Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
=Cookery, Medicine.=—The culinary art will be discussed elsewhere,
together with the medical, which is very low, and usurped by empyrics,
who waste alike the purse and health of the ignorant by the sale of
aphrodisiacs, which are sought after with great avidity. Gums, metals,
minerals, all are compounded, and for one preparation, while the author
was at Udaipur, 7000 rupees (nearly £1000) were expended by the
court-physician.
=Superstitions.=—Their superstitions, incantations, charms, and
phylacteries against danger, mental or bodily, will appear more
appropriately where the subject is incidently introduced [653].
[Illustration:
VALLEY OF UDAIPUR.
_To face page 760._
]
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Footnote 4.24.1:
Manu, _Laws_, v. 157, 160, 161.
Footnote 4.24.2:
Were all Manu’s maxims on this head collected, and with other good
authorities, printed, circulated, and supported by Hindu missionaries,
who might be brought to advocate the abolition of Satiism, some good
might be effected. Let every text tending to the respectability of
widowhood be made prominent, and degrade the opponents by enumerating
the weak points they abound in. Instance the polyandry which prevailed
among the Pandus, whose high priest Vyasa was an illegitimate branch;
though above all would be the efficacy of the abolition of polygamy,
which in the lower classes leaves women destitute, and in the higher
condemns them to mortification and neglect. Whatever result such a
course might produce, there can be no danger in the experiment. Such
sacrifices must operate powerfully on manners; and, barbarous as is
the custom, yet while it springs from the same principle, it ought to
improve the condition of women, from the fear that harsh treatment of
them might defeat the atonement hereafter. Let the advocate for the
abolition of this practice by the hand of power read attentively Mr.
Colebrooke’s essay, “On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu Widow,” in the
fourth volume of the _Asiatic Researches_ [_Essays on the Religion and
Philosophy of the Hindus_, ed. 1858, p. 70 ff.], to correct the notion
that there is no adequate religious ordinance for the horrid
sacrifice. Mr. C. observes (p. 220): “Though an alternative be
allowed, the Hindu legislators have shown themselves disposed to
encourage widows to burn themselves with their husband’s corpse.” In
this paper he will find too many authorities deemed sacred for its
support; but it is only by knowing the full extent of the prejudices
and carefully collecting the conflicting authorities, that we can
provide the means to overcome it. Jahangir legislated for the
abolition of this practice by successive ordinances. At first he
commanded that no woman, being mother of a family, should under any
circumstances be permitted, however willing, to immolate herself; and
subsequently the prohibition was made entire when the slightest
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