Indian infanticide: its origin, progress, and suppression

Front matter

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Preface

Custom seems to have given almost a prescriptive right to the public to expect something in the form of an introduction, when a new work is presented to them, while it has placed an author under a corresponding obligation to offer some prefatory remarks, either apologetic, or explanatory, or both. In the present case, this custom is the more readily complied with, that the author is altogether unknown to the public, and scarcely less so the subject of which he has attempted to treat, to a large majority of them. It is, therefore, the more necessary that he should at the outset explain why he has been induced to obtrude himself and his subject on their notice.

In the end of October, 1853, having occasion to pass through the city of Umritsur, at the time when the note of preparation was being sounded on every side for the approaching meeting for the suppression of infanticide in the

VI PREFACE.

Punjab, but being unable to delay on his road in order to witness the proceedings, he could only console himself for the loss of such a gratification by endeavouring to gain some insight into the bearings of the great social question to be there discussed, which seemed to be attracting such general attention. That charming book, " Raikes's Notes on the North- Western Provinces," lent to him by a friend, most acceptably supplied the want he felt, proving a cheerful companion on his lonely journey, and explaining, as it does, in a lucid and touching manner, among other subjects of Indian interest, the system of female infanticide as practised by the Rajpoots; and, from that time, what had previously been rather a matter of curiosity became one of deep interest, which was greatly strengthened by his being enabled a few months afterwards to witness the scarcely less important meeting on the same subject held at Budheeal, in the Jummoo territory of the Maharajah Gholab Singh, under his son and heir apparent, the Meer Sahib (Prince) Runbheer Singh; on which occasion Mr. Raikes himself was enabled to explain fully to the assembled Rajpoots of the Jummoo and Seealkote districts the measures which had been taken at Mynpooree and Umritsur —

for the suppression of this crime.

So deeply was the author's sympathy enlisted in the

PBEFACE. Vll

philanthropic, movement then going on, that he consented, at the solicitation of a friend, to prepare for an English periodical an account of that meeting, prefaced by a slight sketch of the whole subject. But the work he had thus undertaken, under the impulse of the moment, he found far more difficult than he had at first anticipated. Comparatively ignorant of the social bearings of the subject, and finding himself perpetually at fault in tracing out its history, he realised the truth of the quaint remark of good Bishop Andre wes, that " emptying presupposes filling," and found that if he wished to make the subject intelligible and interesting to others, he must first arrive at a tolerably clear conception of it himself. Thus he was induced to study the subject carefully in all its various phases, and to collect from every available source such information as might be brought to bear on its elucidation. Such spare time as he could command from his more direct clerical duties was devoted to it; and thus was he imperceptibly led on, by the insight (slight though it were) which he was daily gaining into the social system and the history of the Hindoos, until his contemplated " Sketch" assumed such ominous proportions as to make its admission into any periodical quite impossible. By the end of 1854, he had completed what now constitutes the first four chapters of the present work, relating to the measures adopted in Bombay and Raj-

Vlll PEEFACE.

pootana : but the original subject of which he had undertaken to treat — the Budheeal meeting — was yet in the far distance. The labors of Messrs. Montgomery, Raikes, and Gubbins, at Allahabad, Mynpooree, and Agra, were not yet touched on, much less the great Umritsur meeting, with all the measures of the Punjab Government which had led to and followed it. Therefore, almost in despair of ever accomplishing his task, and feeling how immensely it had already outgrown its original proportions, the author laid the manuscript aside for some months, without, however, letting the subject drop from his mind, or losing any opportunity of collecting materials that came in his way. At the end of the year 1855, the same kind friend who had first suggested the article for a review, and others also who saw the earlier portion of his MS., strongly urged him to continue it, for publication as a separate work; and much encouragement and assistance, to an unlooked-for extent, induced him to persevere, and the following pages are the result.

