LUSTRAL CEREMONIES.

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Jaggernaut and colleges of Benares. Two thirds of the inhabitants are Brahmins and devotees of various descriptions: Hindoos of every caste from all parts of Guzerat, and pilgrims from a greater distance, there resort, at stated festivals, to bathe in the Nerbudda, and perform their religious ceremonies on its sacred banks, and there the Brahmins seem to be almost idolized. My duty led me thither on occasional visits to collect the Company's share of the revenue in their holy districts. I lived near four years within a few miles of the solemn groves where those voluptuous devotees pass their lives with the ramjannees, or dancing-girls attached to the temples, in a sort of luxurious superstition and sanctified indolence, unknown in colder climates.

The dewals, or temples, at Chandode daily undergo a variety of lustral ceremonies: not only do the priests and worshippers of the various deities in the Hindoo mythology, perform these frequent ablutions, but the lingam, the images, and the altars are washed and bathed with water, oil, and milk. We read in the Ayeen Akbery, "that the Brahmins wash the images of Jaggernaut six times every day, and dress them each time in fresh clothes. As soon as they are dressed, fifty-six Brahmins attend them, and present them with various kinds of food. The quantity of victuals offered to these idols is so very great as to feed twenty thousand persons. They also, at certain times, carry the image in procession upon a carriage of sixteen wheels; and they believe that whoever assists in drawing it along, obtains remission of all his

sins."

Such was the account of Abul Fazel, the Mahomedan

vizier of Akber, two hundred years ago. He has there omitted one material circumstance in the procession of Jaggernaut; that of the voluntary human sacrifices to this lascivious god! This can now be too well supplied from a late publication by Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who was an eyewitness of the horrid scene he describes; which I shall curtail as much as possible.

"I have seen Jaggernaut. No record of ancient or modern history can give, I think, an adequate idea of this valley of death; it may be truly compared with the valley of Hinnom. The idol called Jaggernaut, has been considered as the Moloch of the present age; and he is justly so named, for the sacrifices offered up to him by self-devotement are not less criminal, perhaps not less numerous, than those recorded of the Moloch of Canaan. Two other idols accompany Jaggernaut, namely Boloram and Shubudra, his brother and sister; for there are three deities worshipped here. They receive equal adoration, and sit on thrones of nearly equal height.

"The temple is a stupendous fabric, truly commensurate with the extensive sway of the horrid king. As other temples are usually adorned with figures emblematical of their religion, so Jaggernaut has numerous and various representations of that vice which constitutes the essence of his worship. The walls and gates are covered with indecent emblems, in massive and durable sculpture. I have visited the said plains by the sea, in some places whitened by the bones of the pilgrims; where dogs and vultures are ever seen, who sometimes begin their attack before the pilgrim is quite dead. In this place of skulls I beheld a poor

were near.

MOLOCH OF HINDOSTAN.

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woman lying dead, or nearly dead, and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which The people passed by without noticing the children: I asked them where was their home; they said "they had no home but where their mother was." I have likewise witnessed a scene which I shall never forget. At twelve o'clock, being the great day of the feast, the Moloch of Hindostan was brought out of his temple amid the acclamations of hundreds of thousands of his worshippers. When the idol was placed on his throne, a shout was raised by the multitude, such as I had never heard before. It continued equally for a few minutes, and then gradually died away. After a short interval of silence, a murmur was heard at a distance; all eyes were turned to the place, and behold a grove advancing: a body of men, having green branches, or palms in their hands, approached with great celerity. The people opened a way for them; and when they had come up to the throne, they fell down before him that sat thereon and worshipped.

"The throne of the idol was placed on a stupendous car, about sixty feet in height, resting on wheels which indented the ground deeply as they turned slowly under the ponderous machine. Attached to it were six cables, of the size and length of a ship's cable, by which the people drew it along. Upon the tower were the priests and satellites of the idol, surrounding his throne. The idol is a block of wood, having a frightful visage painted black, with a distended mouth of a bloody colour; his arms are of gold, and he is dressed in gorgeous apparel. The other two idols are of a white and yellow colour. Five elephants pre

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DISGUSTING CEREMONIES.

ceded the three towers, bearing lofty flags, dressed in crimson caparisons, and having bells hanging thereto, which sounded musically as they moved.

"I went on in the procession, close by the tower of Moloch; which, as it was drawn with difficulty, grated on its many wheels harsh as thunder: after a few minutes it stopped; and now the worship of the god began. A high priest mounted the car in front of the idol, and pronounced his obscene stanzas in the ears of the people; who responded, at intervals, in the same strain. "These songs," said he, "are the delight of the god; his car can only move when he is pleased with the song." The car moved on a little way, and then stopped; a boy of about twelve years old was now brought forth, to attempt something yet more lascivious, if peradventure the god would move. The child perfected the praise of his idol with such ardent expression and gesture, that the god was pleased, and the multitude emitting a sensual yell of delight, urged the car along. After a few minutes it stopped again. An aged minister of the idol then stood up, and with a long rod in his hand, which he moved with indecent action, completed the variety of this disgusting exhibition.

The

"After the tower had proceeded some way, a pilgrim announced that he was ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the idol. He laid himself down in the road before the tower as it was moving along, lying on his face with his arms stretched forward. multitude passed round him, leaving the space clear: and he was crushed to death by the wheels of the tower. A shout of joy was raised to the god; he is said to smile when the libation of blood is made. The people threw cowries, or small money, on the body

of the victim, in approbation of the deed. He was left to view a considerable time, and was then carried by the hurries to the Golgotha. After this scene a woman devoted herself to the idol. She laid herself down on the road in an oblique direction, so that the wheels did not kill her instantaneously, as is generally the case; but she died in a few hours. This morning as I passed the 'place of sculls' nothing remained of her but her bones.

"As to the number of worshippers assembled here at this time, no accurate calculation can be made: the natives themselves, when speaking of the number at particular festivals, usually say that a lac of people, (one hundred thousand) would not be missed. I asked a Brahmin how many he supposed were present at the most numerous festival he had ever witnessed: "How can I tell," said he, "how many grains there are in a handful of sand ?"

These horrid superstitious rites are not practised in Guzerat; but self-immolation by widows too often pollute the flowery banks of the Nerbudda, and female infanticide, to a great extent, was then encouraged among whole tribes in the province. These are now happily prevented by the interference of the British government. Under the groves of Chandode are many funeral monuments in memory of those pilgrims who died on their journey to these sacred shrines, and whose ashes were brought to this sanctified spot, and cast into the river: because it forms an essential part of the Hindoo system that each element shall have a portion of the human body at its dissolution. After having expired upon the earth, the body is carried to the water-side, and washed with many ceremonies. It