DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.641#0108
THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 101
water, a shred of new cloth; which he wears, if a bramhun,
ten days. After this the family return home, or remain till
evening; or, if the burning has taken place in the evening,
till the next morning. Before entering the house, they
touch a piece of hot iron,, and also fire. This is done as a
charm against evil spirits.
Soon after my arrival in Bengal, I was an eye-witness to
two instances of the burning of widows to death :—on the
latter occasion two women were burnt together; one of
them appeared to possess great resolution, but the other
was almost dead with fear. In the year 1812,1 saw another
widow burnt to death at Soondum-poorii, a distance of
about three miles from Serampore; and in the month of
November, 1812, the wife of Ramu-nidhee, a banker, of
Serampore, was burnt alive with the dead body of her
husband, not half a mile from the Mission-house. These
facts respecting the murder of the helpless widow as a
religious ceremony are indeed so notorious, that the most
careless traveller may convince himself, if he take the least
notice of what is doing on the binks of the river. The
natives do not attempt to hide these murders, but rather
glory in them as proofs of the divine nature of their reli-
gion. The facts hereafter inserted have been voluntarily
given to me by respectable natives, most of whom w*re
eye-witnesses of what they here testify.
Several years ago, Ram-Nat'hii, the second Stingskritu
pundit in the college of Fort-William, saw thirteen women
burn themselves with one Mooktua-ramti, of Oola, near
Shantee-poorii. After the pile, which was very large, had
been set on fire, a quantity of pitch being previously thrown
into it to make it burn the fiercer, another of this man's
wives came, and insisted on burning : while she was repeat-
ing the formulas, however, her resolution failed, and she
water, a shred of new cloth; which he wears, if a bramhun,
ten days. After this the family return home, or remain till
evening; or, if the burning has taken place in the evening,
till the next morning. Before entering the house, they
touch a piece of hot iron,, and also fire. This is done as a
charm against evil spirits.
Soon after my arrival in Bengal, I was an eye-witness to
two instances of the burning of widows to death :—on the
latter occasion two women were burnt together; one of
them appeared to possess great resolution, but the other
was almost dead with fear. In the year 1812,1 saw another
widow burnt to death at Soondum-poorii, a distance of
about three miles from Serampore; and in the month of
November, 1812, the wife of Ramu-nidhee, a banker, of
Serampore, was burnt alive with the dead body of her
husband, not half a mile from the Mission-house. These
facts respecting the murder of the helpless widow as a
religious ceremony are indeed so notorious, that the most
careless traveller may convince himself, if he take the least
notice of what is doing on the binks of the river. The
natives do not attempt to hide these murders, but rather
glory in them as proofs of the divine nature of their reli-
gion. The facts hereafter inserted have been voluntarily
given to me by respectable natives, most of whom w*re
eye-witnesses of what they here testify.
Several years ago, Ram-Nat'hii, the second Stingskritu
pundit in the college of Fort-William, saw thirteen women
burn themselves with one Mooktua-ramti, of Oola, near
Shantee-poorii. After the pile, which was very large, had
been set on fire, a quantity of pitch being previously thrown
into it to make it burn the fiercer, another of this man's
wives came, and insisted on burning : while she was repeat-
ing the formulas, however, her resolution failed, and she