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Ebook has 688 lines and 135190 words, and 14 pages

Malabar Hill, and Domestic Life of the English in Bombay 39

The Island of Shastee, commonly called Salsette.--Gharipoore, "the Town of Purification," or the Island and Caves of Elephanta 51

Sampwallas, or Serpent-Charmers.--J?doowallahs, or Miracle-Performers.--Nuzer-Bundy?n?, Mesmerizers.--Yogees, Spiritual Jugglers, and Naga-Poojmi, or Serpent-Worship, in India 65

The Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, of Bombay.--A Visit to a Fire-Priest and Astrologer.--His Astral Predictions.--The G?thas. --Zoroaster.--His Life and Religion.--History of the Settlement of the Parsees in India 79

Domestic Life of the Fire-Worshippers.--The Zend-Avesta.--Parsee Rites and Ceremonies at Birth, Marriage, Death, and Final Consignment to the Tower of Silence 105

Hindoo Treatment of the Sick.--Pundit's House Defiled.--Its Purification.--Short Sketch of the Different Races and of the Origin of Castes and Creeds among the People of Hindostan 129

A Visit to the House of Baboo Ram Chunder.--His Wife.--Rajpoot Wrestlers.--Nautchnees, or Hindoo Ballet-Girls.--A Hindoo Drama.--Visit to a Nautchnees' School.--Bayahdiers, or Dancing-Girls, attached to the Hindoo Temples.--Profession, Education, Dress, Character, Fate in Old Age and After Death.--Cusbans, or Common Women.--Marked Differences between these three Classes of Public Women 173

From Bombay to Poonah, the Capital of the Maha Rastra, or the great Indian Kings.--Campooly.--The Ascent of the Bhor Ghauts.--Khondala.--Caves of Carlee or Karli.--"Puja Chakra," or the famous Wheel-Worship of the Brahmans.--Poonah.--Kirki.--A Visit to the Peishwa's Palace.--Temple of Parvati.--The Pundit and the Brahmin Priest at Prayer.--Sanscrit and English Colleges at Poonah.--Suttee Monuments at Sangam.--Hindoo Bankers, etc. 208

The beautiful Hindoo Village of Wye.--The Mahabaleshwar Hills.--The Temple of the Gods.--The Couch of Krishna.--The Stone Image of the Cow from whose Mouth the Five Rivers of this Region are said to Spring.--The Holy Tank.--Satarah, the Star City of the Mahratta Empire.--The Fort.--The Palace of Sivaji.--Jejureh, the famous Hill-Temples where the Dancing-Girls of the Country are Recruited.--The Mad Gossain, and the Story of his Ill-Fated Love.--The Dancing-Girl Kray?hnee 228

From Satarah, the Star City of the great Mahratta Kings, to Dowlutab?d, the Abode of Fortune, and Aurungab?d, the Golden City of the Mohgul Emperors.--Tombs of Boorhan Ood Deen and Aurungzebe.--Mausoleum of Rhabea Duranee.--Sketch of the Mohgul Invasion of India.--Manners, Customs, and Religious Ceremonies of the Mohammedans of Hindostan 243

The Temples of Ellora, the Holy Place of the Deccan.--Nashik, the Land of the R?m?yan?.--Sights and Scenes on the Banks of the Godaveri.--Damaun, the most famous of the Indo-Portuguese Towns 270

The Taptee River.--Surat and its Environs.--The Borahs and Kholees of Guzerat.--Baroda, the Capital of the Guicowars.--Fakeers, or Relic-Carriers, of Baroda.--Cambay. --Mount Aboo.--Jain Temples on Mount Aboo, etc. 286

Calcutta, the City of the Black Venus, Kali.--The River Hoogley.--Cremation Towers.--Chowringee, the Fashionable Suburb of Calcutta.--The Black Hole.--Battles of Plassey and Assaye.--The Brahmo-Somaj.--Temple of Kali.--Feast of Juggurnath.--Benares and the Taj Mahal 303

