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[Illustration: THE TAJ MAHAL FROM THE RIVER.]


LIFE AND TRAVEL IN INDIA


BEING RECOLLECTIONS OF A JOURNEY
BEFORE THE DAYS OF RAILROADS


BY

ANNA HARRIETTE LEONOWENS

_Author of "Siam and the Siamese"_


_ILLUSTRATED_


PHILADELPHIA
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
1897


Copyright, 1884,
BY PORTER & COATES.


THIS LITTLE VOLUME OF TRAVELS

Is Inscribed to

MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM W. JUSTICE,

IN

GRATEFUL APPRECIATION OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP,

BY

THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
                                                                  PAGE
The Island of Bambâ Dèvi.--Sights and Scenes round about Bombay      7


CHAPTER II.

Malabar Hill, and Domestic Life of the English in Bombay            39


CHAPTER III.

The Island of Shastee, commonly called Salsette.--Gharipoore,
"the Town of Purification," or the Island and Caves of Elephanta    51


CHAPTER IV.

Sampwallas, or Serpent-Charmers.--Jâdoowallahs, or
Miracle-Performers.--Nuzer-Bundyânâ, Mesmerizers.--Yogees,
Spiritual Jugglers, and Naga-Poojmi, or Serpent-Worship, in India   65


CHAPTER V.

The Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, of Bombay.--A Visit to a
Fire-Priest and Astrologer.--His Astral Predictions.--The Gâthas.
--Zoroaster.--His Life and Religion.--History of the Settlement
of the Parsees in India                                             79


CHAPTER VI.

Domestic Life of the Fire-Worshippers.--The Zend-Avesta.--Parsee
Rites and Ceremonies at Birth, Marriage, Death, and Final
Consignment to the Tower of Silence                                105


CHAPTER VII.

Hindoo Treatment of the Sick.--Pundit's House Defiled.--Its
Purification.--Short Sketch of the Different Races and of
the Origin of Castes and Creeds among the People of Hindostan      129


CHAPTER VIII.

A Visit to the House of Baboo Ram Chunder.--His Wife.--Rajpoot
Wrestlers.--Nautchnees, or Hindoo Ballet-Girls.--A
Hindoo Drama.--Visit to a Nautchnees' School.--Bayahdiers,
or Dancing-Girls, attached to the Hindoo Temples.--Profession,
Education, Dress, Character, Fate in Old Age and After
Death.--Cusbans, or Common Women.--Marked Differences
between these three Classes of Public Women                        173


CHAPTER IX.

From Bombay to Poonah, the Capital of the Maha Rastra, or the
great Indian Kings.--Campooly.--The Ascent of the Bhor
Ghauts.--Khondala.--Caves of Carlee or Karli.--"Puja Chakra,"
or the famous Wheel-Worship of the Brahmans.--Poonah.--Kirki.--A
Visit to the Peishwa's Palace.--Temple of Parvati.--The Pundit
and the Brahmin Priest at Prayer.--Sanscrit and English Colleges
at Poonah.--Suttee Monuments at Sangam.--Hindoo Bankers, etc.      208


CHAPTER X.

The beautiful Hindoo Village of Wye.--The Mahabaleshwar
Hills.--The Temple of the Gods.--The Couch of Krishna.--The
Stone Image of the Cow from whose Mouth the Five Rivers
of this Region are said to Spring.--The Holy Tank.--Satarah,
the Star City of the Mahratta Empire.--The Fort.--The Palace
of Sivaji.--Jejureh, the famous Hill-Temples where the
Dancing-Girls of the Country are Recruited.--The Mad Gossain,
and the Story of his Ill-Fated Love.--The Dancing-Girl
Krayâhnee                                                          228


CHAPTER XI.

From Satarah, the Star City of the great Mahratta Kings, to
Dowlutabâd, the Abode of Fortune, and Aurungabâd, the Golden
City of the Mohgul Emperors.--Tombs of Boorhan Ood Deen
and Aurungzebe.--Mausoleum of Rhabea Duranee.--Sketch
of the Mohgul Invasion of India.--Manners, Customs, and
Religious Ceremonies of the Mohammedans of Hindostan               243


CHAPTER XII.

