Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-16
WOMAN TELLS
HER VIEWS OF
LIFE IN ZENANI
ny MRS. $. A. MERRITT
What is q purdah7

Strictly speaking, It Is a curtain be-
hind which the women Of the household
must stay, absolutely unseen. II they
emerge from the household they must
be so wrapped In q cloth called a saree
as to be able neither to see nor be seen,
either cropping or being led about, some-
times being allowed the privilege OF a
small opening for the eyes.
Beyond this curtaini Alas, the diff
Guilty of word picturing Is very great.
A zenana, where the women live. Is
simply indescribable-no two alike;
never built on any supposable plan or
shape. A collection of dirty court yards,
dark corners, breakneck staircases,
filthy outhouses and entries overlaid
with rubbish, or occupied by half clad
native servants stretched about on the
ground; indifferently warm verandahs
and. unfurnlshed or semi-furnished
rooms, and very small-such is the
zenana and its surroundings. Once in
side the zenana, you are struck, as q
rule, by the entire absence OF all that
constitutes, to our idea, the compile
ments of a room. Furniture, tables and
chairs are not to be thought of, except
when brought in from the babu's (the
men of the house) apartments for mis-
sionary visitors use for the time being.
Such description is given of q Calcutta
zenana one from Benares says, the
houses here are more gloomy, dirty and
devoid of every comfort even than in
Calcutta.
Even in the cold season the majority
of the women wear no other clothing
than their sarees, and sit on the cold
mud or flag floors, with their uncovered
legs and feet; so that one wonders
they are not constantly suffering from
rheumatism Another writes: The wom-
EN- always have the worst part of the
house assigned them, and seem to have
few comforts given them. Even in the
large residences of the rich babus, one
can always tell when getting near the
rooms allotted to the women by the
dirty and miserable appearance of the
walls, staircases and courts. Many of
the high caste natives are very poor
and then they have to live in very small
wretched houses; but some of them are
rich enough, and their dwellings are
large and airy, and furnished with lux
uries, but the ladies do not share in
the comforts, though they may be bet
ter dressed and have more servants TO
wait on them.
But what of the dwellers in these
cherries, prison-like abodes? In nat
ural endowments Hindu women will
compare favorably with their sisters
elsewhere. Their features are most reg
ular and often refined and delicate
They lack expression, as might be ex-
pected from lack of age and want of
intellectual training, and being stunted
by their unnatural customs but gentle
ness of disposition and physical beauty
commonly belong to them. Their dress
is simple and suited to their manner of
life. Usually it consists of one long
piece of light cotton cloth, wrapped in
graceful folds about her body, and usu-
ally serves as skirt, Jacket and bonnet.
| Next to children, ornaments are the
chief joy of women. They not only give
pleasure to their minds, but are always
regarded as the measure of the family
position and the affection of the hus-
band.
How do they pass their time? The
wives of the poor and low castles have
far more to interest them than those
of higher rank. They go more abroad
see and hear more. The management Of
domestic affairs rests with them, and
they become more self-reliant and in
telligent. The zenana ladies are more
carefully tended, but their lives are in
tensely dull monotonous and trivial
There are multitudes of Indian women
who nave never enjoyed a free long
walk, or been in any house but their ia
thers or father-in-law's, or Travelled
mile from either. 'You," said young
girl in a zenana to an EngliShwoman,
pointing to bird on the wing, you are
like that bird, soaring to heaven. We
are like birds caught, their wings cut,
and shut UP in cages too warm for
them"
Great significance is conveyed in the
remark that in India there are houses,
but no homes. We have no homes, said
the Dewan Bahadur r. Raghonath Rad.
There exists, writes Sir M. Monier Will
:iams, no word that I know of in any
Indian language exactly equivalent to
that grand old Saxon word "home," the
word which is the key to our national
greatness and prosperity.
Zenana in Persian means "the place
of women" The Persian "mandana"
means "the place for men," The au-
thority in the Zanana is with the grand
mother, mother-in-law or sister-in-law,
and is supreme, and of pure despotisrl
all the more harsh and overebaring be-
cause it is exercised for the most part
over the daughters of other women.
This is the darkest and saddest feature
of zenana life.
So much for the material side of ze-
mana life. The so-called spiritual side
we will speak of later
(SigneD MRS. S. A. MERRETT.