3. Muhammadan castes.

About 14 per cent of the Muhammadans returned caste names. The principal castes are the Bohra and Khoja merchants, who are of the Shiah sect, and the Cutchis or Memans from Gujarat, who are also traders; these classes are foreigners in the Province, and many of them do not bring their wives, though they have now begun to settle here. The resident castes of Muhammadans are the Bahnas or cotton-cleaners; Julahas, weavers; Kacheras, glass bangle-makers; Kunjras, greengrocers; Kasais, butchers; and the Rangrez caste of dyers who dye with safflower. As already stated, a section of the Bhils are at least nominally Muhammadans, and the Fakirs or Muhammadan beggars are also considered a separate caste. But no caste of good standing such as the Rajput and Jat includes any considerable number of Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, though in northern India large numbers of them belong to this religion, while retaining substantially their caste usages. The Muhammadan castes in the Central Provinces probably consist to a large extent of the descendants of Hindu converts. Their religious observances present a curious mixture of Hindu and Muhammadan rites, as shown in the separate articles on these castes. Proper Muhammadans look down on them and decline to take food or intermarry with them.



4. The four tribal divisions.

The Muhammadans proper are usually divided into four classes, Shaikh, Saiyad, Mughal and Pathan. Of these the Shaikhs number nearly 300,000, the Pathans nearly 150,000, the Saiyads under 50,000, and the Pathans about 9000 in the Central Provinces. The term Saiyad properly means a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law, and the lady Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet. They use the title Saiyad or Mir [300] before, and sometimes Shah after, their name, while women employ that of Begum. Many Saiyads act as Pirs or spiritual guides to other Muhammadan families. The external mark of a Saiyad is the right to wear a green turban, but this is of course no longer legally secured to them. The title Shaikh properly belongs only to three branches of the Quraish tribe or that of Muhammad: the Siddikis, who claim descent from Abu Bakr Siddik, [301] the father-in-law of the Prophet and the second Caliph; the Farukis claiming it from Umar ul Faruk, the third Caliph, and also the father-in-law of the Prophet; and the Abbasis, descended from Abbas, one of the Prophet's nine uncles. The Farukis are divided into two families, the Chistis and Faridis. Both these titles, however, and especially Shaikh, are now arrogated by large numbers of persons who cannot have any pretence to the above descent. Sir D. Ibbetson quotes a proverb, 'Last year I was a butcher; this year I am a Shaikh; next year if prices rise I shall become a Saiyad.' And Sir H. M. Elliot relates that much amusement was caused in 1860 at Gujarat by the Sherishtadar or principal officer of the judicial department describing himself in an official return as Saiyad Hashimi Quraishi, that is, of the family and lineage of the Prophet. His father, who was living in obscurity in his native town, was discovered to be a Lohar or blacksmith. [302] The term Shaikh means properly an elder, and is freely taken by persons of respectable position. Shaikhs commonly use either Shaikh or Muhammad as their first names. The Pathans were originally the descendants of Afghan immigrants. The name is probably the Indian form of the word Pushtun (plural Pushtanah), now given to themselves by speakers of the Pushtu language. [303] The men add Khan to their names and the women Khatun or Khatu. It is not at all likely either that the bulk of the Muhammadans who returned themselves as Pathans in the Central Provinces are really of Afghan descent. The Mughals proper are of two classes, Irani or Persian, who belong to the Shiah sect, and Turani, Turkish or Tartar, who are Sunnis. Mughals use the title Mirza (short for Amirzada, son of a prince) before their names, and add Beg after them. It is said that the Prophet addressed a Mughal by the title of Beg after winning a victory, and since then it has always been used. Mughal women have the designation Khanum after their names. [304] Formerly the Saiyads and Mughals constituted the superior class of Muhammadan gentry, and never touched a plough themselves, like the Hindu Brahmans and Rajputs. These four divisions are not proper subcastes as they are not endogamous. A man of one group can marry a woman of any other and she becomes a member of her husband's group; but the daughters of Saiyads do not usually marry others than Saiyads. Nor is there any real distinction of occupation between them, the men following any occupation indifferently. In fact, the divisions are now little more than titular, a certain distinction attaching to the titles Saiyad and Shaikh when borne by families who have a hereditary or prescriptive right to use them.



5. Marriage.

The census returns of 1911 show that three-fourths of Muhammadan boys now remain unmarried till the age of 20; while of girls 31 per cent are unmarried between 15 and 20, but only 13 per cent above that age. The age of marriage of boys may therefore be taken at 18 to 25 or later, and that of girls at 10 to 20. The age of marriage both of girls and boys is probably getting later, especially among the better classes.

Marriage is prohibited to the ordinary near relatives, but not between first cousins. A man cannot marry his foster-mother or foster-sister, unless the foster-brother and sister were nursed by the same woman at intervals widely separated. A man may not marry his wife's sister during his wife's lifetime unless she has been divorced. A Muhammadan cannot marry a polytheist, but he may marry a Jewess or a Christian. No specific religious ceremony is appointed, nor are any rites essential for the contraction of a valid marriage. If both persons are legally competent, and contract marriage with each other in the presence of two male or one male and two female witnesses, it is sufficient. And the Shiah law even dispenses with witnesses. As a rule the Kazi performs the ceremony, and reads four chapters of the Koran with the profession of belief, the bridegroom repeating them after him. The parties then express their mutual consent, and the Kazi, raising his hands, says, "The great God grant that mutual love may reign between this couple as it existed between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Zuleika, Moses and Zipporah, His Highness Muhammad and Ayesha, and His Highness Ali and Fatimah." [305] A dowry or meher must be paid to the wife, which under the law must not be less than ten silver dirhams or drachmas; but it is customary to fix it at Rs. 17, the dowry of Fatimah, the Prophet's favourite daughter, or at Rs. 750, that of the Prophet's wife, Ayesha. [306] The wedding is, however, usually accompanied by feasts and celebrations not less elaborate or costly than those of the Hindus. Several Hindu ceremonies are also included, such as the anointing of the bride and bridegroom with oil and turmeric, and setting out earthen vessels, which are meant to afford a dwelling-place for the spirits of ancestors, at least among the lower classes. [307] Another essential rite is the rubbing of the hands and feet of the bridegroom with mehndi or red henna. The marriage is usually arranged and a ceremony of betrothal held at least a year before it actually takes place.



6. Polygamy, divorce and widow-remarriage.

A husband can divorce his wife at pleasure by merely repeating the prescribed sentences. A wife can obtain divorce from her husband for impotence, madness, leprosy or non-payment of the dowry. A woman who is divorced can claim her dowry if it has not been paid. Polygamy is permitted among Muhammadans to the number of four wives, but it is very rare in the Central Provinces. Owing to the fact that members of the immigrant trading castes leave their wives at home in Gujarat, the number of married women returned at the census was substantially less than that of married men. A feeling in favour of the legal prohibition of polygamy is growing up among educated Muhammadans, and many of them sign a contract at marriage not to take a second wife during the lifetime of the first. There is no prohibition on the remarriage of widows in Muhammadan law, but the Hindu rule on the subject has had considerable influence, and some Muhammadans of good position object to the marriage of widows in their family. The custom of the seclusion of women also, as Mr. Marten points out, operates as a bar to a widow finding a husband for herself.



7. Devices for procuring children, and beliefs about them.

Women who desire children resort to the shrines of saints, who are supposed to be able to induce fertility. "Blochmann notes that the tomb of Saint Salim-i-Chishti at Fatehpur-Sikri, in whose house the Emperor Jahangir was born, is up to the present day visited by childless Hindu and Musalman women. A tree in the compound of the saint Shaih Alam of Ahmedabad yields a peculiar acorn-like fruit, which is sought after far and wide by those desiring children; the woman is believed to conceive from the moment of eating the fruit. If the birth of a child follows the eating of the acorn, the man and woman who took it from the tree should for a certain number of years come at every anniversary of the saint and nourish the tree with a supply of milk. In addition to this, jasmine and rose-bushes at the shrines of certain saints are supposed to possess issue-giving properties. To draw virtue from the saint's jasmine the woman who yearns for a child bathes and purifies herself and goes to the shrine, and seats herself under or near the jasmine bush with her skirt spread out. As many flowers as fall into her lap, so many children will she have. In some localities if after the birth of one child no other son is born, or being born does not live, it is supposed that the first-born child is possessed by a malignant spirit who destroys the young lives of the new-born brothers and sisters. So at the mother's next confinement sugar and sesame-seed are passed seven or nine times over the new-born infant from head to foot, and the elder boy or girl is given them to eat. The sugar represents the life of the young one given to the spirit who possesses the first-born. A child born with teeth already visible is believed to exercise a very malignant influence over its parents, and to render the early death of one of them almost certain." [308]



8. Pregnancy rites.

In the seventh or ninth month of pregnancy a fertility rite is performed as among the Hindus. The woman is dressed in new clothes, and her lap is filled with fruit and vegetables by her friends. In some localities a large number of pots are obtained, and a little water is placed in each of them by a fertile married woman who has never lost a child. Prayers are repeated over the pots in the names of the male and female ancestors of the family, and especially of the women who have died in childbirth. This appears to be a propitiation of the spirits of ancestors. [309]



