Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

 

Tyranny of the pampered sacred Beasts of Asia.

     In Benaras the Person Who ill Treats a Monkey Runs the Risk of Being torn to Pieces-How the Holy Bull Victimizes the Bazaar Man.

     Readers of Kipling’s “Kim” which gives a better picture of Indian life than anything else in print, may recall how the hero first begged on behalf of the Tibetan Yogi. The bazaar woman to whom he gave the begging bowl cried.

     That bowl, indeed! That cow bellied basket! Thou hast as much grace as the holy bull of Shiy. He has taken the best of a basket of onions already this morn, and, foosooth, I must fill thy bowl. He comes here again.

     The huge, mouse colored Brahma bull of the ward was shouldering his way through the many colored crowd, a stolen plantain hanging out of his mouth. He headed straight for the shop, well knowing his privileges as a sacred beast, lowered his head, and puffed heavily along the line of baskets making his choice. Up flew Kim’s hard little heel and caught him on his moist blue nose. He snorted indignantly and walked away across the train rails, his hump quivering with indignation.

     He is one of many. The people of India, like those of other Asiatic countries, are the slaves of their sacred animals. There is no tyranny more outrageous than that of the animal despots of Asia.

     An English globe trotter of my acquaintance was being shown the sights of Benares, the most sacred city in all India, some years ago. As he passed through one of the narrow, crowded streets of the bazaar he met a huge white Brahma bull stalking along as if the whole city belonged to him, brushing people aside right and left, and pushing his nose unhindered into the baskets of grain, rice and country produce which was displayed outside the little native shops.

     It was exactly the kind of scene described so well in “Kim.”

     The bull and the Englishman met in the narrow pathway-sidewalk, it would be called here, but in India sidewalk and road are usually indistinguishable. Neither would give way, for both belonged to an obstinate, self assertive race. The bull tried to push past. The Englishman hit him a smart rap on the nose.

     “Get up, you brute,” he cried with an enforcing oath.

     In a moment the bazaar was in an uproar. The natives, who, a moment before, had cringed servilely to the sahib, now crowded around him, with the passion of murder in their hearts. They pelted him with dirt and stones, called him all manner of vile names [more numerous, surely, in India than anyplace else on earth] and threatened most plainly to kill him. Was he not an infidal dog who had struck the sacred bull? Death by torture was surely too good for him. He would bring a curse on the city. The famine and the plague would come. Their wives would be childless.

     So the talk ran excitedly from man to man. The tumult grew. The angry mob increased to thousands. Had it not been for the opportune arrival of a police patrol of stalwart Sikhs-regally scornful of Hindoo gods, and ever on the watch for such incidents as this-the globe trotter, would certainly have paid with his life for his ignorance of Hindoo ideas as to the sacredness of sacred animals.

     Such riots as this are common enough in India during the winter tourist season, and it is indeed marvelous that many Americans and Englishmen are not slain. The trouble occurs especially in Benares, the most fanatical city in the empire, and possibly in the whole world. The Hindoo Mecca, as it has been called, is the headquarters of Brahmanism and the chief stronghold of the animal worship which distinguishes that cult. There are sacred animals all over India, but nowhere else are there so many of them as in Benares, and nowwhere else are they held in so much reverence and allowed so much licence.

     Anglo-Indians are often contemptuous of natives and native superstitions, but no Anglo-Indian would would care to strike a sacred bull in Benares. Kim did it in Lahore. In Benares it would be exceedingly unwise even to swear at the holy beast in the presence of natives who might understsnd the oaths.

    “The bulls are especially sacred,” wrote Professor James Ricalton in a letter to the author of this article, after he had just returned from a tour of India, in which he secured some extremely interesting photographs of various sacred animals. “They line the sidewalks of the city, enter sweetmeat and grocery stores and help themselves to the choicest articles without hindrance. They enjoy the freedom of every city. If a bullock chooses to lie down in a narrow lane where he fills the entire space, no pious Hindoo will pass that way while the sacred beast is taking his rest.

     The indulgence extended to these sacred bovines is wonderful. They enter the most sacred precincts of the temples. They are pampered with dainties and luxuries that they become burdened with fat.

     Although the Brahma bull is the most sacred animal in India, he has many competitors. There are more gods than worshipers in India. Beast worship seems to be natural to the Hindoo, and it is certainly one of the foundation stones of Brahmanism. Followers of the purer forms of that faith may say that the sacred beasts are only symbols and not gods, but a religion must be judged by the effect which it has on the mass of its devotees. The monkey, the crocodile, the crane, the ibis, the cobra and other serpents are among the creatures that share with the bull the reverence of the people, if not their worship. Benares is the headquarters of all the numerous cults of Brahmanism that especially worship one or the otherof these sacred beasts. 

     One of the holiest places in Benares is the Doorga Khond, or monkey temple. The monkey comes next to the Brahma Bull in order of sanctity. An English resident in the city assured the writer that anybody who killed or even ill treated a monkey would run a very good chance of being torn to pieces by the fanatical natives. That is not generally true of India, for I have seen monkeys killed there without any trouble resulting, but I believe it is true of Benares.

     At the Doorga Khond hundreds of monkeys are kept as pets by the priests. They run about all over the place just as they please and are never caged or restrained in any way. As a consequence they are jolly, good tempered little fellows, quite unlike the savage, sulky brutes you see in an American zoo. It is a mistake to suppose that a monkey’s nature is essentially vicious.

     The temple is simply a large paved yard surrounded by high walls on which there are a lot of wooden boxes and homes in which the monkeys live. There is a big tank for the monkeys to drink from and swim in if they choose to do so, and a huge banyan tree gives them all the gymnastic exercise they want. Visitors are welcomed, but they are expected to buy food for the monkeys from the priests at an exorbitant price. As soon as they get inside the monkeys mob them, climbing all over them, snatching the food from their hands and then scampering off to eat it in the banyan tree.

     These monkeys and all of their kind-the greyish brown, short tailed common monkey of northern India-are suppossed to be the descendants of Hunuman, the monkey god of southern India. According to the myth of the Brahmans. Hunuman aided Rama to conquer Ceylon by building a bridge of rocks from India to that Island. His image is to be seen in most Hindoo temples in the form of a man with a black monkey’s face and tail.

     Sacred monkeys scamper along the streets and over the housetops in most Indian cities and villages. The shopkeepers are constantly worried by their foraging escapades, but they dare not resent them anymore than those of the sacred bull. These monkeys are often the companions of the hermits and fakirs with which India swarms, and they are the chief part of the congregation in many temples where they are fed and protected.

     Tanks in which sacred crocodiles are kept are attached to some temples in Benares.

     Some Hindoos are unspeakably cruel to animals that are not sacred, but in general the faiths of India enjoin kindness to dumb animals as a religious duty.