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    Untitled Article

    Hindooistn t that it is in opposition to the pr < eeepfcr&f their great lawgiver , to the very nature of their religious system , and to tlieir best ideas of viUue . Away , then , with all squeamisbness about interfering with a fundamental article of Hindoo religion . In the few instances where the rite is recommended , it i $ expressly stated that the sacrifice mast be voluntary . It is true that the Brahmuns assert , in

    every case , that the sacrifice is strictly voluntary ; but whether it be so let every European witness of the ceremony be called on to declare , and the testimony will be universal in the dental of the assertion . If it be not voUtntary , the English government is bound to interfere to protect the lives of its subjects from the rapacity of their relations and the craftiness of their priests . It is true that the victims are not conveyed by fence to the pile , or cast into the flames by violence ; but they are surrounded by interested relations in the first moments of desolation , when life bas lost its value * and death appears

    welcome ; they are urged , threatened , and entreated ; disgrace and privation are held forth on the one side ; honour and blessedness on the other ; till , terrified by clamour , wearied by importunity , frenzied by the shouts of the unfeeling multitudes , or , more commonly , stu pined by narcotics , the sutferers consent to cast off their life and their miseries together . It is sufficient to adduce one case out of the many of equal horror which are collected in Mr . Peggs * work . The narrative is given by the Rev . J . England , of Bangalore , in a letter dated June 12 , 1826 .

    " I received a note from a gentleman that a Suttee was about to take place near his house . On hastening to the spot , I found the preparations considerably advanced , and a large concourse of spectators assembled , and continually increasing , till they amounted to six or eight thousand . On my left stood the liorrid pile . It was an oblong bed of dry cow-dung cakes , about tea ffeet long , and seven wide , and three high . At each corner of it a rough stake about eight feet in length was driven into the ground 5 and at about a foot

    from the top of these supporters was fastened , by cords , a frame of the same dimensions as the bed below , and forming aflat canopy to the couch of death . This frame must have been of considerable weight : it was covered with very dry small faggots , which the officiating Brahmuns continued to throw upon it , till they rose two feet above the frame-work . On nay right * at the poor deluded widow who was to be the victim of this heart-rending display or Hindoo purity and gentleness : she was attended by a dozen or more Brahmuns ; h € r mother , sister , and son , an interesting boy of about three years of age , and

    other relatives , were alao with her . Her own infant , not twelve months old , was craftily kept from her by the Brahmuns . She had already performed a number of preparatory ceremonies ; one of which was wa&uing herself ia a strong decoction of saffron , which is supposed to bave a purifying effect . One effect it certainly produced ; it imparted to her a horrid ghasthness ;—her eyes indicated a degree of melancholy wildness , a forced and unnatural smile now and then played on her countenance ; and , indeed , every tiling

    about her person and her conduct indicated that narcotics had been administered in no small quantities . Close by me stood the Fouzdar , a native officer , who , besides regulating the police , is the chief military officer at the station . Under his authority and superintendance , this inhuman business was carrying on . So heartily did he engage in this murderous work , that he gave the poor widow twenty pagodas ( . between six and seven pounds sterling ) to confirm

    her resolution to be burned 1 The pile being completed , a quantity of straw was spread on the top of the bed of cow-dung cakes . Au increase of activity was Boon visible among the men whose ' feet are swift to shed blood . ' Muntrams ( prayers or incantations ) having been repeated over the pile , and the woman ana every thing being in readiness , the hurdle to which the corpse of her husband had been fastened was now raised by six of the officiating Brah-

    Untitled Article

    832 India ' s Cries to British Humamty .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 832, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/16/