9. Childbirth and naming children.

A woman goes to her parents' home after the last pregnancy rite and stays there till her confinement is over. The rites performed by the midwife at birth resemble those of the Hindus. When the child is born the azan or summons to prayer is uttered aloud in his right ear, and the takbir or Muhammadan creed in his left. The child is named on the sixth or seventh day. Sometimes the name of an ancestor is given, or the initial letter is selected from the Koran at a venture and a name beginning with that letter is chosen. Some common names are those of the hundred titles of God combined with the prefix abd or servant. Such are Abdul Aziz, servant of the all-honoured; Ghani, the everlasting; Karim, the gracious; Rahim, the pitiful; Rahman, the merciful; Razzak, the bread-giver; Sattar, the concealer; and so on, with the prefix Abdul, or servant of, in each case. Similarly Abdullah, or servant of God, was the name of Muhammad's father, and is a very favourite one. Other names end with Baksh or 'given by,' as Haidar Baksh, given by the lion (Ali); these are similar to the Hindu names ending in Prasad. The prefix Ghulam, or slave of, is also used, as Ghulam Hussain, slave of Hussain; and names of Hebrew patriarchs mentioned in the Koran are not uncommon, as Ayub Job, Harun Aaron, Ishaq Isaac, Musa Moses, Yakub Jacob, Yusaf Joseph, and so on. [310]



10. The Ukika sacrifice.

After childbirth the mother must not pray or fast, touch the Koran or enter a mosque for forty days; on the expiry of this period she is bathed and dressed in good clothes, and her relatives bring presents for the child. Some people do not let her oil or comb her hair during these days. The custom would seem to be a relic of the period of impurity of women after childbirth. On the fortieth day the child is placed in a cradle for the first time. In some localities a rite called Ukika is performed after the birth of a child. It consists of a sacrifice in the name of the child of two he-goats for a boy and one for a girl. The goats must be above a year old, and without spot or blemish. The meat must be separated from the bones so that not a bone is broken, and the bones, skin, feet and head are afterwards buried in the earth. When the flesh is served the following prayer is said by the father: "O, Almighty God, I offer in the stead of my own offspring life for life, blood for blood, head for head, bone for bone, hair for hair, and skin for skin. In the name of God do I sacrifice this he-goat." This is apparently a relic of the substitution of a goat for Ishmael when Abraham was offering him as a sacrifice. The Muhammadans say that it was Ishmael instead of Isaac who was thus offered, and they think that Ishmael or Ismail was the ancestor of all the Arabs. [311]



11. Shaving the hair and ear-piercing.

Either on the same day as the Ukika sacrifice or soon afterwards the child's hair is shaved for the first time. By the rich the hair is weighed against silver and this sum is distributed to beggars. It is then tied up in a piece of cloth and either buried or thrown into a river, or sometimes set afloat on a little toy raft in the name of a saint. Occasionally tufts of hair or even the whole head may be left unshaven in the name of a saint, and after one or more years the child is taken to the saint's tomb and the hair shaved there; or if this cannot be done it is cut off at home in the name of the saint. [312]

When a girl is one or two years old the lobes of her ears are bored. By degrees other holes are bored along the edge of the ear and even in the centre, till by the time she has attained the age of two or three years she has thirteen holes in the right ear and twelve in the left. Little silver rings and various kinds of earrings are inserted and worn in the holes. But the practice of boring so many holes has now been abandoned by the better-class Muhammadans.



12. Birthdays.

The child's birthday is known as sal-girah and is celebrated by a feast. A knot is tied in a red thread and annually thereafter a fresh knot to mark his age, and prayers are offered in the child's name to the patriarch Noah, who is believed to have lived to five hundred or a thousand years, and hence to have the power of conferring longevity on the child. When a child is four years, four months and four days old the ceremony of Bismillah or taking the name of God is held, which is obligatory on all Muhammadans. Friends are invited, and the child is dressed in a flowered robe (sahra) and repeats the first chapters of the Koran after his or her tutor. [313]



13. Circumcision, and maturity of girls.

A boy is usually circumcised at the age of six or seven, but among some classes of Shiahs and the Arabs the operation is performed a few days after birth. The barber operates and the child is usually given a little bhang or other opiate. Some Muhammadans leave circumcision till an age bordering on puberty, and then perform it with a pomp and ceremony almost equalling those of a marriage. When a girl arrives at the age of puberty she is secluded for seven days, and for this period eats only butter, bread and sugar, all fish, flesh, salt and acid food being prohibited. In the evening she is bathed, warm water is poured on her head, and among the lower classes an entertainment is given to friends. [314]



14. Funeral rites.

The same word janazah is used for the corpse, the bier and the funeral. When a man is at the point of death a chapter of the Koran, telling of the happiness awaiting the true believer in the future life, is read, and some money or sherbet is dropped into his mouth. After death the body is carefully washed and wrapped in three or five cloths for a male or female respectively. Some camphor or other sweet-smelling stuff is placed on the bier. Women do not usually attend funerals, and the friends and relatives of the deceased walk behind the bier. There is a tradition among some Muhammadans that no one should precede the corpse, as the angels go before. To carry a bier is considered a very meritorious act, and four of the relations, relieving each other in turn, bear it on their shoulders. Muhammadans carry their dead quickly to the place of interment, for Muhammad is stated to have said that it is good to carry the dead quickly to the grave, so as to cause the righteous person to attain the sooner to bliss; and, on the other hand, in the case of a bad man it is well to put wickedness away from one's shoulders. Funerals should always be attended on foot, for it is said that Muhammad once rebuked people who were following a bier on horseback, saying, "Have you no shame, since God's angels go on foot and you go upon the backs of quadrupeds?" It is a highly meritorious act to attend a funeral whether it be that of a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. The funeral service is not recited in the cemetery, this being too polluted a place for so sacred an office, but either in a mosque or in some open space close to the dwelling of the deceased person or to the graveyard. The nearest relative is the proper person to recite the service, but it is usually said by the family priest or the village Kazi. The grave sometimes has a recess at the side, in which the body is laid to prevent the earth falling upon it, or planks may be laid over the body slantwise or supported on bricks for the same purpose. Coffins are only used by the rich. When the body has been placed in the grave each person takes up a clod of earth and pronouncing over it a verse of the Koran, 'From earth we made you, to earth we return you and out of earth we shall raise you on the resurrection day,' places it gently in the grave over the corpse. [315] The building of stone or brick tombs and writing verses of the Koran on them is prohibited by the Traditions, but large masonry tombs are common in all Muhammadan countries and very frequently they bear inscriptions. On the third day a feast is given in the morning and after it trays of flowers with a vessel containing scented oil are handed round and the guests pick flowers and dip them into the oil. They then proceed to the grave, where the oil and flowers are placed. Maulvis are employed to read the whole of the Koran over the grave, which they accomplish by dividing it into sections and reading them at the same time. Rich people sometimes have the whole Koran read several times over in this manner. A sheet of white or red cloth is spread over the grave, green being usually reserved for Fakirs or saints. On the evening of the ninth day another feast is given, to which friends and neighbours, and religious and ordinary beggars are invited, and a portion is sent to the Fakir or mendicant in charge of the burying-ground. Some people will not eat any food from this feast in their houses but take it outside. [316] On the morning of the tenth day they go again to the grave and repeat the offering of flowers and scented oil as before. Other feasts are given on the fortieth day, and at the expiration of four, six and nine months, and one year from the date of the death, and the rich sometimes spend large sums on them. None of these observances are prescribed by the Koran but have either been retained from pre-Islamic times or adopted in imitation of the Hindus. For forty days all furniture is removed from the rooms and the whole family sleep on the bare ground. Sometimes a cup of water and a wheaten cake are placed nightly for forty days on the spot where the deceased died, and a similar provision is sent to the mosque. When a man dies his mother and widow break their glass bangles. The mother can get new ones, but the widow does not wear glass bangles or a nose-ring again unless she takes a second husband. For four months and ten days the widow is strictly secluded and does not leave the house. Prayers for ancestors are offered annually at the Shab-i-Barat or Bakr-Id festival. [317] The property of a deceased Muhammadan is applicable in the first place to the payment of his funeral expenses; secondly, to the discharge of his debts; and thirdly, to the payment of legacies up to one-third of the residue. If the legacies exceed this amount they are proportionately reduced. The remainder of the property is distributed by a complicated system of shares to those of the deceased's relatives who rank as sharers and residuaries, legacies to any of them in excess of the amount of their shares being void. The consequence of this law is that most Muhammadans die intestate. [318]



15. Muhammadan sects. Shiah and Sunni.

Of the two main sects of Islam, ninety-four per cent of the Muhammadans in the Central Province were returned as being Sunnis in 1911 and three per cent as Shiahs, while the remainder gave no sect. Only the Cutchi, Bohra and Khoja immigrants from Gujarat are Shiahs and practically all other Muhammadans are Sunnis. With the exception of Persia, Oudh and part of Gujarat, the inhabitants of which are Shiahs, the Sunni sect is generally prevalent in the Muhammadan world. The main difference between the Sunnis and Shiahs is that the latter think that according to the Koran the Caliphate or spiritual headship of the Muhammadans had to descend in the Prophet's family and therefore necessarily devolved on the Lady Fatimah, the only one of his children who survived him, and on her husband Ali the fourth Caliph. They therefore reject the first three Caliphs after Muhammad, that is Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman. After Ali they also hold that the Caliphate descended in his family to his two sons Hasan and Hussain, and the descendants of Hussain. Consequently they reject all the subsequent Caliphs of the Muhammadan world, as Hussain and his children did not occupy this position. They say that there are only twelve Caliphs, or Imams, as they now prefer to call them, and that the twelfth has never really died and will return again as the Messiah of whom Muhammad spoke, at the end of the world. He is known as the Mahdi, and the well-known pretender of the Soudan, as well as others elsewhere, have claimed to be this twelfth or unrevealed Imam. Other sects of the Shiahs, as the Zaidiyah and Ismailia, make a difference in the succession of the Imamate among Hussain's descendants. The central incident of the Shiah faith is the slaughter of Hussain, the son of Ali, with his family, on the plain of Karbala in Persia by the sons of Yazid, the second Caliph of the Umaiyad dynasty of Damascus, on the 10th day of the month Muharram, in the 61st year of the Hijra or A.D. 680. The martyrdom of Hussain and his family at Karbala is celebrated annually for the first ten days of the month of Muharram by the Shiahs. Properly the Sunnis should take no part in this, and should observe only the tenth day of Muharram as that on which Adam and Eve and heaven and hell were created. But in the Central Provinces the Sunnis participate in all the Muharram celebrations, which now have rather the character of a festival than of a season of mourning. The Shiahs also reject the four great schools of tradition of the Sunnis, and have separate traditional authorities of their own. They count the month to begin from the full moon instead of the new moon, pray three instead of five times a day, and in praying hold their hands open by their sides instead of folding them below the breast. The word Shiah means a follower, and Sunni one proceeding on the sunnah, the path or way, a term applied to the traditions of the Prophet. The two words have thus almost the same signification. Except when otherwise stated, the information in this article relates to the Sunnis.



