Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/341

297 become a Sudra; he ceases to be a Brahmin or a Kschatrya, and becomes a casteless man, a vagabond upon the face of the earth.

It does not matter whether the offence was voluntary or involuntary; it is not the sin, but the defilement, that constitutes the crime. In Bengal, a European, out of spite, seized a Brahmin and forced spirits and meat into his mouth. He became an outcast. At the end of three years, efforts were made by his friends at the expense of forty thousand dollars to have his caste restored, but in vain. Another effort was made, however, and by expending some one hundred thousand dollars, his fellows were induced to consent to his restoration to his former rights and privileges. During the reign of Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore, an attempt was made by that cruel prince to force the Hindus to adopt the Mohammedan religion. A number of them were forced to eat beef as an evidence of their having forsaken Hinduism. After his overthrow by the English, these persons petitioned for a restoration to caste, but in vain. No penances could atone for the worse than cannibal sacrilege of eating the flesh of the sacred cow—an animal so holy in their eyes, that to kill one is a crime as heinous as the murder