Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.117

v2.c28.117

² We have seen one of these objects, self-condemned never to lie down during forty years, and there remained but three to complete the term. He had travelled much, was intelligent and learned; but far from having contracted the moroseness of the recluse, there was a benignity of mien, and a suavity and simplicity of manner in him, quite enchanting. He talked of his penance with no vainglory, and of its approaching term without any sensation. The resting position of this Druid (vanaprastha) was by means of a rope suspended from the bough of a tree, in the manner of a swing, having a cross-bar, on which he reclined. The first years of this penance, he says, were dreadfully painful; swollen limbs affected him to that degree, that he expected death; but this impression had long since worn off. ‘Even in this, is there much vanity,’ and it would be a nice point to determine whether the homage of man or the approbation of the Divinity most sustains the energies under such appalling discipline.