16. Leading religious observances. Prayer.

The five standard observances of the Muhammadan religion are the Kalima, or creed; Sula, or the five daily prayers; Roza, or the thirty-day fast of Ramazan; Zakab, the legal alms; and Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which should be performed once in a lifetime. The Kalima, or creed, consists simply in the sentence, 'There is but one God and Muhammad is His prophet,' which is frequently on the lips of Muhammadans. The five periods for prayer are Fajr ki namaz, in the morning before sunrise; Zohar, or the midday prayer, after the sun has begun to decline; Asur, or the afternoon prayer, about four; Maghrib, or the evening prayer, immediately after sunset; and Aysha, or the evening prayer, after the night has closed in. These prayers are repeated in Arabic, and before saying them the face, hands and feet should be washed, and, correctly speaking, the teeth should also be cleaned. At the times of prayer the Azan or call to prayer is repeated from the mosque by the muezzan or crier in the following terms: "God is great, God is great, God is great, God is great! I bear witness that there is no God but God! (twice). I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! (twice). Come to prayers! Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great! There is no other God but God." In the early morning the following sentence is added, 'Prayers are better than sleep.' [319]



17. The fast of Ramazan.

The third necessary observance is the fast in the month of Ramazan, the ninth month of the Muhammadan year. The fast begins when the new moon is seen, or if the sky is clouded, after thirty days from the beginning of the previous month. During its continuance no food or water must be taken between sunrise and sunset, and betel-leaf, tobacco and conjugal intercourse must be abjured for the whole period. The abstention from water is a very severe penance during the long days of the hot weather when Ramazan falls at this season. Mr. Hughes thinks that the Prophet took the thirty days' fast from the Christian Lent, which was observed very strictly in the Eastern Church during the nights as well as days. In ordaining the fast he said that God 'would make it an ease and not a difficulty,' but he may not have reflected that his own action in discarding the intercalary month adopted by the Arabs and reverting to the simple lunar months would cause the fast to revolve round the whole year. During the fast people eat before sunrise and after sunset, and dinner-parties are held lasting far into the night.

It is a divine command to give alms annually of money, cattle, grain, fruit and merchandise. If a man has as much as eighty rupees, or forty sheep and goats, or five camels, he should give alms at specified rates amounting roughly to two and a half per cent of his property. In the case of fruit and grain the rate is one-tenth of the harvest for unirrigated, and a twentieth for irrigated crops. These alms should be given to pilgrims who desire to go to Mecca but have not the means; and to religious and other beggars if they are very poor, debtors who have not the means to discharge their debts, champions of the cause of God, travellers without food and proselytes to Islam. Religious mendicants consider it unlawful to accept the zakat or legal alms unless they are very poor, and they may not be given to Saiyads or descendants of the Prophet.



18. The pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca is incumbent on all men and women who have sufficient means to meet the expenses of the journey and to maintain their families at home during their absence. Only a very small proportion of Indian Muhammadans, however, now undertake it. Mecca is the capital of Arabia and about seventy miles from the Red Sea. The pilgrimage must be performed during the month Zu'l Hijjah, so that the pilgrim may be at Mecca on the festival of Id-ul-Zoha or the Bakr-Id. At the last stage near Mecca the pilgrims assume a special dress, consisting of two seamless wrappers, one round the waist and the other over the shoulders. Sandals of wood may also be worn. Formerly the pilgrim would take with him a little compass in which the needle in the shape of a dove pointed continually towards Mecca in the west. On arrival at Mecca he performs the legal ablutions, proceeds to the sacred mosque, kisses the black stone, and encompasses the Kaaba seven times. The Kaaba or 'Cube' is a large stone building and the black stone is let into one of its walls. He drinks the water of the sacred well Zem-Zem from which Hagar and Ishmael obtained water when they were dying of thirst in the wilderness, and goes through various other rites up to the day of Id-ul-Zoha, when he performs the sacrifice or kurban, offering a ram or he-goat for every member of his family, or for every seven persons a female camel or cow. The flesh is distributed in the same manner as that of the ordinary Bakr-Id sacrifice. [320] He then gets himself shaved and his nails pared, which he has not done since he assumed the pilgrim's garb, and buries the cuttings and parings at the place of the sacrifice. The pilgrimage is concluded after another circuit of the Kaaba, but before his departure the pilgrim should visit the tomb of Muhammad at Medina. One who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca thereafter has the title of Haji.



19. Festivals. The Muharram.

The principal festivals are the Muharram and the two Ids. The month of Muharram is the first of the year, and the first ten days, as already stated, are devoted to mourning for the death of Hussain and his family. This is observed indifferently by Sunnis and Shiahs in the Central Provinces, and the proceedings with the Sunnis at any rate have now rather the character of a festival than a time of sorrow. Models of the tomb of Hussain, called tazia, are made of bamboo and pasteboard and decorated with tinsel. Wealthy Shiahs have expensive models, richly decorated, which are permanently kept in a chamber of the house called the Imambara or Imam's place, but this is scarcely ever done in the Central Provinces. As a rule the tazias are taken in procession and deposited in a river on the last and great day of the Muharram. Women who have made vows for the recovery of their children from an illness dress them in green and send them to beg; and men and boys of the lower classes have themselves painted as tigers and go about mimicking a tiger for what they can get from the spectators. It seems likely that the representations of tigers may be in memory of the lion which is said to have kept watch over the body of Hussain after he had been buried. In Persia a man disguised as a tiger appears on the tomb of Hussain in the drama of his murder at Karbala, which is enacted at the Muharram. In Hindu mythology the lion and tiger appear to be interchangeable. During the tragedy at Karbala, Kasim, a young nephew of Hussain, was married to his little daughter Sakinah, Kasim being very shortly afterwards killed. It is supposed that the cast shoe of Kasim's horse was brought to India, and at the Muharram models of horse-shoes are made and carried fixed on poles. Men who feel so impelled and think that they will be possessed by the spirit of Kasim make these horse-shoes and carry them, and frequently they believe themselves to be possessed by the spirit, exhibiting the usual symptoms of a kind of frenzy, and women apply to them for children or for having evil spirits cast out. [321]



20. Id-ul-Fitr.

The Id-ul-Fitr, or the breaking of the fast, is held on the first day of the tenth month, Shawwal, on the day after the end of the fast of Ramazan. On this day the people assemble dressed in their best clothes and proceed to the Id-Gah, a building erected outside the town and consisting of a platform with a wall at the western end in the direction of Mecca. Here prayers are offered, concluding with one for the King-Emperor, and a sermon is given, and the people then return escorting the Kazi or other leading member of the community and sometimes paying their respects in a body to European officers. They return to their homes and spend the rest of the day in feasting and merriment, a kind of vermicelli being a special dish eaten on this day.



21. Id-ul-Zoha

The Idu-l-Azha or Id-ul-Zoha, the feast of sacrifice, also called the Bakr-Id or cow-festival, is held on the tenth day of the last month, Zu'l Hijjah. It is the principal day of the Muhammadan year, and pilgrims going to Mecca keep it there. [322] At this time also the Arabs were accustomed to go to Mecca and offer animal sacrifices there to the local deities. According to tradition, when Abraham (Ibrahim) founded Mecca the Lord desired him to prepare a feast and to offer his son Ishmael (Ismail). But when he had drawn the knife across his son's throat the angel Gabriel substituted a ram and Ishmael was saved, and the festival commemorates this. As already stated, the Arabs believe themselves to be descended from Ishmael or Ismail. According to a remarkable Hadis or tradition, related by Ayesha, Muhammad said: "Man hath not done anything on the Id-ul-Zoha more pleasing to God than spilling blood in sacrifice; for, verily, its blood reacheth the acceptance of God before it falleth upon the ground, therefore be joyful in it." [323] On this day, as on the other Id, the people assemble for prayers at the Id-Gah. On returning home the head of a family takes a sheep, cow or camel to the entrance of his house and sacrifices it, repeating the formula, 'In the name of God, God is great,' as he cuts its throat. The flesh is divided, two-thirds being kept by the family and one-third given to the poor in the name of God. This is the occasion on which Muhammadans offend Hindu feeling by their desire to sacrifice cows, as camels are unobtainable or too valuable, and the sacrifice of a cow has probably more religious merit than that of a sheep or goat. But in many cases they abandon their right to kill a cow in order to avoid stirring up enmity.



