Tales and Poems of South India (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ...repetition; but that they have acquired them there is proof abundant. A native friend of the writer spoke to him with admiration of a child who, when a case of frailty was being discussed in a village assembly, had suddenly settled the question, to his astonishment and that of all present, by quoting from the Garland a precept which we should think unbecoming in the mouth of a little maiden. The Garland of Advice for Women is another golden alphabet. At the end of every line in the original is a word equivalent to "My girl" or "My dear." It does not countenance too much knowledge, but echoes Ouvay's praise of ignorance and simplicity in women. The condition of the Tamil woman is worse than it would have been but for the resistless invasions of Brahmanists and Mohammedans from the north. She is always a minor, chained by the law of Menu, which says, "Her father protects her in infancy, her husband in youth, and her son in old age: no woman ever possesses independence." 1 Garland, lines 12 and 86. A flower in the Garland of Umapathi is filial piety. We are reminded of the fifth commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother," and of Shakespeare's line, "To you your father should be as a god."1 The daughter is instructed to make her parents happy, and to follow her mother's example.2 Children must regard their parents as their sagest advisers and first gods. "Devotion to their father and mother is the appropriate devotion of children; there is no other."3 But the Garland contemplates the girl's early burial in married life, for which she cannot be too soon prepared. It is a description of a good wife, and may be compared with a golden alphabet on the same subject, in " the words of...