sure of Hindu Widows, by M. A. Subramaniam, B.A., B.L., was published in Madras.1

During the last twenty years groups of Hindus in various parts of the country have begun to maintain Widows' homes in imitation of Christian missions. The earliest Home outside the Christian Church was established at Barahanagar near Calcutta in 1887 by Sasipada Banerjea,2 and did good work for some time; but it is no longer in existence. In 1889, a Christian lady, Paṇḍitā Rāmabai, opened the Săradā Sadan, or Home of Learning, for Hindu widows in Bombay. Soon after it was moved to Poona. But within a few years so many of the widows had been baptized that Hindus became very hostile. Most of the widows were withdrawn, and Hindu subscriptions ceased. But the work accomplished was manifestly good and necessary; and Hindus began to clamour for a similar institution under Hindu management. Hence the Hindu Widows' Home Association was organized in Poona in 1896, and a Home was opened, which has steadily grown in strength and usefulness. During the year 1912 there were 105 inmates in the Home, of whom 95 were widows. The annual expenditure is now about 17,000 Rupees. The whole institution seems to be thoroughly well managed by the founder, Mr. D. K. Karve. In 1906 a Boarding School for high-caste Hindu girls and widows was opened close beside the Home. Then in 1912 the Nishkāma Karma Matha (Monastery for Unselfish Work) was started for the purpose of creating a band of competent women workers to staff the Boarding School. I was able to visit these institutions in February last, and was much struck with the character of the buildings

1 Cf. ISR., XX, 185, 296; and Indian Review, March, 1910. Social Reform in Bengal, 12.

'See The High-caste Hindu Woman, by Paṇḍita Ramabai, New York, Revell. • Report for 1912; ISR., XIX, 596, 605; XX, 151, 261.

and the excellence of the arrangements. So far as I know, no widows' home was founded by Hindus between 1896 and 1906; but it was probably during that interval that the Deva Samaj,' the Arya Samaj and the Digambara Jains founded their homes. I have seen no reports of these institutions, and do not know the dates when they were founded. In 1907 a Hindu Widows' Home was founded in Mysore City; and in 1910 there were thirty-two pupils, of whom seventeen were resident. The total cost was met by Rai Bahadur Narasimha Iyengar. The same year the Mahila Silpāśrama, or Women's Industrial Refuge, was founded in Calcutta by Mrs. P. Mukerjee, a niece of Mr. Rabindra Nath Tagore. Over a dozen widows reside in it, and a number of others come from the outside to receive instruction. It is supported by public subscription, supplemented by Government and Municipal grants.5 In 1908 the Sikhs opened their Widows' Home in Amritsar. 1910 Mrs. Pitt, the widow of an Indian civilian, opened a Widows' Home in Bangalore, which is to be conducted on purely Hindu lines. It is intended to teach women the privilege of social service. In 1911 a Home was opened in Dacca of which Mrs. Dutta is the Founder-Secretary." In July, 1912, a group of Hindus organized a Brāhman Widows' Hostel in Madras, and in September of that year the Government of Madras undertook the bulk of the financial responsibilities. It is too early to say anything about the success of this new venture.8

1 At Ferozpore and Bhatinda.

2 One is at Jullundur.

3 In Bombay.

ISR., XX, 522.

Chirol, Indian Unrest, 111.

In

5 My informant is Mr. Hem Ch. Sarkar of the Sådhāran Brähma Samāj.

• ISR., XXI, 26, 500.

7 Ib., XXIV, 390.

* Ib., XXIII, 532.

8. THE ZENĀNA

From very early times the ladies of royal harems in India lived in something like seclusion, and wealthy families naturally copied kings in some degree. There was also a great deal of distrust of women expressed in Hindu law, and men were therefore bid guard their women with great care. Yet there was no general custom of shutting women up in the house. When, however, at the end of the twelfth century, the Muḥammadan invasion came, two motives arose which combined to make the Hindus seclude their women. Their conquerors, who now held the highest social position in India, kept their women shut up in the women's apartments; and it was natural for Hindus to imitate them. Then, in the wild violence and lawlessness which characterized Muslim rule for centuries, Hindu women were unsafe, unless they were shut up and guarded. Hence all high-caste Hindus, living in provinces where Muḥammadans were numerous and powerful, adopted the Zenāna system. A high-caste woman to-day very seldom leaves the zenāna. If she goes out, it is in the dusk of the morning or the evening, and only for a hurried visit to the temple or the river. On occasion she may go to the house of a relative for a wedding or some other important ceremony, but, if she do, she goes in a closed carriage or palanquin. Parsees and Jains adopted the custom as well as Hindus. In those parts of the South where Muḥammadan rule did not arise or did not last long, some of the old freedom still remains; and the women of the lower orders live a very free life.

Christian teaching and Western example have made a very serious impact on educated opinion in this matter; and the women of the Brahma Samāj are now as free as Christian women; but the only other community which

has stepped out into full freedom is the Parsees. But there has been a distinct and very welcome change amongst educated Hindus during the last twenty years. A small but increasing number in Calcutta and in Bombay take their wives and children out driving with them in the evening; and in every educated centre the women themselves are increasingly eager to meet European ladies socially, to gather together in little clubs and societies, and occasionally to hold women's meetings and conferences. One sympathizes with the fear lest a sudden change should do more harm than good; but, without any doubt, progress in this matter might with safety be a good deal accelerated.

9. MARRIAGE EXPENSES

Loud and bitter complaints are raised in many parts of India by Hindus about the extortionate payments demanded by the bridegroom's family from the father of the bride. The evil seems to be largely a result of the progress of Western education; for a young man who has done well at College is a most desirable bridegroom, and naturally the price has tended to rise as steadily as the demand. The tyrannical custom, which compels a father to spend huge sums upon feasting, processions and presents to Brahmans on the occasion of a daughter's wedding, presses very heavily on the poor. Most fathers are driven to borrow huge sums, and, in consequence, pass the remainder of their lives in bondage and fear.

Reformers have tried to mitigate these evils, but nothing very substantial, except the action of the Walterkrit Sabha,1 has to be chronicled. Quite recently in Calcutta, a father could see no way to raise money for his daughter's marriage except by mortgaging his home. The daughter, 1 Above, p. 398.

whose name was Snehalată, burned herself to death in her own room to release her father from the impasse.1 Her suicide roused intense feeling, and meetings were held to move public opinion, but with what result has still to be seen.

10. DOMESTIC CEREMONIES

In ancient Hindu Law-books twelve domestic saṁskāras or sacraments, are enumerated as binding on every Hindu of the Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaiśya castes, and the details of the ceremonies are laid down in priestly manuals. Each is filled with polytheistic ideas and idolatrous practices; so that modern men are inclined to object to them. Debendranath Tagore prepared a new set of ceremonies for Brahmas from which everything idolatrous was excluded, and Keshab carried the process still farther." The other Samājes have followed suit, but orthodoxy remains orthodox.

II. DEVADĀSĪS (HIERODOULOI)

In Hindu literature of all ages, even in the Rigveda itself, wherever references to heaven occur, we find very frequent mention of the Gandharvas and the Apsarases, the former being male musicians, the latter female dancers and singers. The Apsarases are equally famed for their dazzling beauty and their easy morals. When some human ascetic carried his austerities to such a pitch that the merit due to him threatened to endanger the gods, the regular expedient Indra was to send down one of these irresistible nymphs to draw him away from his self-torture.

This is probably a reflection of the customs of Hindu Kings. Each had a troop of male musicians in his resi

1 ISR., Feb. 15th, 1914, 210. Two other cases followed. ISR., May 17th. * Above, pp. 41, 43, 48.