DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70300#0275
feELF-TORTURE IN THE EAST INDIES. 243
feeing bolt upright in the air for three hours ; after which, he
seated himself cross-legged, and remained so all the rest of
the day, roasting between those fires, and bathed in the pro-
fuse exudation of his own grease.”
“ Three others of these devotees,” according to Fryer,
“ had made a vow not to lie down for sixteen years, but to
remain standing oil their feet during that time. The elder of
them had completed the full period of his painful discipline;
of the two others, the first had passed five, the second three,
in that position. The legs of all three were swollen in a
dreadful manner, and deeply ulcerated; but being unable to
support the weight of their bodies, they leaned upon pillows
suspended on a string, which hung from one of the branches
of the banyan-tree. He who had completed his penance,
was afterwards entombed, in the same standing position, fol'
nine days, without taking any sustenance ; and, to prove that
he actually continued in his earthy bed, during all the nine
days, he caused,” says our author, w a bank of earth to be
thrown up before the mouth of his cave, on which was sown
a certain grain, w hich ears exactly in nine days, and which,
in fact, did actually ear, before his removal thence.” Fryer
saw the squalid figure of this penitent immediately after his
resurrection from his subterraneous prison.”
M. S on nerat wTas the eye-witness of many of these extra-
vagant penances on the coast of Coromandel. The follow-
ing particulars are the result of his observations and inquiries.
After having described some of their penances of inferior
note, he proceeds to remark-
The Indians have, besides these, other more rigid peni-
tents, whom fanaticism induces to quit friends, relatives, pos-
sessions, every thing in order to live a miserable life. The
majority are of the sect of Seeva. The only goods they
can possess are a lingam, to which they continually offer their
adorations, and a tiger’s skin, on which they sleep. They
exercise on their bodies all that a fanatic fury can convey to
feeing bolt upright in the air for three hours ; after which, he
seated himself cross-legged, and remained so all the rest of
the day, roasting between those fires, and bathed in the pro-
fuse exudation of his own grease.”
“ Three others of these devotees,” according to Fryer,
“ had made a vow not to lie down for sixteen years, but to
remain standing oil their feet during that time. The elder of
them had completed the full period of his painful discipline;
of the two others, the first had passed five, the second three,
in that position. The legs of all three were swollen in a
dreadful manner, and deeply ulcerated; but being unable to
support the weight of their bodies, they leaned upon pillows
suspended on a string, which hung from one of the branches
of the banyan-tree. He who had completed his penance,
was afterwards entombed, in the same standing position, fol'
nine days, without taking any sustenance ; and, to prove that
he actually continued in his earthy bed, during all the nine
days, he caused,” says our author, w a bank of earth to be
thrown up before the mouth of his cave, on which was sown
a certain grain, w hich ears exactly in nine days, and which,
in fact, did actually ear, before his removal thence.” Fryer
saw the squalid figure of this penitent immediately after his
resurrection from his subterraneous prison.”
M. S on nerat wTas the eye-witness of many of these extra-
vagant penances on the coast of Coromandel. The follow-
ing particulars are the result of his observations and inquiries.
After having described some of their penances of inferior
note, he proceeds to remark-
The Indians have, besides these, other more rigid peni-
tents, whom fanaticism induces to quit friends, relatives, pos-
sessions, every thing in order to live a miserable life. The
majority are of the sect of Seeva. The only goods they
can possess are a lingam, to which they continually offer their
adorations, and a tiger’s skin, on which they sleep. They
exercise on their bodies all that a fanatic fury can convey to