Sketches of social life in IndiaBuckland, C. T. (Charles Thomas)
History
Sketches of social life in India
Buckland, C. T. (Charles Thomas)
British -- India -- Social life and customs; India -- Social life and customs
With regard to his English visitors, the Rajah showed the kindest
hospitality. He did not object if they took out their own provisions and
wines, and their own cook, for the better preservation of their own
health. But the Rajah always had supplies of food provided for his
visitors, and his wines were undoubtedly the most costly that could be
purchased by him from the Armenian shops in Dacca. The Rajah would
usually look in to see his visitors when breakfast was nearly over, and
preparations were beginning for the day’s sport. But his great delight
was to come in at dessert when the visitors had done their dinner, and
he would not object to smoke a quiet cigar with them. He was full of
fun, and liked his little jokes and puns, especially if any visitor had
any knowledge of the Persian language to enable the Rajah to show his
proficiency in that tongue. For the Rajah did not know English, his
education having been completed in the olden time, when Persian was the
Court and fashionable language. He was full of anecdotes connected with
shooting, and the various adventures with tigers in which he had shared
with the best sportsmen from Dacca for a long course of years. He was a
capital mimic, and it was easy to recognise his imitation of some of the
old sportsmen in their moments of excitement. He used to have his little
son and daughter brought into the room in their smartest native dresses.
The son has now grown up, and is a worthy and liberal successor to his
father. The daughter came very quickly to the marriageable age, and
after she was married it was no longer permissible for her to come down
and talk to strange gentlemen. But she used to take opportunities of
seeing the visitors, she herself being unseen; and, as a fact, the
visitors were almost always paraded quietly so that they might be seen
by all the ladies of the Rajah’s household. He had two wives, of whom
the eldest was childless, the second wife being the mother of his two
children. To those with whom he was best acquainted he was in the habit
of discoursing about his domestic affairs, and, if imperious native
custom had not forbidden it, we believe that he would have been very
willing to have introduced them to his wives, when English ladies were
of the party, they were always taken into the inner apartments to make
the acquaintance of the ladies. Perhaps one of the most curious
illustrations of the incongruity of native and English feeling occurred
during one of our visits. The Rajah’s daughter had been married to a
Kulin Brahmin of the highest caste, who lived with her at the Rajah’s
palace. But as he was a man of specially high caste, it was his
privilege to be married to any number of wives whose parents could pay
for their espousal to him. And so we became accidentally witnesses of
the occasion on which the young husband set forth with a grand marriage
procession from his own first wife’s house, in order to be married to
another young lady of high family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account