22. Mosques.

The entrance to a Muhammadan mosque consists of a stone gateway, bearing in verse the date of its building; this leads into a paved courtyard, which in a large mosque may be 40 or 50 yards long and about 20 wide. The courtyard often contains a small tank or cistern about 20 feet square, its sides lined with stone seats. Beyond this lies the building itself, open towards the courtyard, which is on its eastern side, and closed in on the other three sides, with a roof. The floor is raised about a foot above the level of the courtyard. In the back wall, which is opposite the courtyard to the west in the direction of Mecca, is an arched niche, and close by a wooden or masonry pulpit raised four or five feet from the ground. Against the wall is a wooden staff, which the preacher holds in his hand or leans upon according to ancient custom. [324] The walls are bare of decorations, images and pictures having been strictly prohibited by Muhammad, and no windows are necessary; but along the walls are scrolls bearing in golden letters the name of the Prophet and the first four Caliphs, or a chapter of the Koran, the Arabic script being especially suitable for this kind of ornamental writing. [325] The severe plainness of the interior of a mosque demonstrates the strict monotheism of Islam, and is in contrast to the temples and shrines of most other religions. The courtyard of a mosque is often used as a place of resort, and travellers also stay in it.



23. The Friday service.

A service is held in the principal mosque on Fridays about midday, at which public prayers are held and a sermon or khutbak is preached or recited. Friday is known as Jumah, or the day of assembly. Friday was said by Muhammad to have been the day on which Adam was taken into paradise and turned out of it, the day on which he repented and on which he died. It will also be the day of Resurrection. The Prophet considered that the Jews and Christians had erred in transferring their Sabbath from Friday to Saturday and Sunday respectively. [326]



24. Priests, Mulla and Maulvi.

The priest in charge of a mosque is known as Mulla. Any one can be a Mulla who can read the Koran and say the prayers, and the post is very poorly paid. The Mulla proclaims the call to prayer five times a day, acts as Imam or leader of the public prayers, and if there is no menial servant keeps the mosque clean. He sometimes has a little school in the courtyard in which he teaches children the Koran. He also sells charms, consisting of verses of the Koran written on paper, to be tied round the arm or hung on the neck. These have the effect of curing disease and keeping off evil spirits or the evil eye. Sometimes there is a mosque servant who also acts as sexton of the local cemetery. The funds of the mosque and any endowment attached to it are in charge of some respectable resident, who is known as Mutawalli or churchwarden. The principal religious officer is the Maulvi, who corresponds to the Hindu Guru or preceptor. These men are frequently intelligent and well-educated. They are also doctors of law, as all Muhammadan law is based on the Koran and Traditions and the deductions drawn from them by the great commentators. The Maulvi thus acts as a teacher of religious doctrine and also of law. He is not permanently attached to a mosque, but travels about during the open season, visiting his disciples in villages, teaching and preaching to them, and also treating the sick. If he knows the whole of the Koran by heart he has the title of Hafiz, and is much honoured, as it is thought that a man who has earned the title of Hafiz frees twenty generations of his ancestors and descendants from the fires of hell. Such a man is much in request during the month of Ramazan, when the leader of the long night prayers is expected to recite nightly one of the thirty sections of the Koran, so as to complete them within the month. [327]



25. The Kazi.

The Kazi was under Muhammadan rule the civil and criminal judge, having jurisdiction over a definite local area, and he also acted as a registrar of deeds. Now he only leads the public prayers at the Id festivals and keeps registers of marriages and divorces. He does not usually attend marriages himself unless he receives a special fee, but pays a deputy or naib to do so. [328] The Kazi is still, however, as a rule the leading member of the local Muhammadan community, the office being sometimes elective and sometimes hereditary.



26. General features of Islam.

In proclaiming one unseen God as the sole supernatural being, Muhammad adopted the religion of the Jews of Arabia, with whose sacred books he was clearly familiar. He looked on the Jewish prophets as his predecessors, he himself being the last and greatest. The Koran says, "We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down to us, and that which was sent down unto Abraham, and Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses, and Jesus and the prophets from the Lord, and we make no distinction between any of them." Thus Muhammad accepted the bulk of the Old but not of the New Testament, which the Jews also do not receive. His deity was the Jewish Jehovah of the Old Testament, though called Allah after the name of a god worshipped at Mecca. The six prophets who brought new laws were Adam, the chosen of God; Noah, the preacher of God; Abraham, the friend of God; Moses, one who conversed with God; Jesus, the Spirit of God; and Muhammad, the Messenger of God. His seven heavens and his prophecy of a Messiah and Day of Judgment were Jewish beliefs, though it is supposed that he took the idea of the Sirat or narrow bridge over the midst of hell, sharper than the edge of a sword, over which all must pass, while the wicked fall from it into hell, from Zoroastrianism. Muhammad recognised a devil, known as Iblis, while the Jinns or Genii of pagan Arabia became bad angels. The great difference between Islam and Judaism arose from Muhammad's position in being obliged continually to fight for his own existence and the preservation of his sect This circumstance coloured the later parts of the Koran and gave Islam the character of a religious and political crusade, a kind of faith eminently fitted to the Arab nature and training. And to this character may be assigned its extraordinary success, but, at the same time, probably the religion itself might have been of a somewhat purer and higher tenor if its birth and infancy had not had place in a constant state of war. Muhammad accomplished most beneficent reforms in abolishing polytheism and such abuses as female infanticide, and at least regulating polygamy. In forbidding both gambling and the use of alcohol he set a very high standard to his disciples, which if adhered to would remove two of the main sources of vice. His religion retained fewer relics of the pre-existing animism and spirit-worship than almost any other, though in practice uneducated Indian Muhammadans, at least, preserve them in a large measure. And owing to the fact that the Muhammadan months revolve round the year, its festivals have been dissociated from the old pagan observances of the changes of the sun and seasons and the growth of vegetation. At the same time the religious sanction given to polygamy and slavery, and the sensual nature of the heaven promised to true believers after death, must be condemned as debasing features; and the divine authority and completeness ascribed to the Koran and the utterances of the Prophet, which were beyond criticism or question, as well as the hostility towards all other forms of religion and philosophy, have necessarily had a very narrowing influence on Muhammadan thought. While the formal and lifeless precision of the religious services and prayers, as well as the belief in divine interference in the concerns of everyday life, have produced a strong spirit of fatalism and resignation to events.



27. The Koran.

The word Kuran is derived from kuraa, to recite or proclaim. The Muhammadans look upon the Koran as the direct word of God sent down by Him to the seventh or lowest heaven, and then revealed from time to time to the Prophet by the angel Gabriel. A few chapters are supposed to have been delivered entire, but the greater part of the book was given piecemeal during a period of twenty-three years. The Koran is written in Arabic prose, but its sentences generally conclude in a long-continued rhyme. The language is considered to be of the utmost elegance and purity, and it has become the standard of the Arabic tongue. Muhammadans pay it the greatest reverence, and their most solemn oath is taken with the Koran placed on the head. Formerly the sacred book could only be touched by a Saiyad or a Mulla, and an assembly always rose when it was brought to them. The book is kept on a high shelf in the house, so as to avoid any risk of contamination, and nothing is placed over it. Every chapter in the Koran except one begins with the invocation, 'Bismillah-nirrahman-nirrahim,' or 'In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful'; and nearly all Muhammadan prayers and religious writings also begin with this. As the Koran is the direct word of God, any statement in it has the unquestioned and complete force of law. On some points, however, separate utterances in the work itself are contradictory, and the necessity then arises of determining which is the later and more authoritative statement. [329]



28. The Traditions.

Next to the Koran in point of authority come the Traditions of the sayings and actions of the Prophet, which are known as Hadis or Sunnah. These were eagerly collected as the jurisdiction of Islam was extended, and numerous cases arose for decision in which no ruling was provided by the Koran. For some time it was held necessary that a tradition should be oral and not have been reduced to writing. When the necessity of collecting and searching for the Traditions became paramount, indefatigable research was displayed in the work. The most trustworthy collection of traditions was compiled by Abu Abdullah Muhammad, a native of Bokhara, who died in the Hijra year 256, or nearly 250 years after Muhammad. He succeeded in amassing no fewer than 600,000 traditions, of which he selected only 7275 as trustworthy. The authentic traditions of what the Prophet said and did were considered practically as binding as the Koran, and any case might be decided by a tradition bearing on it. The development of Moslem jurisdiction was thus based not on the elucidation and exposition of broad principles of law and equity, but on the record of the words and actions of one man who had lived in a substantially less civilised society than that existing in the countries to which Muhammadan law now came to be applied. Such a state of things inevitably exercised a cramping effect on the Moslem lawyers and acted as a bar to improvement. Thus, because the Koran charged the Jews and Christians with having corrupted the text of their sacred books, it was laid down that no Jew or Christian could be accepted as a credible witness in a Moslem lawsuit; and since the Prophet had forbidden the keeping of dogs except for certain necessary purposes, it was ruled by one school that there was no property in dogs, and that if a man killed a dog its owner had no right to compensation. [330]



29. The schools of law.

After the Koran and Traditions the decisions of certain lawyers during the early period of Islam were accepted as authoritative. Of them four schools are recognised by the Sunnis in different countries, those of the Imams Abu Hanifa, Shafei, Malik, and Hambal. In northern India the school of Abu Hanifa is followed. He was born at Kufa, the capital of Irak, in the Hijra year 80, when four of the Prophet's Companions were still alive. He is the great oracle of jurisprudence, and with his two pupils was the founder of the Hanifi code of law. In southern India the Shafei school is followed. [331] The Shiahs have separate collections of traditions and schools of law, and they say that a Mujtahid or doctor of the law can still give decisions of binding authority, which the Sunnis deny. Except as regards marriage, divorce and inheritance and other personal matters, Muhammadan law is of course now superseded by the general law of India.