The sources from which the information has been collected may be here briefly mentioned. The chief authorities on which he has relied for general statements are — Ward on the Hindoos, Elphinstone's and Malcolm's Histories of India, Tod's History of Rajasthan, Colonel Dixon's Mairwarra, Kaye's East India Company's Ad-

PREFACE. IX

ministration,* &c. He has also largely availed himself of the information given in a very interesting, though rather rhetorical article on the subject, in an early number (No. 2) of the Calcutta Meview, and a paper of considerable importance on the Bombay Infanticide Fund, in a number (for January, 1841) of the Oriental Christian Spectator, published in Bombay ; and more recently, while revising the earlier chapters for the press, from a very valuable work, just published, from the pen of Dr. Wilson, on Infanticide in Western India. In every instance, however, where he has quoted from any author, or adopted any ideas on any important point, he has, he believes, acknowledged his obligation by a reference, at the risk of cumbering his pages with foot-notes. These works have been especially referred to in the four earlier chapters.

For the particulars which he has been enabled (for the first time, he believes) to make public, in connexion with the names of Messrs. Thomason and Montgomery, in chapter v., he is wholly indebted to official documents most kindly placed at his disposal by W. Muir, Esq., Secretary to Government of North- Western Provinces, and to information obtained from private sources.

* A work which so fully and fairly a perfect "manual" for the student of treats of its varied subjects as to form Anglo-Indian history.

X PKEFACE.

For the account of the Mynpooree measures, as given in chapter vi., the Notes on the North-Western Provinces, by G. Kaikes, Esq., and an article of considerable interest in the Benares Magazine for June, 1852, have been chiefly consulted.

The system adopted by Mr. Gubbins at Agra, as explained in chapter vii., has been collected entirely from the published reports of that energetic officer, contained in No, 15 of the Selections of Correspondence of the North-Western Provinces.

The particulars of the Punjab infanticidal races, given in chapter viii., and continued in the subsequent chapters, the author has gleaned from various quarters; such as Cunningham's, McGregor's, and Prinsep's Histories of the Sikhs, Sir H. Lawrence's Adventurer in the Punjab, Major Edwardes's Twelve Months on the Punjab Frontier, "and similar works ; and also from two numbers (Vol. L, No. 6, and Vol. ii., No. 9) of the published Selections from, the Public Correspondence of the Punjab Government ; and scarcely less valuable information has been "obtained from unpublished reports from District Officers in the Punjab, besides those included in these Selections, which have been most obligingly laid before him by Mr. Montgomery, the Judicial Commissioner for the Punjab, and Mr. Eaikes, the Lahore Commissioner, the two leaders of this movement.

PEEFACE. XI

For the statistics, given in chapter xii., he is indebted greatly to the same official sources, and also to many valuable private local communications.

Having thus cursorily enumerated the various sources from which he has obtained the information he has endeavoured in the following pages to give in a digested form, it only remains for him to offer his most grateful acknowledgments to those kind friends through whom it has been obtained. He feels that he has trespassed so much on private friendship, and on the courtesy of even personal strangers (with whom a common interest in the subject furnished sufficient grounds for asking and giving assistance), that it would be impossible to name all to whom he is under obligation.

In now tendering to them, one and all, his grateful thanks for that valuable aid to which his humble production owes so much, he would fain express his earnest hope that they will not consider as altogether misplaced and unprofitable the trouble they have taken, and the kindly interest they have evinced, in the work he has had in hand.

A few words are due also to those whose sympathies he would desire to enlist in a movement now steadily progressing in this remote part of our vast empire. To give anything of a popular character to a subject which so little admitted of departure from historical references

XU PKEEACE.

and dry details was, as he well knew, very difficult — far too difficult for him to accomplish. But if he has been enabled, by a plain and truthful statement of the motives from which so unnatural a crime is believed to have sprung, and of the measures which have been taken for its suppression, to present it even in a readable form, his end has been accomplished. He is conscious of many faults of composition, and much inornateness of style; but he has done his best to compensate for these by the information he has collected. He would throw himself on the indulgence of his readers, with the assurance that anything approaching to literary merit he has not aimed at; he has only sought (and hopes he has not wholly failed), by some painstaking research, to present a faithful view of a great philanthropic movement, undertaken by Christian rulers for their heathen dependents ; and he trusts the imperfections of the work will not tend to the disparagement or depreciation of the subject itself.*

