XXII.

ON SOME EXTRAORDINARY FACTS, CUSTOMS, AND
PRACTICES OF

THE HINDUS

BY THE PRESIDENT.

IN the preliminary discourse addressed to the Society by our late President, Man and Nature were proposed as the comprehensive objects of our Researches; and although I by no means think that advantage should be taken of this extensive proposition to record every trivial peculiarity of practice, habit, or thinking, which characterizes the natives of India, many singularities will be found amongst them which are equally calculated to gratify curiosity, and to attract the notice of the philosopher and politician.

Of all studies, that of the human mind is of the greatest importance; and whether we trace it in its perfection or debasement, we learn to avoid error, or obtain models for improvement, and examples for imitation. In pursuing customs and habits to the principles from which they are derived, we ascertain by the sure rule of experience the effects of natural or moral causes upon the human mind.

The characters of the natives of India, notwithstanding all that has been published in Europe, are by no means well understood there; and a careful and accurate investigation of them, with a due discrimi

nation of habits and usages, as local or general, would afford a subject for a curious, useful, and entertaining dissertation.

It is not my intention to undertake it. I neither profess to have ability, nor have I leisure for the task; and the preceding remarks are offered to the Society for the purpose only of introducing the recital of some extraordinary facts, customs, and practices of this country, which have occurred to my observation in the course of public duty. If the narrative has too much of the language of office, it may be deemed a sufficient compensation that it is extracted from official documents and judicial records, and hence has a claim to authenticity.

The inviolability of a Brahmin is a fixed principle of the Hindus; and to deprive him of life, either by direct violence, or by causing his death in any mode, is a crime which admits of no expiation. To this principle may be traced the practice called Dherna, which was formerly familiar at Benares, and may be translated Caption or Arrest. It is used by the Brahmins in that city, to gain a point which cannot be accomplished by any other means; and the process is as follows:

The Brahmin who adopts this expedient for the purpose mentioned, proceeds to the door or house of the person against whom it is directed, or wherever he may most conveniently intercept him: he there sets down in Dherna, with poison or a poignard, or some other instrument of suicide in his hand, and threatening to use it if his adversary should attempt to molest or pass him, he thus completely arrests him, In this situation the Brahmin fasts; and by the rigor of the etiquette, which is rarely infringed, the unfortunate object of his arrest ought also to fast; and thus they both remain until the institutor of the

Dherna obtains satisfaction. In this, as he seldom makes the attempt without resolution to persevere, he rarely fails; for if the party thus arrested were to suffer the Brahmin sitting in Dherna to perish by hunger, the sin would for ever lie upon his head. This practice has been less frequent of late years, since the institution of the Court of Justice at Benares in 1783; but the interference of that Court, and even that of the Resident there, has occasionally proved insufficient to check it; as it has been deemed in general most prudent to avoid for this purpose the use of coercion, from an apprehension that the first appearance of it might drive the sitter in Dherna to suicide. The discredit of the act would not only fall upon the officers of justice, but upon the government itself.

The practice of sitting in Dherna is not confined to male Brahmins only. The following instance, which happened at Benares in the year 1789, will at once prove and exemplify it:

Beenoo Bhai, the widow of a man of the Brahminical tribe, had a litigation with her brother-in-law Balkishen, which was tried by arbitration; and the trial and sentence were revised by the court of justice at Benares, and again in appeal.

The suit of Beenoo involved a claim of property and a consideration of cast, which her antagonist declared she had forfeited. The decision was favourable to her, but not to the extent of her wishes; and she resolved therefore to procure by the expedient of the Dherna, as above explained, what neither the award of arbitration nor the judicial decision had granted.

In conformity to this resolution, Beenoo sat down in Dherna on Balkishen; and he, after a perseverance

of several days, apprehensive of her death, repaired with her to a Hindu temple in Benares: where they both continued to fast some time longer. Thirteen days had elapsed from the commencement of Balkishen's arrest, when he yielded the contest, by entering into a conditional agreement with Beenoo, that if she could establish the validity of her cast, and in proof thereof prevail on some creditable members of her own tribe to partake with her of an entertainment of her providing, he would not only defray the expense of it, but would also discharge her debts. The conditions were accepted by Beenoo, who fulfilled her part of the obligation; and her antagonist, without hesitation, defrayed the charges of the entertainment: but the non-performance of his engagement to discharge her debts, induced Beenoo Bhai to institute a suit against him; and the practice of the Dherna, with the proofs of it, were thus brought forward to official notice.

It is not unworthy of remark, that some of the Pandits, on being consulted, admitted the validity of an obligation extorted by Dherna, provided the objeet were to obtain a just cause or right, wickedly withheld by the other party, but not otherwise. Others again rejected the validity of an engagement so extorted, unless it should be subsequently confirmed by the writer, either in whole or in part, after the removal of the coercion upon him.

Of the practice which I have related, no instance exactly similar has occurred to my knowledge in Bengal or Behar, although Brahmins, even in Calcutta, have been known to obtain charity or subsistence from Hindus, by posting themselves before the doors of their houses, under a declaration to remain there until their solicitations were granted. The moderation of the demand generally induces a compliance with it;