30. Food.

An animal only becomes lawful food for Muhammadans if it is killed by cutting the throat and repeating at the time the words, 'Bismillah Allaho Akbar,' or 'In the name of God, God is great.' But in shooting wild animals, if the invocation is repeated at the time of discharging the arrow or firing the gun, the carcase becomes lawful food. This last rule of Sunni law is, however, not known to, or not observed by, many Muhammadans in the Central Provinces, who do not eat an animal unless its throat is cut before death. Fish and locusts may be eaten without being killed in this manner. The animal so killed by Zabh is lawful food when slain by a Moslem, Jew or Christian, but not if slaughtered by an idolater or an apostate from Islam. Cloven-footed animals, birds that pick up food with their bills, and fish with scales are lawful, but not birds or beasts of prey. It is doubtful whether the horse is lawful. Elephants, mules, asses, alligators, turtles, crabs, snakes and frogs are unlawful, and swine's flesh is especially prohibited. Muhammadans eat freely of mutton and fish when they can afford it, but some of them abstain from chickens in imitation of the Hindus. Their favourite drink is sherbet, or sugar and water with cream or the juice of some fruit. Wine is forbidden in the Koran, and the prohibition is held to include intoxicating drugs, but this latter rule is by no means observed. According to his religion a Muhammadan need have no objection to eat with a Christian if the food eaten is of a lawful kind; but he should not eat with Hindus, as they are idolaters. In practice, however, many Muhammadans have adopted the Hindu rule against eating food touched by Christians, while owing to long association together they will partake of it when cooked by Hindus. [332]



31. Dress.

The most distinctive feature of Muhammadan dress is that the men always wear trousers or pyjamas of cotton, silk or chintz cloth, usually white. They may be either tight or loose below the knee, and are secured by a string round the waist. A Muhammadan never wears the Hindu dhoti or loin-cloth. He has a white, sleeved muslin shirt, made much like an English soft-fronted shirt, but usually without a collar, the ends of which hang down outside the trousers. Over these the well-to-do have a waistcoat of velvet, brocade or broadcloth. On going out he puts on a long coat, tight over the chest, and with rather full skirts hanging below the knee, of cotton cloth or muslin, or sometimes broadcloth or velvet. In the house he wears a small cap, and on going out puts on a turban or loose headcloth. But the fashion of wearing the small red fez with a tassel is now increasing among educated Muhammadans, and this serves as a distinctive mark in their dress, which trousers no longer do, as the Hindus have also adopted them. The removal of the shoes either on entering a house or mosque is not prescribed by Muhammadan law, though it has become customary in imitation of the Hindus. The Prophet in fact said, 'Act the reverse of the Jews in your prayers, for they do not pray in boots or shoes.' But he himself sometimes took his shoes off to pray and sometimes not. The following are some of the sayings of the Prophet with regard to dress: 'Whoever wears a silk garment in this world shall not wear it in the next.' 'God will not have compassion on him who wears long trousers (below the ankle) from pride.' 'It is lawful for the women of my people to wear silks and gold ornaments, but it is unlawful for the men.' 'Wear white clothes, because they are the cleanest and the most agreeable, and bury your dead in white clothes.' Men are prohibited from wearing gold ornaments and also silver ones other than a signet ring. A silver ring, of value sufficient to produce a day's food in case of need, should always be worn. The rule against ornaments has been generally disregarded, and gold and silver ornaments have been regularly worn by men, but the fashion of wearing ornaments is now going out, both among Muhammadan and Hindu men. A rich Muhammadan woman has a long shirt of muslin or net in different colours, embroidered on the neck and shoulders with gold lace, and draping down to the ankles. Under it she wears silk pyjamas, and over it an angia or breast-cloth of silk, brocade or cloth of gold, bordered with gold and silver lace. On the head she has a shawl or square kerchief bordered with lace. A poor woman has simply a bodice and pyjamas, with a cloth round the waist to cover their ends. Women as a rule always wear shoes, even though they do not go out, and they have a profusion of ornaments of much the same character as Hindu women. [333]



32. Social rules. Salutations.

There are certain social obligations known as Farz or imperative, but if one person in eight or ten perform them it is as if all had done so. These are, to return a salutation; to visit the sick and inquire after their welfare; to follow a bier on foot to the grave; to accept an invitation; and that when a person sneezes and says immediately, 'Alhamd ul lillah' or 'God be praised,' one of the party must reply, 'Yar hamak Allah' or 'God have mercy on you.' The Muhammadan form of salutation is 'Salam u alaikum' or 'The peace of God be with you,' and the reply is 'Wo alaikum as salam' or 'And on you also be peace.' [334] From this form has come the common Anglo-Indian use of the word Salaam.

When invitations are to be sent for any important function, such as a wedding, some woman who does not observe parda is employed to carry them. She is dressed in good clothes and provided with a tray containing betel-leaf biras or packets, cardamoms wrapped in red paper, sandalwood and sugar. She approaches any lady invited with great respect, and says: "So-and-so sends her best compliments to you and embraces you, and says that 'as to-morrow there is a little gaiety about to take place in my house, and I wish all my female friends by their presence to grace and ornament with their feet the home of this poor individual, and thereby make it a garden of roses, you must also positively come, and by remaining a couple of hours honour my humble dwelling with your company.'" If the invitation is accepted the woman carrying it applies a little sandalwood to the neck, breast and back of the guest, puts sugar and cardamoms into her mouth, and gives her a betel-leaf. If it is declined, only sandalwood is applied and a betel-leaf given. [335]

Next day dhoolies or litters are sent for the guests, or if the hostess is poor she sends women to escort them to the house before daybreak. The guests are expected to bring presents. If any ceremony connected with a child is to be performed they give it clothes or sweets, and similar articles of higher value to the bride and bridegroom in the case of a wedding.



33. Customs.

Certain customs known as Fitrah are supposed to have existed among the Arabs before the time of the Prophet, and to have been confirmed by him. These are: To keep the moustache clipped short so that food or drink cannot touch them when entering the mouth; not to cut or shave the beard; to clean the teeth with a mismak or wooden toothbrush; this should really be done at all prayers, but presumably once or twice a day are held sufficient; to clean the nostrils and mouth with water at the time of the usual ablutions; to cut the nails and clean the finger-joints; and to pull out the hair from under the armpits and the pubic hair. It is noticeable that though elaborate directions are given for washing the face, hands and feet before each prayer, there is no order to bathe the whole body daily, and this may probably not have been customary in Arabia owing to the scarcity of water. [336] And while many Muhammadans have adopted the Hindu custom of daily bathing, yet others in quite a respectable position have not, and only bathe once a week before going to the mosque. Gambling as well as the drinking of wine is prohibited in the Koran according to the text: "O believers! Surely wine and games of chance and statues and the divining-arrows are an abomination of Satan's work." Statues as well as pictures were prohibited, because at this time they were probably made only as idols to be worshipped, the prohibition being exactly analogous to that contained in the Second Commandment. The Koran enjoins a belief in the existence of magic, but forbids its practice. Magic is considered to be of two kinds, that accomplished with the help of the Koran and the names of prophets and saints, which is divine or good, and evil magic practised with the aid of genii and evil spirits which is strongly condemned. Divining-rods apparently belong to the latter class. Perfection in divine magic consists in the knowledge of the Ismi Aazam or Great Name, a knowledge first possessed by the prophet Sulaiman or Solomon, and since Solomon transmitted only to those who are highly favoured by Providence. This appears to be the true name of God, which is too awful and potent to be known or used by the commonalty; hence Allah, really an epithet, is used instead. It was in virtue of engraving the great name on his ring that Solomon possessed dominion over men and genii, and over the winds and birds and beasts. The uttering of Solomon's own name casts out demons, cures the sick, and raises the dead. The names of certain prophets and holy men have also a special virtue, and written charms of mysterious numerical combinations and diagrams have power for good. [337] Both kinds of magic are largely practised by Muhammadans. Muhammad disapproved of whistling, apparently because whistling and clapping the hands were part of the heathen ritual at Mecca. Hence it is considered wrong for good Muhammadans to whistle. [338]



34. Position of women.

The inferior status of women in Islam is inherited from Arabian society before the time of Muhammad. Among the pagan Arabs a woman was a mere chattel, and descended by inheritance. Hence the union of men with their step-mothers and mothers-in-law was common. Muhammad forbade these incestuous marriages, and also the prevalent practice of female infanticide. He legalised polygamy, but limited it to four wives, and taught that women as well as men could enter paradise. It would have been quite impossible to abolish polygamy in Arabia at the time when he lived, nor could he strike at the practice of secluding women even if he had wished to do so. This last custom has shown an unfortunate persistence, and is in full force among Indian Muhammadans, from whom the higher castes of Hindus in northern India have perhaps imitated it. Nor can it be said to show much sign of weakening at present. It is not universal over the Islamic world, as in Afghanistan women are not usually secluded. As a matter of fact both polygamy and divorce are very rare among Indian Muhammadans. Mr. Hughes quotes an interesting passage against polygamy from a Persian book on marriage customs: "That man is to be praised who confines himself to one wife, for if he takes two it is wrong and he will certainly repent of his folly. Thus say the seven wise women:

Be that man's life immersed in gloom Who weds more wives than one, With one his cheeks retain their bloom, His voice a cheerful tone; These speak his honest heart at rest, And he and she are always blest; But when with two he seeks his joy, Together they his soul annoy; With two no sunbeam of delight Can make his day of misery bright."

