DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.641#0129
122 THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.
dred men out of limbo at Jugunnat'hii : there were a thou-
sand dead and dying;—all in limbo starving, to extort
money from them x. *
SECT. XXXIL—-Infanticide.
The people in some parts of India, particularly the inha-
bitants of Orissa, and of the eastern parts of Bengal, fre-
quently offer their children to the goddess Giinga. The
following reason is assigned for this practice:—When a wo-
man has been long married, and has no children, it is
common for the man, or his wife, or both of them, to make
a vow to the goddess Giinga, that if she will bestow the
blessing of children upon them, they will devote the first-
born to her. If after this vow they have children, the eld-
est is nourished till a proper age, which may be three, four,
or more years, according to circumstances, when, on a par-
ticular day appointed for bathing in any holy part of the
river, they take the child with them, and offer it to this god-
dess : the child is encouraged to go farther and farther into
the water till it is carried away by the stream, or is pushed
off by its inhuman parents. Sometimes a stranger seizes
the child, and brings it up; but it is abandoned by its pa-
rents from the moment it floats in the water, and if no one
be found more humane than they, it infallibly perishes. The
principal places in Bengal where, this species of murder is
practiced, are, Gunga-Saguru, where the river Hoogly
disembogues itself into the sea; Voidyuvatee, a town
about fourteen miles to the north of Calcutta; Triv^neeV
Nudeeya, Chakdiih, and Pruyagii.
* I have not the authority of this gentleman for inserting this extract;
but I rely on hit known benevolence to excuse the freedom I have thus
taken.
dred men out of limbo at Jugunnat'hii : there were a thou-
sand dead and dying;—all in limbo starving, to extort
money from them x. *
SECT. XXXIL—-Infanticide.
The people in some parts of India, particularly the inha-
bitants of Orissa, and of the eastern parts of Bengal, fre-
quently offer their children to the goddess Giinga. The
following reason is assigned for this practice:—When a wo-
man has been long married, and has no children, it is
common for the man, or his wife, or both of them, to make
a vow to the goddess Giinga, that if she will bestow the
blessing of children upon them, they will devote the first-
born to her. If after this vow they have children, the eld-
est is nourished till a proper age, which may be three, four,
or more years, according to circumstances, when, on a par-
ticular day appointed for bathing in any holy part of the
river, they take the child with them, and offer it to this god-
dess : the child is encouraged to go farther and farther into
the water till it is carried away by the stream, or is pushed
off by its inhuman parents. Sometimes a stranger seizes
the child, and brings it up; but it is abandoned by its pa-
rents from the moment it floats in the water, and if no one
be found more humane than they, it infallibly perishes. The
principal places in Bengal where, this species of murder is
practiced, are, Gunga-Saguru, where the river Hoogly
disembogues itself into the sea; Voidyuvatee, a town
about fourteen miles to the north of Calcutta; Triv^neeV
Nudeeya, Chakdiih, and Pruyagii.
* I have not the authority of this gentleman for inserting this extract;
but I rely on hit known benevolence to excuse the freedom I have thus
taken.