Life by the Ganges : or, Faith and victory

Front matter

^ PRINCETON. N. J.

THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION

Tv

Chapter I. Paob

The fair on Saugor Island — Virtues of the river — A missionary preaches at the fair — Attempt to sacrifice a child —

The mother and the priest — The child saved — The mother’s fears — Gift of a New Testament to her son — The family returns home — The child’s father — Presents from Saugor 9-28

Chapter II

The family after forty years — Mohendro and his sons — Prosonno an inquirer after truth — His views — His visit to his friend, Ram Royal — A religious discussion between them — Nature an uncertain teacher — The soul needs certainty — Changes in Brahmism — The system compromised with idolatry and caste — Prosonno accepts a Bengalee Bible — His father burns it — His grandmother gives him the Saugor Testament — Prosonno’s re-marriage —

The bride — The ceremony , 29-60

Chapter III

A Hindoo house described — The members of the family— Kaminee and her studies — -Family jars — The worship of Siva described— Growth of Prosonno’s convictions — Con-

CO>TENTS.

PAG!

vcrsation on religion with Kaminee — Outline of Christianity— The life of Christ — A domestic quarrel— Causes of quarrels 61-86

Chapter IV

Prosonno’s disappearance — He has become a Christian — Schemes to reclaim him — Inteiriew with him of his father and brothers — The brothers’ views — Chondro’s arguments — Prosonno's reply — Hindooism and food — Hindooism exclusive — The brothers depart — A message for Kaminee — Her anger — The missionary is summoned to the Magistrate's Court — The trial — The deeision — Interview with his mother 87-121

CHAPTER V. Prosonno going to be baptized — He is forcibly carried off

His bitter thoughts — He is tempted by Surjo — He is taken to his uncle’s house — Interview with his mother — He is placed in confinement — Discussions as to his restoration — Temptations put in his way — The grief of the family — He is treated harshly — Secret schemes of Surjo — The poisoned sherbet — Surjo baffled — His character—He is watched by the grandmother — Suijo visits the old witch — The grandmother also visits her — The sleeping draught — Prosonno’s apparent death — Ceremonies at the river-side — He recovers consciousness, is left alone and escapes 122-172

Chapter VI

Prosonno baptized — Answers to questions — His student life — His troubles about food — His yearnings after home — He spends an evening with the missionary — Social conversation— The training of Native and English girls —

CONTENTS.

No caste among Christians — Ram Royal's marriage — Ilis choice of a wife — Description of the ceremony — Marriage among the English— The wedding feast 173-207

Chapter VII

Surjo mad and confined — The grandmother’s growing faith — Surjo’s tragical end — After the funeral rites Mohendro goes to Benares — His letter to Nobo — Quiet life at home — Life of a Hindoo widow — Nistarinee and Kaminee — Their conversation — Gopal puts on the Poita 208-228

CHAPTER VIII. The grandmother visits Prosonno — Their talk together

The “Sea of Love” — Her failing health — She is nursed by Kaminee — Her belief in the gospel — She gives Kaminee her husband’s Christian books — Kaminee reads the New Testament — Her grandmother’s last hours — Her dying confession — Funeral ceremonies after her death ; at the pile; at the house; at the river side — Kaminee’s perplexities— She asks Nobo to explain them — Her attachment to Shoudaminee — Again talks with Nobo — Effort to get Hemlota married — It fails — Nobo resists his convictions — He visits Prosonno — Kaminee resolves to join her husband 229-264

Chapter IX

Kaminee tells her resolve to Shoudaminee, and invites the latter to accompany her — They arrange to escape and join the Christians — Letter to Prosonno — The scheme succeeds — Their residence among the Christians — Consternation at their departure — The Saugor Testament discovered 265-277

C0^' TENTS.

Chapter X. Pagx

Progress of the new converts in knowledge and happiness — The Sabbach of their baptism — Public worship among Christians — They are baptized — Christian lessons — Nobo pays them a visit — His own indecision — The happy household — What Christianity does for its followers.. 278-288

Life by the Ganges.

