Emma Roberts (author)
English travel writer and poet (1791-1840)
Emma Roberts (1794–1840), often referred to as "Miss Emma Roberts", was an English travel writer and poet known for her memoirs about India. In her own time, she was well regarded, and William Jerdan considered her "a very successful cultivator of the belles lettres".
Quotes edit
- The art in which, unhappily, quick and clever urchins attain the highest degree of proficiency, is that of scolding. The Hindostanee vocabulary is peculiarly rich in terms of abuse ; native Indian women, it is said, excel the females of every other country in volubility of utterance, and in the strength and number of the opprobrious epithets which they shower down upon those who raise their ire. They can declaim for five minutes at a time without once drawing breath; and the shrillness of their voices adds considerably to the effect of their eloquence.
- The ornaments worn by Hindostanee females are, generally speaking, very tasteful and elegant; the pattern of the double joomka ear-rings has been borrowed by European jewellers, and bracelets resembling the Indian bangle are now very common; but the splendid necklaces, so richly carved as to glitter like precious stones, are more rarely seen ; they are formed of a series of drops beautifully wrought and suspended from a closely-linked gold chain of exquisite workmanship.
- At Allahabad, on the celebration of the Mohurrum, some of the leading persons repaired to the judge to request that the Hindoos, who were about to perform some of their idolatrous worship, should not be permitted to blow their trumpets, and beat their drums, and bring their heathenish devices in contact with the sad and holy solemnity, the manifestations of their grief for the death of the Imaums. They represented, in the most lively manner, the obligation which Christians were under to support the worshippers of the true God against infidels, and were not satisfied with the assurance that they should not be molested by the intermixture of the processions, which should be strictly confined to opposite sides of the city. The Hindoos were equally tenacious in upholding their rights, and it became neceuary to draw out the troopa for the prevention of bloodshed.
- "Scenes and characteristics of Hindostan, with sketches of Anglo-Indian society" also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.
- Since the conquest of the city by Arungzebe, Moosulman architecture has reared its light and elegant erections, amid the more heavy and less tasteful structures of Hindu creation. From a mosque, built upon the ruins of a heathen temple, spring those celebrated minarets, which now rank amid the wonders of the city. Their lofty spires shoot up into the golden sky from a dense cluster of buildings, crowning the barbaric pomp below with graceful beauty.
