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
Their foreheads were brightly
painted, and their nostrils adorned with golden rings. Both are fond of
bright, but uniform, colors, both cover their arms up to the elbow with
bangles, and both wear saris.
Behind the women a whole sea of most wonderful turbans was waving in the
pit. There were long-haired Rajputs with regular Grecian features and
long beards parted in the middle, their heads covered with "pagris"
consisting of, at least, twenty yards of finest white muslin, and
their persons adorned with earrings and necklaces; there were Mahrata
Brahmans, who shave their heads, leaving only one long central lock, and
wear turbans of blinding red, decorated in front with a sort of golden
horn of plenty; Bangas, wearing three-cornered helmets with a kind of
cockscomb on the top; Kachhis, with Roman helmets; Bhillis, from the
borders of Rajastan, whose chins are wrapped three times in the ends
of their pyramidal turbans, so that the innocent tourist never fails to
think that they constantly suffer from toothache; Bengalis and Calcutta
Babus, bare-headed all the year round, their hair cut after an Athenian
fashion, and their bodies clothed in the proud folds of a white
toga-virilis, in no way different from those once worn by Roman
senators; Parsees, in their black, oilcloth mitres; Sikhs, the followers
of Nanaka, strictly monotheist and mystic, whose turbans are very like
the Bhillis', but who wear long hair down to their waists; and hundreds
of other tribes.
Proposing to count how many different headgears are to be seen in Bombay
alone, we had to abandon the task as impracticable after a fortnight.
Every caste, every trade, guild, and sect, every one of the thousand
sub-divisions of the social hierarchy, has its own bright turban, often
sparkling with gold lace and precious stones, which is laid aside only
in case of mourning. But, as if to compensate for this luxury, even the
mem-bers of the municipality, rich merchants, and Rai-Bahadurs, who have
been created baronets by the Government, never wear any stockings, and
leave their legs bare up to the knees. As for their dress, it chiefly
consists of a kind of shapeless white shirt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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