Chapter I

O the Hindoo, few spots are so sacred as the sterile and dismal islet of Saugor. Here the heaven-descended and divine Ganges meets and mingles its turbid stoeam with the salt waters of the Bay of Bengal. To bathe in this holy stream, at this spot, has become one of the highest acts of Hindoo piety.

It was in the depth of the rainy season, in the month of January, many years since, that thousands were gathered on Saugor Island. Delicate females and tender babes had been exposed, in open boats, to the damp chills of a season which to them is peculiarly trying. Many had spent their little all, and were now starving. Here was a man dying, unnoticed and alone; while the wild vulture was greedily watching the extinction of g

LIFE LY THE GANGES.

the la.st spark of life in his feeble frame, to make him the prey of her own hungr)' brood. There ag-ain, was raised a funeral pile, and as the sons set fire to the corpse of her who had given them birth, they rejoiced over her good fortune in dying at that sacred spot on that sacred day. The harsh monotonous sound of the conch-shell, the wailing of the pilgrim women, and the loud din of barbarous music, rent the air.

The beach was crowded with boats of every shape and form, and the barren sands, which showed one mass of human heads, were covered with long lines of temporary booths. They were erected of the frailest materials, of matting and bamboo, ornamented with flaunting flags of scarlet and gold ; but the richness of their contents formed a matter of surprise to the casual spectator. Everything was to be procured there, from the most costly Persian satins, to the common smoking pipe of the Bengalee; and everything purchased in those booths was precious, for it was a mela or religious fair that we describe.

That such festivities should be celebrated on such a spot, amidst the haunts of tigers, may well astonish all but those who are acquainted with

THE ANNUAL FAIR.

the strange vagaries of Hindooism; for excepting on the three days in January when the fair is held, nothing is to be seen tlie whole year round, but the broad sea in the distance, and the dense jungle above the shore.

But amid these thousands of devotees, one man was seen from a distant land and of a different race. As he wandered amid the vast crowd, and saw them wholly given to idolatry, the soul of the Christian Missionary was filled with deepest melancholy. God was dishonored; and as he stood on that secluded islet, a herald of the Most High, he felt the fearful responsibility that was laid on him. He spoke, therefore, as a dying man to dying men ; with every word that dropped from his lips, his eyes looked upward for Heaven’s blessing; with every tract or book he gave away, he breathed a prayer that God’s word might not return unto Him void. He spoke first to one, and then to another, of Jesus’ love to perishing sinners; but in return for his afiTectionate entreaty, the enraged idolaters refused to listen. They threw dirt and stones in his face; he was beaten and reviled; till at last worn out and dispirited, he closed his book and walked away in silence.

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

The heathen riumphed in their victory; they din not know the mighty weapon which that man of God was wielding against their superstition as he turned away from them and wept. They did not hear him exclaim — ‘‘Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered.” They did not hear him wrestling with the Father for the fulfilment of His promise to His beloved Son — “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” But He that sitteth in the heavens did hear it, and even then He had prepared a blessing which was about to descend on His servant’s labor of love, although that faithful servant knew not of it until he had sat down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of his Master.

As the missionary walked along, his attention was attracted by an interesting little group, and he could not help following them as they entered the modern temple of Kupil Muni. This was a small quadrangular building, about two hundred yards inshore, contemptible in its outward appearance, and very inferior to the original structure, which has long since been washed away by the sea. The little party that now entered consisted

FAMILY" OFFERINGS.

of a Brahmin lady and her two sons; one was a beautiful boy, about twelve years old, and the other, an infant of a few months. Two female servants followed, who, as well as the mother, were weeping bitterly. After prostrating themselves three times in front of the temple, the lady and her children made their way to the Mohonto, or high priest, who was seated a little behind a rnde stone figure of the sage Kupila. As the Brahminee approached the high priest, she presented him with a gold cow, on a beautiful muslin handkerchief embroidered with silver; the elder boy in his turn laid at his feet several yards of the finest silk, and then the mother’s trembling hand held open that of her babe, while the avaricious priest took from the unconscious child the silver bells, which till now had adorned his little feet. This rite, which seemed to aflPord exquisite delight to the Mohonto, being completed, he dismissed them with his blessing, and the sorrowful group wended their way with thousands of others to the principal bathing-place, situated at the southern exiremity of the fair. Here four priests joined the party. At the sight of them the Brahminee uttered a loud shriek, and fell sense-

