Akbar, emperor of India, forbade marriages before puberty, and sanctioned the re-marriage of widows. The British Indian Government in 1856 by an Act sanctioned this, but up to this time (1883) very few Aryan Hindus of the higher castes have dared the superstitious dread of the gods, and the auger of their caste-fellows, which hinder this act of justice towards their widows.
Marti ; Basava. — Many young women all through India are married to their gods, and thenceforward are allowed to associate with the temple attendants or others. Girls of the Vira saiva sect and of some of the aboriginal races are married to a knife or other object, and be come common. With some of the Hindu sects a widower cannot re-marry, but such a bridegroom with his bride are each married to a tree with all the customary ceremonies of a wedding, each clasping their respective trees, and they then live together as husband and wife. The weaver castes near Madras devote their eldest daughter to the gods to serve in the temple ; and .instances occur of temple girls being educated in Christian mission schools.
Hindu Inheritance.—Adoption is legal with the Hindus, and sons are often adopted. If a son be adopted, he succeeds to his adopted father ; he loses all claim on the inheritance of his original father, and is entitled to a sixth of the property of his adoptive one, even if after his adoption sons of the body should be born. In Hindu law there are ten descriptions of sons,—one of them the son of a man's wife by an uncertain father, begotten when he himself has been long absent. When a Hindu dies, the sons may either continue to live together with the property united, or they may divide it according to certain rules. If they remain united, the eldest brother takes possession of the property, and the others live under him as they did under their father. In this case the acquisitions of all the sons (who have not formally withdrawn) go to augment the common stock. If they divide, the eldest takes 1-20th ; the youngest, 1-80th ; and the intermediate sons, 1-40th. Unmarried sisters live with their brothers.
Sectarian Marks. —Amongst the peculiarities which first attract the eye of a stranger on seeing the Hindu religionists, are the red and white marks on their foreheads. Their prominence is often so glaring as to be unseemly. When the theistical Sikh religionists hastened from the Panjab hi 1857 and 1858 to aid in quelling the mutiny and rebellion in India, in their wild enthusiasm they named all the Hindus con temptuously ' Matha Din,' literally, carrying their faiths on their foreheads ; and a more expressive term could not perhaps have been coined, for all that ordinary Hindus know of their religion are the differences in these marks, which indicate differ ences of religious sects, not of castes, and the sectaries have a superstitious regard for such dis tinctions. It is held necessary, where convenient,
or no especial objection or difficulty exists, for these marks to be daily renewed. A Brahman cannot perform any of his daily sacrifices, etc., without the completion or contemplation of this distinction ; and it is irreverent in one of an inferior tribe to approach a holy man, or to ask his blessing, or to partake in the benefit of any religious rite, without or in view to this sectarial decoration. The Saiva, worshippers of Siva, called Siva-bakht, and the Vaishnava, otherwise Vishnu-bakht, worshippers of Vishnu, are to be known, the former by the horizontal position of their forehead lines, and the latter by their per pendicularity. One perpendicular mark, centrally between the eyes is generally referable to one of Vishnu's sectarie ; it is not common. Two upright parallel lin s, with a black or open circlet between or under t em, are the commonest dis \ tinction of Vaishnav , whether seen on pictures of Vishnu himself, o on Rama and Krishna, or others of his avatars. n general, perpendicular lines appertain to Vaishn ya sects, and horizontal lines appertain to Saiva sects. The marks on the forehead are ordinarily called niiinam ; the cus tomary substances used are earths, tirumannu, or white ashes from a sacred fire, saffron, sanders wood, sandal-wood, white clay, etc. It is a very ancient mode of distinguishing religious sects, and is alluded to in Ezekiel ix. 4. The Sakta sect, when they avow themselves, mark either with saffron or with turmeric and borax. The Saura or Suria are true worshippers of the sun ; and some of them adore the dormant and active energies of the planet conjointly. This sect, which is not very numerous, is distinguished by the use of red sanders for the horizontal triple line, as well as for the circlet on their foreheads.