# Life in India/Bangalore

Bangalore.
Of all the stations occupied by the English in Southern India, Bangalore is certainly the most charming. Having an elevation of three thousand feet above the level of the sea, it ​enjoys a climate which, though still tropical, is most refreshing, especially in the winter months, to the invalid from the low-lands. Hence, it is much used as a health-station for those needing a change from the oppressive heat of the stations below the Ghauts, and also as the headquarters of a large body of troops. The difference of temperature, while it does not prevent the growth of tropical plants, enables the gardener to raise grains, vegetables, and fruits which cannot endure the heat of Madras. Wheat, potatoes, strawberries, and many excellent garden vegetables are abundant, in addition to the mangoes, guavas, melons, and other fruits of the plains.
The country around is well cultivated. Much of it is devoted to gardening, as Bangalore supplies not only its own population, but that also of the metropolis, with potatoes and vegetables, as well as wheat. Many of the drives about the city are very delightful. The roads are lined with shade-trees, the mango and the banyan often interlocking their branches in a leafy canopy above you; and the fields are divided by hedges of the gigantic aloe, with its mast-like flower-stem, surmounted by a pyramid of white blossoms; or your way leads you through ​a grove of noble tamarind-trees guarding a heathen temple, with a tank beyond, on whose banks the tall and exquisitely graceful areca-palm is growing, branchless, tapering, slender, and crowned with an evergreen tuft of waving and glittering leaves.
Canara, or Carnata, was anciently a Hindu kingdom, embracing the noble table-land on which Bangalore now stands. Its capital, Bijapore, is now a heap of ruins, covering a surface of many miles. In common with every portion of this thrice-conquered land, the sword and torch have spread desolation and misery through all its borders. Almost within our own day, its king, whose capital was then Mysore, gave Bangalore as a jaghire or fief, from which to support himself while commander of his master's forces, to Hyder Ali. This daring, able, and unscrupulous man, who soon dethroned his sovereign to establish a dynasty of his own, fortified the place strongly, and made it one of his chief strongholds. The fort is in shape an oval, and about a mile in circumference, and is surrounded by a deep ditch. By Hyder and his son it was deemed almost impregnable. But the stronghold did not prove strong enough to resist the cannonade of British artillerists. ​In 1791, it was stormed by the English army under Lord Cornwallis, (whose name is familiar to us from the fact of his surrender at Yorktown to Washington, in 1782, having been the closing event of our Revolutionary War,) and carried with great slaughter. It is now held by the English; and so completely has the dominion passed into the hands of the new lords of the soil, that you would not suppose that it had ever been in other hands, and that here, a few years since, English officers had been shut up in dungeons or led out to execution by Hindu chieftains.
Sepoys--Native infantry, p. 401.
​the place. The barracks for infantry and cavalry are abundant for many regiments, and bungalows in pretty gardens give pleasant quarters to the officers. On the parade-ground the manoeuvres of the troops may be daily seen and the sound of military music be heard; every morning the young cadets, who have newly arrived from Great Britain to serve as officers in the army of India, are drilled in their duties by grave, and often noble-looking, native officers. It is about one hundred years since native troops were first trained to European tactics by the French at the siege of Cuddalore, (1746,) and now the East India Company maintains the immense number of two hundred and forty thousand sepoys. Thus she governs India with Hindu soldiers, and subdues new provinces with levies from those already united to the empire. In addition to this force, there are in India rather less than fifty thousand English troops, to maintain English sovereignty over not less than one hundred and twenty millions of Asiatics, thousands of miles away from succour from their native land. Yet the Hindu fights bravely beside the Englishman, and lays down his life to increase the power of the flag under which he marches. We trust ​that India will be thus subdued to Christ by the efforts of a host of native preachers of the gospel, trained and, for the present, led by strangers from Christian lands. The church will greatly mistake her duty if, in her missionary labours in Hindustan, she neglects to raise up Hindus to go forth and conquer the land in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
The town of Bangalore is distinct from the fort, and contains 100,000 inhabitants. Of these, 60,000 inhabit the pettah, and 40,000, chiefly Tamil people, live in a separate quarter, and are mainly supported by trafficking with the troops. The inhabitants of the pettah, or walled town, are purely Canarese, with a language distinct from the Tamil, though allied to it, the language of the ancient realm of Canara. Its walls are merely a mud embankment within a ditch, and could make little resistance to an enemy; yet, as they still stand, the visitor can only enter through the gates. On going in at one of these gateways to visit the place, (for all foreigners live without the walls in houses surrounded by gardens,) the first thing that struck me was an idol-temple on the left hand, with a grog-shop on the right. Thus, as though fearing that idolatry would be uprooted by the ​word of God, Satan is raising up in drunkenness a barrier to the spread of the gospel in India. It is as true that no drunkard as that no idolater shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; and now, to her shame it must be said, the influence of Christian England is introducing many a Hindu to this road to everlasting death.
