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FAKIRS book III
1. Is the place where the Brahmans dress up a representation of some one of their idols, as Mamaniva, Sita, Madedina,1 and
similar images which are very numerous. 2. Is the figure of Mamaniva
which is in the pagoda. 3. Is another pagoda close to the preceding. It
has a cow at the door, and inside a representation of the god Rama. 4.
Is another pagoda, where Fakirs betake themselves for penance. 5. Is a
fourth pagoda dedicated to Rama. 6. Is the form of a grave into which
several times during the year a Fakir retires, where he gets no light
except through a very small hole. He sometimes remains there nine or
ten days without drinking or eating, according to his powers of
devotion—a thing which I could not easily have believed if I had not
seen it. Curiosity led me to go to see this penitent in company with
the Dutch Commander of Surat, who ordered a watch to be set in order to
see whether he did not receive something to eat by day or night. The
watch were unable to discover that he received any nourishment, and he
remained seated like our tailors without changing his position either
by day or night. He whom I saw was not able to remain more than seven
days out of the ten which he had vowed to spend, because the heat
stifled him on account of the lamp in the grave.2 The other
kinds of penance, of which I am about to speak, would still further
exceed human belief if thousands - of men were not witnesses of them.
7. Is the position of a penitent who has passed many years without ever
lying down either by day or night. When he wishes to sleep he leans on
a suspended cord, and in that position, which is very strange and
inconvenient, the humours descend to the legs, which become thereby
1 Mahadeva ?—another name for Shiva.
2
Ibn Batuta (ed. Lee, p. 159) speaks of Jogis who used to allow
themselves to be buried for months, or even for a whole year on end,
and were afterwards revived, upon which Col. Yule remarks, ' This art,
or the profession of it, is not yet extinct in India'. A very curious
account of one of its professors will be found in Major-General A. H.
E. Boileau's Personal Narrative of a Tour through the States of Bajwara: Calcutta, 1837, 41-4. (See Cathay and the Way Thither, 413 ; post, p. 173 ; N. Che vers, Manual of Medical Jurisprudence in India, 656; Carpenter, Human Physiology, 4th ed. 1103; J. Braid, Observations on Trance or Human Hybernation, 1850.)