Placed by the great Head of the Church, in whose hands are our times and our places, too, among a people of whom comparatively little is known, in the midst of races in whose internal economy but little interest has

* For the system of spelling Indian principle throughout— namely, of pre-

words (or, perhaps, absence of all sys- senting Indian names and words in

tern), he feels how sadly he has ex- their most' familiar forms, so that,

posed himself to the unfavorable criti- whether rightly or wrongly spelt, they

cism of the champions of orthography, might be most easily recognised. He has endeavoured to act on this one

PKEEACE. XU1

been felt hitherto by the great majority of English readers, it has afforded him no ordinary pleasure to employ any leisure time from his more direct ministerial duties in studying their history, and examining their habits of life; and he hopes that his present endeavour to throw such light as he could on this dark side of the picture of their social system will not be regarded as time or labor misapplied. Little will he regret either the time or the labor thus happily spent, if he shall be thereby instrumental in arousing the interest and kindling the zeal of a single fellow-countryman, either here or at home, in furtherance of this righteous cause.

Punjab, June, 1856.

CHAPTER I. INDIAN infanticide: its character and motives

Infanticide unnatural, yet a world-wide crime — Various motives in different countries — In India pride of caste and exorbitant marriage expenditure lead to the destruction of female infants — General modes of destruction; poison, violence, or neglect — Most prevalent among Rajpoots— Various traditions in its defence — The fancied duty of marrying daughters into higher castes or clans at the root of the crime — Pride thus engendered and cherished, and display encouraged — Bhats and Charans chief promoters of extravagance at marriages ; account of their office and character — Pear of them universal and intense — Ovid evidently alludes to the crime — Comparison between Indian and English infanticide

Chapter II. Early Efforts Eor Its Suppression

The Emperor Jehangeer and Rajah Jye Singh — English long ignorant of this form of the crime — Hindoo Zenanas impenetrable — The crime committed secretly — Detection very difficult — Mr. Jonathan Duncan, Resident of Benares, first discovered it among Rajkoomar Rajpoots — Appointed Governor of Bombay — The crime discovered among Jarejahs of Kattyawar, and throughout the "Western Coast — Major Alexander Walker, Resident at Baroda, tries to bring Jarejahs to bind themselves to suppress the crime — Difficulties and opposition — Rao of Bhooj defies him — "Covenants" eventually signed — Measures inquisitorial and coercive — Success apparent — Most gratifying proofs of it — Walker

PAOB

XVI CONTENTS.

PAGE

departs for England — Duncan dies — Supervision relaxed — Crime revives— Captain Carnac succeeds Colonel Walker at Baroda — Rao of Noanuggur heavily fined — Rao of Murvee honored — Want of vigorous support from Bombay — A period of indifference — The pains and penalties questionable 20

Chapter III. Efforts In Western India

Bombay continued — Under Mr. Elphinstone more persuasive measures introduced — Rewards for preserving daughters — Policy of this questionable—Mr. Willoughby — " Infanticide Pund " — A new era — The whole system resuscitated — The Rao of Rajkote heavily punished — Improvement perceptible, though gradual — Proofs of signal success on Mr. Willoughby's leaving Bombay — Contemporaneous efforts in Cutch, &c. — Mr. Malet, Pottinger, Burnes — Koombees practise it from mercenary motives 45

Chapter IV. Rajpootana And Malwa

Prevalence of the crime discovered by Mr. L. Wilkinson — Sumptuary measures recommended — Jyepore, Joudpore, Ajmeer, &c. — Colonel Sutherland, Captains Thoresby and Ludlow — The extortion of Bhats and Charans restrained by reducing scale of marriage expenses — Mairwarrah — Colonel Hall — Convenes Punchayut — Persuades Mairs to reduce marriage expenses — Success complete — Dr. Wilson's Infanticide in Western India 58

