental touching of any woman other than a mother having to be expiated by a whole-day fast. Similarly, should a widow-disciple touch even a boy who was not her son, she had to undergo the same penalty. There were separate passages for women in their large temples, and separate reading and preaching halls for women, attended by wives of the Acharyas or heads of the sect. These could apparently be married, but other members of the priestly order must remain single; while the lay followers lived among their fellows, pursuing their ordinary lives and avocations. The strictness of the Swami on sexual matters was directed against the licentious practices of the Maharaj or Vallabhacharya order. He boldly denounced the irregularities they had introduced into their forms of worship, and exposed the vices which characterised the lives of their clergy. This attitude, as well as the prohibition of the worship of idols, earned for him the hostility of the Peshwa and the Maratha Brahmans, and he was subjected to a considerable degree of persecution; his followers were taught the Christian doctrine of suffering injury without retaliation, and the devotees of hostile sects took advantage of this to beat them unmercifully, some being even put to death.

3. Meeting with Bishop Heber.

In order to protect the Swami, his followers constituted from themselves an armed guard, as shown by Bishop Heber's account of their meeting: "About eleven o'clock I had the expected visit from Swami-Narayan. He came in a somewhat different guise from all which I expected, having with him near 200 horsemen, mostly well-armed with matchlocks and swords, and several of them with coats of mail and spears. Besides them he had a large rabble on foot with bows and arrows, and when I considered that I had myself an escort of more than fifty horses and fifty muskets and bayonets, I could not help smiling, though my sensations were in some degree painful and humiliating, at the idea of two religious teachers meeting at the head of little armies, and filling the city which was the scene of their interview with the rattling of gunners, the clash of shields and the tramp of the war-horse. Had our troops been opposed to each other, mine, though less numerous, would have been doubtless far more effective from the superiority of arms and discipline. But in moral grandeur what a difference was there between his troop and mine. Mine neither knew me nor cared for me; they escorted me faithfully and would have defended me bravely, because they were ordered by their superiors to do so. The guards of Swami-Narayan were his own disciples and enthusiastic admirers, men who had voluntarily repaired to hear his lessons, who now took a pride in doing him honour, and would cheerfully fight to the last drop of blood rather than suffer a fringe of his garment to be handled roughly.... The holy man himself was a middle-aged, thin and plain-looking person, about my own age, with a mild expression of countenance, but nothing about him indicative of any extraordinary talent. I seated him on a chair at my right hand and offered two more to the Thakur and his son, of which, however, they did not avail themselves without first placing their hands under the feet of their spiritual guide and then pressing them reverently to their foreheads."

4. Meeting with Governor of Bombay.

Owing, apparently, to the high moral character of his preaching and his success in reducing to order and tranquillity the turbulent Kolis and Bhils who accepted his doctrines, Swami-Narayan enjoyed a large measure of esteem and regard from the officers of Government. This will be evidenced from the following account of his meeting with the Governor of Bombay: [400] "On the receipt of the above two letters, Swami-Narayan Maharaj proceeded to Rajkote to visit the Right Honourable the Governor, and on the 26th February 1830 was escorted as a mark of honourable reception by a party of troops and military foot-soldiers to the Political Agent's bungalow, when His Excellency the Governor, the Secretary, Mr. Thomas Williamson, six other European gentlemen, and the Political Agent, Mr. Blane, having come out of the bungalow to meet the Swami-Narayan, His Excellency conducted the Swami, hand in hand, to a hall in the bungalow and made him sit on a chair. His Excellency afterwards with pleasure enquired about the principles of his religion, which were communicated accordingly. His Excellency also made a present to Swami-Narayan of a pair of shawls and other piece-goods. Swami-Narayan was asked by the Governor whether he and his disciples have had any harm under British rule; and His Excellency was informed in reply that there was nothing of the sort, but that on the contrary every protection was given them by all the officers in authority. His Excellency then asked for a code of the religion of Swami-Narayan, and the book called the Shiksapatri was presented to him accordingly. Thus after a visit extending to an hour Swami-Narayan asked permission to depart, when he was sent back with the same honours with which he had been received, all the European officers accompanying him out of the door from the bungalow."

