[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Histoire de la dernière révolution des États du Grand Mogol](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier) › [Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable) › 6.1 # Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 6.1 Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 6.1 - **Language:** English ### [6.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.1) Despatched from Chiras in Persia, the 4th October 1667. Describing the Superstitions, strange customs, and Doctrines of the Indous or Gentiles of Hindoustan; From which it will be seen that there is no Doctrine too strange or too improbable for the Soul of man to conceive. MONSIEUR, ### [6.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.2) I have witnessed two solar eclipses which it is scarcely possible I should ever forget. The one I saw from France in the year 1654, the other from Dehli in the Indies in 1666. The sight of the first eclipse was impressed upon my mind by the childish credulity of the French people, and by their groundless and unreasonable alarm; an alarm so excessive that some brought drugs as charms to defend themselves against the eclipse; some kept themselves closely shut up, and excluded all light either in carefully-barred apartments or in cellars; while thousands flocked to their respective churches; some apprehending and dreading a malign and dangerous influence; others believing that the last day was at hand, and that the eclipse was about to shake the foundations of the world. Such were the absurd notions entertained by our countrymen, notwithstanding the writings of Gassendi, Roberval, and other celebrated astronomers and philosophers, which clearly demonstrated that the eclipse was only similar to many others which had been productive of no mischief; that this obscuration of the sun was known and predicted, and was without any other peculiarity than what might be found in the reveries of ignorant or designing astrologers. The eclipse of 1666 is also indelibly imprinted on my memory by the ridiculous errors and strange superstitions of the Indians. ### [6.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.3) At the time fixed for its appearance I took my station on the terrace of my house, situated on the banks of the Gemna, when I saw both shores of the river, for nearly a league in length, covered with Gentiles or idolaters, who stood in the water up to the waist, their eyes riveted to the skies, watching the commencement of the eclipse, in order to plunge and wash themselves at the very instant. The little boys and girls were quite naked; the men had nothing but a scarf round their middle, and the married women and girls of six or seven years of age were covered with a single cloth. Persons of rank or wealthy, such as Rajas (Gentile sovereign princes, and generally courtiers in the service and pay of the King), Serrafs or money-changers, bankers, jewellers, and other rich merchants, crossed from the opposite side of the river with their families, and pitching their tents fixed kanates or screens in the water, within which they and their wives washed and performed the usual ceremonies without any exposure. No sooner did these idolaters perceive that the obscuration of the sun was begun than they all raised a loud cry, and plunged the whole body under water several times in quick succession ; ### [6.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.4) after which they stood in the river, lifted their eyes and hands toward the sun, muttered and prayed with seeming devotion, filling their hands from time to time with water, which they threw in the direction of the sun, bowing their heads very low, and moving and turning their arms and hands, sometimes one way, sometimes another. The deluded people continue to plunge, mutter, pray, and perform their silly tricks until the end of the eclipse. On retiring they threw pieces of silver at a great distance into the Gemna, and gave alms to the Brahmens, who failed not to be present at this absurd ceremony. I remarked that every individual on coming out of the water put on new clothes placed on the sand for that purpose, and that several of the most devout left their old garments as presents for the Brahmens. In this manner did I observe from the roof of my house the solemnisation of the grand eclipse-festival, a festival which was kept with the same external observances in the Indus, in the Ganges, and in the other rivers and Talahs (or tanks of the Indies), but above all in that one at Tanaiser, which contained on that occasion more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons, assembled from all parts of the empire; its waters being considered on the day of an eclipse more holy and meritorious than those of any other. ### [6.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.5) The Great Mogol, though a Mahometan, permits these ancient and superstitious practices; not wishing, or not daring, to disturb the Gentiles in the free exercises of their religion. But the ceremony I have described is not performed until a certain number of Brahmens, as deputies from their fellows, have presented the King with a lecque of roupies, equal to about fifty thousand crowns; in return for which he begs their acceptance only of a few vests and an old elephant. I shall now mention the wise and convincing reasons assigned for the festival of the eclipse, and for the rites with which it is attended. ### [6.