Chapter V. Efforts In Az1mghur

Bengal — Little attempt made towards suppressing the crime after Duncan's removal to Bombay, in consequence of ceaseless wars — Again brought to notice by Mr. Thomason at Azimghur — Mr. R. Montgomery, then his assistant, afterwards magistrate of Allahabad, discovered the crime to be practised by Rajpoots on the Rewah frontier — Adopted and very judiciously applied a system of supervision with great success — Obtained a reward for a Rajpoot who had greatly aided him — Effects of Mr. Montgomery's labours still visible in the Allahabad district 66

CONTENTS. XV11

Chapter VI. Efforts In Mynpooree

PAGE

The famine of 1838— Its horrors — Its effects for good — Formation of orphan school at Secundra, and Great Ganges Canal — Led to discovery of female infanticide among Chohan Rajpoots of Mynpooree— Mr. H. Unvvin, the magistrate, adopts a system of inspection — Granddaughter born to the old Rajah of Mynpooree — Success of measures — System extended to neighbouring districts — Mr. Charles Raikes succeeds Mr. Unwin — Attacks marriage expenses — Holds a meeting at Sumaon — Persuades the Rajpoots by self-legislation to reduce rates of marriage expenses — Undertakes to secure them from Bhats and beggars — Holds a larger gathering — The Mynpooree meeting for all neighbouring Rajpoots—The reduced scales eagerly adopted— Grateful acknowledgments of Gujadhur Singh — At Mr. Thomason's solicitation prepares the " Letter to the Rajpoots" — Is appointed Commissioner of Lahore . 75

Chapter VII. Efforts In The Agra Districts

Agra — Mr. M. Gubbins discovers the crime among the Bhudoriah Rajpoots— Enforces a most rigid system of surveillance over suspected villages — Presents medals to daughters reared in suspected families — Success apparent — Its permanency doubtful . . . . .99

Chapter VIII. The Punjab : Its Infanticidal Races

The Punjab : its geographical and civil limits ; its " daughter-slaying" races— The Rajpoots of Kangra and Jummoo, and the Munhas — The Sikhs— Gooroos Nanuk and Govind Singh— The Bedees descended from Nanuk, the Sodhees from Govind Singh— A tradition of the origin of infanticide among them— Other motives assigned — The rival races of " Manjha" and " Malwa" Sikhs — The Burars among the Khutrees — Lahoreen and Sureen feud— The Gosacens— Moyal Brahmans— Pure Pathans of the Derajat— Spurious Mahomedans — Gonduls of Shahpore, and Doghurs of Eerozepore — The Meerasees : their character and evil influence <= 108

XVlll CONTENTS.

Chapter IX. Measures Resulting In The Umritsur Meeting

PAGE

Sketch of English occupation of the Sikh States from the Jumna to the Sntlej — Mr. J. Lawrence in the Juhundhur Doab first openly denounced infanticide — Major Lake, of Deenanuggur, reported its prevalence among the Bedees of Derah Baba Nanuk-^-Meeting held at Jullundhur to effect reconciliation between the Bedees and the Khutrees — One held at Hosheyarpore for the Rajpoots of the Lower Hills — Mr, Montgomery's report on the whole subject — The result of investigation throughout the Punjab — Seconded by Mr. Lawrence (Chief Commissioner)— Forwarded to Government, and met with approval — A proclamation issued — A large meeting held at IJmritsur — Account of the meeting — Agreements signed by the heads of all classes, and by the independent Rajahs — Approbation of the Indian Government . . 130

Chapter X. Reflections On The Umritsur Meeting

The Dewallee festival — Men of war meeting in peace — Alhoowallea Rajah — Rajahs Tej Singh and Deena Nath — Nawab (Sheik) Emam-oo-deen — Sirdar Shumshere Singh, Sindeeanwala — Kangra and Jummowal Rajahs — Moofsid Sikhs — The Bedee Bikrama Singh not permitted to attend — Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . 153

CHAPTER XL

SUBSIDIARY DISTRICT MEETINGS.

