Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s5.12

v2.c27.s5.12

Treatment of Women by the Rājputs.—It is universally admitted that there is no better criterion of the refinement of a nation than the condition of the fair sex therein. As it is elegantly expressed by Comte Ségur, “ Leur sort est un boussole sûr pour le premier regard d’un étranger qui arrive dans un pays inconnu.” ² Unfortunately, the habitual seclusion of the higher classes of females in the East contracts the sphere of observation in regard to their influence on society ; but, to borrow again from our ingenious author, “ les hommes font les lois, les femmes font les mœurs ” ; and their incarceration in Rajasthan by no means lessens the application of the adage to that country. Like the magnetic power, however latent, their attraction is not the less certain. “ C’est aux hommes à faire des grandes choses, c’est aux femmes à les inspirer,” is a maxim to which every Rajput cavalier would subscribe, with whom the age of chivalry is not fled, though ages of oppression have passed over him. He knows there is no retreat into which the report of a gallant action will not penetrate, and set fair hearts in motion to be the object of his search. The bards, those chroniclers of fame, like the Jongleurs of old, have everywhere access, to the palace as to the hamlet ; and a brilliant exploit travels with all the rapidity of a comet, and clothed with the splendid decorations of poetry, from the Indian desert to the valley of the Jumna. If we cannot paint the Rajput dame as invested with all the privileges which Ségur assigns to the first woman, “ compagne de l’homme et son égale, vivant par lui, pour lui, associée à son bonheur, à ses plaisirs, à la puissance qu’il exerçait sur ce vaste univers,” she is far removed from the condition which demands commiseration [610].