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.6) We have, say they, our four Beths; that is, our four books of law, sacred and divine writings given unto us by God himself, through the medium of Brahma. These books teach that a certain Deüta, an incarnate divinity, extremely malignant and mischievous, very dark, very black, very impure, and very filthy (these are all their own expressions) takes possession of the Sun, which it blackens to the colour of ink, infects and obscures; that the Sun, which is also a Deüta, but of the most beneficent and perfect kind, is thrown into a state of the greatest uneasiness, and suffers a most cruel agony while in the power of and infected by this wicked and black being; that an endeavour to rescue the Sun from so miserable a condition becomes the duty of every person; that this important object can be attained only by means of prayers, ablutions, and alms; that those actions have an extraordinary merit during the festival of the eclipse, the alms then bestowed being a hundred times more valuable than alms given at any other time; and who is he, they ask, that would refuse to make a profit of cent per cent? These, Monsieur, were the eclipses which I told you I could not easily forget, and they naturally lead me to speak of other wild extravagancies of the unhappy heathens, from which I shall leave you to draw whatever conclusions you please. ### [6.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.7) In the town of Jagannat, situated on the Gulf of Bengale, and containing the famous temple of the idol of that name, a certain annual festival is held, which continues, if my memory fail not, for the space of eight or nine days. At this festival is collected an incredible concourse of people, as was the case anciently at the temple of Hammon, and as happens at present in the city of Meca. The number, I am told, sometimes exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand. A superb wooden machine is constructed, such as I have seen in several other parts of the Indies, with I know not how many grotesque figures, nearly resembling our monsters which we see depicted with two heads, being half man and half beast, gigantic and horrible heads, satyrs, apes, and devils. This machine is set on fourteen or sixteen wheels like those of a gun-carriage, and drawn or pushed along by the united exertions of fifty or sixty persons. The idol, Jagannat, placed conspicuously in the middle, richly attired, and gorgeously adorned, is thus conveyed from one temple to another. ### [6.1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.8) The first day on which this idol is formally exhibited in the temple, the crowd is so immense, and the press so violent, that some of the pilgrims, fatigued and worn out in consequence of their long journey, are squeezed to death: the surrounding throng give them a thousand benedictions, and consider them highly favoured to die on such a holy occasion after travelling so great a distance. And while the chariot of hellish triumph pursues its solemn march, persons are found (it is no fiction which I recount) so blindly credulous and so full of wild notions as to throw themselves upon the ground in the way of its ponderous wheels, which pass over and crush to atoms the bodies of the wretched fanatics without exciting the horror or surprise of the spectators. No deed, according to their estimation, is so heroic or meritorious as this self-devotion : the victims believe that Jagannat will receive them as children, and recall them to life in a state of happiness and dignity. The Brahmens encourage and promote these gross errors and superstitions to which they are indebted for their wealth and consequence. As persons attached and consecrated to important mysteries, they are held in general veneration, and enriched by the alms of the people. So wicked and detestable are their tricks and impostures that I required the full and clear evidence of them — which I obtained — ere I could believe that they had recourse to similar expedients. ### [6.1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1.9) These knaves select a beautiful maiden to become (as they say, and as they induce these silly, ignorant people to believe) the bride of Jagannat, who accompanies the god to the temple with all the pomp and ceremony which I have noticed, where she remains the whole night, having been made to believe that Jagannat will come and lie with her. She is commanded to inquire of the god if the year will be fruitful, and what may be the processions, the festivals, the prayers, and the alms which he requires in return for his bounty. In the night one of these impostors enters the temple through a small back door, enjoys the unsuspecting damsel, makes her believe whatever may be deemed necessary, and the following morning when on her way to another temple, whither she is carried in that Triumphal Chariot, by the side of Jagannat her Spouse, she is desired by the Brahmens to state aloud to the people all she has heard from the lustful priest, as if every word had proceeded from the mouth of Jagatmal. But let me relate follies of another kind. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.1) · Pramāṇa