A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar by Robert Sewell (short story to read TXT) 📕

confess themselves alone after approaching God, for he who does not do so does not acquire grace; thus they fulfil the command in one way or another. But they do it so seldom (in reality) that they (may be said to) neglect this command to confess.

This kingdom of Bisnaga is all heathen. The women have the custom of burning themselves when their husbands die, and hold it an honour to do so. When therefore their husbands die they mourn with their relations and those of their husbands, but they hold that the wife who weeps beyond measure has no desire to go in search of her husband; and the mourning finished their relations speak to them, advising them to burn themselves and not to dishonour their generation. After that, it is said, they place the dead man on a bed with a canopy of branches and covered with flowers, and they put the woman on the back of a worthless horse, and she goes after them with many jewels on her, and covered with roses; she carries a mirror in her hand and in the other a branch of flowers, and (she goes accompanied by) many kinds of music, and his relations (go with her) with much pleasure. A man goes also playing on a small drum, and he sings songs to her telling her that she is going to join her husband, and she answers also in singing that so she will do. As soon as she arrives at the place where they are always burned she waits with the musicians till her husband is burned, whose body they place in a very large pit that has been made ready for it, covered with much firewood. Before they light the fire his mother or his nearest relative takes a vessel of water on the head and a firebrand in the hand, and goes three times round the pit, and at each round makes a hole in the pot; and when these three rounds are done breaks the pot, which is small, and throws the torch into the pit. Then they apply the fire, and when the body is burned comes the wife with all the feasters and washes her feet, and then a Brahman performs over her certain ceremonies according to their law; and when he has finished doing this, she draws off with her own hand all the jewels that she wears, and divides them among her female relatives, and if she has sons she commends them to her most honoured relatives. When they have taken off all she has on, even her good clothes, they put on her some common yellow cloths, and her relatives take her hand and she takes a branch in the other, and goes singing and running to the pit where the fire is, and then mounts on some steps which are made high up by the pit. Before they do this they go three times round the fire, and then she mounts the steps and holds in front of her a mat that prevents her from seeing the fire. They throw into the fire a cloth containing rice, and another in which they carry betel leaves, and her comb and mirror with which she adorned herself, saying that all these are needed to adorn herself by her husband’s side. Finally she takes leave of all, and puts a pot of oil on her head, and casts herself into the fire with such courage that it is a thing of wonder; and as soon as she throws herself in, the relatives are ready with firewood and quickly cover her with it, and after this is done they all raise loud lamentations. When a captain dies, however many wives he has they all burn themselves, and when the King dies they do the same. This is the custom throughout all the country of the heathen, except with that caste of people called Telugas, amongst whom the wives are buried alive with their husbands when they die. These go with much pleasure to the pit, inside of which are made two seats of earth, one for him and one for her, and they place each one on his own seat and cover them in little by little till they are covered up; and so the wife dies with the husband.

CHAPTER 23

Of the ceremonies practised at the death of Brahmans.

When a Brahman is sick, before he dies, they send to call the learned Brahmans who are his priests, so that they should come to pray, and console the sick man; and they talk to him of the affairs of his soul, and what he must do to save it, bidding him spend money in alms. After this ceremony is over they make the Brahman priests shave the sick man’s head, and after the shaving they bid them wash it, and after the washing it is their custom to bring into their houses a cow with a calf, — there are very few Brahmans, however poor they be, who do not have one to live in their house, — which cow, when they have finished washing the man’s head, they take a turban and tie it to its neck and put the end of the turban into the hand of the sick man, and he gives it and the calf in alms for his soul to those priests who perform these ceremonies. On that day he gives alms according to his position, and gives to eat to some Brahmans who are invited and who come there for the purpose. They believe that when these ceremonies are made for the sick man, if he is to live he is soon cured of his infirmity, and if not that he soon dies.

