APPENDIX TO the CHAPITRE IV

Often, in India, we marry girls almost in the childhood to old men widowers who take a wife because her presence is compulsory in the sacrifices for manes. From there the big number of the virgin widows. We see by what precedes that they remarried of the time of Vatsyayana.

It is according to the religious prejudice that the women widows cannot remarry; the Hindus are convinced that they carry ( wear ? ) misfortune. It is maybe a calculation of the legislator so that a woman should rather prolong the days of her husband.

Several attempts were made to remove this prejudice, but we were not able to reach there.

In the South of India, all the widows, _sans exception _, do not remarry. But in Calcutta, they make him ( it ? ) today generally; at instigation of the vice king, brahmanes has they same given the example, and this example was followed.

To Pondichéry, Mr. de Verninac, while he was a governor there, had made, in this sense ( direction ? ), generous efforts which were indeed to succeed.

In Alharva-Véda, we see that the widows could, on certain conditions, remarry. This book preceded that of Manou who is very hard for the widows.

Homework ( Duties ? ) of the widow

As soon as an Indian has just expired, the custom ( usage ? ) requires ( demands ? ) that his ( her ? ) widow adorns himself splendidly, that she rushes on the corpse of her husband and holds him ( it ? ) kissed ( embraced ? ) by pushing big shouts until the relatives ( parents ? ) tear away ( extract ? ) him ( it ? ) from it.

Some days later, in the presence of his ( her ? ) relatives ( parents ? ) and of his ( her ? ) friends who try to console her ( it ? ), we shave him ( her ? ) the head and we deprive him ( her ? ) the tally which her husband, in the daytime of his marriage, had attached him ( her ? ) in the neck. From this moment, and until the day of her ( its ? ) death, she ( it ? ) carries ( wears ? ) the mourning of her husband. The mourning consists in be shaved the head once a month, not to make use of jewels nor of bétel, to dress that of white cloth ( canvas ? ), to draw on the forehead ( front ? ) none of the signs of religious sects, and finally to attend never the family celebrations or public where his ( her;its ? ) presence would carry ( wear ? ) misfortune.

Suttys or sacrifices of the widows

Suttys is forbidden in English India today, but they completely stopped only since a small number of years.

This barbaric custom appears to have been in honor at first to the former ( ancient ? ) rajahs of the country and in the caste of Kshatryas, because is mentioned in the former ( ancient ? ) authors only suttys of ranies or queens.

The sacrifice was not still voluntary; it was of force, very often, that we dragged the victim there.

Suttys in Mahabarata

Among the heroines of the dedication about whom speaks Mahabarata, he ( it ? ) quotes only by the way the sacrifice of Madri, the second wife of king Pandou, putatif father of five heroes celebrated in this vast encyclopaedic poem.

Here we are, in short, the legend of the death of king Pandou, and sacrifice of Madri his wife.

King Pandou, being for the hunting, perceived two coupled gazelles; immediately, he ( it ? ) shoots them an arrow and kills the male ( mate ? ). This one was a brahmane which had had the whim to take this shape of gazelle to unite with his wife.

At the time of expiring, he says to king Pandou: because, cruel Kshatrya, you abducted me the existence, before I had completed my desire, you will undergo the punishment ( effort ? ) of the talion; because, you too, will die in the arms of your wife before having enjoyed completely, and furthermore you will be struck by impotence. Pandou, indeed, married two women and had no children; but however, he ( it ? ) obtained five from it by the supernatural operation of the Gods Indra, Yama and both Happened.

A day when king Pandou walked in the forest with Madri, his second wife, incited by the sight of his charms, he wanted to unite with her in spite of she ( it ? ) refusât to it, dreading him fatal moment; Pandou, blinded ( filled ? ) by its passion, forced him ( it ? ) to it; he ( it ? ) thus unites with her, but he ( it ? ) was struck by death ( dead man ? ) in the arms.

After it fatal event, Madri, the soul disturbing and accusing of being the cause of the death of king, says to Kounti, the first wife: now that this monarch died in my arms, I ask for it in grace ( favour ? ), illustrate Kounti, to be allowed rise on his ( her;its ? ) funeral bed; because it is just that I follow this monarch to manes, because it is in my arms that he ( it ? ) found the road of the death. Noble Kounti blamed Madri for its weakness for this prince, because she knew her impotence and the curse which pressed on him: you would not have had to let him ( her ? ) carry out this erotic whim, which I always refused him ( her ? ). Nevertheless, girl of Balkan, you are happy, because it was given to you to see once the face fired by the desire, and the member raised ( drawn up ? ) by it virtuous monarch, what never arrived at me to me.

Noble lady do not want to it to me of it, left Madri and wants to be allowed follow our husband in the death; grant ( tune ? ) me this grace ( favour ? ), virtuous Kounti; adopt my two children, and wants to have for them the same maternal care as for yours.

Kounti, as first wife, would have wished to accompany king in the other world; it was its duty as its right; but, giving in to the authorities of Madri, she ( it ? ) granted to let her ( it ? ) rise on the stake, on her ( its ? ) place (because of the children, the youngest of the wives had to survive the husband).

After this agreement, two noble wives, helped by their five sons ( threads ? ), hurried to raise ( to draw up ? ) the stake; when he ( it ? ) was ended, they placed the body of Pandou there, and Madri extended beside him. She says then to Kounti: « the flame of this stake will cleanse me of my sin, and, pure of any stain, I shall follow our husband in Swarga; please thus, noble lady, set fire to it. » Kounti carried ( wore ? ) immediately the flame there and funeral ( dismal ? ) sacrifice comes true.

It is question of suttys neither in Védas, nor in Pouranas, nor in Ramayaua, nor in laws of Manou, nor in Kama Soutra.

Greek of Alexandre found them used at people at least of Punjab. At first appropriate ( clean ? ) for Rajahs, this custom appears to have extended under the influence of the sectarian religions. She ( it ? ) was spread enough and very known for the time of Progimlet, under Tibère.

Progimlet, Livre III, Elégie XIII, by critisizing women of his ( her;its ? ) time, praises the dedication of the Indian women who accompany her husbands in the death.

India, he says, sends us the gold of its appearances ( mines ? ); the Red Sea, its invaluable shells; Tyr, his ( her;its ? ) purple; Arabic nomad, the cinname; here are the weapons which triumph over the most proud virtue.

See advancing ( moving ? ), splendidly adorned, this woman in charge of the patrimony of a whole family; she spreads ( displays ? ) for us the spoils of her lovers.

We ask immodest, we also look.

Happy this law of the distant nations of the East!

Fortunate husband ( couple ? )! When the last torch was thrown ( launched ? ) on the funeral bed, the women of the dead man, the scattered hair, quarrel the honor to leave the life to follow him ( it ? ). Shame to the one who does not obtain the favour to die. The favorite rival dashes triumphant on the stake, and goes, in the middle of the flames which consume her ( it ? ), to place his ( her;its ? ) mouth on that of her husband.

To us, the marriage is unreliability; we do not know it either the dedication of Evadné, or the allegiance of Pénélope.