Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s4.t1.34

c7.s4.t1.34

3. *Personal Hygiene.*—No account of Hindu manners can be complete without some reference to their religious ideas, which also influenced Muslim customs to a considerable extent. We have already referred to the system of castes and domestic customs. The ideas of personal hygiene were equally influenced by religious beliefs. The fear of defilement and pollution haunts the imagination of an orthodox Hindu to a very extraordinary degree. For instance, should a woman be undergoing her courses, she was unclean during the period and for twelve days afterwards. She was segregated and was not allowed to touch any eatables or the clothing of male members or to enter the precincts of the kitchen.² There was an almost inexhaustible catalogue of objects of defilement which would have made everyday life absolutely unbearable but for the practical ingenuity of the Hindu mind. Side by side with these polluting objects there is an equally extensive range of purifying objects which succeed in counter-acting the influence of the others. Those who are anxious to read the details would find the necessary information in the pages of Abu’l Fazl.³ If a person succeeded in enlisting the good-will of the Brahman priest, he could make his life fairly agreeable and even pleasant.