[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) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 259.3 # Storia do Mogor 259.3 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 259.3 - **Language:** English ### [259.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.259.3) From this cause these others, knowing not what else to do, have been obliged to turn into merchants. This is why all the other castes, even those of the Sudras, who know the constitution of this caste, will not eat or drink in their houses. It would seem that those who assign this origin to the caste of shopkeepers are more regardful of truth than those telling the fable I gave in my fifth chapter (III. no), where they say that this caste is the third in the country because it was born from the thigh of Brahma. For, if this fable were held to be true, it is quite certain that the Sudra castes, who assume that they came forth from the feet of Brahma, would raise no difficulty about eating and drinking in the houses of shopkeepers, nor would they hold that class in such low esteem as they do. All the same, the business caste has a high conception of itself. So high do they esteem themselves that they will not allow their women to marry again after the husband's death, even when they are very young. They either burn alive with the corpse of their husband or remain widows until they die. But they observe much more restraint than the Brahman widows. If the men come to know that any widow of their caste has misbehaved, they kill her without fail. They endeavour in all their acts to prove themselves of high descent, superior to the Sudras, of whose marriages I now proceed to say a few words. - [Previous: 259.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.259.2) - [Next: 260.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.260.1) - [Up: 259](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.259) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.259.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.259.3) · Pramāṇa