CHA P. II. Continuation of Mr. DUNCAN's Summary of the measures pursued by him at BOMBAY and in GUZERAT, for the discovery and abolition of INFANTICIDE among the Rajput tribes in that part of INDIA. a THE information adverted to in Mr. DUNCAN's letter of the 2d October, 1789 (p. 2) as to the knowledge possessed by the Greeks and Romans, of Infanticide having been practised in India at remote periods, was acquired from Captain WILFORD; and that gentleman having referred to Barygaza, or Baroach, and the vicinity thereof, as the more immediate site where it had been observed, Mr. DUNCAN was thence led, on his first visit to Surat, in 1800, to inquire of KERPA RAMA, the minister of the Nawab of that place, whether any traces of such a practice yet existed in that quarter: to which he received the following written report: Report from KERPA RAMA of Surat. "Heretofore I have heard people say, that among the tribe of Rajput, and especially among the Rajas of that class, a This name has been derived from BHRIGU, who is fabled to have lived at Baroach, whence it was called Bhrigu Kshetra, or Bhrigu-gosha, BHRIGU's-field, or place. This is sometimes pronounced Bhrigu-kacha, and Barygacha; and is supposed to be the origin of the Grecian Barygaza. See As. Res. IX. 83. 184.; and of BHRIGU, Hindu Pantheon, Index. E. M. CHAP. II. HINDU INFANTICIDE IN GUZERAT. 17 the birth of a daughter in their houses was considered as disgraceful; on which account, their women refused to let their newly-born daughters have access to their milk, and do put them in any way to death: but this practice is not general through all the subdivisions of their tribe, though in several places they do thus stony-heartedly kill them.” Mr. DUNCAN returning to Bombay from Surat, in July 1800, had no farther opportunity of prosecuting his inquiries into what foundation there might be for believing the practice of female Infanticide to obtain in any instances in the west of India, till the circumstance was again brought incidentally to his notice between two and three years thereafter, by GAJRA BYE, a descendant of one of the former Gaikowar Rajas of Guzerat, who having, under a series of political events unnecessary here to relate, repaired to Bombay, delivered casually the following account of transactions in her own family: с b Account from GAJRA BYE, received on the 8th January, 1804. "DAMAJI GAIKAWAR carried his arms as far as to Kutch, with the Raja of which a reconciliation took place, b Some notice will be taken of this name and family in a future page. E. M. I retain this orthography (in the MS. written also Cutch), not wishing to alter it in respect to so well known a district, although at variance with my usage, which would lead me to spell it Katch; a name that might be derived from the second incarnation of VISHNU, in the form of a tortoise, which animal is in some western dialects in India, called Katch, or Kach, or Katchwa. Kutch is a maritime province, lies low, and is subject to inundations, both from the sea and from the Indus, and may be well imagined to have been the scene of the miraculous interposition of the preserver VISHNU, for the recovery of the submerged earth: or, admitting this mythological fable to have reference to the universal deluge, it may on some occasion supposed to be similar, but partial, have been provincially applied to Kutch. The legends explanatory of this and the other Avataras, or incarnations of VISHNU, are detailed in the Hindu Pantheon. See the Index of that book. E. M. D on condition of one of the princesses, his daughters, being given in marriage to DAMAJI; which lady, named DANKUR BYE, lived among the Gaikawars till after DAMAJI's death; when, at her own request, the then Raja FATTEH SING permitted her to return to her own family in Kutch." This incidental narrative from GAJRA BYE, leading to the question, whether DANKUR BYE had of this marriage any children? it was answered negatively; and GAJRA BYE immediately followed up his answer, by explaining, that among that lady's cast in Kutch, the daughters are not brought up, but drowned immediately, at their birth, in a vessel of milk. GAJRA BYE being next questioned, how then this cast of people upheld their families? observed, that they are only one of the numerous tribes of Rajputs, among the other subdivisions of which they find wives; and that DANKUR BYE was spared in consequence of her extraordinary comeliness and beauty having excited a particular