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

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The next morning Saturday we got a real carriage and went first to see the big Banyan tree. It is the second largest in India and was a wonder. It must have covered a space as big as a city block. The book says 70 ft circumference. Sometimes women get the devil in them, folks say so, and the women themselves believe they have a devil and they ought to know. Then they come to this tree and hang up little offerings and pray to the spirit of the tree and the devils are driven out! We didn't have time to get ours extracted so we have them yet. We visited the old palace of Tirumala Layak and then visited the great temple which we had come to see. It was built in 1623...

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...by the man of the palace. It is not very old and I did not admire anything about it, but it is certainly different from anything I ever saw. It forms a parallelogram of 847 x 729 ft and is surrounded by 89 opuranis. These are gates surrounded by a high tower. The highest is 152 ft. These gates are literally covered with carving. The subjects being Siva and his numerous incarnations. Inside the gate, there are streets and other gates through which one goes into the temple proper. The unholy tourist is not allowed to go into the sacred chapels (they do not call them by that name) where the shrines are, but we could see enough. There is a god and much color and carving in each...

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...and the devotee must touch both feet, both hands, stomach and forehead and chin to the ground before him - which means prostrate himself. Every temple in S. India has a hall of a 1000 columns - sometimes a little short. The ceiling is low, the columns unimpressive but the bigness of it all, and the "forest of columns" is rather effective. Our young Hindoo guide said there were two million Hindoo gods and he couldn't be expected to know the names of all and I agree. By this time we had learned to know the Brahmins. They were the original high caste and are now divided into many castes but all are superior to all the original lower ones and are greatly looked up to.

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They are often very rich and are chiefly the educated class. We know them because they are always fat. They eat no meat, but they take much milk and ghee - soft butter. The men of all castes wear no clothing above the waist, are barefooted and the garment below the waist is considerably abbreviated. The Brahmins wore a cord over the shoulder. Here in Madura we occupied a room together, but each had a bathroom! They contained a tub of cold flowing water and a washstand with bowl and pitcher and what is here called a night chair. We journeyed on some hours and arrived at [illegible]. Here we engaged an old man of 72, formerly a Cook's guide. He spoke English well, but when we asked questions he couldn't answer if the answer was in the little piece...

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...he had to recite to us. When we came to a point when explanation was required, he would close his eyes and out of past memories would call to mind his former speeches and recite them to us - most of which was in our guide books. Here the Ry station was not so good as at Madura and there were but two rooms. The moment the train stopped I bounded off leaving the Dr. to get the baggage out and was first at the booking office where I bought our bed tickets. Before the tickets were handed to me, there were others after them, but no beds. In that case, people were permitted to sleep in a car. We went up stairs and found a woman in our room. She had no ticket. Her husband...