Note 70 — FIRST SECTION.

Strabo and Arrian, Indic. 17., already in their time state, at any rate of the nobler Indian women, that they could have been allured to profligacy at no price, except at that of an elephant. According to von Bohlen (“Das alte Indien,”—Ancient India, Vol. II. p. 17, Vol. I. p. 275.) it would seem that not the slightest trace (?) can be found of the immoral life of the Indian priests in Antiquity, on the contrary that chastity was the first thing needful to gain them respect and honour, and their whole literature is never ready to extol a priest or hero more highly than when he has withstood the enticements to unchastity. Hence what is asserted of the Devâdasis or Priestesses of the gods as being courtesans for the Priests is also in the main untrue, since it rests, as in the case of the Hieroduli, chiefly on a confusion with the Bhayatri (Bayaderes, the Hetaerae of the Greeks), or holds good only for particular places (Häfner, “Landreise längs der Küste Orixa und Koromandel,”—(Journey along the Orissa and Coromandel Coast). Weimar 1809. Vol. I. pp. 80 sqq.—Papi, “Briefe über Indien,” (Letters about India), p. 356.—Wallace, “Denkwürdigkeiten,” (Memorabilities), p. 301.)—In this connection should be mentioned also the narrative of the Jesuit—in other respects suspicious—in the edifying letters addressed to Schaufus, ch. I. p. 40, that during his residence in a Hindoo town he had been informed, that it would be unsafe at the present moment to allow foreigners to visit the Devadâsis, on the contrary that there was nothing to fear from those attached to the Pagoda of the place. Even if we admit the truth of this narrative for more modern times too, still the conclusion that Schaufus draws from it, that in Hindostan every Pagoda is a brothel, is surely somewhat hasty.—Some other legends of the origin of the Lingam ritual in India are given in Meiner’s “Allgem. kritische Geschichte der Religionen,” (Universal Critical History of Religions), Vol. I. P. 254.