The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-10-23

happiness is sought for elsewhere than at home,
and the hours they are compelled to pass to-
gether are filed with recrirninating words and
acts. The pressure of this evil is greater upon
the wife than the husband for if she die, the sur
viyor can marry again, and usually does within
a few months after the decease OF his spouse !;
while she must occupy that most unhappy OF all
positions, Hindoo wiiowhood; or must allow
herself to be burned with his lifeless corpse. III
the young man be ofan age, and in circumstances
to make personal choice of wife, he must have
an eye tot these, among other commendable quail
ties, She must not be of family where the
prescribed acts Of religion have been omitted
or family in which there have been no sons
or family in which the Veda is not read-or a
family that has been subject to disagreeable all
ments of any kird. Her form must be, so far as
possible, without defect-she must have an
agreeable name-she must walk gracefully,
like young elephant-her teeth must be mode
rate in size and quantity--her lips must be like
the leaves of 4 maIgo tree-and her voice like
the sound ofa cuckoo" AS to mental and moral
qualities, they are not deemed of sufficient inn
portance to deserve place in this catalogue of
desirable qualities in bride. As her only duties
are to cook food-clean the house-and take
care of the children it matters little to Hindoo
whether his wife is amable or morose, wise or
ignorant, engaging or repulsve. Subserviency
to the inclinations of the stronger sex is her
supreme duty. Divorce is unknown among the
natives OF India. Marriages once solemnized
can never be dissolved among persons of re-
putable caste, particularly among Brahmins. A
Hindoo may reject his wife on account Of her
incontinency, but he is obliged to support her
as long as she lives, and wearing the tahh Can
ornament answering to the marriage ring) marks
her rs wife. Polygamy is not usual in that
country. "Where persons live with several
females, but one is considered lawful wife, and
her children alone legitimate The law excludes
the offspring Of the Others from any share in
their fathers property, if he die without wilP'
(Du Bois). There is in the Northern district a
class of Brahmins with whom matrimonial ALI
ance isconsidered so desirable, that mutitudes of
females are willing to attach themselves to one
of them, though at the risk of being left hope
less widow, and with children to provide for by
laborious and unwearied exertion. A writer be-
fore quoted mentions the names of five of these
Kooleen Brahnins, who had in all three hundred
and twenty-one wives, and two hundred and
sixty children! 1t often occurs in these cases
that parent does not know his own sons and
daughters"
Their religion Subscribed as follows:
1t is intended, in the present chapter, to pre-
sent the reader with brief view Of Hindooism,
as system Of revealed religion. India has its
sacred Vedas and Shastras, which claim to COM
municate all that need be known regarding the
character of the Supreme, with the modes of
performing acceptable worship, and Of securing
the divine blessing. These ancient and volumi-
nous records teach the existence Of one univer-
sal spirit, the fount and origin of all other be-
or 10 ms N r.
rial. To this supreme Divinity is given the in
communicable name Of Brahm a noun in the
neuter gender, as indicating the negative mode
of his existence, and to be distinguished from
Brah,na, the distinctive title of the first III the
Hindoo Triad. Ofthis great, self-existent, indie
pendent, and eternal one, we are told in the
Shastras that he resides in perpetual silence,
takes no interest in the affairs of the universe,
finding his happiness in undisturbed repose.
They add, that though all spirit and without
form, he is devoid of qualities, without will, with
out consciousness Of his own existence, i'm
mersed in an abyss Of unrelieved darkness and
gloom. He is one, say they, not generically, as
possessed of divine nature not hypostatically,
as simple and incorporated; not numerically,
as tho only actual deity, but the sole entity,
whether created or uncreated. "Hs oneness is
so absolute, that it not only excludes the posi-
bility Of any other god, coordinate and subordi-
nate, but excludes the possibility of aught else,
human or angelic, material or immaterial." He
is thus, as one we'll says, an infinite negative
an infinite notAing." This is the supreme deity
of that land, mysterious, unapproachable, indie
scribable-in truth, unntelligible; and whom de-
lists and infdels have boastfully referred to as
the counterpart Of jehovah but from whom, by
the absence of all moral qualities, all superv-
r Ill ,tny 80 ~
attributes, he is placed at a remove immeasura-
BILE, infinite. The Hindoos are not atheists in
the sense of chance creation of all beings and
things. Their system is rather, in it's original
state, refined subimated Pa,ltheisna, all visible
things being but manifestations Of his essence.
With verbal change, we may adopt the poets
couplet
"All are but parts of this mysterious whole,
Whose body nature is, and Braim the SOUL"
The authors of the Hindoo system, like the
Grecian philosophers, found difficulty in con-
ceiving how pure spirit could exert any energy,
and especially an energy sufficient to form a
world. When, therefore, the supreme Brahm
willed to create the world, he drew forth from
himself three hypostases, to which were given the
names of Brahma, Vishnu, and silva. These
constitute the celebrated Hindoo Triad, of whom
the sacred books declare that they were origi-
nally united in one essence and from one essence
were derived, and that the great One became
distinctly known as three gods, being one person
and three gods" 1t may interest the reader to
have fuller acquaintance with the history of
these divine personages.
BRAuMA-This deity is usually represented
as 4 man with four faces riding on swan, and
holding in one of his four hands a portion of
the Vedas in the second, a pot of water; while
the third is raised upward to indicate protection;
and the fourth declined downward, as bestowing
a gift. He is variously styled the "self-exis-
tent (faIsely though, for he sprang from Brahm)
the "great father" the lord of creatures" and,
more appropriately, the creator" He is repu-
ted to have had originally five heads, having
lost one for reason upon which his biographers
are divided in opinion. That given in the Skanda
is as follows: "The linga Cor sacred symboD
of silva fell by the curse of Rshi from heaven,
and increased in such height that it filed heaven
and hell. In order to see il, Brahma, Vishnu,
and the other gods assembled, and in the midst
of their wonder they called out, Who can
reach to its extremity p Vishnu descended to