5. Conclusion.

The author of the above account is not given, and it apparently emanates from a follower of the saint, but there seems little reason to doubt its substantial accuracy, and it certainly demonstrates the high estimation in which he was held. After his death his disciples erected Chauras or resthouses and monuments to his memory in all the villages and beneath all the trees where he had at any time made any stay in Gujarat; and here he is worshipped by the sect. In 1901 the sect had about 300,000 adherents in Gujarat. In the Central Provinces a number of persons belong to it in Nimar, principally of the Teli caste. The Telis of Nimar are anxious to improve their social position, which is very low, and have probably joined the sect on account of its liberal principles on the question of caste.

Vaishnava, Vishnuite Sect

1. Vishnu as representing the sun.

_Vaishnava, Vishnuite Sect_.--The name given to Hindus whose special deity is the god Vishnu, and to a number of sects which have adopted various special doctrines based on the worship of Vishnu or of one of his two great incarnations, Rama and Krishna. Vishnu was a personification of the sun, though in ancient literature the sun is more often referred to under another name, as Savitri, Surya and Aditya. It may perhaps be the case that when the original sun-god develops into a supreme deity with the whole heavens as his sphere, the sun itself comes to be regarded as a separate and minor deity. His weapon of the _chakra_ or discus, which was probably meant to resemble the sun, supports the view of Vishnu as a sun-god, and also his _vahan_, the bird Garuda, on which he rides. This is the Brahminy kite, a fine bird with chestnut plumage and white head and breast, which has been considered a sea-eagle. Mr. Dewar states that it remains almost motionless at a great height in the air for long periods; and it is easy to understand how in these circumstances primitive people mistook it for the spirit of the sky, or the vehicle of the sun-god. It is propitious for a Hindu to see a Brahminy kite, especially on Sunday, the sun's day, for it is believed that the bird is then returning from Vishnu, whom it has gone to see on the previous evening. [401] A similar belief has probably led to the veneration of the eagle in other countries and its association with the god of the sky or heavens, as in the case of Zeus. Similarly the Gayatri, the most sacred Hindu prayer, is addressed to the sun, and it could hardly have been considered so important unless the luminary was identified with one of the greatest Hindu gods. Every Brahman prays to the sun daily when he bathes in the morning. Vishnu's character as the preserver and fosterer of life is probably derived from the sun's generative power, so conspicuous in India.

As the sun is seen to sink every night into the earth, so it was thought that he could come down to earth, and Vishnu has done this in many forms for the preservation of mankind.

2. His incarnations.

He is generally considered to have had ten incarnations, of which nine are past and one is still to come. The incarnations were as follows:

1. As a great fish he guided the ark in which Manu the primeval man escaped from the deluge.

2. As a tortoise he supported the earth and poised it in its present position; or according to another version he lay at the bottom of the sea while the mountain Meru was set on its peak on his back, and with the serpent Vasuki as a rope round the mountain the ocean was churned by the gods for making the divine Amrit or nectar which gives immortality.

3. As a boar he dived under the sea and raised the earth on his tusks after it had been submerged by a demon.

4. As Narsingh, the man-lion, he delivered the world from the tyranny of another demon.

5. As Waman or a dwarf he tricked the King Bali, who had gained possession over the earth and nether world and was threatening the heavens, by asking for as much ground as he could cover in three steps. When his request was derisively granted he covered heaven and earth in two steps, but on Bali's intercession left him the nether regions and refrained from making the third step which would have covered them.

6. As Parasurama [402] he cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas, who had oppressed the Brahman hermits and stolen the sacred cow, by a slaughter of them thrice seven times repeated.

7. As Rama, the divine king of Ajodhia or Oudh, he led an expedition to Ceylon for the recovery of his wife Sita, who had been abducted by Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon. This story probably refers to an early expedition of the Aryans to southern India, in which they may have obtained the assistance of the Munda tribes, represented by Hanuman and his army of apes.