Goojranwalla, Rawul Pindee, Jhelum, Shahpore, Mooltan, with their several local associations — Measures among the Kangra Rajpoots (regarding breach of contracts) — Meetings at IJmballa and Ferozepore — The meeting of Jumowal Rajpoots at Budheeal under the Prince Runbheer Singh — Description of the meeting — Approbation of the Indian Government' — Private congratulations of Lord Dalhousie conveyed to Mr. Raikes on the success of his measures . . . .165

Chapter XII. Statistics Of Female Infanticide

Statistics — Those of 1852 and subsequent years compared, showing that the crime did greatly prevail, and is rapidly decreasing — Census of the

CONTENTS. XIX

PAGE

Kangra Rajpoots analysed — Of Munha's clans of Seealkote district — Great reduction in marriage expenditure effected — Mr. Raikes's letter of approval to five hundred and thirty-seven families — His forbidding claims on breach of marriage contracts to exceed the Umritsur stipulations— The census of the Bedees of Derah Baba-Nanuk — The Chief Commissioner's visit in 1855 — Improvement also among those in the Gogaira district — Mr. Campbell's remarks on infanticide considered . 183

Chapter XIII. Concluding Bemakks

The present system on sounder principles, and more likely to be of permanent effect — It enlists the natural feelings and the mother's influence — Further steps necessary, especially among the Kangra Rajpoots, to induce marriages on equal terms — A second general meeting desirable — Arrangements for marrying daughters now preserved— The system should be extended over India — Its secondary motives not to be despised — May pave the way for Christianity — Remarriage of widows to be considered — Its present prohibition inconsistent, fraught with evil — Steps now being taken by Hindoo community and by Government for its removal — Probable results — Conclusion 196

SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER.

INFANTICIDE AMONG THE ABORIGINES.

Aboriginal races — Gickers of the time of Mahmoud Ghori almost extinct — Khonds of Orissa — Captain Macpherson's successful measures . 207

INDIAN INFANTICIDE.

CHAPTER I. INDIAN infanticide: ITS CHARACTER AND MOTIVES

Infanticide unnatural, yet a world-wide crime— Various motives in different countries— In India pride of caste and exorbitant marriage expenditure lead to the destruction of female infants— General modes of destruction ; poison, violence, or neglect— Most prevalent among Rajpoots — Yarious traditions in its defence — The fancied duty of marrying daughters into higher castes or clans at the root of the crime— Pride thus engendered and cherished, and display encouraged — Bhats and Charans chief promoters of extravagance at marriages ; accouut of their office and character— Fear of them universal, and intense— Ovid evidently alludes to the crime— Comparison between, Indian and English infanticide.

The affection of a parent for its offspring is the prompting of nature ; in the brute beast it is implanted instinctively, and for its time cherished intensely ; in man it assumes the purer, loftier character imparted both by reason and revelation, and is hallowed as the type, however feeble and imperfect, of the love borne by the Eternal for His children.

How humiliating, then, is the conviction which history forces upon us, that, with the failure of true religion and

B the decline of morality, this well-spring, from whence still flowed in mercy a stream of solace and joy, began to dry up in men's hearts ! In heathenism men came to be " without natural affection" (aaropyoi, Rom. i. 31). Parental love might still bloom, as one of those "few flowerets of Eden," which fallen man was permitted to inherit, but even on its fair petals "the trail of the serpent" soon appeared, and thus infanticide became " a world-wide crime."

For such it has become. In every quarter of the globe, in the Old "World and the New, in countries the most remote from each other, among independent races and people that could have had no mutual intercourse, in every stage, too, of national progress, among the civilised and refined as well as the rude and barbarous, it has been found to exist. In China and North America, in Arabia and New Zealand, amid the highways of classic Greece and the Zenanas of Hindostan, has it reared its hateful form, and made for itself a home. Few are the regions on earth's fair surface but could furnish records of deeds scarcely less revolting than those of which inspiration has graven its indelible impress on "the valley of Hinnom."

