Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/511

Rh ministers of fiery-eyed Yama shall bind with cords the husband of her desire.”

But even this is not the end of the widow's misery. She must henceforth consider herself as a creature of evil destiny, practicing severe austerities; her weary limbs are no longer to repose upon a comfortable bed; her food is to be taken but once a day, and then only of the coarsest fare; and, lest her presence should involve the dreadful doom of a widow's condition, she is prohibited from ever appearing in the wedding ceremonies of another woman, no matter how nearly related to her. The higher in caste she is, the more rigorously are these rules exacted; so that a Brahmin's widow is the most wretched of all: and this is “according to law”—a doom laid on willfully and wickedly by their legislation and its commentators. Menu ordains as follows: “Let her emaciate her body by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, ever pronounce the name of another man. Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practicing the incomparable rules of virtue which have been followed by such women as have been devoted to one only husband.”—Institutes, secs. 157, 158. To this the Casi-Candam adds: “On the death of their attached husband, women must eat but once a day, must eschew betel and a spread mattress, must sleep on the ground, and continue to practice rigid mortification. Women who have put off glittering jewels of gold must discharge with alacrity the duties of devotion, and, neglecting their persons, must feed on herbs and roots, so as barely to sustain life within the body.”

Can any thing equal this cruel audacity of proscription to hearts which their system had already crushed! Yet it may be matched by the willful blindness of our American and British transcendentalists, who profess to find in Vedic teaching and Hindoo philosophy sentiments and ethics which they deem and commend as even superior to our Christian faith and morality!

It was for the interest of Brahminism that these wretched widows, henceforth so useless and inconvenient, should die, and