8. As Krishna he supported the Pandavas in their war against the Kauravas, and at the head of the Yadava clan founded the city of Dwarka in Gujarat, where he was afterwards killed. The popular group of legends about Krishna in his capacity of a cowherd in the forests of Mathura was perhaps at first distinct and afterwards combined with the story of the Yadava prince. [403] But it is in this latter character as the divine cowherd that Krishna is most generally known and worshipped.

9. As Buddha he was the great founder of the religion known by his name; the Brahmans, by making Buddha an incarnation of Vishnu, have thus provided a connecting link between Buddhism and Hinduism.

In his tenth incarnation he will come again as Nishka-lanki or the stainless one for the final regeneration of the world, and his advent is expected by some Hindus, who worship him in this form.

3. Worship of Vishnu and Vaishnava doctrines.

In the Central Provinces Vishnu is worshipped as Narayan Deo, who is identified with the sun, or as Parmeshwar, the supreme beneficent god. He is also much worshipped in his incarnations as Rama and Krishna, and their images, with those of their consorts, Sita and Radha, are often to be found in his temples as well as in their own. These images are supposed to be subject to all the conditions and necessities incident to living humanity. Hence in the daily ritual they are washed, dressed, adorned and even fed like human beings, food being daily placed before them, and its aroma, according to popular belief, nourishing the god present in the image.

The principal Vishnuite sects are described in the article on Bairagi, and the dissenting sects which have branched off from these in special articles. [404] The cult of Vishnu and his two main incarnations is the most prominent feature of modern Hinduism. The orthodox Vaishnava sects mainly differed on the point whether the human soul or spirit was a part of the divine soul or separate from it, and whether it would be reabsorbed into the divine soul, or have a separate existence after death. But they generally regarded all human souls as of one quality, and hence were opposed to distinctions of caste. Animals also have souls or spirits, and the Vishnuite doctrine is opposed to the destruction of animal life in any form. In the Bania caste the practices of Vaishnava Hindus and Jains present so little difference that they can take food together, and even intermarry. The creed is also opposed to suicide.

Faithful worshippers of Vishnu will after his death be transported to his heaven, Vaikuntha, or to Golaka, the heaven of Krishna. The sect-mark of the Vaishnavas usually consists of three lines down the forehead, meeting at the root of the nose or below it. All three lines may be white, or the centre one black or red, and the outside ones white. They are made with a kind of clay called Gopichandan, and are sometimes held to be the impress of Vishnu's foot. To put on the sect-mark in the morning is to secure the god's favour and protection during the day.

Vam-Margi, Bam-Margi, Vama-Chari Sect.

_Vam-Margi, Bam-Margi, Vama-Chari Sect._ [405]--A sect who follow the worship of the female principle in nature and indulge in sensuality at their rites according to the precepts of the Tantras. The name signifies 'the followers of the crooked or left-handed path.' Their principal sacred text is the Rudra-Yamal-Damru Tantra, which is said to have been promulgated by Rudra or Siva through his Damru or drum at the end of his dance in Kailas, his heaven in the Himalayas. The Tantras, according to Professor Monier-Williams, inculcate an exclusive worship of Siva's wife as the source of every kind of supernatural faculty and mystic craft. The principle of female energy is known as Sakti, and is personified in the female counterparts of all the Gods of the Hindu triad, but is practically concentrated in Devi or Kali. The five requisites for Tantra worship are said to be the five Makaras or words beginning with M: Madya, wine; Mansa, flesh; Matsya, fish; Mudra, parched grain and mystic gesticulation; and Maithuna, sexual indulgence. Among the Vam-Margis both men and women are said to assemble at a secret meeting-place, and their rite consists in the adoration of a naked woman who stands in the centre of the room with a drawn sword in her hand. The worshippers then eat fish, meat and grain, and drink liquor, and thereafter indulge in promiscuous debauchery. The followers of the sect are mainly Brahmans, though other castes may be admitted. The Vam-Margis usually keep their membership of the sect a secret, but their special mark is said to be a semicircular line or lines of red powder or vermilion on the forehead, with a red streak half-way up the centre, and a circular spot of red at the root of the nose. They use a rosary of rudraksha or of coral beads, but of no greater length than can be concealed in the hand, or they keep it in a small purse or bag of red cloth. During worship they wear a piece of red silk round the loins and decorate themselves with garlands of crimson flowers. In their houses they worship a figure of the double triangle drawn on the ground or on a metal plate and make offerings of liquor to it.

