Chapter VI
THE MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM.
"Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves." Zeph. iii. 3 THE
storm raised over the baptism of the young woman mentioned in the last chapter was
fiercer even than that of the previous three
months. It threatened to annihilate the institution;
more pupils were removed, and the leading Hindus of
the Bombay presidency seemed to be determined that
they would never rest until they saw the Sharada
Sadan die an ignoble death. But God gave Rama-
bai three promises at that time of great trouble. They
were as follows:
" No weapon that is formed against thee shall pros-
per; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in
judgment thou shalt condemn." ^
" These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me
ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribu-
lation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world." 2
* Isaiah liv. 17. John xvi. 33. 66
MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 67
' Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse . . . and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it."*
These promises were a great source of comfort and
strength to Ramabai, and have been marvellously ful-
filled, as will be seen later on.
In a report made subsequently to her American
friends, Ramabai thus succinctly explained her policy. Reminding them that she had all along insisted that the
institution should be unsectarian, she said : " We give
them (the pupils) all liberty to keep their caste and cus-
toms, and we have made all arrangements for it. They
are not prevented from praying to their own gods, nor
from wearing those gods around their necks, if they
want to ; and some girls in my school do so, as I used to
do years ago. Do you think I have gone against the
religion of the girls ? No, not in any way. I have not
taught the girls any religious system. If they wanted
any religious training, they might go out of the school
to the missionary, or to the Hindu teacher. But I am
glad to say that some light came to them—not from
ourselves, but from God.
" I was a Christian woman, and I had a home of my
own, and a daughter for whom I thought I must make
* Malachi iii. 10.
68 PANDITA RAMABAI
a home. I had made the resolution of Joshua, * As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord/ That shall
be my resolution to the end. I let my girls do what
they like ; but I have the freedom with which Christ has made me free : and why should I keep my light under a
bushel? I do not mean to do it. When I had my
family worship in my own room, not in the school-hall,
some of the girls began to come in ; and we gave them
freedom to come, if they wanted to.
" My Hindu brethren thought it was going too far,
and that I was Christianizing those girls. They wanted me to shut my room when I was reading the Bible and
praying. I said, ' No ; I have the same freedom to
practice Christianity which these girls have to practice
their religion. Why should I shut the door of my
room, which I do not shut at any other time during the
' The Hindu friends
twenty-four hours of the day ?
were much offended at it, and wanted to pull our school
down, and raise another school on its ruins; but I am
glad to say that the foundations of this school have not
been set on the sand, but on the eternal Rock, and it
stands there to this day, and it will stand for ever and
ever."
In the cold season following the events narrated, Mrs.
Judith Andrews, President of the Executive Committee
of the American Ramabai Association, visited India.
She spent several weeks at the Sharada Sadan, and fa-
MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 69
miliarized herself with the work and workers. The
pupils, taught by Ramabai to be courteously attentive
to all guests, were charmed with the gentle white-haired
old lady, and bestowed upon her the endearing ap-
pellation of Ahjibai (grandmother).
During the visit of Mrs. Andrews, the school-house
alluded to in Chapter IV. was publicly dedicated,
though it had been in use for some time. The meet-
ings on that festive day, March 12th, 1894, partook of
the same character as those of the dedication of the
previous buildings. Much sympathy was expressed by
the speakers for Ramabai in the severe trials through
which she had passed, and the hope was voiced that she
would not be again burdened with another " Advisory
Committee." And she never has. Some Hindu gen-
tlemen present also expressed their repentant sympathy,
and an account of the meeting, written at the time,
*' God has greatly helped Ramabai and sustained
says,
her work. Her prospects are brighter now than they
have ever been before."
No trip to India is considered complete without a
sight of some of her ancient palaces, temples, and
tombs. As the most noted of these are in North India,
Mrs. Andrews desired to take the usual trip to Agra,
Delhi, etc., and prevailed upon Ramabai to accompany
her. She could not have had a better guide. Ramabai
had been there before; and under her auspices Mrs.
70 PANDITA RAMABAI
Andrews saw sights that other travellers miss—sights
calculated to give a more just idea of the lives really led
by those who once peopled these ruined marble halls.
