Life in India
Frontispiece.
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Preaching in the Village.
Life in India;
OR,
MADRAS, THE NEILGHERRIES, AND CALCUTTA.
WRITTEN FOR THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION.
Philadelphia:
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
No. 316 CHESTNUT STREET.
NEW YORK: No. 147 NASSAU ST.
BOSTON: No. 9 CORNHILL..... CINCINNATI: 41 WEST FOURTH ST.
LOUISVILLE: No. 103 FOURTH ST.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by the
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
PREFACE.
The author ventures with much diffidence to make an humble contribution to the stock of public information on India and the Hindus.
It has not been his aim to tell all that could be told of India; this would call for folios. Nor has he attempted to give a popular compend of the whole vast subject; this would demand a volume whose size and style would defeat his object; and, moreover, it has already been ably done by authors in this country and in England. He has rather aimed, by a series of sketches, simply and familiarly drawn, to give some definite impressions on a number of points connected with that interesting land and its teeming millions; and more especially as seen in those parts of India which have come under his own observation. He has sought to show how the missionary reaches the shores of Southern India; what sights and sounds greet him on landing; how Hindus live, act, and worship; in what ways they are approached by the missionary; and what are the effects of his labours among them.
Though indebted for many facts to those who have preceded him, the writer has thought that reality and definiteness of conception would be most promoted by giving mainly the results of personal experience and the incidents of personal travel. In themselves of slight importance, they yet serve to illustrate the subject, and so to answer the end he has in view.
Though a residence of scarce four years hardly suffices for such an acquaintance with a foreign nation—and that, too, one so unlike our own—as would justify the present authorship, yet he trusts that a diligent study of the people during that time, with the aid of information drawn from books of known authority, will be found to have prevented the occurrence of many serious errors. The reader should be warned against the very common mistake of taking, as applicable to all India, statements true only of certain districts or provinces. India is an aggregate of nations having many things in common, but being in many things diverse. This should be borne in mind, and a distinction be made between local and general facts.
A scientific accuracy in the spelling of Eastern names and terms has not been sought. The mode most commonly used in Southern India has been usually adopted.
If this humble attempt to give life and reality to now vague and cold conceptions of the “heathen of far-off India” serves to create in any Christian heart a more enlightened and lively zeal for the extension of the kingdom of Christ in that rich and noble land, (though now impoverished and degraded by sin;) if it helps to swell the tide of Christian sympathy for the Hindu, and of effort for his salvation; if it awakens in the bosom of any of our youth an interest in the welfare of the benighted, and thankfulness for their own happier lot; and, more especially, if it should lead any youth to say, "Here am I, send me!”—then will the writer feel that not entirely in vain has he been removed from a loved field of labour, and deprived of the ability to preach with his own voice the unsearchable riches of Christ.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE 13 15 21 28 38 45 50 53
PART II.
79 90 97 102 109 128 134 143 154 165 183
PART III.
204 222 229 241 248 255 262 277 281
PART IV.
PAGE 289 301 308 331 349
PART V.
383 397 416 424 440 445 457 473
PART VI.
493 521
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE Preaching in the villages (Frontispiece.) - Madras catamaran
51 - Madras from the roadstead
53 - Temple to Ganesha
69 - Peon or policeman
71 - Castor-oil mill
73 - Bazaar shop
92 - Mission church, school-house, and bungalow
99 - Plantain in fruit
112 - Writing on palm-leaf, book and letter
147 - Cavady-man with water-pots
190 - Hindu women at a well
192 - Silversmith at work
197 - Camel and rider
203 - Palankeen in motion
204 - Hindu family journeying
219 - Woman with water-chatty
229 - Hindu weaving
235 - Fanning and beating rice
264
- Gobram or pagoda
283 - Vaishnava Brahmin
301 - Brahmin at his meal
305 - Young palmyra
316 - Toddy-gatherers
318 - Disease leaving the Madura king
370 - The king's ministers
374 - Musical instruments
382 - Buffalo cart
393 - Sepoys
401 - Water-booth and soldiers
428 - Elephant with howdah
431 - Todar family
446 - Bazaar of a Hindu town
486 - Hindu house
492 - Government-house, Calcutta
499 - Hindus eating
501