After the death of the sick man they have the ground washed upon which he lay, and after the washing they take cow-dung and spread it over the ground, and place the body on the top of this dung. They hold that a sick man who dies on a cot, or on anything so-ever except only on the ground, commits a mortal sin. As soon as the body is laid on the ground they make for it a bier covered with boughs of the fig-tree, and before they place the body on the bier they wash it well with pure water, and anoint it with sandal-wood (oil); and they place by the body branches of sweet basil and cover it with a new cloth, and so place it in the bier. Then one of his relatives takes the bier on one side, and they call three other Brahmans whosoever they may be to aid them to lift it; and so they carry it to the place where they are to burn it, accompanied by many Brahmans who go singing in front of the corpse. In front of all goes his son, if he has one, or next younger brother or nearest relative, with fire in the hand for the burning. As soon as they arrive at the place where they have to burn the body, they scatter money according to their ability, and then put the fire to it; and they wait there till the whole body is consumed, and then all go and wash their bodies in a tank and afterwards return each one to his house. The son or brother or relation who put the fire is obliged to sleep on the ground where the man died for nine nights, and after the lapse of nine days from the death come the priests and learned men and they command to shave the head of this man. During these nine days, they feed the poor and they give them the dead man’s clothes, and they give the cot with its bed in alms to the priests, with some money in addition; if he is a rich man they give gardens and other things in alms to many Brahmans. When ten days are finished, and the son has been shaved, he goes to the place where they burned his father or his brother, and they perform many ceremonies over the ashes and bones that remain unburned; then they put them in a small vessel and make a pit in the ground and bury them in it, and keep them thus guarded and buried in order (afterwards) to send the bones to be thrown into a sacred river, which is distant from Goa over one thousand leagues.[650] There is a very large temple there, the object of many pilgrimages, and they hold that every pilgrim who dies there is saved, and goes to Paradise, and also every dead man whose bones are thrown into that river. In spite of this they in reality take very few people there. The heir or the father or son of the dead man is obliged, from the day of the death, for eleven days to give food to twenty-seven Brahmans, and until twenty-one days to three others; until twelve days again he feeds seven Brahmans, and until twenty-seven days gives to eat to the three; on the last day of the month he gives food to three others, and thenceforward, until one year is finished, he gives meals once a month to three Brahmans. They do this in honour of the Trinity for the soul of the deceased. When this year is over he gives no more alms, except that each year, on the day on which the death happened, he feeds six Brahmans, — namely, three in honour of the Trinity, and three for the persons of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather; who thus seemingly eat together. Thus he obtains favour with God, and for these expenses they beg alms of the Brahmans if they are poor. These give him all help for it. Before they dine they wash the feet of all six, and during the meal some ceremonies are performed by Brahman priests who come there for that purpose.

CHAPTER A

Diamonds

However much it may at first sight appear that our chroniclers have exaggerated in their description of the wealth of the Hindu sovereign and his nobles, and of the wonderful display of jewels made on days of high festival by the ladies of their households, an account of which is given us by Paes, I for one see little reason for doubt. Nuniz distinctly states (p. 389) that the diamond mines, in their day the richest in the world, were farmed out on condition that all stones above twenty mangellins in weight — about twenty-five carats — were sent to the Raya for his personal use, and there must have been many of these. Barradas (p. 226 above) states that, according to rumour, even after the downfall of the empire the king at Chandragiri in 1614 A.D. had no less than three large chests full of diamonds in his possession; and every traveller and chronicler has something to say on the subject.

The principal mines were on the north bank of the Krishna river, and in the Kurnool and Anantapur countries, notably at Vajra Karur. Generically these are known as “the mines of Golkonda,” and the phrase has passed into a proverb.

Linschoten (ii. 136) writes: “They (diamonds) grow in the countrie of Decam behinde Ballagate, by the towne of Bisnagar, wherein are two or three hilles, from whence they are digged, whereof the King of Bisnagar doth reape great profitte; for he causeth them to be straightly watched, and hath farmed them out with this condition, that all diamonds that are above twenty-five Mangellyns in weight are for the King himselfe (every Mangellyn is foure graines in weight).

“There is yet another hill in the Countrie of Decam, which is called Velha, that is the old Rocke, from whence come the best diamonds and are sold for the greatest price…. Sometimes they find Diamonds of one hundred and two hundred Mangelyns and