In the grounds of what is now called the Agra Fort
are some ruined palaces of the Moghul emperors.
Ramabai must tell the story herself and draw the moral
as she alone knows how : " The guide showed us the
Rani's private rooms, the gardens and grand marble
buildings, once occupied by the kings and queens. He
also showed us the beautiful pleasure tower called Saman Burj. Visitors are shown all that is beautiful
here, and they go away carrying very pleasant impres-
sions of Agra with them.
" I was not satisfied with seeing the outside beauty
of those ' poems in marble,' but wished to see the dun-
geons, and the place where the unfortunate women
used to be confined and hanged at the pleasure of the
king. The guide at first denied the existence of such
places in the palace ; but, finally—on obtaining a prom-
ise to get a little more money for his trouble—he con-
sented to show the dungeons. He opened a trap-door
on one side of the palace, let us in, and guided us about,
showing us the many small and large underground
rooms where the queens who had incurred the king's
displeasure used to be shut up, tortured, and starved,
until it pleased the monarch to set them free. The
guide then lighted a big torch, and took us to the
MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 71
furthest end of the prison, into a room underneath the
Saman Burj, or Jasmine Tower. The room was very
dark and octagonal, with a deep, dark pit in the centre,
and a big beam placed on the walls right over that pit.
This beam, beautifully carved, served for hanging the
unfortunate women who once occupied the throne of the
king as his queens, but had by some unknown cause
fallen under his displeasure, and had to suffer such a
cruel and ignoble death. Their lifeless bodies were let
down into that dark pit, whence a stream carried them
to the waters of the Jumna, to be eaten by crocodiles.
Thus the poor, miserable wives of the Moghul empe-
rors suffered toture and death in that dark hell-pit under
the pleasure-gallery, while their cruel masters and rivals
sang songs, enjoyed life, and made merry over their
grave in the beautifully decorated, grand, Saman Burj.
I think but little of those lovely places, but always remember seeing that dark room, and compare it with
similar places of torture which exist in many sacred
towers of India. If the walls of that horrible room had
the power of speech, oh, what stories of human cruelty
and misery would they tell to-day
" I beg of my Western sisters not to be satisfied with
looking on the outside beauty of the grand philosophies,
and not to be charmed with hearing the long and in-
teresting discourses of our educated men; but to open
the trap-doors of the great monuments of ancient Hin-
72 PANDITA RAMABAI
du intellect, and enter into the dark cellars, where they
will see the real workings of the philosophies which
they admire so much. Let our Western friends come
to India, and live right among us. Let them frequently
go to the hundreds of sacred places where countless
pilgrims throng yearly. Let them go round Jagannath
Puri, Benares, Gaya, Allahabad, Muttra, Brindraban,
Dwarka, Pandharpur, Udipi, Tirpatty, and such other
sacred cities, the strongholds of Hinduism and seats
of sacred learning, where the Mahatmas and Sadhus
' sublime ' philosophies are daily
dwell, and where the
taught and devoutly followed. There are thousands
of priests and men learned in sacred lore, who are the
spiritual rulers and guides of our people. They neglect
and oppress the widows, and devour widows' houses.
I have gone to many of the so-called sacred places, lived
among the people, and seen enough of those learned
philosophers and possessors of superior Hindu spirit-
uality who oppress the widows, and trample the poor,
ignorant, low-caste people under their heels. They
have deprived the widows of their birthright to enjoy
pure life and lawful happiness. They send out hun-
dreds of emissaries to look for young widows, and bring
them by hundreds and thousands to the sacred cities to
rob them of their money and their virtue. They entice
the poor, ignorant women to leave their own homes to
live in the Kshetras, i e., holy places, and then, after
MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 73
robbing them of their belongings, tempt them to yield to
their unholy desires. They shut the young helpless
widows into their large Mathas (monasteries), sell and
hire them out to wicked men so long as they can get
money; and, when the poor, miserable slaves are no
longer pleasing to their cruel masters, they turn them
out in the street to beg their livelihood, to suffer the
horrible consequences of sin, to carry the burden of
shame, and finally to die the death worse than that of a
starved street dog ! The so-called sacred places—those
veritable hellg on earth—have become the graveyards of
countless widows and orphans.
