Yet it must be carefully noted that the seclusion and ignorance of women, which are in reality mainly due to Muhammadan influences, do not exist to the same degree in provinces and districts unaffected by these influences; as, for instance, in the Marāṭha country, Western India, and elsewhere. And as bearing on this point I may here direct attention to some of the rules laid down by the ancient Hindu sage Vātsyāyana (author of the Kāma-sūtra 1) in regard to Indian domestic life, proving that women enjoyed greater liberty and a higher status in former times. In the first place he recommends parents to allow their children complete freedom and indulgence till they are five years of age. Then from five to sixteen they are to learn. some of the fourteen sciences and the sixty-four arts. Among the sciences are comprised the Vedas, Purāņas, Upapurāņas, law, medicine, astronomy, arithmetic, grammar, etc. The enumeration of sixty-four arts proves the existence of considerable civilization at a time when the greater part of Europe was immersed in ignorance. Among them are singing, instrumental music, dancing, painting, composing poems, chemistry, mineralogy, gardening, the military art, carpentry, architecture, gymnastics, etc. After education a man is to become a householder and to strive after the three great objects of human life-religious merit (dharma), wealth (artha), and enjoyment (kāma)2. He is to win a suitable wife for himself by his own efforts, and not to allow others to choose for him. The sage then expatiates on the most approved methods of making love, and declares that no fair maiden can ever be won without a good deal of talking. An ancient work quite as old as the first century of our era. I ought to mention that a book called 'Early Ideas,' by Anaryan, gives a summary of Vātsyāyana's rules, which I have found very well done and very useful here. 2 These are constantly alluded to in Indian writings. A fourth object, viz. final beatitude (moksha), is generally added. The house in which the husband and wife are to take up their abode should be in the neighbourhood of good men, with a garden surrounding it, and with at least two rooms, an outer and an inner. Many details then follow in regard to the proper conduct of the married couple. The husband is to perform all his necessary duties, and, as to the wife, she is to be a pattern of perfection. She is to keep all her husband's secrets, never to reveal the amount of his wealth, to excel all other women in attractiveness of appearance, in attention to her husband, in knowledge of cookery, in general cleverness, in ruling her servants wisely, in hospitality, in thrift, in adapting expenditure to income, and in superintending every minute circumstance of her family's daily life. Finally, she is to co-operate with her husband in pursuing the three great objects of life-religious merit, wealth, and enjoyment; and it is remarkable that to neglect the third is as sinful as to be careless about the other two. This kind of perfect woman is called a Padminī, or lotus-like Three other kinds are specified; the Ćitriņi, or woman of varied accomplishments; the Šankhinī, or conchlike woman; and the Hastini, or elephant-like woman. woman. In ancient and medieval times women were not unfrequently Sanskrit scholars, and lady Pandits are not wanting even in the present day. It is interesting to compare the definition of a wife given in Mahā-bhārata I. 3028, etc., of which the following is a nearly literal version : A wife is half the man, his truest friend; A mother in all seasons of distress, CHAPTER XV. Religious Life of the Orthodox Hindu Householder. LET me next direct attention to the religious life of the strictly orthodox Brāhman who has attained to the position of possessing a separate house of his own. I pass over the home-life of the anglicized Brāhman of advanced ideas, who has been educated under the auspices of the British Government, but has not on that account been able to avert the calamity of marriage with an uneducated and bigoted wife of his own rank, or rid himself of all the troublesome fetters of custom and caste. Such a life combines social conditions which are incompatible. The result is unpleasing. A combination is produced which is not unlike the unwholesome product of a forced chemical union between elements which naturally repel each other. What I desire rather to describe in this chapter is the religious life of the husband and wife who strive to perform their daily duties according to the orthodox Brahmanical usage of more modern times. And here it may be well to introduce the subject of the householder's life by glancing at the arrangements of the material house which forms his abode. Of course the houses of the poor in villages or in the native quarters of even large cities need no description. They are mere mud erections with bamboo roofs and thatch. Those of the grade next above the poorest are little better. They may be occasionally built of brick and may be one story high, but have seldom more than two or three rooms. Those of the richer classes, on the other hand, are always constructed of brick or some durable material, and, like the houses of Pompeii, usually have an interior court or quadrangle. A door from the street, and sometimes a handsome archway, opens into this quadrangle, which is surrounded on all sides by high walls. Over the archway or entrance is a large room, which serves as a meeting-place for the men of the family and their male visitors. A similar large and airy apartment occupies the whole front of the house in every story. It is a melancholy fact that, as a general rule, all the well-lighted rooms with windows and verandahs looking into the street are appropriated by the male members of the household. On each floor a gallery running round the entire court-yard leads to small chambers scarcely worthy of the name of rooms, where the female members of the family are to be found by those who have the right of entrée. When there is no court-yard the women occupy the upper floor, to reach which there is usually in one corner a steep wooden staircase. The women's apartments either look into the quadrangle below-where the family cows or goats are often the chief objects of interest-or on a dead wall, never on a street. There is little or no furniture anywhere in the house, but in one room is a strong box containing the family jewelry. The ground floor has a kitchen, which is usually also the dining-room. There are also the store-rooms for grain and fuel, and even stalls for cattle. In one of the lower apartments, or in an adjacent enclosure, there is usually a well or reservoir for water. Here there are numerous shelves with a store of well-burnished brass watervessels in constant readiness. Another room on the ground floor is dedicated to daily worship. Here there is a small wooden temple (Mandira) or some sacred receptacle for the household gods, the Indian Lares and Penates, which in orthodox Brahman families-more especially among the Maratha people-are generally five consecrated symbols representing the five principal Hindū gods; to wit, the two stones (Šāla-grāma and Bāṇa-linga), described at p. 69; a metallic stone representing the female principle in nature (Šakti); a crystal representing the Sun (Surya); and a red stone representing Ganesa, the remover of obstacles (p. 211). Here domestic worship is commonly performed every day by each member of every respectable Hindu family. Here, too, or in an adjacent court, there is generally a sacred Tulasi plant (see p. 333), to which the women of the family offer adoration. Finally, in this part of the house the few remaining orthodox (Smarta) Brāhmans in different parts of India sometimes maintain a sacred fire. For it must be noted here that, although the ancient fire-worship and sacrificial ritual have almost disappeared, yet at Benares and other strongholds of Brahmanism a certain number of Brāhmans of the old school still offer daily oblations in a sacred fire which they maintain in their own houses, while they conform also to the more recent practices enjoined in the Puranas. Even the old Vedic Soma-sacrifices are sometimes performed by such men on great public occasions. For example, a Soma-sacrifice was instituted not long ago at Poona, and at Wai near Mahābalešvar. Again, four or five years ago a rich man, named Dhuṇḍirāj Vināyak Sudās, had three Agnishṭomas, one Vajapeya, and one Aptoryāma sacrifice (all of them parts of the Jyotishṭoma Soma-sacrifice) performed at Alībāg in the Konkan. He employed a vast number of Pandits, Yājñikas, Šrotriyas, and Agnihotrīs, and spent at least 20,000 rupees. In the course of the ceremonies forty-two goats were killed. They were cooked on the fire called Šāmitrāgni, and partly eaten by the priests, |