The Durga Puja : p. 57 THE DURGA PUJA "AND there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven." Archaic sentences here and there in the world's scriptures tell us of the wars that were...
Note To The Northern Pilgrimage : p. 207 NOTE TO THE NORTHERN PILGRIMAGE WHEN we consider the overwhelming import of the Himalayan range to the people inhabiting the plains of Northern India, it is not surprising that the Hindus should, from time immemorial, have looked upon the snow-capped peaks as the Abode of the Gods and have...
The Kashmir Shawl : p. 150 THE KASHMIR SHAWL THE glory has departed from Srinagar, for it is now some eighteen centuries since the city, under a Buddhist sovereign, was capital of the greater part of India. But if the ancient glory has vanished, a new and greater has come in its stead. The quaint old town is to-day...
Our Zenana Terrace : p. 10 OUR ZENANA TERRACE THOSE learned and artistic persons who now and then find their way to us in the midst of the Hindu quarter here in Calcutta, to spend an hour or two, will sometimes break off from their preoccupation with medival art and modern monstrosity to assure us that the lane...
The Indian Ash, Or Tree Of Healing : p. 129 THE INDIAN ASH, OR TREE OF HEALING How full of a mystic antiquity are the names of the lotus, the olive, and the ash! Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Scandinavia spring to our minds as the words are heard. The syllables seem haunted to this day by the dryads that the Greek mind saw in every tree...
The Hindu Widow And The Zenana : p. 16 THE HINDU WIDOW AND THE ZENANA THE great distinction of Hindu life in English eyes is its vast antiquity. Even its trifles are hoary with age. In the glimpses we catch of the heroic lovers, Sita and Rama, wandering the forest, Sita wears the "sari", and follows behind her husband, as she...
Untitled : This is a set of essays by Sister Nivedita, published posthumously. Nivedita was a woman of Irish nationality who converted to Hinduism and spent her life selflessly helping the poor women of India. This book gives a rare ground-level vista of vernacular Hinduism from a woman's point of view...
Janmastami. The Day Of The Great Birth : p. 40 JANMASTAMI; THE DAY OF THE GREAT BIRTH A SUDDEN chime of bells, a blaze of lights waved before an altar--while without, the watching stars and purple blackness of the midnight sky look down--such is the solemn moment of the Birth of Krishna. Surely it is only in this country, where a temple...
The Ship Of Flowers : p. 209 THE SHIP OF FLOWERS IT is empty now, the place on my desk where the little ship of flowers has stood all day. But out on the chill edge of the Ganges, as darkness comes on, the tiny bark lies drifting, hither and thither, scarcely determined betwixt ebb and flow, as we with a few...
The Northern Pilgrimage : p. 189 THE NORTHERN PILGRIMAGE 1 To Indians themselves, if they have never before been on pilgrimage, the life of the pilgrim-roads is likely to be a revelation. Who uttered a doubt that India had a place and a life for women? Certainly none who had ever seen a pilgrimage. Marching along we meet...
An Old Collegiate Village : p. 87 AN OLD COLLEGIATE VILLAGE WE were a small and very cheerful party that set out to visit the village of Khardah. It was here that Nityananda--ordered by Chaitanya to take up the life of the householder--had dwelt year after year, organising and instructing the then rudimentary society...
Works : This advertisement preceded the title page in the original book. It is included for completeness. A bibliography can be found on page xliv--JBH. "WORKS BY SISTER NIVEDITA" STUDIES FROM AN EASTERN HOME. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6"d". net. "Indian Edition", R.1.4 as. AN INDIAN STUDY OF LOVE AND DEATH. Crown...
Margaret Noble. In Memoriam : p. vii MARGARET NOBLE: IN MEMORIAM IT is now nearly ten years since there was published, under the title of "The Web of Indian Life", a book which immediately found its appropriate public. In England and America it was recognised as belonging to that newer and finer type of interpretati...
The Plague : p. 70 THE PLAGUE "I HAVE a case for you, Sister." It was the doctor's voice in the doorway, and I knew at once what he meant. My first case of plague. A few minutes later we entered the cottage where the patient lay. It was an ordinary mud hut, with its tiny unlighted compartments opening...
Chitore : p. 101 CHITORE IT was almost midnight, as the moon grew near the full, when we looked for the first time on the fortress of Chitore. The lights in the village at its foot had been extinguished, and the hill with its great length stood dark and isolated against the sky. Almost directly above...
