Voyage to the East Indies

3. Never to offend with a neighbour’s wife.—This law refers to adultery, of which an account has been already given in the preceding chapter.

4. Never to say any thing that is contrary to truth.—The orientals were formerly so addicted to lying, that governments were reduced to the necessity of employing the severest means to extort the truth from persons accused of any crime. Thus, for example, they caused the culprit to hold his finger in boiling oil, or poured melted lead into his hand, in order to make him confess. This practice was afterwards transferred from the east to the west; and we still find traces of its having been actually introduced among different barbarous nations.

The people of Malabar have such a bad character as liars, that every magistrate or merchant, who transacts any business of importance with them, causes the affair to be committed to writing, and to be signed by them. Such a document is called Caicitta; that is, a writing or note under a person’s own hand.

5. Not to drink what may occasion intoxication.—This law refers not only to all strong liquors in general, but, in particular, to the use of opium, and the Canjava or Bangue leaves. Tippoo Sultan forbade his soldiers to use any of these things, under the punishment of death. In the year 1787, Rama Varmer, the king of Travancor, issued an order by which the use of Tàgara, that is, palm-brandy, was prohibited under pain of the confiscation of property. At Pullingune, a woman was condemned to the besom, and her house confiscated, because contrary to this prohibition she had sold Tàgara. The contempt which the Indians entertain for the Europeans, arises chiefly from the latter being so much addicted to drinking. For this reason also they are called Ciandàler, or Nisher; that is, contemptible, impure, unclean people.

6. Never to leave one’s tribe (cast).—This the Indians consider as one of the greatest crimes they can commit. A Giadibrshda, that is, a man unfaithful to his cast, is exposed to the greatest persecution from all the members of it, and never is left at peace till he again unites himself to it. On his re-admission he is obliged to drink the so called Panciadevya, a peculiar kind of beverage, which consists of cream, sour milk, liquid butter, cow’s hair, and cow-dung dissolved in cow’s urine. By this, however, he is not fully freed from his sin, but must spend a whole month in a sequestered hut; and that he may have no pretence for leaving it, the necessary food is carried to him daily till the time of his penance and purification is expired. At Tiruvandaburam I once saw a woman, of the cast of the Shudras, who was subjected to this kind of life. It may be readily perceived, that the object of this regulation is to prevent the Pagans from embracing any other religion than their own, and to preserve the respectability of the cast.

7. To destroy no public edifice or construction.—Under these are understood temples, the ponds in which the Indians perform their ablutions, royal palaces, and, in particular, the madam, ambalam, or inns erected on the public roads for the accommodation of strangers, and which I have before described. It deserves here to be remarked, that people pay nothing for the good entertainment which they there receive. In these inns those philosophers known under the names of Yogui and Gosuami, and by some called very improperly Fakirs, who subject themselves to the severest penances, are treated at the king’s expence, though this is done sometimes in some neighbouring temple. They eat nothing but rice, fruits, and herbs.

8. To adulterate neither gold nor silver, nor any kind of coin.

9. Not to be a tyrant or despot, or a cruel and unmerciful tormentor of mankind.—This law, introduced by the ancient philosophers and magi, was the strongest support of monarchical government, and ensured duration to the different states of India; but as soon as the princes who ruled over Carnate, Maïssur, Madura and Concao began to abuse their power, and to suffer their ministers to oppress their subjects, that unwise conduct gave the first occasion to revolutions. Hence it happened that these people, who had been long tired of the galling yoke of their sovereigns, though they did not wish to rise up in rebellion against them, received with open arms the foreign conquerors who entered the country; and by these means their imprudent rulers lost their thrones, and at the same time all their influence.

10. To exercise no violence against priests, philosophers, persons subjecting themselves to penance, farmers, and women.—When I was in India, a Brahman received a violent blow from a petty officer, on the high road between Padmanaburam and Tiruvandaram. The offender was immediately seized; and the king of Travancor, Rama Varmer, caused his little finger to be cut off. A Mucoa, or fisherman, laid hold of the wife of a Nayr, and endeavoured to compel her to submit to his embraces. The woman called out; and the Mucoa being seized was carried before a judge, who, finding the crime proved, sentenced him to lose his right hand. At Alangàtta I saw a Nayr, who instructed young persons in writing, and who held the iron style necessary for that purpose in the interior part of the joint of his arm, because the king of Cochin, as a punishment for his offering violence to a woman, had ordered his hand to be chopped off. To touch a woman against her will is allowed to no person, not even the king’s ministers and officers, unless the king expressly commands it. If women are guilty of any thing that deserves punishment, they may be deprived of their liberty, and sold as slaves; but to hang them, or put them to death in any other manner, is contrary to the laws of India.

11. To with-hold from no workman, artisan, or day-labourer, his due wages.

12. Never to enter a temple, or any sacred place, without having first purified one’s self in a river or Kulam (consecrated pond).—The Parreas or skinners, the Palleyas or slaves, who cultivate the fields under the inspection of the Vayshyas, and other people of the like kind, who belong to the lowest classes, dare never enter a temple which is destined for the higher classes. These mean classes are called Nisher, and have pagodas of their own. On grand festivals, celebrated by the whole nation, such as that of the goddess Bagavadi, they must deposit their offerings before the door of that temple in which the higher orders assemble, and be contented to worship the deity in it at a distance. In general, almost the same divisions, and the same degrees of rank, are found among the Indians, as those which were common among the Jews.