DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9550#0220
marriage of a man, while his former wife is living ;
but only under certain circumstances of misconduct
or misfortune in the latter, such as the vice of
drinking wine, of deception, of extravagance, of using
disagreeable language, or shewing manifest dislike towards
her husband, long protracted and incurable illness,
barrenness, or producing only female offspring.
In defiance, however, of this restraint, some
of them marry thirty or forty women, either for
the sake of money got with them at marriage, or
to gratify brutal inclinations. Madhosingh, the late
Rajah of Tirhoot, through compassion towards that
helpless sex, limited, I am told, within these thirty
or forty years, the Brahmuns of that district to four
wives only. This regulation, although falling short
both of the written law and of that of reason, tends
to alleviate in some measure the misery to which
women were before exposed, as well as to diminish in
some degree domestic strife and disturbance.
5thly. According to the authority of Munoo (text
155, chap. 2nd), respect and distinction are due to a
Brahmun, merely in proportion to his knowledge ; but
on the contrary amongst modern Hindoos, honour is
paid exclusively to certain families of Brahmuns, such
as the Koolins, &c. however void of knowledge and
principle they may be. This departure from law and
justice was made by the authority of a native prince
of Bengal, named Bullalsen, within the last three or
four hundred years. And this innovation may perhaps
be considered as the chief source of that decay of
learning and virtue, which, I am sorry to say, may be
at present observed. For wherever respectability is
but only under certain circumstances of misconduct
or misfortune in the latter, such as the vice of
drinking wine, of deception, of extravagance, of using
disagreeable language, or shewing manifest dislike towards
her husband, long protracted and incurable illness,
barrenness, or producing only female offspring.
In defiance, however, of this restraint, some
of them marry thirty or forty women, either for
the sake of money got with them at marriage, or
to gratify brutal inclinations. Madhosingh, the late
Rajah of Tirhoot, through compassion towards that
helpless sex, limited, I am told, within these thirty
or forty years, the Brahmuns of that district to four
wives only. This regulation, although falling short
both of the written law and of that of reason, tends
to alleviate in some measure the misery to which
women were before exposed, as well as to diminish in
some degree domestic strife and disturbance.
5thly. According to the authority of Munoo (text
155, chap. 2nd), respect and distinction are due to a
Brahmun, merely in proportion to his knowledge ; but
on the contrary amongst modern Hindoos, honour is
paid exclusively to certain families of Brahmuns, such
as the Koolins, &c. however void of knowledge and
principle they may be. This departure from law and
justice was made by the authority of a native prince
of Bengal, named Bullalsen, within the last three or
four hundred years. And this innovation may perhaps
be considered as the chief source of that decay of
learning and virtue, which, I am sorry to say, may be
at present observed. For wherever respectability is