They practise various magical charms by which they think they can kill their enemies. Thus fire is brought from the pyre on which a corpse has been burnt, and on this the operator pours water, and with the charcoal so obtained he makes a figure of his enemy in a lonely place under a pipal tree or on the bank of a river. He then takes an iron bar, twelve finger-joints long, and after repeating his charms pierces the figure with it. When all the limbs have been pierced the man whose effigy has been so treated will die. Other methods will procure the death of an enemy in a certain number of months or cause him to lose a limb. Sometimes they make a rosary of 108 fruits of the _dhatura_ [406] and pierce the figure of the enemy through the neck after repeating charms, and it is supposed that this will kill him at once.

Wahhabi Sect

_Wahhabi Sect._ [407]--A puritan sect of Muhammadans. The sect was not recorded at the census, but it is probable that it has a few adherents in the Central Provinces. The Wahhabi sect is named after its founder, Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, who was born in Arabia in A.D. 1691. He set his face against all developments of Islam not warranted by the Koran and the traditional utterances of the Companions of the Prophet, and against the belief in omens and worship at the shrines of saints, and condemned as well all display of wealth and luxury and the use of intoxicating drugs and tobacco. He denied any authority to Islamic doctrines other than the Koran itself and the utterances of the Companions of the Prophet who had received instruction from his lips, and held that in the interpretation and application of them Moslems must exercise the right of private judgment. The sect met with considerable military success in Arabia and Persia, and at one time threatened to spread over the Islamic world. The following is an account of the taking of Mecca by Saud, the grandson of the founder, in 1803: "The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green huqqas and Persian pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy and worldly, and the whole, piled up into a heterogeneous mass, were burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling against the pipes and so necessary did a public example seem to be, that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well-nigh escaped the vigilant eye of the Muhtasib, was seized and placed on an ass, with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the public streets--a terrible warning to all of her sex who might be inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hour of prayer arrived the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with leathern whips drove all slothful Moslems to their devotions. The mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in the houses, and the whole population of Mecca prostrated themselves at least five times a day in solemn adoration."

The apprehensions of the Sultan of Turkey were aroused and an army was despatched against the Wahhabis, which broke their political power, their leader, Saud's son, being executed in Constantinople in 1818. But the tenets of the sect continued to be maintained in Arabia, and in 1822 one Saiyad Ahmad, a freebooter and bandit from Rai Bareli, was converted to it on a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned to preach its doctrines in India. Being a Saiyad and thus a descendant of the Prophet, he was accepted by the Muhammadans of India as the true Khalifa or Mahdi, awaited by the Shiahs. Unheeded by the British Government, he traversed our provinces with a numerous retinue of devoted disciples and converted the populace to his reformed doctrine by thousands, Patna becoming a centre of the sect. In 1826 he declared a _jihad_ or religious war against the Sikhs, but after a four years' struggle was defeated and killed. The sect gave some trouble in the Mutiny, but has not since taken any part in politics. Its reformed doctrines, however, have obtained a considerable vogue, and still exercise a powerful influence on Muhammadan thought. The Wahhabis deny the authority of Islamic tradition after the deaths of the Companions of the Prophet, do not illuminate or pay reverence to the shrines of departed saints, do not celebrate the birthday of Muhammad, count the ninety-nine names of God on their fingers and not on a rosary, and do not smoke.

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