PAGE THE TAJ MAHAL FROM THE RIVER, Frontispiece

BANYAN TREE, 36

CAVES OF ELEPHANTA, 53

NATIVE SNAKE CHARMERS, 66

A PARSEE LADY, 106

BOMBAY. UNIVERSITY AND ESPLANADE, 128

BUDDHIST PRIEST PREACHING AT THE DOOR OF A TEMPLE, 161

BULLOCK CART, 208

TOMB OF RAHBEA DHOORANE, AT AURANGAB?D, 250

ROCK CUT TEMPLES OF ELLORA, 270

NATIVE PASSENGER BOAT ON THE HOOGLY, 302

THE MUNIKURNIKA GHAT, ONE OF THE BURNING GHATS OF BENARES, 322

PREFACE

In the following pages, gathered from voluminous notes of early travel, I have tried to give a faithful account of life in India, as well as of the sights and scenes visited by me, with my husband, before the days of railroad travel.

I do not, however, mean to say that India has made no progress whatever in all these years--her imaginative and glorious youth has no doubt been succeeded by the calm reason of mature age--but this transition has been gradual and progressive rather than fitful and sudden.

A. H. L.

SUNNYSIDE, Halifax, Nova Scotia, } August 7, 1884. }

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN INDIA

The Island of Bamb? D?vi.--Sights and Scenes round about Bombay.

In that most delightful of all Indian months, the cool month of November, with the distant booming of a great gun that announced its arrival, the steamer from Aden came to anchor in the harbor of Bombay, bringing me among its many passengers. Here I was in this strange land, a young girl fresh from school, now entering upon a life so different, one which I was to lead through a long term of years.

The sun shone through the mists and haze of the early dawn, and I could see from my cabin window, with a sense of mingled wonder and curiosity, the great stone quays and the long flights of stone steps which led to the beautiful island of Bombay, lying there like a gem in the water, and of which I knew nothing whatever, save that it was once the marriage-dowry of a queen of England.

According to some authorities, it takes its name from two Portuguese words, "Buon Bahia," Good Bay; but in reality it has a still more ancient origin, being called after a very beautiful Hindoo queen, afterward deified as Bamb? D?vi, who long before the days of Alexander the Great was the presiding genius of the land. She was worshipped as "Mahim? D?vi," or the Great Mother, in one of the oldest and largest Hindoo temples which formerly stood in the great plain now called the Esplanade. It was pulled down about a hundred years ago, and rebuilt near the Bhendee Bazaar, and is to this day called by her name and set apart to her peculiar service.

The longer I looked on that bay, and on those ancient islands with their towers and spires, both pagan and Christian, gleaming in the pure morning sunlight, the more I felt that it was one of the loveliest scenes in the world and one of the best worth admiring.

The harbor is not only one of the safest known to navigators from all parts of the world, affording in its hollow rock-bound cup entire shelter from sudden storms to vessels of all burthens, large and small crafts of every imaginable size and color, but it is in itself a bit of landlocked water unrivalled in picturesqueness, furnishing a variety of beautiful views at every point, and, one might almost say, at every passing moment.

Its peculiar interest, however, depends much on the season of the year, the brightness of the lights, the softness of the shadows, and the picturesque character of the numberless native boats, which, with their well-filled lateen sails, skim like white sea-birds on the surface of the waters.

The islands of Salsette, Elephanta, and Versovah, abounding in luxuriant vegetation, rise like huge green temples out of the bay. A great part of its beauty, however, is derived from the singularly shaped hills that are found in its vicinity. Old as the world, they appear to have gone through the hands of some gigantic architect--some so exquisitely rounded, some regularly terraced, and others, again, sharply pointed, not unlike spires. Lifting themselves proudly above the broad glittering sea that bathes their palm-fringed base, they help to make the scenery distinct from that of any other bay in the world. Then, beyond question, there is nothing to equal in grace and beauty the palm forest. The cocoanut, the sago, the betel, the date, the wild plantain, and the palmyra, all cluster in such profusion here and there along the seashore that the whole seems too beautiful to be real, and you half expect to see the island melt away like a dream before you.