" Thousands upon thousands of young widows and
innocent children are suffering untold misery and dying
helpless every year throughout this land; but not a
philosopher or Mahatma has come out boldly to cham-
pion their cause and to help them. The teachers of
false philosophies and lifeless spiritualities will do no
good to our people. Nothing has been done by them
to protect the fatherless and judge the widow. If any-
thing has been done by anybody at all, it has been by
those people who have come under the direct influence
of Christianity. Education and philosophies are
powerless before the caste rules, ancient customs, and
priestcraft. That is why our educated men and our
learned Sadhus are so indifferent toward their own
brothers and sisters. The educated men and learned
74 PANDITA RAMABAI
priests do not like to move about. They don't want to
take the trouble to go about to see how dreadfully the
widows have to suffer, and how many thousands of lives
are destroyed by their priestly brethren. They mourn
over a few women who have the boldness to declare
themselves as free women, and to follow their con-
science; but they say nothing of the thousands who
die every year or lead shameful lives. I earnestly beg
the women of America and England to come to India
and live in our sacred cities, not living in European
and American fashion, but living like the poor beggar-
women, going in and out of their dirty huts, hearing
the stories of their miserable lives, and seeing the fruits
of the sublime philosophies. Let not my Western sis-
ters be charmed by the books and poems they read.
There are many hard and bitter facts which we have to
accept and feel. All is not poetry with us. The prose
we have to read in our own lives is very hard. It can-
not be understood by our learned brothers and com-
fortable sisters of the West."
The iniquitous traffic in widows alluded to here
by Ramabai opens the door to a subject in connection
with Hinduism, the knowledge of which has been a sore
burden on Ramabai's heart, and has forced from her
many tears and groans on behalf of its victims. Some
twelve months or more after this visit with Mrs. An-
drews, Ramabai set off on a visit to Brindaban, a sacred
MARBLE HALLS OF HINDUISM 75
city about forty miles from Agra, to see what she could
do to rescue some of the miserable victims of priest-
craft. She disguised herself as a poor pilgrim and took
a mean lodging in the city, going in and out among the
women, heard their stories of cruel wrong, and tried to
plan some way of escape for them. She found an or-
ganized method of entrapping them. The agents of
the rich priests who own this city of sacred temples, go
about the country and by inquiry find where the rich
young widows live. They enter into conversation with
them, and persuade them of the merits of pilgrimage to
expiate the sins which have caused their widowhood.
They tell them they will go direct to heaven if they will
live at these sacred places and serve the priests and
Sadhus and worship Krishna. They are courteously
received on arrival, then subtle temptations are laid to
deprive them of their money and jewels, and when these
are gone their virtue follows. Brindaban is largely de-
voted to the deity Krishna, whose vile and immoral
character is rejoiced in by his followers. If these poor women are unwilling to live immoral lives, they are told
that it is no sin to do so in these sacred precincts, which
are specially favoured by Krishna. Ramabai found
hundreds of widows here, mostly from Bengal. She
planned for the escape of six or seven of these women
but her plans were frustrated, and she returned sick
with the mental depression, the moral debasement, and
76 PANDITA RAMABAI
the actually foetid conditions of life which she under-
went in her efforts to save some of these perishing ones.
The dark features of Hinduism thus portrayed, not
only infest the " sacred " cities, but spread like a miasma
into every region of Hindu life. Ramabai computes
that ten per cent, of the women and girls who have come
into her hands during the twelve years of her experience
have been sinned against by heartless men.
In her efforts to help widows, Ramabai has been fre-
quently asked to shelter deserted wives. Childless women are constantly being driven from their husbands'
homes by a more favoured rival. Many of these have
come into Ramabai's hands, and in some cases she has
been successful in obtaining for them a divorce. Per-
secuted wives, too, have fled to her for help and shelter.
Some of these have needed protection from husbands who were " going about to kill them "
; and I have
known Ramabai have two or three such in hiding at one
time from the rage of those who should be their natural
protectors.