undertake the building of a palace, his brother of the Hindu pantheon set about forming the image of Juggarnat'h; but declared, if any person disturbed him in his labours, he would leave his work unfinished. All would have gone on well, had not the king shewn a reprehensible impatience to those divine injunctions which he had solemnly pledged himself to observe. After fifteen days he went to see what progress the holy architect had made; which so enraged him that he desisted from his labours, and left the intended god without either arms or legs. In spite, however, of this perplexing event, the work of Viswakarma has become celebrated throughout Hindustan; and pilgrims from the remotest corners of India flock, at the time of the festivals of Juggarnat'h, to pay their adoration at his monstrous and unhallowed shrine. Some years ago I took some brief extracts from a work which I was then reading (the name of which I, at present, forget, but I think it was a book of the Rev. Buchanan's), which will give a faint idea of the dreadful orgies and horrid abominations practised upon these occasions.

"We know that we are approaching Juggarnat'h (and we are more than fifty miles from it) by the human bones which we have seen for some days strewed by the way. At this place we have been joined by several large bodies of pilgrims, perhaps two thousand in number, who have come from various parts of northern India. Some old persons are among them, who wish to die at Juggarnat'h. Numbers of pilgrims die on the road, and their bodies generally remain unburied. On a plain by the river, near the pilgrim's caravansera at this place, there are more than a hundred skulls. The dogs, jackalls, and vultures, seem to live here on human prey."-"I have seen Juggarnath. The scene at Buddruch is but the vestibule to Juggarnat'h. No record of ancient history can give, I think, an adequate idea of this valley of death it may be truly compared with the valley of Hinnom! I have also visited the sand plains by the sea, in some places whitened with the bones of the pilgrims; and another place, a little way out of the town, called by the English Golgotha, where the dead bodies are usually cast forth, and where the dogs and vultures are ever seen."-"I have beheld another distressing scene this morning, at the place of skulls: a poor woman lying

dead, or nearly dead, and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which were near. The people passed without noticing the children. I asked them where was their home. They said they had no home but where their mother was."-"The raja of Burdwan, Kurta Chanda, expended, it is said, twelve lacks of rupees in a journey to Juggarnat'h and in bribing the Brahmans to permit him to see these bones. For the sight of them he paid two lacks of rupees; but he died two months afterwards (adds the writer) for his temerity."

On the occasion of the festivals of this idol he is accompanied by his brother, Bala Rama, and his sister, Subhadrá, and is conveyed to a place about a mile from the temple. His throne, on which he is seated, is fixed on a stupendous car sixty feet in height, the enormous weight of which, as it passes slowly along, deeply furrows the ground over which it rolls. Immense cables are attached to it, by which it is drawn along by thousands of men, women, and even infants; as it is considered an act of acceptable devotion to assist in urging forward this horrible machine, on which, round the throne of the idol, are upwards of a hundred of his priests and their attendants. As the pondrous car rolls on, some of the devotees and worshippers of the idol throw themselves under the wheels, and are crushed to death; and numbers lose their lives by the pressure of the crowd. A letter from an eye-witness at Juggarnat'h, on the 25th June 1814, published in the Asiatic Journal, states, "the sights here beggar all description. Though Juggarnat❜h made some progress on the 19th, and has travelled daily ever since, he has not yet reached the place of his destination. His brother is ahead of him, and the lady in the rear. One woman has devoted herself under the wheels, and a shocking sight it was. Another intending also to devote herself, missed the wheels with her body, and had her arm broken. Three people lost their lives in the crowd.

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The place swarms with Fakeers and mendicants, whose devices to attract attention are, in many instances, ingenious. You see some standing for half the day on their heads, bawling all the while for alms; some having their eyes filled with mud and their mouths with straw; some lying in puddles of water; one man with his foot tied to his neck, another

with a pot of fire on his belly, and a third inveloped in a net-work made of rope."