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

less on the cold ground ; but she was supported by her female attendants, ind literally carried to the Avater’s edge. Here a great crowd M^as assembled. The chief Brahmin then took the lovely infant from the arms of its elder brother, anointed its little body with oil, Vermillion, and saffron, dressed it in red and yellow muslin, and then began to utter over its devoted head charms and incantations.

Our missionary looked on Avith most painful anxiety. The idea of the horrid crime they Avere about to perpetrate had just flashed across his mind, and he determined, in God’s strength, to prevent the cruel sacrifice, if in any way it lay in his poAver. He knew that the GoA’ernor-General of India, during the previous month of August, had forbidden the droAvning of children at Saugor, under the severest penalties. But the laAv had never yet been enforced, and for him, singlehanded, to insist on it, in defiance of the priests and of the croAvd Avho were standing in eager expectation of gloating their eyes on this spectacle, Avould have been madness itself. He remembered that someAvhere in the fair must be the body of armed sepoys Avhich the Government had sent to

THU MOTHER AND THE PRIESTS.

the island for the prevention of this crime. The idea flashed on his mind that they might arrive too late ; that ere he could return, the child might already be in the jaws of some hungry alligator. But these conflicting emjtions brought no delay. Trusting in God, and earnestly praying that something might occur to protract the ceremony, the missionary rushed away in search of the men who alone had power to save the child.

In the meantime, the baby having been prepared for the sacrifice, the Brahmin priests tried to rouse the insensible mother. She at length opened her eyes ; but remembering what was going forward, she sank back, exclaiming, “Is there nothing that can save my child?” “No,” said the Brahmin who expected the largest fee for performing the inhuman rite, “ No ; you have vowed to give him up, and your vow must be performed ; yet the gods require a willing sacrifice. Do you consent? Say so, and let the goddess take her own.” “ No, no,” exclaimed the agonized mother, “ I do not consent. If I fail to perform my vow, I can only be accurst ; let then the curse alight ; death is preferable to this !”

“ Yes,” said the enraged priest, “the curse shall

LIFE BT THE GANGES.

alight indeed, not on you, however, but on that lad there,” pointing to her elder boy; “it shall alight on the apple of your eye, on the darling of your heart, to save whose life you made this vow ; and now you dare to retract it ! Woman, know that the goddess Gunga* has cursed you ; that I have cursed you ; and that unless you make the promised sacrifice, you shall return home on the morrow, taking your worthless infant with you, it is true, but leaving the ashes of your noble boy, the stay of your house, smouldering on the funeral pile. Woman, do you still refuse ?”

But no answer was returned; agony prevented the utterance of words.

“Then wave your hand, in token that I may throw your babe into the sea, if you cannot speak,” said the impatient Brahmin.

The desired signal was given, and the people raised a shout of victory. The priest then, taking the child in his arms, repeated the following dedication: — “Last year, O great Gunga, the mother of this babe, then unborn, vowed that she would give it to thee if thou wouldst cure her eldest son of the dangerous illness with which he

* The river Ganges, esteemed a goddess by the Hindoos

THE CHILD SAVED.

was afflicted. This thou didst do, and now she has brought thee her infant. Take it; it is thine.” Tne babe was thrown; one little splash was heard; but the next instant the mother had it safe on her bosom once more! Frantic with grief, she had plunged in and rescued it.

“No, no, Gunga shall not have him,” she cried. “ I was mad, quite mad, when I made that vow. I thought that my child would have been a daughter. If it had been so, perhaps I could have given it up ; but my boy ! no, never ! I will not, cannot see my baby boy drowned before my eyes.”