But pass this sad spot, and the long street which stretches before you is straight and broad, and pleasantly skirted on both sides with cocoanut-palms. The houses are low, and roofed with hard mud laid upon boards lying evenly across the walls, with gutters of crockery-ware to carry off the rain. Women stand in the doorways, with blue and yellow robes thrown gracefully over their shoulders and folded around their waists. With rings on their clattering toes, and jewels in their ears and noses, they chat with one another or scream out the gossip of the day to their friends across the street. The men stand idly round, or sit behind their piles of goods exposed for sale on boards raised a few inches from the ground, while throngs of pedestrians walk through the middle of the street (for there are no sidewalks) to their places of business or labour.
​Not the least numerous, and certainly to a stranger the most amusing, portion of the population of Bangalore, is the multitude of monkeys that make their homes on the houses, trees, and walls. Not two or three consumptive creatures, such as we see in menageries at home, or the more miserable victims of organ-grinders, twitched and tortured into a fictitious animation; but scores and hundreds of them, all life and mischief, running over house-tops, dropping into the street, scampering up the cocoanut-trees, evidently quite at home, and looking with up-drawn eyebrows at the white-faced stranger who has intruded upon their domains. So numerous are they, that the people cannot roof their houses with tiles, as in most Hindu towns, for their mischievous fellow-citizens would break and carry off the tiles. They are as troublesome to the residents of the place as they are amusing to the mere visitor; for they steal all they can lay their hands upon, even snatching food from the children. They seem to consider themselves lords of the manor; and at one time in my walk, came dropping from the eaves of the houses and from the trees, and followed at my heels, grinning, showing their teeth, and barking in so threatening a style, ​that I was really afraid they would lay violent hands upon me. They are especially diverting as you see them on and about the mud wall that surrounds the town. This is appropriated especially to their residence, and here they assemble in great numbers, exhibiting all the phases of monkey life. You see them of all ages and statures in family groups; the aged grandsire, gray-haired and wise, deep in meditation, the father watching the gymnastics of the younger members of the family, as they strengthen their muscles by swinging from the tree-boughs, while the mother nurses her hairy pet upon her knee. Two staid matrons will be gravely examining each other's coats for any unfortunate insects, while snappish and pugnacious old bachelors are bristling their hair, stiffening their tails, and exhibiting every symptom of an approaching combat. On any alarm, they are all off in a twinkling, the mother running up some tree as nimbly as the rest, quite unimpeded by the baby-monkey which clasps its arms around her body and clings to her till she reaches a place of safety.
Why, it may be asked, if they are so troublesome, are they not driven away or destroyed? The answer furnishes an evidence of the degrada​﻿tion to which idolatry has reduced the Hindus. They have a monkey-god, Hanuman by name, famous in the annals of the hero-god Rama as the leader of an army of monkeys from the continent to Ceylon, to aid in the rescue of his wife from the custody of a giant of fearful power. This monkey-god is widely worshipped in India. In many private houses, as well as in the temples, his image is kept, to be prayed to and honoured with religious services and offerings. The mass of the people look upon these monkeys with a superstitious reverence, and would not dare to do them any harm. In some places there are hospitals for invalid monkeys. In many parts of India it is considered a work of religious merit to give them food; and some of them make this charity a regular duty. I have seen a man with quite a load of cakes of coarse bread, surrounded by a crowd of these mischievous divinities, dispensing with great gravity a piece to each as it came up and held out its paw for the offering. Some of the cunning fellows would hide what was given them, and, returning with an innocent air, demanded a second portion.
