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INDIA
India, the southern peninsula of central Asia, has been
celebrated during many ages for its richness and valuable
natural products, its magnificent temples, and the early civilization of its people. From the earliest records it is evident
that the nations of the Western world derived their merchandise from India.
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India — Bahd’i Parsee Family
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142 TREASURES OF THE EAST
Entering the city of Bombay, Calcutta, or any of the large cities, the signs of modernism are clearly apparent. Bus-services have sprung up in various sections. Thousands of coolies ride daily on buses to their work.
Suburban life has gradually come into existence. Bullock carts still predominate on Apollo Street, the great transport highway of Bombay, and they are frequently seen on Olive Street, the Wall Street of Calcutta, but they are gradually giving way to motor trucks and automobiles.
Imagine you are now looking at handsome cars speeding during the evening along Queen’s Road or Colaba, Bombay, or in the Maidan (square), Calcutta, or facing the sea on the Marina, Madras, what a spectacle you would behold when their occupants are discovered to be Hindu, Muslim, Persian, or Parsi, ruling chief and wealthy merchant, all in their characteristic costumes.
Most of the Indians take their families in specially designed cars in which hang close curtains along the sides of the rear seating compartment and across the back of the driver’s seat so that only through the slits, blown open by the wind, can the women catch a glimpse of the world.
His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore has two unique cars specially constructed for his use on shooting parties and other tours. One is a single compartment, like a van, in which he sleeps. The other has two compartments for his religious prayers and ceremonies, including bathing. Since he must stand upright in each of the cars, the roofs are made high, and, to permit the vehicles to pass under the branches of trees, these roofs, together with about two feet of the upper parts of the sides, are separate from the lower portions and slide up and down by a clever mechanism operated by a single handle.
There are nearly seven hundred native princes in the land.
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The greatest is the Nizam of Hyderabad, who rules twelve and a half million subjects in an area of eighty-two thousand square miles and enjoys an annual revenue of 583 lakhs of rupees (one lakh is equal to 100,000 rupees, and one rupee is equivalent to 32 cents). The smallest is the Lawa, who has only nineteen square miles, a population of two thousand, and a revenue of 11,000 rupees.
SOCIAL SYSTEM. The natives of India are divided into two classes, the high class or caste and the low or villager. The village in India is under a chief like a township in America. i
Here animals, like people, are divided into high and low castes. Cows, bullocks, buffaloes, elephants, and horses belong to the high class. Beneath them rank goats, dogs, donkeys, and pigs.
Cows and white elephants are considered as saints. The sick would touch the tip of the tail of the white elephant to heal his ailments. Some catch the cow’s tail and lift it to their foreheads once or twice. The penalty of life imprisonment is imposed in the state of Jaipur on any one convicted of killing a cow. Therefore, cows are kept chiefly to produce bullocks, milk, and butter.
A baby elephant (40 years old) is worth from twelve to fifteen hundred rupees. The highest prices are paid for the big tuskers used by rajas in their shoots.
Elephants are only for the wealthy on account of the huge quantities of food they consume. It costs about 100 rupees a month to feed an elephant. It consumes about 1400 pounds of food per day. Some feed their elephants fifty pounds of rice and wheat, and the rest grass, leaves, and sugar cane.
The horse market is usually open for fifteen days in the
first part of April every year. The horses are little but
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144 TREASURES OF THE EAST
many of them are Arabian and very sturdy. Most of them are used by villagers for transportation. When not being ridden, these horses hop around like rabbits; for the Indian ties the two front legs of his horse together and then lets it move about to graze as it pleases.
The Indian method of training horses is somewhat similar to that of the Arabs. The trainer makes the horse run in circles, like a circus pony, every day, while some one cracks the ground behind its heels with a long flexible cane. The object is to accustom the horse to the sound.
Every country has its own superstitions. Once I saw a Muhammadan Hindu, who was in the British army that con quered the Holy Land, whispering something in the ear of his horse. “Were you whispering something to your horse?” I inquired. “Yes, doctor, I was whispering something,” he replied. “What! What did. you say?” I asked again. “I was whispering something to my horse—one of the ninetynine names and attributes of Allah into his ear as a means of quieting him,” he concluded.
Goat’s milk is used, of course, and with the exception of the Brahmans, the Hindus eat the meat. The butchers are Muhammadans who, like in all other Oriental countries, are always careful to say a short prayer before they cut the throat.
The donkey is the traditional: animal of burden in all Oriental countries. In India it can be bought for three or four rupees. There are many proverbs that concern the donkey. For example, ““A driver in a temper with his wife pulls his donkey’s ears”. And another, “The potter’s wife fell out, and the donkey’s ears were twisted.”
As for the pigs, most of them are big, black fellows, and
live the same life pigs live elsewhere. But no Muhammadan
or Jew will even touch them, say nothing about eating them.
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Therefore, they are used only by the Christians and the low caste Hindus.
THE SNAKE CHARMER. While entering the bazaar of an Indian town, you may hear the music from a gourd flute and a drum. This announces the presence of the snake charmer. As you stand with the interested crowd, you see him with his partners sitting crosslegged on the ground, playing on primitive musical instruments, and a round flat basket in their midst. You will shudder at the sight of the big heads, emerging one by one, as the basket lids fall aside. The snakes rise higher and higher, swaying and dancing, keeping time with the music, and their staring eyes fixed on their charmer.
The strangest and most thrilling of all snake charmers was an Indian boy of eighteen. His snake began to go into his mouth and rapidly traveled down his throat. He threw himself on the ground, digging his hands into the earth, while his whole body quivered like a leaf with his struggle to prevent the snake from choking him. Finally it came out of his mouth, darting as an arrow, spattered with blood, and, as he slowly sat up, blood dripped from his nose.
No doubt the poison glands are removed from the jaws of the charmed snakes and perhaps what seemed to be fresh blood was a red ink. But the poor Indian peasants believe in anything.
Some of the snakes are given a bath in a tank every day, and are fed on milk and flour cooked in little balls in boiling water, and frog meat. Many of the snakes sleep with their masters. Sometimes one snake would curl upon the chest and the other on the shoulder of the charmer.
It has been estimated that twenty thousand Indians die
from snake-bite every year. Yet not one Hindu in a hundred
is willing to kill a snake.
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THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS in India extend east and west, containing the highest peaks of the globe. Mount Everest is about 30,000 feet above sea level, the highest in the world. Here are the sources of the two principal rivers of India, the Ganges and the Indus. The Ganges river and
India — The Taj Mahal of Shah Jehan at Agra
the city of Benares on its bank are the Mecca and Jerusalem to the Hindus.
Calcutta is the largest city of India, and used to be the capital. But in 1912 the capital was removed to Delhi, the ancient capital of the country.
THE TA] MAHAL, India’s most wonderful temple. The
supreme achievement of Muhammadan art is the Taj Mahal,
at Agra, India, the city of Shah Jehan. This alabaster masterpiece is the most beautiful tribute to a woman constructed by
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man, and was built by Shah Jehan in 1629-1650, as a mausoleum to his favorite wife, the Begum Mumtaz-i-Mahal.
INDIA’S REVOLUTION. Today India is bleeding from all sides for seeking independence. Mahatma Gandhi, the Nationalist leader, is fighting to free his country from the English rule. What India needs is first, to remove the traditional hatred between her so-called high caste and low caste children. And, second, to abandon religious prejudices that exist between her Hindu, Muhammadan and Parsee citizens. Thus by establishing the foundation of the oneness of humanity and raising the banner of peace among themselves all their problems will be solved.
