Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/313

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HINDU MARRIAGES 261


Nevertheless they are afraid, like the preceding, to avow their belief openly, for that they fear peril of their lives, since the zealous souls of others could not endure this horrible godlessness, but such would readily fall upon them, even as many of them have been killed for this belief aforetime. The sixth sect is named Tschectea (Saktis), who say that neither Wistnou nor Eswara is the chief god, but one Tschecti (Skt. Sakti, " power "), from whom Wistnou, Eswara, and Bramma have their origin, and that they exist through his might, and that the world and all that is therein hath its being through him. These are like the aforesaid in that they will not submit them- selves to the Vedam, but require that men shall prove all things to them so that they may see it with their own eyes and that their hands may handle it. These three last sects are held as heretics by the heathen and have but few followers of their evil belief.' In the eleventh chapter of the first book of his " Open Door " Roger deals with the subject of mar- riage among the Brahmans, telling of the early age at which children are married and the manner in which the match is made, and describing the performance of the marriage ceremony. ' The Bramins are concerned right early to see that their sons obtain a wife and their daughters a husband; but it must be known that the Bramines, the Settreas, and also the Weinsjas may not take this matter in hand before that their sons have received the Brahmanical cord. They that be wealthy and rich are much earlier