Again the Brahmin menaced her more severely than before; again (for superstition was strong within her, as well as maternal love) she was induced to yield, when at that critical moment, just as the priest was in the act of throwing the babe for the second time into the sea, his arm was arrested by the missionary; while the foremost of the band of sejioys, who had followed him in breathless haste, struck the wretch on the head, for daring to commit the unnatural murder, after he had heard the proclamation forbidding it. The intimidated priest got off as well as he could; the 2

LIFE BT THE GANGES.

crowd fled after him, and soon the missionarj’, tlie sepoys, and the now rejoicing family were left alone. The poor mother fell at the feet of the missionary, whose ver^* touch at any other time she would have considered pollution, and almost worshipped him. “Thank you, thank you a thousand times, sir,” she exclaimed; “you have delivered my darling; you have made hLs mother’s heart rejoice. Oh, how could I have lived without my baby. I can do nothing for you, sir; but the God of the universe will reward you. I will continually pray to our deities to send you their blessing. You shall have seven sons; your riches shall increase ; your honor shall increase ; you shall have an inkstand of gold, and wTite with a pen of pure silver.”

But at that instant a shade of anxious sadness passed over the face of the half rejoicing, half trembling woman, while she timidly turned to the sepoys, and said : — “ I had forgotten the Brahmin’s curse. Must I indeed leave my Mohendro, my first-born, here on this barren island, burning on his funeral p)Te, as the priest predicted? Oh, ^\Tetched mother that I am, is there no way of saving one child without sacrificing the other ?”

THE mother’s fears.

The sepoys, themselves Hindoos, weie quite moved at her grief-stricken countenance. “No, no,” they exclaimed, “ Mohendro will not die. You have consented to perform your vow, but we forcibly prevented you. If, then, Gunga be so revengeful, which, indeed, we cannot believe, then her curse will alight on us, not on you or yours.”

A gleam of hope lighted up the bewildered features of the mother, while she said to her female attendants, “ Come, Dasee and Tdra, let us go to our boat, and leave this horrible place at once. The gods grant that I may never see it again.”

“ O lady,” answered the women, “ do not talk so ; it is a holy place ; have not the Shastres * said so ? Retract your saying, lady ; retract it, or our boat will perish in the waters ; the gods will never let us reach home in safety.”

“Well,” said the Brahminee, “may they forgive me for my hasty language. I meant no ill to them, but no one can tell what I have suffered at this holy place ; and ah, women, if you were shocked at my wishing never to return here, what * Holy Books.

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

would you say to a dreadful, dreadful thought which I had concerning our goddess, a thought that would force itself upon me when the Brahmin declared that Gunga would destroy Mohendro if I did not give up to her my darling little Rajendro. But I ^vdll not pollute your minds wdth the impiety of that thought. No mortal ear shall ever hear it, but I will atone for it by fastings, and prayers, and gifts.”

The party took a kindly leave of each other; but as the mother with her children wended her way to the place where they had left their boat, a sudden thought flashed across the mind of the missionary; it seemed almost to come to him with the force of inspiration. “Stop, Mohendro, stop,” said he to the boy, “here is a book for you; will you promise not to destroy it, and to read it when vou are able?” The missionarv handed to him his own copy of the Bengalee New Testament, which had been printed at Serampore only two yeai*s before.

But the boy shrank from it, as from a polluted thing, and looked to his mother for counsel. “Take it, Mohendro,” she said, “take it; will you

THE PLAN OF SALVATION.

offend tlie Sahib * after he has saved your brother’s life? But sir,” she exclaimed, turning to the missionary, “I know his father will not let him read any Christian book ; however, one thing I can promise, that for your sake it shall never be destroyed.”