Other equally foolish modes of attaining heavenly bliss strike the eye. Even the feeding ​of ants is accounted a mode of acquiring merit, to improve the condition of the soul in its next birth. Men may be seen going from ant-hill to ant-hill, and, with great care, sprinkling around each a circle of rice flour. How vain are these attempts to create a righteousness that shall save the soul from the wrath of God! How can the feeding of ants and monkeys, or the more arduous task, of penance, the fasting, cutting of the flesh, swinging on hooks, walking on nails, or laying down of life itself upon the funeral pile, cleanse the soul from the pollution of sin, or prepare it to stand before God? All is in vain! And equally vain is the confidence of the self-righteous in Christian lands, who look for salvation to morality, charity, amiability, or good works. Let us be thankful that we have a better righteousness to present before God, even the righteousness that is by Jesus Christ, who “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Bangalore has not been left without some to make known to its people the way of life. Both the London and the Wesleyan Missionary ​Societies have stations here, and are doing a good work; although their success has not been so marked as that of missionaries in some other parts of India. They maintain labours in three languages: in English, for the benefit of the English troops here stationed; in Tamil, for the thousands in the bazaar or outer town, who speak that language; and in Canarese, for the inhabitants of the pettah and the surrounding country. Owing to this diversity of languages, they also have three churches connected with one mission: an English church composed of European soldiers, officers, and their wives, and two native churches, Tamil and Canarese. I had the pleasure of preaching both in English and Tamil in the church of the London Missionary Society; and here, for the first time in India, I saw a Sunday-school of white children. Quite a number of the soldiers are pious, godly men, and assemble on the Sabbath, not only to be taught, but also to teach. To see groups of white-faced, fair-haired children thus gathered into a Sabbath-school, carried my thoughts home to America, where hundreds of thousands would thus meet to study the word of God on this sacred day. It might, perhaps, seem strange to them to see soldiers in ​their red coats, white belts, and epaulettes, seated in the teacher's chair; but under their uniform Christian hearts were beating, and here in heathen India they found work to do as soldiers of the living God. In a land of idolatry and sin, to see these groups of English children with Bibles in their hands, learning the way to heaven from soldiers in their red coats, was a delightful privilege.
A church has been gathered from among the Tamil population, over which a native pastor has been set. The labours of the missionaries are mainly directed to the Canarese people, who form the great mass of the population of the Mysore territories, and gave their name (Canara) to the country. The word Carnatic has been improperly applied to the province below the mountains by Europeans, probably from its having been conquered by Hyder Ali, who had already made himself ruler of the true Carnata or Canara-desa, the land of the Canarese.
The Roman Catholics, here, as in most accessible portions of India, preceded Protestant missionaries, and gave to the natives of the land the impression that Christianity, though a different religion from their own, was only ​another form of idolatry. This false view of the religion of the Bible raises an additional barrier to the spread of the truth; for how is the ignorant Hindu to know that the first comer has not a right to the title of “the only true church of Christ?” In a morning walk through the neighbouring villages, when passing through some vegetable-gardens, I took occasion to converse with a man, from whom I inquired my way, on the subject of religion. While speaking to him of the folly. and sinfulness of idolatry, I happened to say, “Wood is not God, and, therefore, should not be worshipped.” Immediately, a man whom I had not observed, as he stood at some distance in a neighbouring field, cried out, in a triumphant and insulting tone, “What is your God but a wooden god?” at the same time, with a sneering air and gesture, holding up the forefinger of his right hand, hooked into that of his left, in the form of the cross. Supposing that I was a Roman Catholic, since I was a Christian, he was intimating that my worship of a wooden cross was no better than their worship of a wooden idol. The Roman Catholics have extensive institutions and many priests in Bangalore, and they are very bitter ​against the Bible and its readers, combining with the heathen to thwart the labours of the missionaries and to persecute their converts.
