From the Caves and Jungles of HindostanBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), 1831-1891; India -- Description and travel; India -- Religion
A few days before we left Bombay we read in a small local newspaper two
announcements of marriages: the first the marriage of a Brahman heiress,
the second of a daughter of the fire-worshipers. The first announcement
was something to the following effect: "The family of Bimbay Mavlankar,
etc., etc., are preparing for a happy event. This respectable member
of our community, unlike the rest of the less fortunate Brahmans of
his caste, has found a husband for his grand-daughter in a rich Gujerat
family of the same caste. The little Rama-bai is already five, her
future husband is seven. The wedding is to take place in two months and
promises to be brilliant."
The second announcement referred to an accomplished fact. It appeared
in a Parsi paper, which strongly insists on the necessity of giving up
"disgusting superannuated customs," and especially the early marriage.
It justly ridiculed a certain Gujerati newspaper, which had just
described in very pompous expressions a recent wedding ceremony in
Poona. The bridegroom, who had just entered his sixth year "pressed to
his heart a blushing bride of two and a half!" The usual answers of this
couple entering into matrimony proved so indistinct that the Mobed had
to address the questions to their parents: "Are you willing to have him
for your lawful husband, O daughter of Zaratushta?" and "Are you willing
to be her husband, O son of Zoroaster?" "Everything went as well as it
could be expected," continued the newspaper; "the bridegroom was led out
of the room by the hand, and the bride, who was carried away in arms,
greeted the guests, not with smiles, but with a tremendous howl, which
made her forget the existence of such a thing as a pocket-handkerchief,
and remember only her feeding-bottle; for the latter article she asked
repeatedly, half choked with sobs, and throttled with the weight of the
family diamonds. Taking it all in all, it was a Parsi marriage, which
shows the progress of our speedily developing nation with the exactitude
of a weather glass," added the satirical newspaper.
Having read this we laughed heartily, though we did not give full credit
to this description, and thought it a good deal exaggerated. We knew
Parsi and Brahman families in which were husbands of ten years of
age; but had never heard as yet of a bride who was a baby in
arms.----
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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