“Thanks for that promise at least,” said the man of God, “ but if you only knew what it contained, how you would delight that your children should read it. It tells of a sinless Being, Jesus Christ, who has made atonement for the sins of the whole world by shedding His own precious blood and bearing the penalty of sin, which is death. Oh, if you trusted in Him, and relied on Him alone, for the forgiveness of all your transgressions, you would not need to come here to bathe in these waters; they do not purify your soul. Our God is a Sea of Love, and rather than sinful men should perish in the vain endeavor to work out their own salvation. He sent His own Son to die for them, the just for the unjust. The God described in this book would never have asked your baby of you, for the whole earth is His, and the fulness thereof, He wants your

* Sahib, Lord, Gentlemar,.

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

heart alone. If with your whole heart alone you love and trust Him, you are saved eternally.’'

These words sounded strangely in the ears of the Bi’ahniin woman, and were strongly impressed on her memory. Though so ignorant of anything beyond her own system of cruelty and superstition that they failed to convey any meaning to her mind, yet she thought over them, repeated them to herself, and seemed perplexed, till at last, turning suddenly to the missionary, she hastily bade him good-bye, saying, ‘‘Oh, sir, I should not be listening to such words as yours. What would Mohendro’s father* say if he knew that I had been giving ear to them even for a single moment?” And the woman went on her way.

What good had been done? A little precious seed sown, and one copy of the sacred Scriptures bestowed on individuals who would not even promise to peruse its life-giving truths; a copy of the sacred Scriptures bestowed, merely to become a part of household rubbish, to be disregarded and condemned! But the missionary returned to his boat, with a heart filled with grati-

*A Hindoo woman dies not speak the na ne of her husband.

RETURN OF THE FAMILY.

tilde to God, for ha’s ing enabled him to be the means of introducing into the family of a Hindoo priest even a single copy of the ^yord that maketh wise unto salvation.

The mother with her children went on their way in their boat, ascending the river towards their home, which they reached, after journeying five days. The Brahminee looked forward to meeting her lord with a strange mixture of joy and fear. At one time she trembled lest he should spurn her from his presence, as an impious, or at best a weak-minded creature, lacking courage to perform a solemn vow, which yet she had had the hardihood to make. At another time, she would fain believe that his better nature would prevail; that his paternal feelings would come to her aid, and that sbe would be freely forgiven. With an anxious heart, therefore, she entered the house, having taken care to conceal her sleeping child in the folds of her muslin drapery, in order that she might judge how and at what time it might be best to reveal to her husband-lord the secret, that he was the father of a livdng babe still. But the precaution was unnecessary. The old Brahmin was engaged in performing his noon-devotions, during which time his wife and servants well knew he never suffered them to interrupt him. He had finished the Siva worship, and had just begun his auhik or invocation of household gods, wdien he overheard Moheudro telling an old nurse of the w'onderful things he had seen at the Saugor fair. The austere priest w'as a man after all, and it w’as therefore not surprising that he hurried through the coneludiug prayers and went hastily into his wdfe’s apartment to learn the actual fate of their darling. His wdfe met him w’ith a calm, almost smiling face, which evidently puzzled him.

“And so,” he exclaimed, “Gunga has taken our babe ! O Mohendro’s mother, how can you stand there and look so calm after having committed your child to the deep ! Well, the gods be praised for so supporting you. They have not been equally gracious to me. Misei’able, very miserable have I been for the last ten days. Do you know that twdce I sent messengers after you wdth a bag of five thousand rupees ($2,500), to request you to bring back the child and to give away the money instead, that so the goddess might be appeased? But twice I recalled them,

FATHER AND SOH.

thinking that our house ■would be accurst forever if we refused what we had vowed. Yes, it is better as it is. I am ghd that vou have given him up,” exclaimed the weeping Brahmin, “for the wrath of the gods is a fearful thing; but oh ! Mohendro’s mother, I cannot love you the more for wearing this calm, nay cheerful countenance; it seems so cold, so unnatural, that I shrink from meeting your gaze. How is it, woman, speak!”

The moment had arrived when her silence must be broken ; when her secret must be revealed ; and she fell at the feet of her husband, exclaiming, “ Oh, if he had been sacrificed, do you think I could have lived to tell the tale? Xo, no, our baby is not dead, I have brought him back, he sleeps peacefully in his cradle.”

“ How !” said the trembling father, “ and the curse ! Were you not afraid of the curse ? It will surely alight ; O woman, woman ! what have you done ?”

“ Pause one moment ere you condemn me,” urged his wife, and then she related to him all the circumstances connected with the rescue of her darling from a watery grave, save only her conversation with the missionary; and the father

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

listened with a bounding heart and glistening eyes, exclaiming at the end, as he rushed into an adjoining apartment to embrace the little lost one, “ Yes, yes, those sepoys were right; Gunga will not visit us with her vengeance.”

After Mohendro and the father had partaken of their breakfast, a meal which a strict Hindoo never touches until he has performed his noon Poojah* and the worship of his household god, the old man said to his son, “Well, boy, and what have you brought home with you in remembrance of Gunga Saugor ?” Mohendro ran off to his mother, who, although faint and tired, had waited to begin her breakfast until her husband had finished. She was just going to sit down to it when her son exclaimed, “ Oh ! mother, let me have all the things we brought from Gunga Saugor ; father wishes to see them.” The mother, forgetting the New Testament, threw her keys to Mohendro, saying, “ Open the green trunk we took with us, and you will find all ; only do not call me away to assist you while I am getting my breakfast ; I am hungry, and if I once leave my

* Poojah, worshif ,

PRESENT FROM SAUGOR.

food you know it would be unclean, and contrary to the Shastres to return to it.”

The Brahminee had carefully avoided telling her husband about her conversation with the missionary and the possession of the New Testament, knowing how displeased he would be with her for listening to words spoken against their own ancient religion, and more especially for polluting her hands with the touch of a Christian book. Mohendro, however, now ran to him with the Testament among his other treasures.

“ Here, father,” he said, “ is a little vessel full of water taken from the junction of the Ganges and the sea ; mother says if we preserve it carefully it will bring us many blessings. And here are some B41 leaves and Hibiscus flowers which I took out of the water after they had been offered ; and here is a beautiful box which mother bought for her jewels ; and here is a little silk dress for myself, and a muslin one for you.” The boy was going to proceed, when the father glancing at the New Testament suddenly stopped him, saying, “ And there is another Ramayan* I declare, as if three copies were not sufficient. Mohendro, what

*Ramayan — a favorite poem of the Hindoos.

LIFE BY THE GANGES.

made your mother buy that ?” Mohendro at once remembered tliat his mother wished to conceal the possession of the Testament from his father ; he saw his mistake in bringing it forward, and with all the tact and cunning of a Bengalee boy, brought up without any regard to truth, he immediately said, (at the same time taking the book in his own hand to prevent discovery), “ Yes, father, it is a Ramayan for uncle ; he gave mother the money for it before she went, saying he would like to possess a copy bought at the Gunga Saugor Mela.”

After saying this, away ran Mohendro wdth the book, to disclose to his mother his artful stratagem. From her he received his due meed of praise, as she carefully put the precious volume into a safe place of concealment, saying, “ Well, come what may, I will keep my promise to that good man ; his book shall not be destroyed.”

The mother and the son little thought that the volume they were preserving with so much care would be the means of producing in their own household the greatest calamity (in their opinion) that ever befell a Hindoo family.

Chapter II

More than forty years have passed since the events occurred which are related in the preceding chapter. We have now to introduce our readers to the same dwelling indeed, but to scenes, oh! how changed! Mohendro’s father, the bigoted old Brahmin priest, has long since gone to his last account. His wife, more than thirty years his junior, still lives, and, if we except all the privations which, as a widow, she must undergo, seems to be spending her declining days in happiness and quiet. The boy Mohendro has, here and there, a white hair on his head; he is now the chief stay of the house, enjoying his ancestral property, and generously supporting with it a numerous circle of dependent and indigent relatives. Mohendro married in due time, and his wife has given birth to four sons and a daughter. Three of these young men also, in their turn, have already entered the married state; the