The Temples of Ellora, the Holy Place of the Deccan.--Nashik,
the Land of the Râmâyanâ.--Sights and Scenes on the Banks of the
Godaveri.--Damaun, the most famous of the Indo-Portuguese Towns    270


CHAPTER XIII.

The Taptee River.--Surat and its Environs.--The Borahs and
Kholees of Guzerat.--Baroda, the Capital of the
Guicowars.--Fakeers, or Relic-Carriers, of Baroda.--Cambay.
--Mount Aboo.--Jain Temples on Mount Aboo, etc.                    286


CHAPTER XIV.

Calcutta, the City of the Black Venus, Kali.--The River
Hoogley.--Cremation Towers.--Chowringee, the Fashionable Suburb
of Calcutta.--The Black Hole.--Battles of Plassey and
Assaye.--The Brahmo-Somaj.--Temple of Kali.--Feast of
Juggurnath.--Benares and the Taj Mahal                             303




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                       PAGE
THE TAJ MAHAL FROM THE RIVER,                  Frontispiece

BANYAN TREE,                                             36

CAVES OF ELEPHANTA,                                      53

NATIVE SNAKE CHARMERS,                                   66

A PARSEE LADY,                                          106

BOMBAY. UNIVERSITY AND ESPLANADE,                       128

BUDDHIST PRIEST PREACHING AT THE DOOR OF A TEMPLE,      161

BULLOCK CART,                                           208

TOMB OF RAHBEA DHOORANE, AT AURANGABÂD,                 250

ROCK CUT TEMPLES OF ELLORA,                             270

NATIVE PASSENGER BOAT ON THE HOOGLY,                    302

THE MUNIKURNIKA GHAT, ONE OF THE BURNING GHATS
OF BENARES,                                             322




PREFACE.


In the following pages, gathered from voluminous notes of early travel,
I have tried to give a faithful account of life in India, as well as of
the sights and scenes visited by me, with my husband, before the days of
railroad travel.

It is well known that the introduction of the railroad into India has in
no sense affected the life of the people, and has only very slightly
modified the general appearance of the country. India is still what it
was in the Vèdic period, a land of peasant classes; she still invokes,
as did the ancient Aryans in the Rig Vèda, the "Khe-tra-pati," or the
divinity of the soil, for blessings on the land. The Hindoo to-day
lives, as did his forefathers, close to the heart of Nature, deifying
the mountains, streams, woods, and lakes, while the sun, moon, stars,
fire, water, earth, air, sky, and corn are his highest deities. The most
beautiful personification in the Ramâyânâ of womanly grace and virtue is
called _Sita_, "a furrow," showing how deep was the national reverence
paid to the plough; and to this day at the _Rathsaptimi_, the day on
which the new sun is supposed to mount his heavenly chariot, a feast is
observed in honor of the sun, and the ryots on this occasion decorate
with flowers and paint their ploughs, and worship them as the saviors of
the land.

I do not, however, mean to say that India has made no progress whatever
in all these years--her imaginative and glorious youth has no doubt been
succeeded by the calm reason of mature age--but this transition has been
gradual and progressive rather than fitful and sudden.

The transfer of India by the East India Company to the British Crown,
and the recent laws for the protection of the ryot--or more properly the
_raiyat_, a leaser of land held in perpetuity--against the oppressions
of the zemindars, or governmental landlords, with the right of
underletting the land, have to an extraordinary degree awakened the
inborn desire of the Hindoo to become possessor of the soil and to
return to his hereditary occupation of agriculture. To these may be
added the security which England has conferred upon India, now that she
is no longer disturbed by frequent wars, which desolated the land, and
every now and then forced the people to abandon their villages and fly
to the jungles and mountains for safety, under the Afghans, Mohguls,
Mahrattas, and other predatory chiefs. Among the lasting benefits to
India it may be mentioned that sutteeism, infanticide, self-immolation
to the idols, Thuggism, and slavery have all been partially, if not
quite, abolished by the strong arm of the law. Railroads have been
built, the country has been opened, schools established, civil service
