![]() ![]() I will come to your house at noon if you wish." In the villages the widows have great difficulty in securing barbers to shave them, and they have often to be called from a distance. If asked by such a widow in the early morning, his reply is, "I don't do such work here by the Bhavani shrine. But when the widows are over fifty or sixty years of age it is not easy to get barbers to do that work even in such cities as Bombay. The barbers are always quite ready for the fortnightly shaving of young widows. But no one seems to consider that those laws are suitable for the present time. We learn from men that it is found in the Laws of Manu. ![]() We do not know whether the custom existed in the Vedic period. It is not even mentioned in the Ramayan or Mahabharat. Their reply in substance is, "Who knows who was the damn author of the custom of shaving widows' heads. I have had many conversations with widows and I still continue to have them. But I soon realized that it was the widows' belief that being shaven by barbers was the scriptural way, and to be shaven otherwise was a wrong act. To aid my attempts I even procured some safety razors for them to use. Those widows who look on the rite of having their hair shaved off as a religious act, if their caste does not come to their aid in demanding that a brother or son should do the shaving, then they should be independent enough to refuse to be shaved by barbers. In my speeches I pleaded that at least the shaving, if it must be done, should not be done by barbers, but by some member of the family like a brother or son. While engaged in the work for the widows' home I made thousands of attempts to bring about the cessation of the custom of widows having their heads shaved. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |