The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1877-08-29
MISCELLANY.
TUNA sAcRfFroE IN INDIA.
EXPERIMENTATION As PRAcTrcED By HEB
MAJEsTy's SUBJECTS.

Fom The Loaaon dtheaG0m
A case IF samadh has recently occurred in
the districs Of Kaira in Gnjarat The partic-
ulars were furnished to me by Mr.. Frederick
Sheppard, the energetic Collector, in whose
camp stayed twice during my Indian travels.
In what may be called the BIahmanical
period of Hindooism, human sacrifice must
have prevailed. Il is even believed by many
that the scots called Saktas formerly ate por-
tions of the flesh and drank the blood Of VIC
Tins sacrificed at their secret orgies. The first
idea of sacrifice seems to have been that of
supplying the deities with nourishment Gods
and men all feast together. Then succeeded
the notion of the need of vicarious suffering,
or life for life, blood for blood. Some deities
were believed to thirst for human blood, and
the blood of animals was substituted for that
of men. Other forms of immolation were
once common in India The Thugs maintains
ed that they sacrificed their victims to the
goddess Kali Now that Thuggism has been
suppressed, good deal OF datura poisoning
is practised by the same class of people. The
killing of female infants once prevailed ex-
tensively in'the Panjab and Raiputana, owing
to the difficulty of providing daughters with
suitable husbands and the immense expenses
entailed by nuptial festivities.
Again, in former days self-immolation was
common. Many inundated themselves at tile
great car festivals, voluntarily throwing them
selves under the enormous wheels not only OF
the car of Jagannath atsPuri in 0lissa, but OF
other idol cars also. | found similar cars at
tached to every large pagoda in the south OF
India. Some of them are SO large and heavy
that they require to be supported on sixteen
wheels, and a particular day each year
they are drawn through the streets by thou.
sands of people. Every now and then per-
sous are crushed under the wheels.
Self immolalon, in other wars, was once
extensively prevalent. There are some sand
hills in the Satpura range dedicated to the
god siya-supposed to delight in destruction
from rock on which many youths have
pivciptated themselves because their moth
ers, being without children, have dedicated
their first born sons to the god. With regard
to the immolalion of the faithful wife (cpn,-
monty called Suffice -Sati) who followed her
husband in death, and burned herself on his
funeral pile, everywhere in India saw scat
tered about in various places monuments
erected over the ashes of Salts, and every
whtre such monuments are still regarded with
the greatest veneration by the people. Hap
PLY we put stop to this practice in 1929
though we had previously sanctioned it under
certain regulations, believing that we ought
not to interfere with an ancient Religious Gus
rom. In oiie year an official report of 500
widows burnt was received at Calcutta. Be-
tween 1878 and 1928 the average varied from
800 to 600 per aunnm.
OF course, lepr,sy in India, as in other
Eastern countries, is a kind of living death.
Lepers are excluded from society, and can g,t
no employment !; and they often gave them,
=, Ives up of their own accord to be buried ~
live, the motive simply being desire to be
released from physical suffering. This was
called performing samadIl (Sauskrit, samadhi,
suspeuding the connection between soul aud
body by religious abs,raction.)
A very respectable Hindoo gentleman came
to the river Narbada, attended by large ret
inue, to perform samadh, in consequence OF
an inc irable disease Under which he labored.
After taking leave OF his family, be entered
boat, which conveyed him to the deepest part
OF the river. He then loaded himself with
sand, and stepping into the water disappear
ed
The population IS increasing IN a oegree
which threatens TO become whoiy unmanage-
able Then WIDOWS never marry again not
even II their BOY hasoanos ole' ieasins 'hoa'
WIDOWS az the age o. .. woman % %, supp's-
ed 70 De sacramentally uni'ed 70 QUE n"soana'