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CHAP. XVII. p. 345.   SUTTEE MAABAR.

115

XVII., p. 341.

SUTTEES IN INDIA.

" Suttee is a Brahmanical rite, and there is a Sanskrit ritual

in existence (see Classified Index to the Tanjore MSS., p. 135 a.).

It was introduced into Southern India with the Brahman

civilization, and was prevalent there chiefly in the Brahmanical

Kingdom of Vijayanagar, and among the Mahrattas. In

Malabar, the most primitive part of S. India, the rite is forbidden

(Anächaranirnaya, v. 26). The cases mentioned by Teixeira,

and in the Lettres édifiantes, occurred at Tanjore and Madura.

A (Mahratta) Brahman at Tanjore told one of the present writers

that he had to perform commemorative funeral rites for his

grandfather and grandmother on the same day, and this indi-

cated that his grandmother had been a satī." YULE, Hobson-

Jobson. Cf. Cathay, II., pp. 139-140.

MAABAR.

XVII., p. 345. Speaking of this province, Marco Polo says :

" They have certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to

whom many young girls are consecrated ; their fathers and mothers

presenting them to that idol for which they entertain the greatest

devotion. And when the [monks] of a convent desire to make a feast

to their god, they send for all those consecrated damsels and make

them sing and dance before the idol with great festivity. They also

bring meats to feed their idol withal ; that is to say, the damsels

prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put the food before

the idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the damsels all go

to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as long as a great

Baron might require to eat his dinner. By that time they say the

spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so they

remove the viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity. This

is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are

married."

Chau Ju-kwa has the following passage in Cambodia (p. 53)

" (The people) are devout Buddhists. There are serving (in the

temples) some three hundred foreign women ; they dance and

offer food to the Buddha. They are called a-nan or slave

dancing-girls."

Hirth and Rockhill, who quote Marco Polo's passage, remark,

p. 55 n. : " A -nan, as here written, is the usual transcription of

the Sanskrit word (inanda, ` joy, happiness.' The almeh or

dancing-girls are usually called in India deva-dāsī (` slave of

a god ') or rāmjani."

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