Sacred Tales of India #249870

About a year ago, the idea entered my mind of writing on our ceremonial lore which consists of an immense stock of curious legends transmitted from mouth to mouth for ages past. In the zenana of Bengal alone has the sacred fire of this knowledge been kept burning and, were it not for our wives, sisters, and daughters, it would long since have been extinguished. The ceremonies which I have mentioned are almost exclusively performed by women, and the sterner sex takes little or no part in them, as a rule not even knowing where or when they take place. The rites are simple and cost nothing. As to their origin, I can only hazard a guess; and it is that they have been invented at different times by Indian women of understanding above that of their contemporaries with a view to keeping their sex, which has often more time on its hands than it knows how to dispose of, from becoming idle and, therefore, vicious, that zeal for religion might be fostered, and women be enabled to exercise and develop their higher sensibilities which would otherwise languish.