Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 221

UNCLEAN OBJECTS
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the washerman, by the touch of his hand, has defiled them
The same thing happens with new cloths which
come straight from the unclean hands of a Sudra weaver.
Wives of Lingayats, however, content themselves with
rubbing their foreheads with the ashes of cow-dung to
and by this simple
purify themselves on similar occasions
act, which they call bhasma snana, or the bath of ashes,
they consider that they are completely purified. In this
way a precautionary measure most beneficial to health in
On
this hot country becomes perverted by superstition.
the one hand it is minutely observed by those who do not
in the least appreciate its real utility, while it is neglected
by others who think it only a pious practice, to be replaced
with equal advantage by another.
Earthen vessels, by reason of the material of which they
are composed, can never be purified when once they become
Washing
unclean, and in this they differ from metal ones.
will purify the latter, but should the former become defiled,
they must be destroyed 1
As long as earthen vessels are new, and in the hands of
the potter, any one, even a Pariah, may handle them with
impunity but from the moment that they have contained
water, they can only be used by the person who filled them,
or by members of the same caste.
Brahmins carry their
scruples on this point so far as never to allow strangers to
enter their kitchens, the doors of which are always kept
carefully shut, lest some profane and unclean person should
cast an eye on the earthenware inside, which, rendered
unclean by that one look, would be only fit to be immediately
broken to pieces 2
It is to avoid the risk of a similar
disaster that their women never draw water in earthenware
vessels, but always use those made of brass and copper.
It is just the same with their clothes as with their vessels.
Some can be defiled, others cannot. Silk, for instance,
remains always pure, also cloth made of the fibres of
anew.
;
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;
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1
Beds, furniture, clothes, and vessels became, under the Jewish law,
unclean by contact with anything that was impure, and often were the
means of contaminating other objects (Leviticus xi. 32). Dubois.
2
Brahmins and rich Sudras arc gradually abandoning the use of
earthenware vessels for cooking, and are using vessels of brass and bell-
metal.
These are even sometimes cleaned by Sudras nowadays. Ed.