THE OLD STORY OF SELFISHNESS

It might be maintained that the symptoms of true affection—­altruistic devotion to the verge of self-sacrifice—­are revealed, at any rate, in the conjugal love of Savitri and of Damayanti.  Savitri follows the god of death as he carries away her husband’s spirit, and by her devotion and entreaties persuades Yama to restore him to life; while Damayanti (whose story we did not finish) follows her husband, after he has gambled away all his kingdom, into the forest to suffer with him.  One night, while she sleeps, he steals half of her only garment and deserts her.  Left alone in the terrible forest with tigers and snakes, she sobs aloud and repeatedly faints away from fear.  “Yet I do not weep for myself,” she exclaims; “my only thought is, how will you fare, my royal master, being left thus all alone?” She is seized by a huge snake, which coils its body around her; yet “even in this situation she thinks not so much of herself as she bewails the fate of the king.”  A hunter saves her and proceeds to make improper advances, but she, faithful to her lord, curses the hunter and he falls dead before her.  Then she resumes her solitary roaming in the gloomy forest, “distressed by grief for her husband’s fate,” unmindful of his cruelty, or of her own sad plight.

It is needless to continue the tale; the reader cannot be so obtuse as not to notice the moral of it.  The stories of Savitri and of Damayanti, far from exemplifying Hindoo conjugal devotion, simply afford fresh proof of the hoggish selfishness of the male Hindoo.  They are intended to be object-lessons to wives, teaching them—­like the laws of Manu and the custom of widow burning—­that they do not exist for their own sakes, but for their husbands.  Reading the stories in the light of this remark, we cannot fail to note everywhere the subtle craft of the sly men who invented them.  If further evidence were needed to sustain my view it would be found in the fact related by F. Reuleaux, that to this day the priests arrange an annual “prayer-festival” of Hindoo women at which the wife must in every way show her subjection to her husband and master.  She must wash his feet, dry them, put a wreath around his neck, and bring offerings to the gods, praying that he may prosper and live long.  Then follows a meal for which she has prepared all his favorite dishes.  And as a climax, the story of Savitri is read, a story in which the wife lives only for the husband, while he, as he rudely tells her—­after all her devotion—­lives only for his parents!