Gopaler Ma. The Mother Of The Christ Child : p. 124 GOPALER-MA: THE MOTHER OF THE CHRIST-CHILD INDIAN languages are curiously rich in tender diminutives, the use of which so much depends on association that they are incapable of translation. It is clear, for instance, that if we address a little girl of three as "Ma", or a boy of the same...
The Dread Seven : p. 141 THE DREAD SEVEN BENEATH the "neem" they sit, as did the Norns of old beneath Yggdrasil--those seven dread sisters, of whom Sitola, goddess of Smallpox, is the first. All the rashes and eruptions they share amongst them, and the youngest of the seven is the old friend of our childhood, no...
Title Page : SISTER NIVEDITA (MARGARET E. NOBLE) STUDIES FROM AN EASTERN HOME BY THE SISTER NIVEDITA (MARGARET E. NOBLE) AUTHOR OF "THE WEB OF INDIAN LIFE, THE MASTER AS I SAW HIM," ETC. WITH A PREFATORY MEMOIR BY S. K. RATCLIFFE "AND A PORTRAIT" LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK...
An Indian Amulet : p. 105 AN INDIAN AMULET IT lies beside me as I write, a heavy heart-shaped ornament, in pale old bronze. On it, in low relief, is a quaint design of peacocks, pecking their mutual beaks into a conventional-looking pot of basil that stands between them. Its worth, in money, is some few farthings...
The Mediaeval University Of India : p. 82 THE MEDIVAL UNIVERSITY OF INDIA OF all the creations of a people--their art, their science, their customs, their building, and the like--the highest and most spiritual is their language. In this is expressed the soul of nations. In it is left the impress of their love and hope, their ideals...
A Few Tributes : p. xxxi A FEW TRIBUTES PROFESSOR PATRICK GEDDES OUR acquaintance began in New York early in 1900, and continued into intimacy and collaboration during the following summer, at that meeting of the International Association which became the Summer School of the Paris Exhibition of that in many ways...
King Parikshit And The Frog Maiden : p. 113 KING PARIKSHIT AND THE FROG MAIDEN ONCE upon a time there reigned over the city of Ayodhya a king of royal race, named Parikshit. And Parikshit on a certain day, being out hunting and pursuing a deer, outstripped all his companions and wandered alone in a dense dark forest, far away...
Dol Jatra : p. 34 DOL-JATRA IT was dawn of the beautiful morning that ends the full-moon night of the month of "Phalgun". In the sick room the light in the small earthen cup flickered and went out, and the cool wind that comes with the first light entered the chamber and fanned with its wings both the watcher...
Books : p. xliv BOOKS BY SISTER NIVEDITA "Kali the Mother". 1900. Swan Sonnenschein Calcutta: "Ubodhan" Office, Bagh Bazar. "Civic and National Ideals". 1911. Calcutta: "Ubodhan" Office. "Studies from an Eastern Home". 1913. Longmans. In preparation: "Myths of the Indo-Aryan Race" (Stories...
The Land Of The Water Ways : p. 159 THE LAND OF THE WATER-WAYS THERE is no region, even in India, which was intended to compare, at once in extent and in fertility, with the wide-stretching delta-lands of East Bengal. Placed between the extreme mouth of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, from Calcutta on the west to Chittagong...
Life In The Hindu Quarter Of Calcutta : p. 1 STUDIES FROM AN EASTERN HOME LIFE IN THE HINDU QUARTER OF CALCUTTA WHEN I first discovered that my work would mean living in the Hindu quarter of Calcutta, the usual protests were forthcoming on all sides. One would have supposed that the chances of immediate death from cholera or typhoid...
The Holy City : p. 97 THE HOLY CITY THERE is a picture lately purchased by the committee of the Calcutta Art Gallery, which for those who know anything of the art of Medival Italy is full of significance. Throughout the growth of the Mediterranean civilisations the student is constantly impressed by the vigour...
The Sacred Year : p. 26 THE SACRED YEAR WHETHER or not it is true, as some have held, that all sacred years are built out of the wreckage of more ancient civil years, it is certain beyond any possibility of cavil or question that behind the Hindu sacred year lies another, a weather-year, full of the most loving...
The Saraswati Puja : p. 48 THE SARASWATI PUJA WE realise too little that the world's greatest images and temples are but as mountain-peaks, in which culminate the private adorations of the soul and of the home. Out of the spoils of Marathon, Athene Promachos was set to watch, from the rocky summit of the Acropolis...
The Festival Of Ras : p. 64 THE FESTIVAL OF RAS HIGH to the south shone Orion, as, a couple of hours before dawn, on the second day after the full moon of November, we opened the great doors of the house and went forth into the silent lane. About us was the quiet of midnight. The moon, so little waned, made the black...