Adultery was punished by stoning to death in accordance with the Jewish custom.



35. Interest on money.

Usury or the taking of interest on loans was prohibited by the Prophet. This precept was adopted from the Mosaic law and emphasised, and while it has to all appearance been discarded by the Jews, it is still largely adhered to by Moslems. In both cases the prohibition was addressed to a people in the pastoral stage of culture when loans were probably very rare and no profit could as a rule be made by taking a loan, as it would not lead to any increase. Loans would only be made for subsistence, and as the borrower was probably always poor, he would frequently be unable to pay the principal much less the interest, and would ultimately become the slave of the creditor in lieu of his debt. Usury would thus result in the enslavement of a large section of the free community, and would be looked upon as an abuse and instrument of tyranny. As soon as the agricultural stage is reached usury stands on a different footing. Loans of seed for sowing the land and of cattle or money for ploughing it then become frequent and necessary, and the borrower can afford to pay interest from the profit of the harvest. It is clearly right and proper also that the lender should receive a return for the risk involved in the loan and the capacity of gain thus conferred on the borrower, and usury becomes a properly legitimate and necessary institution, though the rate, being probably based on the return yielded by the earth to the seed, has a tendency to be very excessive in primitive societies. The prohibition of interest among Muhammadans is thus now a hopeless anachronism, which has closed to those who observe it some of the most important professions. A tendency is happily visible towards the abrogation of the rule, and Mr. Marten notes that the Berar Muhammadan Council has set an example by putting out its own money at interest. [339]



36. Muhammadan education.

The Indian Muhammadans have generally been considered to be at a disadvantage in modern India as compared with the Hindus, owing to their unwillingness to accept regular English education for their sons, and their adherence to the simply religious teaching of their own Maulvis. However this may have been in the past, it is doubtful whether it is at all true of the present generation. While there is no doubt that Muhammadans consider it of the first importance that their sons should learn Urdu and be able to read the Koran, there are no signs of Muhammadan boys being kept away from the Government schools, at least in the Central Provinces. The rationalising spirit of Sir Saiyad Ahmad, the founder of the Aligarh College, and the general educational conference for Indian Muhammadans has, through the excellent training given by the College, borne continually increasing fruit. A new class of educated and liberal-minded Muhammadan gentlemen has grown up whose influence on the aims and prejudices of the whole Muhammadan community is gradually becoming manifest. The statistics of occupation given at the commencement of this article show that the Muhammadans have a much larger share of all classes of administrative posts under Government than they would obtain if these were awarded on a basis of population. Presumably when it is asserted that Muhammadans are less successful than Hindus under the British Government, what is meant is that they have partly lost their former position of the sole governing class over large areas of the country. The community are now fully awake to the advantages of education, and their Anjumans or associations have started high schools which educate students up to the entrance of the university on the same lines as the Government schools. Where these special schools do not exist, Muhammadan boys freely enter the ordinary schools, and their standard of intelligence and application is in no way inferior to that of Hindu boys.



Nanakpanthi



1. Account of the sect.

Nanakpanthi [340] Sect, Nanakshahi, Udasi, Suthra Shahi.—The Nanakpanthi sect was founded by the well-known Baba Nanak, a Khatri of the Lahore District, who lived between 1469 and 1538-39. He is the real founder of Sikhism, but this development of his followers into a military and political organisation was the work of his successors, Har Govind and Govind Singh. Nanak himself was a religious reformer of the same type as Kabir and others, who tried to abolish the worship of idols and all the body of Hindu superstition, and substitute a belief in a single unseen deity without form or special name. As with most of the other Vaishnava reformers, Nanak's creed was largely an outcome of his observation of Islam. "There is nothing in his doctrine," Sir E.D. Maclagan says, "to distinguish it in any marked way from that of the other saints who taught the higher forms of Hinduism in northern India. The unity of God, the absence of any real distinction between Hindus and Musalmans, the uselessness of ceremonial, the vanity of earthly wishes, even the equality of castes, are topics common to Nanak and the Bhagats; and the Adi-Granth or sacred book compiled by Nanak is full of quotations from elder or contemporary teachers, who taught essentially the same doctrine as Nanak himself." It was partly, he explains, because Nanak was the first reformer in the Punjab, and thus had the field practically to himself, and partly in consequence of the subsequent development of Sikhism, that his movement has been so successful and his adherents now outnumber those of any other reformer of the same period. Nanak's doctrines were also of a very liberal character. The burden of his teaching was that there is no Hindu and no Muhammadan. He believed in transmigration, but held that the successive stages were but purifications, and that at last the soul, cleansed from sin, went to dwell with its maker. He prescribed no caste rules or ceremonial observances, and indeed condemned them as unnecessary and even harmful; but he made no violent attack on them, he insisted on no alteration in existing civil and social institutions, and was content to leave the doctrine of the equality of all men in the sight of God to work in the minds of his followers. He respected the Hindu veneration of the cow and the Muhammadan abhorrence of the hog, but recommended as a higher rule than either total abstinence from flesh. Nothing could have been gentler or less aggressive than his doctrine, nothing more unlike the teaching of his great successor Govind. [341] Two other causes contributed to swell the numbers of the Nanakpanthis. The first of these was that during the late Mughal Empire the Hindus of the frontier tracts of the Punjab were debarred by the fanaticism of their Muhammadan neighbours from the worship of idols; and they therefore found it convenient to profess the faith of Nanak which permitted them to declare themselves as worshippers of one God, while not forcing them definitely to break with caste and Hinduism. The second was that Guru Govind Singh required the absolute abandonment of caste as a condition of the initiation of a Sikh; and hence many who would not consent to this remained Nanakpanthis without adopting Sikhism. The Nanakpanthis of the present day are roughly classified as Sikhs who have not adopted the term Singh, which is attached to the names of all true Sikhs; they also do not forbid smoking or insist on the adoption of the five Kakkas or K's which are in theory the distinguishing marks of the Sikh; the Kes or uncut hair and unshaven beard; the Kachh or short drawers ending above the knee; the Kara or iron bangle; the Khanda or steel knife; and the Kanga or comb. The Nanakpanthi retains the Hindu custom of shaving the whole head except the choti or scalp-lock, and hence is often known as a Munda or shaven Sikh. [342] The sect do not prohibit the consumption of meat and liquor, but some of them eat only the flesh of animals killed by the Sikh method of Jatka, or cutting off the head by a blow on the back of the neck. Their only form of initiation is the ordinary Hindu practice of drinking the foot-nectar or sugar and water in which the toe of the guru has been dipped, and this is not very common. It is known as the Charan ka pahul or foot-baptism, as opposed to the Khande ka pahul or sword-baptism of the Govindi Sikhs. [343] Baba Nanak himself, Sir E. Maclagan states, is a very favourite object of veneration among Sikhs of all kinds, and the picture of the guru with his long white beard and benevolent countenance is constantly met with in the sacred places of the Punjab.



2. Nanakpanthis in the Central Provinces.

In 1901 about 13,000 persons returned themselves as Nanakpanthis in the Central Provinces, of whom 7000 were Banjaras and the remainder principally Kunbis, Ahirs and Telis. The Banjaras generally revere Nanak, as shown in the article on that caste. A certain number of Mehtars or sweepers also profess the sect, being attached to it, as to the Sikh religion, by the abolition of caste restrictions and prejudices advocated by their founders; but this tolerance has not been perpetuated, and the unclean classes, such as the Mazbi or scavenger Sikhs, are as scrupulously avoided and kept at a distance by the Sikh as by the Hindu, and are even excluded from communion, and from the rites and holy places of their religion. [344]



3. Udasis.

The Udasis are a class of ascetics of the Nanakpanthi or Sikh faith, whose order was founded by Sri Chand, the younger son of Nanak. They are recruited from all castes and will eat food from any Hindu. They are almost all celibates, and pay special reverence to the Adi-Granth of Nanak, but also respect the Granth of Govind Singh and attend the same shrines as the Sikhs generally. Their service consists of a ringing of bells and blare of instruments, and they chant hymns and wave lights before the Adi-Granth and the picture of Baba Nanak. In the Central Provinces members of several orders which have branched off from the main Nanakpanthi community are known as Udasi. Thus some of them say they do not go to any temples and worship Nirankal or the deity without shape or form, a name given to the supreme God by Nanak. In the Punjab the Nirankaris constitute a separate order from the Udasis. [345] These Udasis wear a long rope of sheep's wool round the neck and iron chains round the wrist and waist. They carry half a cocoanut shell as a begging-bowl and have the chameta or iron tongs, which can also be closed and used as a poker. Their form of salutation is 'Matha Tek,' or 'I put my head at your feet.' They never cut their hair and have a long string of wool attached to the choti or scalp-lock, which is coiled up under a little cap. They say that they worship Nirankal without going to temples, and when they sit down to pray they make a little fire and place ghi or sweetmeats upon it as an offering. When begging they say 'Alakh,' and they accept any kind of uncooked and cooked food from Brahmans.



