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Transcriber's Note: For this text version, t with a dot underneath
is represented by [t.] as in "ba[t.]h".





  THE

  HINDOOS AS THEY ARE

  A DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS

  AND

  INNER LIFE OF HINDOO SOCIETY

  IN BENGAL.

  BY

  SHIB CHUNDER BOSE.

  WITH A PREFATORY NOTE BY

  THE REV. W. HASTIE, B. D.,

  PRINCIPAL OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INSTITUTION, CALCUTTA.

  London:

  EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS.

  Calcutta:

  W. NEWMAN & Co., 3, DALHOUSIE SQUARE.

  1881.

  PRINTED BY W. NEWMAN AND CO.,
  AT THE CAXTON PRESS, 1, MISSION ROW, CALCUTTA.

  [_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved._]



    CONTENTS.


                                                          _Page._

    PREFATORY NOTE.                                             i

    INTRODUCTION.                                             iii

    I. THE HINDOO HOUSEHOLD                                     1

    II. THE BIRTH OF A HINDOO                                  22

    III. THE HINDOO SCHOOL-BOY                                 30

    IV. VOWS OF HINDOO GIRLS                                   35

    V. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES                                     41

    VI. THE BROTHER FESTIVAL                                   90

    VII. THE SON-IN-LAW FESTIVAL                               92

    VIII. THE DOORGA POOJAH FESTIVAL                           93

    IX. THE KALI POOJAH FESTIVAL                              136

    X. THE SARASWATI POOJAH                                   151

    XI. THE FESTIVAL OF CAKES                                 155

    XII. THE HOLI FESTIVAL                                    159

    XIII. CASTE                                               165

    XIV. A BRAHMIN                                            180

    XV. THE BENGALEE BABOO                                    191

    XVI. THE KOBIRAJ, OR NATIVE PHYSICIAN                     209

    XVII. HINDOO FEMALES                                      216

    XVIII. POLYGAMY                                           227

    XIX. HINDOO WIDOWS                                        237

    XX. SICKNESS, DEATH, AND SHRAD OR FUNERAL CEREMONIES      246

    XXI. SUTTEE, OR THE IMMOLATION OF HINDOO WIDOWS           272

    XXII. THE ADMIRED STORY OF SABITRI BRATA, OR THE
    WONDERFUL TRIUMPH OF EXALTED CHASTITY                     280

    APPENDIX                                                  293

ERRATA.

Page 49, line 4, for "_Butterfly_," read, "_Prajapati_--the (Lord.)"



PREFATORY NOTE.


Babu Shib Chunder Bose is an enlightened Bengali, of matured conviction
and character, who, having received the stirring impulse of Western
culture and thought during the early period of Dr. Duff's work in the
General Assembly's Institution, has continued faithful to it through all
these long and changeful years. His extended and varied experience, his
careful habit of observation and contrast, his large store of general
reading and information, and his rare sobriety and earnestness of
judgment, eminently qualify him for lifting the veil from the inner
domestic life of his countrymen, and giving such an account of their
social and religious observances as may prove intelligible and
instructive to general English readers. In the sketches which he has now
produced we are presented with the first-fruits of "the harvest of a
quiet eye" that has long meditatively watched the strange ongoings of
this ancient society, and penetrated with living insight into the
springs and tendency of its startling changes.

Although I had no special claim to any right of judgment upon the
present phases of Hindu life, the writer took me early into his
confidence, and from the apparent quality and sincerity of his work I
had no hesitation in encouraging him to persevere, recommending him,
however, to leave historical speculation to others and to confine
himself to a faithful delineation of facts within his own experience.
While his manuscripts were passing through my hands, I took pains to
verify his descriptions by frequent reference to younger educated
natives, who, in all cases, confirmed the accuracy and reliability of
the details. The book will stand on its own merits with English readers,
whose happily increasing interest in the forms and movements of Hindu
life at this transitional period when the picturesque institutions and
habits of thousands of years are visibly and irrevocably passing away,
should gladly welcome its fresh and opportune representations. And all
who, viewing without regret the decay of the old order and animated by
the faith of nobler possibilities than it has ever achieved, are
actually engaged in the great work of religious regeneration and social
reform in India, should find much in these truthful but saddening
sketches to intensify their sympathies and give definite direction and
guidance to their best efforts.

                                                         W. HASTIE.

  THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INSTITUTION,
      _23rd March, 1881_.




INTRODUCTION.


In presenting the following volume to the Public, I am conscious of the
very great disadvantage I labor under in attempting to communicate my
thoughts through the medium of a language differing from my
mother-tongue both in the forms of construction and in the methods of
expression. My appeal to the indulgence of the public is based on the
ground of my work being true to its name. It professes to be a simple,
but faithful, delineation of the present state of Hindoo society in
Bengal, and especially in Calcutta, the Athens of Hindoosthan. I cannot
promise anything thrilling or sensational. My principal object is to
give as much information as possible regarding the moral, intellectual,
social and domestic economy