The voice of authority has been loudly raised in its condemnation. Confutsee among his brother Celestials, Mahomed among the children of the desert, the code of Justinian and the Shastras, have all reprobated and forbidden it. Greece indeed,

" Mother of arts and arms, immortal Greece,"

stands alone among the nations as having thrown the cloak of legal sanction over its perpetration.* Yet, excepting those only of Celtic origin (to their honor be it remembered), there is scarcely a people among whom it has not received a tacit recognition.

The motives, however, which have produced it, appear to have been, as might naturally be expected, as diverse as the habits and characters of the nations themselves. The grossest superstition led the worshippers of Moloch to " give their first-born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul." Pride of manly vigor doubtless prompted the wild rover of the " forest primeval" and the Polynesian savage, as it did the stern Spartan of old, to destroy the infant that betrayed signs of weakness or defect. But among the Hindoos we find other motives, peculiar to themselves, closely and deeply interwoven with their social, or so-called religious system. In India, to use the language of Bishop Heber,f " pride, poverty, and avarice are in league with superstition to perpetuate these horrors." These motives may at first sight appear to be nearly akin to those which influenced both the Canaanite and the Spartan ; but they are in reality perfectly distinct. The valley of Hinnom received the blood of children offered in vicarious sacrifice to avert either national calamity or domestic trouble ; but those infants whose case we are about to consider, are the victims of a superstition which is at variance with itself, J and of a pride, not like the Spartan's, of personal prowess,

* The_ laws of Lycurgus admitted, had especial reference to this in pro-

if they did not order, the exposure, to nouncing want of natural affection as

almost certain death, of all infants one of the excesses of heathenism, that were sickly or deformed. Beza f Journal, ch. xxiv. thinks that St. Paul (Komans i. 31) J See Appendix.

B 2 but of hereditary rank. It is true that at the time when Bishop Heber wrote, there still existed the remains of a form of infanticide not wholly different in character from that of which the Amorite was guilty. At that day infants were still wont to be launched on the stream as votive or propitiatory offerings to the Bmpopes of the sacred rivers of Bengal. But since then the arm of the law has been successfully put forth to arrest the progress of this dreadful fanaticism ; and the waters of the Hooglee, the Ganges, and the Jumna, now roll on their fertilising way unrippled by the throes, uncrimsoned by the blood of such victims.

Yet it is to be feared that hundreds and thousands of infants have yearly perished (and are still perishing) in India, for whom English law and English influence sought in vain to provide a way of escape. They were beyond the reach of that merciful law which had rescued so many from a watery grave, which had held back the Hindoo widow from sacrificing herself on her husband's pyre, and had restrained the suicidal votary of Juggernath madly thinking to pass into paradise under the chariot- wheels of his god. In these cases, English rule could vindicate and support the claims of humanity, and check the celebration of such unnatural and unhallowed rites, for they were overt acts, requiring much of preparation, and attended with considerable display; but on the cold-blooded infanticide which is now the bane of India — the destruction of female children at the moment of their birth — what could it effect? It was worse than powerless ; for its attempted intervention only drove the perpetrators of this " child murder" into a deeper privacy, and to the use of means of destruction more subtle and secret. The sacred precincts of the Zenana became more closely secured and guarded ; and here " pride, poverty, and avarice" (no longer even sanctioned by, or pretending to a league with, superstition) reigned still, in defiance of all laws human and divine, triumphing over and trampling down the heaven-born feeling of parental love, nature's chief connecting link between fallen man and his Divine original !

Before passing on to examine these motives in detail, let us for a moment lift aside the purda* which screens from public gaze the Zenana of the Hindoo, and reveals some of the secrets of that prison-house. Let us suppose the birth of a daughter announced to the father — by a look rather than a word — he is still the parent, and nature's voice is not wholly silenced; let the babe live but one short hour, and nature will claim her own. But no — regret and grief are visible in his face ; he does not trust himself to speak; he gives a sign too easily understood, and leaves the rest to his domestics; "it is the affair of the women." Perhaps he is at the moment seeking to soothe his feelings with his hookah and its condiment of bang ; f if so, his fingers quickly mould a portion of it into the form of a pill, which he gives in silence to an attendant ; this is immediately placed in the roof of the infant's mouthy where it becomes softened by the saliva, and flows with it down the throat, soon throwing the poor babe into its first, and last, long sleep.

