Indian Antiquary Vol 09

SR No.: 032501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1880.
To give a list, says Beveridge, of the severities | these the last two closely resemble their Hindu practised by the beggars would be to enumerate congeners: they are known by the names of Tarialmost all the imaginable modes of torture; kat, Sharikat, Marphat, and Hakikat, and their keeping the palms of the hands closed till the chief is called the Sarguro. They use rosaries nails grow into the flesh on one side and re- of beads, practise jap tap, and apply ashes to appear on the other; creeping along in twisted their persons. Those of them who do not marry forms till permanent and unnatural distortion are held in high estimation; some marry and is produced; holding the arms upright till have families. The Musalman non-religious they lose their power of motion and become beggars are like those of the Hindus, they sbrivelled; hanging over slow fires; burying in follow the profession of mendicants because a living grave with only a small aperture to their gains from it are large. As an instance prevent suffocation, such are only a few of the the following from the Intian Statesman well modes of tormenting displayed by beggars who illustrates the fact :- A curious instance of the infest the country and extort alms either by the life led by some of the Musalman mendicants commiseration which their sufferings excite, or was revealed by the researches of the officers the desire to be rid of their filthy and disgusting of the Small Cause Court, Bombay. It would presence. Naked bodies smeared with ashes appear that a bailiff executed a writ of possesof cow dung: hair hanging in locks matted sion against a tenant, a Faqir, by name Sayad together with filth; sometimes with living Ebrahim Sahib. The bailiff on entering the reptiles concealed in them; human skulle filled room was nearly stifled by the stench arising with filth; and human bones strung round the from filth in the shape of dead rats, dead neck, are among the devices used by those who fowls, a dead dog which was packed in a tin are ambitious of the honour and greedy of the fiddle-case, and heaps of dust and cockprofit which it too often commands. The follow- roaches, living and dead. Money was found, ing abstract of an account will show how some of in bank notes, silver and copper to the extent these beggars do penance. Atten years of age,' of Rs. 2,500. Surrounded by all this filth, says the narrator, 'Igave myself up to meditation with about nine or ten dogs for company, he and mortification, at twenty I left my home and looked on with a sad eye at the cleaning process, lived in a cell doing penance for twelve years. and begged to have his dead dog restored to Vermin or worms gnawed my flesh, of which the him.' marks still remain. When the RÂja opened the The Bombay beggars generally start on their door of the cell, I said. Either take my curse or business in the mornings, and beg from early prepare for me a bed of spikes, which the Raja morn till one or two o'clock; and in the evenings did, and this is the one I occupy. During the from three till eleven at night. In the inornings four months of winter I travel on this bed, they are given uncooked rice and in a few cases while night and day water is let fall upon my money, but in the evenings money and scraps of hend. For thirty-five years I travel on this food are offered to Mang, Mhår, and Dhed bed, which is pulled by my disciples. At Surat, beggars. These, the most wretched of the class, Collector Boddam built a house for me and pro- beg only in the evenings, after people have had vided me with something to subsist on.'
their meals, for the remains of food. They are not Hindu non-religious beggars of all classes
satisfied with what they get by begging, but are found begging in Bombay-Brahmans and they also rake up the spots where the dinner Sudras, Mångs, Mhårs, and Dhedas, principally plates and fragments of food are thrown, and the lame, the blind, the deformed, the leper lick the plates along with dogs and cats; the and the decrepit, who prefer street-begging dogs barking at the beggar and the beggar because their gains are large, and they have driving away the dog with one hand and eating liberty to rove about and indulge in the luxuries with the other. This is a most pitiful sight to of life.
look at. These beggars go with baskets and The Musalman religious beggars are known as pieces of cloth, in which they collect the Jalals, Madaris, Rafais, Banavas, and Safis. Ofremains, and after eating a sufficient quantity History of India, vol. IL., P. 46.
Mr. GopalrAo Hari's Bhikshuks, p. 16. • Asiatic Researches, vol. V. p. 50.