Chandu
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Chandu
A thar or sept of Gurungs in Darjiling.
The infamy of having introduced this demoralising vice into Eastern Bengal attaches to one Sonaullah of Ruknpur, in the city of Dacca, who, about 1830, brought a Chinaman from Calcutta and opened an opium shop in the city. The vice at once captivated the sensual Mohammadans, and within twenty years as many as twenty-two shops were opened, but at present, owing to the heavy licensing tax, the number is reduced to eleven.
The Chandu-walah is always a Mussulman, but the shop is often leased by a Hindu Saha whose respectability would suffer if he personally superintended the smoking. Throughout the Eastern districts of Mymensingh, Tipperah, and Baqirganj, the vice is slowly but steadily spreading; while in Silhet, where opium-eating is as much indulged in as in Assam, Chandu-smoking has been adopted in earnest, and is now more general than in any of the other districts.
Chandu-smoking is the same as the opium-smoking of China, and the word Chandu1 is the one in common use in the Malay Archipelago.
Crude opium cannot be smoked on account of its irritating quality and nauseous flavour: consequently at Singapore the extract is prepared with extreme care, but in Bengal less trouble is taken.
To prepare Chandu the Dacca manufacturer takes opium and mixes it with the refuse�"mail" or "inchi"�which collects in the opium pipe, in the proportion of one "bhari," or a rupee weight, of the former to twelve anas of the latter. Water is added, and heat being gradually applied, the mixture is kept constantly stirred. As soon as the infusion is ready it is strained through a piece of fine muslin, then put a second time into a pan, and evaporated, until the mass becomes of the consistence of glue, or treacle. The Chandu-walah places different quantities of this prepared opium in little cups made of palm-leaves, and arranges them against the arrival of his customers.
When the smoker enters the dark and dirty hut, he lies down on a mat, resting his head on a very greasy pillow; and, as it is essential that all distracting noises be shut out, and the smoker allowed to enjoy the "khiyal," or ecstasy, so much valued by the habitue, the hut is situated in a narrow and unsavoury lane, where individuals can enter unobserved. The interior of the room is usually darkened, and the prostrate figures are indistinctly seen by the light of several shaded oil-lamps placed on the floor.
Having bought his opium, the smoker takes an iron wire, called "thuk," and fixes on it the Chandu pellet (chita), then drawing one of the lamps towards him, heats the opium in the flame and kneads it in the palm-leaf cup held in his left hand. After heating and kneading the opium several times it is ready for use, and is put into a china bowl fixed on the side of a Bamboo tube, a little over a foot in length, which is imported from China, being identical with the opium pipe of that country.
The contents are then applied to the flame, and the smoker rapidly inhales the fumes, never drawing breath until all the opium is consumed, when, like the Ganjha smoker, he expels the smoke slowly and reluctantly. Three "chitas," costing one paisa, will intoxicate a beginner, but habitues will finish five, or even more, without any effect beyond flushing the face, brightening the eyes, and causing a pleasing ecstacy. Unless the pipe is kept constantly clean by means of a pricker, called "gilli," the refuse accumulates and produces dryness and burning of the throat.
According to Mr. Little,1 Chandu-smoking causes at first nervous excitement, sleeplessness, and increase of the sexual passion; but when indulged in to excess is followed by dyspepsia, bowel-complaints, functional derangements of the heart, dysuria, often ending in albuminuria, carbuncles, and intractable ulcerations. Among the Chinese, whose vital power has been reduced by constant intoxication, remittent fevers are very common, and very obstinate.
The Bengali smoker, however, alleges that no injurious effects are produced as long as he lives on milk, butter, and sweetmeats. Muhammadan physicians, on the other hand, consider opium a "damagh-ka-nasha," or brain stimulant, and recommend it as an invigorating and tonic medicine in suitable doses.
Chandu is said to be an aphrodisiac, but when indulged in to excess, or when nutritious food is not taken at the same time, impotency often ensues. If regularly smoked it is a preservative against malarious fevers and colds; but when deprived of his daily allowance, the smoker becomes irritable, hypo-chondriacal, and very subject to diarrhoea.
Chandu-smoking among Chinese women tends to cause sterility, or miscarriages. In Bengal Chandu is smoked by prostitutes for its aphrodisiac properties, and of late years they have become such inveterate smokers that it is notorious no woman who has once tasted the delights of opium ever gives it up.
Ganjha-smoking is as peculiarly a Hindu vice as Chandu-smoking is a Muhammadan. Hindus of the lower castes occasionally visit the opium shop, but form a very small proportion of the smokers. The idle and dissolute Mussulmans of old and embarrassed families, brought up in the midst of a licentious population, without any education or healthy incentive to exertion, are the chief smokers; and it is of daily occurrence to find the head of a house an inveterate smoker, miserable until his spirits have been elevated by his favourite drug. It is not unusual for Muhammadans to excuse their intemperate habits on the ground of prolonging their lives.
Throughout the East it is a popular belief that on the birth of each human being the angel Jabra'il writes on the forehead the number of inspirations allotted to him. By diminishing their frequency (habs-i-dam), which can be most effectually done by opium, life will be prolonged, and they instance Shah Madar, who was an adept at holding his breath, and lived to the patriarchal age of three hundred and ninety-five years.
1 On Chandu-smoking at Singapore, see an exhaustive paper by Mr. B. Little, in vol. ii, No. 1, of the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago" for 1848.
1 Chandu, prepared opium for smoking.�Crawford, "Malay Dictionary.