While I look on from the cabin window things take clearer shape and form. Far away is the dim outline of the mighty Ghauts, towering amid soft fleecy-white clouds, and extending farther than the eye can reach in the purple distance. The striking views of the adjoining mainland, with ruins innumerable of chapels, convents, and monasteries erected by the Portuguese conquerors, all covered with a rich tangle of tropical foliage; the strange shapes of pagan temples, each in its own peculiar style of architecture, Hindoo, Parsee, Jain, and Mohammedan; the noble remains of the old Mahratta forts and castles, which in former days were the habitations of the famous Rajpoots, with a long line of native and European palaces,--gradually unfold themselves under the golden haze of an Indian atmosphere.

One sees in no other part of the world just such an assemblage as the passengers on an Indian-bound steamer. In the vessel that took me to Bombay the most touching object to my mind was a young married woman, who was looking anxiously out for her husband, a missionary in whose labors she was now about to share for the first time. He was weak, haggard, and spiritless, worn out, no doubt, by his combined efforts to acquire a foreign language, convince an obstinate people, and bear the enervating influence of a hot, muggy climate; all of which was enough to break down the stoutest of frames and the most hopeful of spirits that England has ever produced. A number of officers, civil and military, some in light-brown coats of China silk and wide-brimmed straw hats, others in frogged blue frocks and military caps, were seen pressing through the crowd. A young cadet just out rushed into the open arms of a handsome officer, like himself, but older by twenty or thirty years. The deck was being fast cleared of its eager crowd. Everywhere the passengers were separating amid almost sad adieux, enlivened only by the oft-repeated promises to write to each other regularly--promises which are never fulfilled. On the great continent of Asia all nations meet and hail each other as friends, only to part, perhaps never to meet again, as vessels do at sea. But we were all sincere enough at the moment, which is all that can be expected from travellers scattering over the vast unknown land of India. I remember I was very greatly troubled because I was about to part from a gentle, blue-eyed young friend, a frank, bright, innocent young Scotch girl, who had become very dear to me during the most tedious and sultry part of our voyage from Aden to Bombay.

At last her father appeared on board, a fat, sun-burnt, frowzy-looking man, and inquired from the captain as to which was his daughter, in order to assert his ownership over her. Instead of rushing to greet a father, she shrank back and nervously clutched my arm; and it was not strange. She had not seen him for many years; in the mean time her mother had died, her little brothers and sisters had all died in their infancy; she alone had survived, and had been sent home to Scotland, where she had been educated by an aunt. Here, then, she was alone in the presence of an almost entire stranger, although he was her father; and this is not an isolated case, but the fate of the thousands of European children who are born in India.

No blood-relationship avails anything in such cases. The mysterious sanctities of a young girl's nature, be they more or less profound, interpose themselves as barriers between father and daughter at the best of times and under the happiest of circumstances. Those dim nooks and corners of her budding sentiment can only be reached by a mother, so justly called the mediator in the most ancient language of the heart.

The great seat of Eastern trade was, down to the eleventh century, the city of Constantine the Great. Amalfi, Venice, and many other enterprising Italian republics acquired about this time great commercial importance, owing to their Eastern trade, which they extended to Egypt and the Persian Gulf.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries some of the more adventurous Italians found their way to various parts of Hindostan. One of these, the famous Marco Paulo, has given to the world much curious information about the regions which lie between the Himalaya Mountains, the Indian Ocean, and the numerous islands bordering on the Celestial Empire and on India proper.

The first European traveller who has given us an account of the country near the island of Bombay was an Italian friar named Odoricus, who passed nearly a month at Tana--or more properly Thanah--where four of his family fell victims to the intolerant spirit of the natives, and suffered martyrdom. His narrative was published in Latin in 1330 A. D. by William de Solanga. The first Englishman who visited the western coast of India was Thomas Stephens, of New College, Oxford. He reached Goa in October, 1579, and in the year 1608 Pryard de Laval mentions him at the time as rector of a college at Salsette.