affection in the breast of her mother. In view to the farther investigation of the grounds of GAJRA BYE's information, Mr. DUNCAN entered into a correspondence on the subject with Captain SETON, then on a political mission at Mandavi, the chief port of the country of Kutch, a territory situated to the north-west of the province of d DUNKOOR BYE in the MS. FATTEH (or, as in the MS. FUTTEH) SING, signifies the Victorious Lion-a Hindu having, I apprehend, in this instance, adopted a Mahommedan appellation,, meaning victorious in Arabic and Persian. TIPPOO's grandfather was named FATTEH; his father, HYDER; his son, FATTEH HYDER; the latter of the same signification with FATTEH SING. E. M. Guzerat, the gulf of the same name intervening, and constituting the line of division between the two states. The following are extracted from that correspondence. From Mr. DUNCAN to Captain SETON, at Kutch, dated 8th January, 1804. "I send you a memorandum from GAJRA BYE (the daughter of FATTEH SING, one of the Gaikawar princes in Guzerat) or rather the result of what she related to day in conversation; and request you will make every inquiry in your power into so curious a subject, as the alleged custom of your Kutch friends killing their female infants. I have heard Captain WILFORD of Benares say, that in some old Greek author in his possession, he has read of the same thing being a practice in his time in that quarter of India. From Captain SETON to Mr. DUNCAN, dated at Mandavi, 23d March, 1804. "The custom mentioned in GAJRA BYE's relation is in force to this day; every female infant born in the Raja's family of a Ranni, or lawful wife, is immediately dropped into a hole dug in the earth and filled with milk, where it is drowned. "DANKUR BYE, who is now alive at Booje, the capital of Kutch, is the daughter of 'RAHU LAKPAT, by a Pater, or Guzerat Kanchny (strolling dancing girl) sister to "RAHI GUR, the last Raja, and aunt of RAHI RAHI DHUN, the f In the MS. Row-LUCKPUt. 8 Cunchinnee in the MS. RAEE RAEE DHUN, in the MS. k present Raja. The latter has a son and a daughter by a slave of one of the Rannis, now ten and eleven years of age; the custom in question not extending to them, but only to the Raja's children by his Rannis, or consorts: neither does it necessarily extend to the Jarejahs, or collateral descendants of the Raja's family, though most of them through choice adopt it, there being but two men of this cast of any note who have brought up their daughters; and these are VIDRAJI and NAUTHJI, who will be again noticed. VIDRAJI JAREJAH's daughter is married to the son of the 'Bownagher Raja. "This custom of drowning female infants is not peculiar to Kutch, but is common among the heads of the Kehtri, or Rajput tribes. It is practised in the family of JAM of Nagar, in the peninsula of Guzerat; and in that of the Miazeh, or " Ka m k Jarejah is the name of the cast of a subdivision of Rajputs, of which tribe and that particular denomination thereof, is the Rajah of Kutch, and many other families of that quarter. Mr. DUNCAN. 1 Bownagher, or Bownaghur, is the capital of a province of the same name in Guzerat, fruitful in grain and cotton; its name may be derived from Bhavani nagar, the city of BHAVANI, a name of the consort of SIVA, in one of her beneficent forms. See Hindu Pantheon, under BHAVANI in the Index. E. M. m A strong proof of the force of hereditary prejudice, since these Kalowrees have long been Mahomedans, to all of whom this practice is very strictly forbid. This Kalowra family have now lost the dominion of Sind, in the manner adverted to in the text. It seems, however, doubtful, whether the practice of Infanticide be continued in respect to the female offspring of this Kalowra tribe since their conversion to Mahomedanism. Besides Captain SETON's information, it is attested also by the Munshi, or Persian writer, of SUNDERJI SIVAJI (mentioned hereafter) who is himself a native of Sind. But it is, on the other hand, strenuously denied by MULJI, the son of LALLA HARJIVAN, a Hindu, and likewise a native of the same country. Charity and candour may therefore incline us to believe that the Kalowries have no longer to reproach themselves with this barbarous practice; such as the doctrines of the Koran stand indeed directly opposed to. Note by Mr. DUNCAN to which I will add, that of the sect called Kalowra, or Kalowri, I have no information. As Hindus, their adoration of KAL, or KALA, a name of SIVA, or of KALI, |