https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Banian_HospitalBanian Hospital - Revision history2026-07-31T03:48:25ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Banian_Hospital&diff=164640&oldid=previmported>Dl2000 at 00:00, 5 May 20182018-05-05T00:00:14Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}<br />
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The origin of the '''Banian Hospital''' in Western writing has been traced back to Henry Lord's ''A Display of two forraigne sects in the East Indies''.<ref>Will Sweetman, ''[https://books.google.fr/books?id=yCXSPEage98C&pg=PA64&dq=banian+religion&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqov-u0ODSAhXlDsAKHSy7CBEQ6AEIMDAD#v=onepage&q=banian%20religion&f=false Mapping Hinduism: 'Hinduism' and the Study of Indian Religions, 1600-1776]' (Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen, 2003) p. 64'</ref><ref>Henry Lord, ''A Display of two forraigne sects in the East Indies'' Vol. 1 (London: 1630), p. 75</ref> Here he emphasized the hospital's use for injured birds, alongside commentaries on vegetarianism and protections for insects. Historian, Will Sweetman, asserts that such accounts depict [[Śvētāmbara|Svetambara]] Jains.<ref>Will Sweetman, ''[https://books.google.fr/books?id=yCXSPEage98C&pg=PA64&dq=banian+religion&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqov-u0ODSAhXlDsAKHSy7CBEQ6AEIMDAD#v=onepage&q=banian%20religion&f=false Mapping Hinduism: 'Hinduism' and the Study of Indian Religions, 1600-1776]' (Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen, 2003) p. 74'</ref><br />
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Accounts of the hospital in [[Orientalism in early modern France#Literature|eighteenth-century French orientalist literature]] expanded the kinds of animals cared for to include lice and other blood sucking vermin<ref>''[https://books.google.fr/books?id=G8zp0otTF-UC&pg=PA109&dq=banian+hopital&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=banian%20hopital&f=false Dictionnaire portatif des faits et dits mémorables de l'histoire ancienne et morderne]'' (Paris: 1768), p. 110-111</ref> and to include cattle, goat, and dogs too sick or old to work.<ref>Jean François de La Harpe, ''[https://books.google.fr/books?id=dfwHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA176&dq=banian+hopital&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=banian%20hopital&f=false Abrégé l'hisoire générale des voyages]''t. V (Paris:1780) p. 176</ref><br />
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The following is an account of a [[bestiary]] at [[Surat]] offered by a nineteenth-century visitor to the city. It appeared in ''[[The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction]]'' on 1 September 1827.<br />
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"The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution; it consists of a large plot of ground, enclosed with high walls, divided into several courts or wards, for the accommodation of animals; in sickness it for themselves. At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds, with an aged tortoise, who was known to have been there for seventy-five years. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night among the fleas, lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without molestation."<br />
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In 1818, [[Sir Richard Phillips|Sir Richard Philips]] rejected the idea that this stemmed from Banian beliefs in [[metempsychosis]], as many previous authors did, and espoused it stemmed from benevolence.<ref>[https://books.google.fr/books?id=s7dfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA535&dq=banian+hopital&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=banian%20hopital&f=false Geography Illustrated on a Popular Plan] (London: 1818) p.536 .</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
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[[Category:History of Surat]]</div>imported>Dl2000