The town of Calicut, though repeatedly burnt and destroyed by Portuguese and Mohammedan conquerors, still stands, as it has done for many hundreds of years, on the seashore, in a somewhat low and exposed position, possessing neither a river nor any harbor within several miles of it, so that ships are compelled to cast anchor five or six miles from the landing-place, almost in mid-ocean. Its want of a convenient harbor does not seem to have detracted from its commercial importance. At the very beginning of the Eastern trade, when Constantinople was attracting to itself all the commerce of the East, Calicut was visited by vessels from Asia Minor, Egypt, and Arabia. It was so well known to the Arabians that in the seventeenth century a fanatical sect of Mohammedans named Moplahs immigrated to Calicut, and entered with great success into the commercial life of the city, and occupy in it, even to this day, a most important place, carrying on a very profitable trade between Calicut, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and various parts of India, its chief exports being rice, cocoanut, ginger, cardamoms, and sandal- and teak-wood. At the time of the landing of the Portuguese, Calicut is described as a fine city, with numerous magnificent buildings, among which a Brahmanical temple and college are especially mentioned, so remarkable were they for their size and architectural adornments.

It would be out of place to enter into particulars of the long struggle that ensued, or the disgraceful acts of treachery and cruelty that attended the conquests of the Portuguese. It will suffice to say that in a very few years they were firmly established in the south of India. Having possessed themselves of the large maritime city of Goa, they formed a regular government, headed by a viceroy appointed by the king of Portugal. They soon turned the trade of Hindostan and the Deccan into new and more profitable channels, thus depriving the Venetians, Genoese, and many other nations of all the advantages derived from their long-established European commerce between the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. From that time the Italians began to decline in wealth, influence, and prosperity until the close of the sixteenth and in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the English, Dutch, and French, sailing round by the Cape of Good Hope, began to appear upon the scene. No sooner was this accomplished than the Portuguese, who had monopolized the commerce with Europe during the sixteenth century, lost their immense influence in the East.

In 1585, Thomas Cavendish, one of the boldest and most adventurous navigators in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had accomplished successfully a two years' voyage round the world. Among other places, he had visited and explored the spice islands called the Moluccas, but his discoveries resulted in no permanent benefit to the British traders. In the year following an English expedition consisting of three vessels, under the command of Captain Raymond, was sent out to India, but its object was rather more warlike than commercial, as it was intended to cruise against the Portuguese. Sickness, shipwreck, and other disasters overtook the vessels; Captain Raymond, one of the most spirited men of his time, was lost without even having seen the Eldorado of his dreams, and Captain Lancaster, his second in command, returned home a sad and almost ruined man. Francis Drake, afterward knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his many remarkable exploits at sea, succeeded in capturing five Portuguese vessels laden with the rich products of India. These, with the successes of the Levant Company and the accumulating information obtained from private sources, contributed to keep alive the excitement and to increase to an inordinate degree the desire of English traders and merchants for a more immediate participation in the Eastern commerce. Nevertheless, the ambition and jealousy of the British merchants were not fully aroused until they heard that the Dutch in 1595 had fitted out and despatched four ships to trade with India.

The Dutch, who had dispossessed the Portuguese of their factory in Amboyna, one of the largest of the spice islands in the Molucca group, now began to regard the English traders with much jealousy. These, only eighteen in number, had established themselves in a defenceless house in town, trusting to the agreements and treaties they had made with the Dutch traders. The Dutch invited them in a friendly manner to pay a visit to their castle, fortified and garrisoned by two hundred men. The unsuspecting English had no sooner entered the castle than they were seized, put to the rack and torture, and ten of the number, holding out firmly to the last, were put to death.

The island of Bombay is separated from the mainland by an arm of the sea, and forms, in conjunction with the adjacent islands of Salsette on the north, Colabah and Old Woman's Island on the south, a magnificent and well-sheltered harbor. Handsome causeways raised above the sea at high water span the narrow channels on the south, and connect Bombay with two of the most picturesque islands I have ever seen. To the north, Bombay is again connected with Salsette by a causeway with a fine arched stone bridge, and yet another causeway has been thrown over the strait, so as to connect the great India Peninsular Railway with the mainland. Thus Bombay and the islands which surround it form a continuous breakwater extending from north to south for several miles. Toward the east lies the celebrated island of Elephanta; just opposite to the mouth of the harbor lies a thickly-wooded island of little elevation, with the exception of two remarkable projections which are shot upward almost perpendicularly from the level of the land, called Great and Little Caranja Hills.

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