Carrie Chapman Catt - Diaries, India, January - February? 1912 (Box 1, Folder 5)

5 We were soon making progress along a road filled with carts like our own, only the others were filled with natives. The temple stands on an island in the middle of a square tank (they call it). I suppose the whole thing is artificial. It was very pretty and surrounded by crowds of people all in their holiday dress when they had any clothes on at all. Our guide bargained for a boat and we paid the price of a whole loaf to get it for ourselves instead of going with a crowd of natives. Some [??] boats were round and looked like half a cocoanut. We were rowed across and visited the temple. At a distance it looked rather picturesque

6 but it was made of cheap looking plaster. The expense [??] was the big tank and the island. The Temple was surrounded by a garden and around the border was a stone walk. Here round and round a small procession kept going. First there was the God Siva (it was a Siva Temple). He was an ordinary looking wooden idol but with much paint and gilt and [??] four men carried him and behind him came four more carrying his wife. Then came a band making noise they called "beautiful music. Then marched a lot of Brahmins There were mostly without much clothing and were too fat to be pretty, and too greasy to be clean.

7 There were to be a million lights and these were made by placing a small bunch of cotton tied in a cloth on top of the oil poured in a small saucer. These [pre??live] lamps were everywhere. Outside the walk whereon the procession marched boys were busy filing the saucers. They were forbidden to come near the procession for they were coolies whereas the others were the highest caste in India. Just as the group was passing, our guide said These are all the high caste Brahmins A fat sensual contemptible looking creature heard the remark, and immediately assumed one of the haughtiest expression of face and figure I ever beheld. It was a sight long to be remem

8

[remem] ...bered. Poor fools! We staid until the morn was up. There was to be a procession on the water later but we saw enough. In the procession there were [illegible] girls. These are a caste quite by themselves. They are temple prostitutes, but dance in temple festivities. Siva was fond of dancing. This temple has about 200 such girls. It was a hot night and the crowd was growing uncomfortably thick when we came away. We were amused to see a man constantly walking on the outside by the side of Siva and waving a big fan to keep the dear god cool. There is no hotel in Madura and we staid at the station where accomodations are...

...provided for a few people. It was comfortable but here there were no electric fans. So, through the matron I engaged a punkah puller. A punkah is a thing like this hung from the ceiling. The bottom is a ruffler. A rope goes thro' a hole in the wall and a coolie sits outside and pulls it wagging the fan over the bed or table or what not. Wages have gone up now so I had to pay 24 cts to get a puller from 9 pm to 8 am. It used to be 7 cts. I don't know what is to become of us aristocrats if wages continue to come up in this fashion.