The former pastor of the native church at Bangalore, Shunkuru-lingam, afterwards known as Samuel Flavel, was very successful in his labours among his countrymen, both heathen and Roman Catholic. Not only in this city, but in the surrounding villages and towns, many had their eyes opened to the folly of idol-worship and false religion through his preaching. Although in both cases a profession of faith in Christ brought reproach and persecution, they were not deterred by the love of friends or the fear of enemies from confessing his name before men.
Among others, two brothers employed as catechists by the Romish priest at Mysore, were convinced that they had received doctrines but little better than those of their heathen ancestors, and wrote several times to the Bangalore native preacher, begging an interview. He accordingly went to Mysore, (eighty miles distant,) and, by his teaching from the Bible, with the blessing of the Spirit of God, convinced them that it was their duty to forsake the Romish Church. On his arrival, informa​tion was given to the Catholic priest, who commanded his people not to speak to him, and loaded this godly and devoted man with evil epithets; saying that he was “the greatest devil that he had known among the Protestants.” The two brothers were entreated by the people not to leave them, and an offer of double pay was made to the elder of the two. But bribes, threats, and hard usage were equally unavailing. He told them that he left them, not because his pay was not sufficient, but because he sought the salvation of his soul; and he earnestly besought them to care for their eternal interests. At this, his enemies were the more enraged; and coming to him that same evening, treated him most abusively, kicking and otherwise cruelly using him. The brothers returned not railing for railing, but bearing reproach with meekness, in the midst of it prayed, as did our Lord, for their persecutors. Having been taken before the priest, they were asked why they wished to leave the church of Rome. They answered that the church of Rome presented the broad way to destruction; that they were seeking the narrow way to eternal life; and, therefore, must separate themselves from it. Upon this, ​the priest, following the example of Ananias of old, (Acts xxiii. 1, 2,) commanded those who stood near to smite him on the face. This was readily done, but failed to convince the young men of their error. Unmoved by these persecutions, they repaired to the Roman Catholic chapel to remove some images which were their private property. This filled the people with consternation, and especially the thoughts of the loss of an image of the Virgin Mary, which was regarded with unusual devotion by the poor benighted creatures. They offered large sums of money if this sacred image might be left them, only asking the brothers to name their price. The converts told them that they felt constrained to take it away, as it was leading them into the sin of idolatry; that it was not money they wanted, but that as servants of Christ they could not suffer their property to lead their countrymen into sin. The brothers were next sued before the magistrate on false charges of debt, but they were fully cleared, and the people restrained from further violence. They were baptized by Shunkuru, and took the names of Nathaniel and Jonas.
The history of many of the members of the ​Canarese churches, gathered through the labours of the missionaries at Bangalore, is deeply interesting, and shows the power of the gospel, when made effectual by the influences of the Holy Spirit, to change the heart of man and overcome the prejudices and enlighten the darkness of heathen idolaters. The day after our arrival at Bangalore, we attended the Canarese service on Sunday morning. The sermon was on “brotherly love," by a man who, a few years before, would have as soon cut off his right hand as hold any social intercourse with those of a different caste. Now, he exhorts his fellow-Christians to love one another, as Christ loved them. The man who sat next to me was formerly a devout heathen, living near a hill-fort named Krishna-gherry, (the mountain of Krishna,) who used often to go out into the woods, and spend much time in penances and meditation in order to gain a knowledge of God. He once heard a missionary preach, and received a tract. This he studied, and by it was led, in company with his brother, to converse with a native Christian about this new way of finding God. They were convinced that this was the true way, and came to the missionaries to declare their faith ​in Christ, and ask for baptism. Having been examined and found worthy, they were baptized. This man had a wife and children whom he loved, but they were taken from him, as well as his living; and he had been now for two years deprived of wife and children, and destitute of all things, for Christ's sake. Yet how rich in the promised blessing of God was that humble and unknown Hindu! How few in Christian America make such sacrifices for Christ! How many from its happy and heaven-blessed shores will go away into outer darkness, as despisers of the mercy of God, when the poor Hindu of Krishna-gherry and his brethren ascend to rejoice and praise forever before the throne of God.
Reader! have you confessed Christ before men? “Whosoever shall confess me before men," he has said, “him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Be persuaded to love and confess him who loved and died for you.