The Theosophical Society
rests on the principle of complete non-interference with the
religious beliefs of its members.
Toleration is its basis and
its aims are purely philosophical. This did not suit Dayanand.
He wanted all the members, either to become his disciples, or to
be expelled from the Society. It was quite clear that neither
the President, nor the Council could assent to such a claim.
Englishmen and Americans, whether they were Christians or Freethinkers,
Buddhists, and especially Brahmans, revolted against Dayanand, and
unanimously demanded that the league should be broken.
However, all this happened later. At the time of which I speak
we were friends and allies of the Swami, and we learned with deep
interest that the Hardwar "mela," which he was to visit, takes
place every twelve years, and is a kind of religious fair, which
attracts representatives from all the numerous sects of India.
Learned dissertations are read by the disputants in defence of
their peculiar doctrines, and the debates are held in public.
This year the Hardwar gathering was exceptionally numerous. The
Sannyasis - the mendicant monks of India - alone numbered 35,000 and
the cholera, foreseen by the Swami, actually broke out.
- - - - -
As we were not yet to start for the appointed meeting, we had
plenty of spare time before us; so we proceeded to examine Bombay.
The Tower of Silence, on the heights of the Malabar Hill, is the
last abode of all the sons of Zoroaster. It is, in fact, a Parsee
cemetery. Here their dead, rich and poor, men, women and children,
are all laid in a row, and in a few minutes nothing remains of
them but bare skeletons. A dismal impression is made upon a
foreigner by these towers, where absolute silence has reigned for
centuries. This kind of building is very common in every place
were Parsees live and die. In Bombay, of six towers, the largest
was built 250 years ago, and the least but a short time since.
With few exceptions, they are round or square in shape, from twenty
to forty feet high, without roof, window, or door, but with a
single iron gate opening towards the East, and so small that it
is quite covered by a few bushes. The first corpse brought to a
new tower - "dakhma" - must be the body of the innocent child of a
mobed or priest. No one, not even the chief watcher, is allowed
to approach within a distance of thirty paces of these towers.
Of all living human beings "nassesalars" - corpse-carriers -
alone enter and leave the "Tower of Silence." The life these
men lead is simply wretched. No European executioner's position
is worse. They live quite apart from the rest of the world, in
whose eyes they are the most abject of beings. Being forbidden
to enter the markets, they must get their food as they can. They
are born, marry, and die, perfect strangers to all except their
own class, passing through the streets only to fetch the dead and
carry them to the tower.
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