4. Suthra Shahis.

Another mendicant Nanakpanthi order, whose members visit the Central Provinces, is that of the Suthra Shahis. Here, however, they often drop the special name, and call themselves simply Nanakshahi. The origin of the order is uncertain, and Sir E. Maclagan gives various accounts. Here they say that their founder was a disciple of Nanak, who visited Mecca and brought back the Seli and Syahi which are their distinctive badges. The Seli is a rope of black wool which they tie round their heads like a turban, and Syahi the ink with which they draw a black line on their foreheads, though this is in fact usually made with charcoal. They carry a wallet in which these articles are kept, and also the two small ebony sticks which they strike against each other as an accompaniment to their begging-songs. The larger stick is dedicated to Nanak and the smaller to the Goddess Kali. They are most importunate beggars, and say that the privilege of levying a pice (farthing) was given to them by Aurangzeb. They were accustomed in former times to burn their clothes and stand naked at the door of any person who refused to give them alms. They also have a bahi or account-book in which the gifts they receive, especially from Banias, are recorded. Mr. Crooke states that "They indulge freely in intoxicants and seldom cease from smoking. Their profligacy is notorious, and they are said to be composed mainly of spendthrifts who have lost their wealth in gambling. They are recruited from all castes and always add the title Shah to their names. A proverb says in allusion to their rapacity:

Kehu mare, Kehu jiye, Suthra gur batasa piye;

or, 'Others may live or die, but the Suthra Shahi must have his drink of sugar and water.' [346]



Parmarthi Sect

Parmarthi Sect.—A Vishnuite sect of which 26,000 persons were returned as members in the census of 1901. Nearly all of these belonged to the Uriya State of Kalahandi, since transferred to Bihar and Orissa. The following account of the sect has been furnished by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, formerly Diwan of Kalahandi State.

This sect penetrated the State from the Orissa side, and seems to belong to Bengal. In the beginning it consisted only in pure devotion to the worship of Krishna, but later it has been degraded by sexual indulgence and immorality, and this appears to be the main basis of its ritual at present. Outwardly its followers recite the Bhagavad Gita and pretend to be persons of very high morals. Their secret practices were obtained from one of his officials who had entered the sect in the lowest grade. On the day of initiation there is a great meeting of members at the cost of the neophyte. A text is taught to him, and the initiation is completed by all the members partaking together of a feast without distinction of caste. The food eaten at this is considered to be Mahaprasad, or as if offered to Vishnu in his form of Jagannath at Puri, and to be therefore incapable of defilement. The mantra or text taught to the disciple is as follows:

O Hari, O Krishna, O Hari, O Krishna, O Krishna, O Krishna, O Hari, O Hari, O Hari, O Ramo, O Hari, O Ramo, O Ramo, O Ramo, O Hari, O Hari.

The disciple is enjoined to repeat this text a prescribed number of times, 108 or more, every day. To those pupils who show their devotional ardour by continual repetition of the first text others are taught.

The next step is that the disciple should associate himself or herself with some other Parmarthi of the opposite sex and tend and serve them. This relation, which is known as Asra-patro, cannot exist between husband and wife, some other person having to be chosen in each case, and it results of course in an immoral connection. Following this is the further rite of Almo-Samarpana or offering of oneself, in which the disciple is required to give his wife to the Guru or preceptor as the acme of self-sacrifice. The guru calls the disciple by a female name of one of the milkmaids of Brindaban to indicate that the disciple regards Krishna with the same devotion as they did. Sometimes the guru and a woman personate Krishna and Radha, but reverse the names, the guru calling himself Radha and the woman Krishna. The other disciples wait upon and serve them, and they perform an immoral act in public. Parmarthi women sometimes have the mantra or text, 'O Hari, O Krishna,' tattooed on their breasts.

The Parmarthis often deny the accusation of immorality, and the above statements may not be true of all of them; but they are believed to be true as regards a considerable part of the sect at any rate. "With all his cleanliness, vegetarianism and teetotalism," one writer remarks, "the Vaishnava is perhaps the most dangerous in the whole list of Hindu sects. He has done very good service in civilising the lower classes to some extent and in suppressing the horrors of the Tantric worship. But the moral laxity which the Vaishnava encourages by the stories of the illicit loves between the God and Goddess, and by the strong tendency to imitate them which his teachings generate, outweigh the good done by him." This statement applies, however, principally to one or two sects devoted to Krishna, and by no means to all nor to the majority of the Vaishnava sects.



Parsi or Zoroastrian Religion

[Bibliography of works quoted: Dr. Martin Haug's Essays on the Parsis, Truebner's Oriental Series; Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Parsis of Gujarat. by the late Mr. Kharsedji Nasarvanji Seervai, J.P., and Khan Bahadur Bamanji Behramji Patel; M. Salomon Reinach's Orpheus; Rev. J. Murray Mitchell's Great Religions of India. The whole account of the customs and social life of the Parsis is taken from the excellent description in the Bombay Gazetteer.]



List of Paragraphs

1. Introductory. 2. The Zoroastrian religion. 3. The Zend-Avesta. 4. The Zend-Avesta and the Vedas. 5. Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian Aryans. 6. The dual principle and the conflict between good and evil. 7. The dual principle derived from the antagonism of light and darkness. 8. The Zoroastrians in Persia. 9. Their migration to India and settlement there. 10. Their wealth and prosperity. 11. Marriage customs. 12. Religion. Worship of fire. 13. The Homa liquor. 14. Parsi priests. 15. The sacred shirt and cord. 16. Disposal of the dead. 17. Previous exposure of the dead, and migration of souls. 18. Clothes, food and ceremonial observances.



1. Introductory.

The number of Parsis in the Central Provinces in 1911 was about 1800. They are immigrants from Bombay, and usually reside in large towns, where they are engaged in different branches of trade, especially in the manufacture and vend of liquor and the management of cotton mills and factories. [347] The word Parsi means a resident of the province of Fars or Pars in Persia, from which the name of the country is also derived.



2. The Zoroastrian religion.

Also known as Mazdaism, the Zoroastrian religion was that of the ancient Magi or fire-worshippers of Persia, mentioned in Scripture. It is supposed that Zoroaster or Spitama Zarathustra, if he was a historical personage, effected a reformation of this religion and placed it on a new basis at some time about 1100 B.C. It is suggested by Haug [348] that Zarathustra was the designation of the high priests of the cult, and Spitama the proper name of that high priest who carried out its distinctive reformation, and perhaps separated the religion of the Persian from the Indian Aryans. This would account for the fact that the sacred writings, which, according to the testimony of Greek and Roman authors, were of great extent, their compilation probably extending over several centuries, were subsequently all ascribed to one man, or to Zarathustra alone. The Zend-Avesta or sacred book of the Parsis does not mention the fire priests under the name of Magi, but calls them Athravan, the same word as the Sanskrit Atharva-Veda. The reason for this, M. Reinach suggests, is that the Magi had rebelled against Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, in the sixth century B.C., during his absence in Egypt, and placed a rival creature of their own on the throne. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, overthrew him and re-established the Persian kingdom in 523 B.C., and this may have discredited the Magian priests and caused those of the reformed religion to adopt a new name. [349] It is certain that Cyrus conformed to the precept of the Avesta against the pollution of the sacred element water, when he diverted the course of the river Gyndanes in order to recover the body of a horse which had been drowned in it, and that Darius I. invokes in his inscriptions Ormazd or Ahura Mazda, the deity of the Avesta. [350] On the subversion of the Persian empire by Alexander, and the subsequent conquest of Persia by the Arsacid Parthian dynasty, the religion of the fire-worshippers fell into neglect, but was revived on the establishment of the Sassanian dynasty of Ardeshir Babegan or Artaxerxes in A.D. 226, and became the state religion, warmly supported by its rulers, until the Arab conquest in A.D. 652. It was at the beginning of this second period of prosperity that the Zend-Avesta as it still exists was collected and reduced to writing, but it is thought that the greater part of the remains of the ancient texts recovered at the time were again lost during the Arab invasion, as the original literature is believed to have been very extensive.



3. The Zend-Avesta.

The language of the Zend-Avesta is the ancient east Iranian or Bactrian dialect, which probably died out finally in the third century B.C., modern Persian being descended from the west Iranian or Median tongue. The Bactrian language of the Zend-Avesta is, Haug states, a genuine sister of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Gothic. "The relationship of the Avesta language to the most ancient Sanskrit, the so-called Vedic dialect, is as close as that of the different dialects of the Greek language, Aeolic, Ionic, Doric or Attic, to each other. The languages of the sacred hymns of the Brahmans, and of those of the Parsis, are only the two dialects of two separate tribes of one and the same nation. As the Ionians, Dorians, Aetolians, etc., were different tribes of the Greek nation whose general name was Hellenes, so the ancient Brahmans and Parsis were two tribes of the nation which is called Aryas both in the Veda and Zend-Avesta." [351] The sections of the Zend-Avesta which remain are about equal in size to the Bible. They consist of sacrificial hymns, prayers and accounts of the making of the world, in the form of conversations between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. The whole arrangement is, however, very fragmentary and chaotic, and much of the matter is of a trivial character. It cannot be compared in merit with the Old Testament.



4. The Zend Avesta and the Vedas.

A cuneiform inscription discovered in the centre of Asia Minor at Ptorium proves that about 1400 B.C. certain tribes who had relations with the Hittite empire had for their deities Mitra, Indra, Varuna and the Nasatyas. The first two names are common to the Persian and Indian Aryans, while the last two are found only in India. It appears then that at this time the ancestors of the Hindus and Iranians were not yet separated. [352] Certain important contrasts between the ancient Zoroastrian and Vedic religions have led to the theory that the separation was the result of a religious and political schism. The words Deva and Asura have an exactly opposite significance in the two religions. Deva [353] is the term invariably used for the gods of the Hindus in the whole Vedic and Brahmanical literature. In the Zend-Avesta, on the other hand, Deva (Pers. div) is the general name of an evil spirit, a fiend, demon or devil, who is inimical to all that is good and comes from God. The part of the Avesta called the Vendidad, consisting of a collection of spells and incantations, means vi-daevo-data or given against the Devas or demons. The Devas, Dr. Haug states, are the originators of all that is bad, of every impurity, of death; and are constantly thinking of causing the destruction of the fields and trees, and of the houses of religious men. "Asura, occurring as Ahura in the first part of Ahura-Mazda (Hormazd), is the name of God among the Parsis; and the Zoroastrian religion is distinctly called the Ahura religion, in strict opposition to the Deva religion. But among the Hindus Asura has assumed a bad meaning, and is applied to the bitterest enemies of their Devas (gods), with whom the Asuras are constantly waging war. This is the case throughout the whole Puranic literature and as far back as the later parts of the Vedas; but in the older parts of the Rig-Veda Sanhita we find the word Asura used in as good and elevated a sense as in the Zend-Avesta. The chief gods, such as Indra, Varuna, Agni, Savitri, Rudra or Siva, are honoured with the epithet 'Asura,' which means 'living, spiritual,' and signifies the divine in its opposition to human nature.

