SUTTEES IN INDIA.
"Suttee is a Brahmanical rite, and there is a Sanskrit ritual in existence
(see Classified Index to the Tanjore MSS., p. 135a.). It was
introduced into Southern India with the Brahman civilization, and was
prevalent there chiefly in the Brahmanical Kingdom of Vijayanagar, and
among the Mahrattas. In Malabar, the most primitive part of S. India, the
rite is forbidden (Anacharanirnaya, v. 26). The cases mentioned by
Teixeira, and in the Lettres edifiantes, occurred at Tanjore and Madura.
A (Mahratta) Brahman at Tanjore told one of the present writers that he
had to perform commemorative funeral rites for his grandfather and
grandmother on the same day, and this indicated that his grandmother had
been a sati." YULE, Hobson-Jobson. Cf. Cathay, II., pp. 139-140.
MAABAR.
XVII., p. 345. Speaking of this province, Marco Polo says: "They have
certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to whom many young girls
are consecrated; their fathers and mothers presenting them to that idol
for which they entertain the greatest devotion. And when the [monks] of a
convent desire to make a feast to their god, they send for all those
consecrated damsels and make them sing and dance before the idol with
great festivity. They also bring meats to feed their idol withal; that is
to say, the damsels prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put
the food before the idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the
damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as
long as a great Baron might require to eat his dinner. By that time they
say the spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so
they remove the viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity. This
is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are
married."
Chau Ju-kwa has the following passage in Cambodia (p. 53): "(The people)
are devout Buddhists. There are serving (in the temples) some three
hundred foreign women; they dance and offer food to the Buddha. They are
called a-nan or slave dancing-girls."
Hirth and Rockhill, who quote Marco Polo's passage, remark, p. 55 n.:
"A-nan, as here written, is the usual transcription of the Sanskrit word
ananda, 'joy, happiness.' The almeh or dancing-girls are usually called
in India deva-dasi ('slave of a god') or ramjani."
In Guzerat, Chau Ju-kwa, p. 92, mentions: "Four thousand Buddhist temple
buildings, in which live over twenty thousand dancing-girls who sing twice
daily while offering food to the Buddha (i.e., the idols) and while
offering flowers."
XVIII., p. 356.
TRADITIONS OF ST. THOMAS.
"The traditional site of the Apostle's Tomb, now adjacent to the sea-shore,
has recently come to be enclosed in the crypt of the new Cathedral of San
Thome." (A.E. MEDLYCOTT, India and the Apostle Thomas.
