A History of the Mahrattas v1.c15.11

v1.c15.11

to indiscriminate burial, without the funeral rites, is considered base in the highest degree. ‘ Father’ is an epithet much used by the soldiery of India, both as a term of respect, as appears in the text, and as a cheering encouragement. The ‘ chulo mera bap,’ ‘ come on my father,’ so often heard from officers of British Sepoys in action, is precisely the ‘ come on, my boys,’ and ‘ allons mes enfants’ of the English and French. [The objection to leaving the dead to be buried by the Mahārs was based chiefly on the universal Hindu belief that only the due performance of the propitiatory death-ceremonies, enjoined by the Brahmanic Shāstras, can secure the ghost of the dead from enrolment in the malevolent army of bhuts, prets and pishāchas (ghosts, goblins and fiends), which wander abroad haunting and harassing the living.]