"In a bad sense we find Asura only twice in the older parts of the Rig-Veda, in which passages the defeat of the 'sons or men of the Asura' is ordered or spoken of; but we find the word more frequently in this sense in the last book of the Rig-Veda (which is only an appendix to the whole made in later times), and in the Atharva-Veda, where the Rishis are said to have frustrated the tricks of the Asuras and to have the power of putting them down. In the Brahmanas or sacrificial books belonging to each of the Vedas we find the Devas always fighting with the Asuras. The latter are the constant enemies of the Hindu gods, and always make attacks upon the sacrifices offered by devotees. To defeat them, all the craft and cunning of the Devas were required; and the means of checking them was generally found in a new sacrificial rite." [354]

Professor Haug adduces other arguments in this connection from resemblance of metres. Again the principal Vedic God, Indra, is included in the list of Devas or demons in the Zoroastrian scripture, the Vendidad. Siva and the Nasatyas or Ashvins, the divine horsemen of the Vedas, are also said to be found in the list of Devas or demons. Others of the Vedic gods as Mitra the sun, Aryaman, either another name for the sun or his constant associate and representative, Vayu the wind, and one or two more are found as Yazatas or angels in the Zend-Avesta. [355]



5. Reasons for the schism between the Persian and Indian Aryans.

Professor Haug's suggestion as to the cause of the schism between the Iranian and Indian branches of the Aryans is very interesting. He thinks that the Aryan tribes after they had left their original home, which was in all likelihood a cold country, led mainly a pastoral life, and cultivated only occasionally some patches of land for their own support. But when they arrived in the tract between the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, and the highlands of Bactria, which were suitable for permanent settlement, certain of them, who were the ancestors of the Iranian branch, forsook the pastoral life of their ancestors and became agriculturists. Others, the ancestors of the Indian Aryans, retained their nomadic habits, and took to the practice of making predatory incursions into the territories of the settled communities. Hence arose a bitter hostility between them; and as the success of the raiders was attributed to their religious spells and incantations, and especially to the consumption of the Soma liquor under the auspices of the God Indra, this part of their joint religion became hateful to the Iranians and led to the founding of the reformed Zoroastrian religion, in which special stress is laid on the virtue obtained from bringing land under cultivation, making enclosures and permanent settlements and protecting agricultural cattle. This is forcibly expressed in the saying, 'He who cultivates barley cultivates righteousness,' and others. [356] Finally the nomadic tribes left the common residence in the Central Asian highlands and migrated into India. It is not certain that scholars generally accept the above hypothesis.



6. The dual principles and the conflict between good and evil.

The most prominent feature of the religion of Zarathustra is the dual principle of good and evil and the conflict between them. Ahura Mazda is the supreme deity, the creator of the world, and Ahriman or Angro Mainyush is the evil one, his constant opponent. A perpetual struggle proceeds between them, extending over the whole of creation, and will continue for a period of 12,000 years. The virtuous lives and prayers and sacrifices of men help the cause of Ahura Mazda, while every bad action and all kinds of ceremonial impurity constitute an assistance rendered by them to Ahriman. Not only virtue, courage, charity humility and kindness to animals, when displayed by men, are held to reinforce Ahura Mazda, but also such useful acts as cleaning a field for cultivation, digging a canal or building a bridge. The animals are also divided into good and bad, the latter being considered the creation of Ahriman and designated the seed of the serpent. The bad animals include tigers, snakes, cats, wolves, frogs, mice, ants and others, and to kill them is to perform a virtuous act in the cause of Ahura Mazda. Among good animals dogs and agricultural cattle appear to be the chief. The division is very imperfect, and it would seem that the classification does not extend to birds and fish. Most trees are good, but their bark is evil. Hail, snow and all kinds of diseases are believed to be the work of Ahriman and his evil spirits. [357] As all ceremonial impurity renders assistance to the evil one, the Parsis are very careful in such matters, as will be noticed subsequently. Ahura Mazda is assisted in his struggle for the good by six Amesha-Spentas or good spirits, who are something like archangels. They consist of the spirits of cattle, fire, metals, the earth, health and immortality. With the first four of these some moral quality or attribute as truth, wisdom and the curing of diseases is now associated. Another great spirit Sraosha is the judge of the dead. Similarly Ahriman is assisted by six arch-fiends and a whole host of evil spirits (Deva and Druj) of all kinds, against whom men have to be perpetually on their guard. One of the principal bad spirits is Aeshma Deva, the roaring demon, who appears to be the Asmodeus mentioned in the Apocrypha. At the end of the period of struggle Ahura Mazda will engage in a final contest with Ahriman and will conquer with the help of the Archangel Sraosha, who will overcome the demon Aeshma. A virgin will then conceive and bring forth the second Zoroaster as a Messiah, who will cause the resurrection of the dead. The good will be separated from the bad, but the punishment of the latter will not be eternal; and after the purification of the world by a general conflagration all humanity will unite in the adoration of Ahura Mazda. [358] Meanwhile after death the souls of all men are weighed and have to pass over a narrow bridge called Chinvad. The good souls, lightened by the absence of sin, find it a broad and easy path to heaven, while to the bad ones, weighed down with their sins, it becomes narrow as a razor's edge, and they fall over into hell. M. Salomon Reinach points out that their beliefs have several points of resemblance with those of Judaism, but it is not easy to say which religion has borrowed from the other. [359] The word paradise, according to Dr. Haug, comes from pairidaesa in the Zend-Avesta and means a park or beautiful garden protected by a fence.



7. The dual principle derived from the antagonism of light and darkness.

It is noticeable that Ahura Mazda is considered as luminous and good, and Ahriman as gloomy and bad. Ahura Mazda, according to Darmesteter, can be traced back to Asura, the supreme god of Indo-Iranian times, and is the representative of Varuna, Zeus or Jupiter, that is the sky or heavens. Similarly Ahura Mazda is described in the Zend-Avesta as righteous, brilliant, glorious, the originator of the spirit of nature, of the luminaries and of the self-shining brightness which is in the luminaries. Again he is the author of all that is bright and shining, good and useful in nature, while Ahriman called into existence all that is dark and apparently noxious. Both are complementary as day and night, and though opposed to each other, are indispensable for the preservation of creation. The beneficent spirit appears in the blazing flame, the presence of the hurtful one is marked by the wood converted into charcoal. Ahura Mazda created the light of day and Ahriman the darkness of night; the former awakens men to their duties and the latter lulls them to sleep. These features of the good and evil spirits seem to point to the conclusion that the original antithesis which is portrayed in the conflict between the principles of good and evil is that of night and day or darkness and light. The light of day and all that belongs to it is good, and the darkness of night and that which belongs to it evil. As already seen, Ahura Mazda is considered to be equivalent to Varuna or Zeus, that is the god of the sky or heavens. Originally it seems likely that this deity also comprised the sun, but afterwards the sun was specialised, so to speak, into a separate god, perhaps in consequence of a clearer recognition of his distinctive attributes and functions in nature. Thus in the Zoroastrian religion Mithra became the special sun-god, and may be compared with Vishnu and Surya in India and Apollo in Greece. In the Avesta the sun is addressed as the king. [360] Ahura Mazda speaks of the sun-deity Mithra as follows to Zoroaster: "I created Mithra, who rules over large fields, to be of the same rank and dignity as I myself am (for purposes of worship)." The only visible emblem of Ahura Mazda worshipped by the Parsis is fire, and it would seem that the earthly fire, which is called Ahura Mazda's son, is venerated as the offspring and representative of the heavenly fire or the sun. Thus Ahura Mazda may have been originally an old god of the heavens, and may have become the abstract spirit of light from whom the sun in turn was derived. If, as is now supposed, the original home of the Aryan race was somewhere in northern Europe, whence the Iranian and Indian branches migrated to the east, the religious tenets of the Parsis may perhaps have arisen from the memory of this journey. Their veneration of fire would be more easily understood if it was based on the fact that they owed their lives to this element during their wanderings across the steppes of eastern Europe. The association of cold, darkness and snow with Ahriman or the evil one supports this hypothesis. Similarly among the Indian Aryans the god of fire was one of the greatest Vedic gods, and fire was essential to the preservation of life in the cold hilly regions beyond the north-west of India. But in India itself fire is of far less importance and Agiri has fallen into the background in modern Hinduism, except for the domestic reverence of the hearth-fire. But Zoroastrianism has preserved the old form of its religion without change. The narrow bridge which spans the gulf leading to heaven and from which the wicked fall into hell, may have originally been suggested by the steep and narrow passes by which their ancestors must have crossed the mountain ranges lying on their long journey, and where, no doubt, large numbers had miserably perished; while their paradise, as already seen, was the comparatively warm and fertile country to which they had so hardly attained, where they had learnt to grow corn and where they wanted to stay thenceforth and for ever.