* The purda is a thick padded cur- f An intoxicating decoction from

tain which separates one room from flax or hemp, mixed by Hindoos with

another, and supplies the place of a their tobacco for smoking, door.

If this be not at hand, the mother's breast is smeared with a preparation of the juice of the datura {Datura Alba), or the Mudar plant (Asclepias Gigantea), or the poppy, and the infant drinks in a deadly poison with its first draught of milk. It is said, that among some of the Rajpoot tribes it is customary to dig a hole and fill it with milk, and place the new-born babe in it, when she is quickly drowned. Some, again, dispense with the milk, and actually bury their infants alive ! Not unfrequently, before even the infant has an independent existence, the umbilical cord is drawn tightly round the throat, and the child is strangled at its first gasp ! These are believed to be the usual modes by which infants are destroyed; and, revolting as it is to contemplate, it is often the mother's hand which, as it were, severs the frail thread of life so lately drawn from herself!

This unnatural crime, though not confined exclusively to any one particular class, is proved to exist especially among the Rajpoots, of which race it will be necessary to speak at some length. But, before doing so, it may be well to premise, for the information of any un-Indian reader who may honor these pages with a perusal, that the Hindoos are divided into four grand orders, or castes, called Brahmans, Kshutreeas, Vaiseeas, and Soodras ; representing respectively the priestly, military, mercantile, and laboring classes.* These are again subdivided into innumerable tribes and ramifications of

* Such is the original classification pahees), especially in Bombay, are taken

of the Hindoos ; the theory is still re- out of all classes indiscriminately, and

tained, though practically it ceases to men of any caste, even Brahmans, will

exist. For instance, our soldiers (Se- become domestic servants.

tribes, utterly incomprehensible to the uninitiated, but denned among themselves most accurately, and preserved with great jealousy. Of these the Kajpoots hold the highest place under the military order of the Kshutreeas, claiming to be second only to the Brahmans in dignity and sacredness. In common with the other early invaders of India, they are believed to have had their origin amid the heights of the Indian Caucasus (Hindoo Coosh), and like the barbarian invaders of Europe during the fourth and fifth centuries, to have left their mountain homes in quest of plunder, or hope of settlement, in the more fertile and peaceful plains of Hindostan. The tide of conquest and the vicissitudes of war have scattered them over all the northern and western parts of this vast peninsula. They are to be found, in greater or less numbers, from the Sutlej to the Nerbudda, the Jumna, and the Ganges j but their chief stronghold is in the independent states of Ajmere, Jyepore, Odeypore, Malwa, and the minor ones which compose that large district between the Nerbudda and Scinde, called from them " Eajpootana," or " Rajasthan." Among this race, wherever located, infanticide prevails. Yet there are circumstances in the early history of this people which render the perpetration of the crime at their hands the more atrocious ; because, as we shall see presently, the very motives which prompt them to it should have been their greatest security against it. They glory in being descended from men who erst headed the warrior tribes of India, who won for themselves renown on some of her greatest battle-fields against Mahmoud of Ghuznee and Tamerlane j who, if their own chroniclers may be believed, performed deeds of high prowess and chivalry that would bear comparison with those of the lionhearted Eichard, the royal Bruce, or the Chevalier Bayard. Who could imagine that such a race, in their pride of high birth and chivalrous descent, could have become so degraded as to think that their ancestral superiority could only be asserted and maintained by resorting to a practice from which those ancestors would have shrunk ? Yet so it is ; the high-born Eajpoot, of whatever clan, Chohan, Eahtore, Jarejah, or Kutoch, stains the proud escutcheon of his once brave and chivalrous race with the life-blood of his daughter, lest that blood, of such vaunted purity, should flow into meaner veins, or she remain unmarried, and therefore, as he thinks, dishonored !