It is said that between two and three thousand persons lose their lives annually on their pilgrimage to Juggarnat'h. The temples of this deity being the resort of all the sects of the Hindus it is calculated that not less than two hundred thousand worshippers visit the celebrated pagoda in Orissa yearly, from which the Brahmans draw an immense revenue. All the land within twenty miles round the pagoda is considered holy; but the most sacred spot is an area of about six hundred and fifty feet square, which contains fifty temples. The most conspicuous of these is a lofty tower, about one hundred and eighty-four feet in height, and about twenty-eight feet square inside, called the Bur Dewali, in which the idol, and his brother and sister, Subhadra, are lodged. Adjoining are two pyramidical buildings. In one, about forty feet square, the idol is worshipped; and in the other, the food prepared for the pilgrims is distributed. These buildings were erected in A.D. 1198. The walls are covered with statues, many of which are in highly indecent postures. The grand entrance is on the eastern side; and close to the outer wall stands an elegant stone column, thirty-five feet in height, the shaft of which is formed of a single block of basalt, presenting sixteen sides. The pedestal is richly ornamented. The column is surrounded by a finely-sculptured statue of our former acquaintance, Hanuman, the monkey-chief of the Ramayana, The establishment of priests and others belonging to the temple has been stated to consist of three thousand nine hundred families, for whom the daily provision is enormous. The holy food is presented to the idol three times a day. His meal lasts about an hour, during which time the dancing girls* belonging to the temple exhibit their professional skill in an adjoining building. Twelve festivals are celebrated during the year, the principal of which, the Rat'h Jattra, has been described.

Juggarnat❜h is styled the Lord of the World. His temples, which are also numerous in Bengal, are, as before shewn, of a pyramidical form. During the intervals of worship they are shut up.

* Vide Deva-dasi, in the third part of this volume.

The image of this god is made of a block wood, and has a frightful visage with a distended mouth. His arms, which, as he was formed without any, have been given to him by the priests, are of gold. He is gorgeously dressed, as are also the other two idols which accompany him. In fig. 2, plate 13, from a compartment in the temple of Rama, he is represented in company with Bala Rama and Subhadra, without arms or legs.

It is to be hoped that the worship of this fascinating deity is on the decline, as a Calcutta paper a short time ago stated that, from various causes, the number of pilgrims had so considerably decreased, that enough could not be found to drag the rat'hs, or cars, and that not a single devotee had that year paved the way with his blood; though, it adds, "the sight on the opening of the gates for the admission of pilgrims would have melted the heart of a savage. Numbers of expiring wretches were carried in, that they might die at the polluted and horrid shrine.” At a more recent period, one of his temples was robbed of silver ornaments of the value of five thousand rupees. The seapoys enjoyed the joke, saying "he must have robbed himself, as he would have struck any person blind who had attempted to take away any ornaments of his or his sister, or of Bulbudder (Bala Rama)."

WITTOBA

Is one of the minor incarnations of Vishnu. This avatar, according to Major Moor, in whose work it is particularized, would appear to have been, like some of the other minor avatars of the Hindu deities, of a circumscribed worship, and not of a very ancient date. It seems to have occurred at Pandipur, about eighty miles south of Poona, in which town a magnificent temple has been dedicated to Vishnu, under the name of Wittoba. The images of him and his two wives, Rukmini and Satyavhama (the names also of the wives of Krishna), have commonly a rude and modern appearance, and represent them standing with their arms akimbo: on which the

* The sculptures and paintings of the modern Hindus possess much beauty and richness of colouring, intermixed with gold, laid on in a manner peculiar to these people, of which art the Europeans are, I believe, ignorant; but these paintings are devoid of perspective, and the sculptures are as clumsy as those of greater antiquity are generally fine.

gentleman before mentioned has observed, that the Jainas represent the world by the figure of a woman in that position; "her waist being the earth, the superior portion of her body the abode of the gods, and the inferior part the infernal regions."

Major Moor thus relates the history of this avatar :-" A Brahman, named Pundelly, was travelling on a pilgrimage from the Dekhan to Benares, with his wife, father, and mother. His neglect of the two latter caused them many vexations on the journey, for he would sometimes ride with his wife and leave them to walk, &c. Arriving at Panderpur, they took up their abode in a Brahman's house for the evening and night; during which Pundelly noticed, with some self-abasement, many acts of filial piety and kindness on the part of his host toward his parents, who, with his wife, composed the hospitable family. Early in the morning, Pundelly observed three elegant females, attired in white and richly decorated, performing the several duties of sweeping his host's house and putting it in order, filling water, arranging the vessels. for cooking, sanctifying the eating place by plastering it with cow-dung, &c. Astonished at the sight, he proceeded to inquire who these industrious strangers were, he not having seen overnight any such persons of the family; but his inquiries were received with repulsive indignation by the beauteous damsels, who forbade him, 'a chandala, an ungrateful and undutiful son,' to approach or converse with them. Pundelly, humbling himself, solicited to know their names, &c., and learned they were named Gunga, Yamuna, and Saraswati, and immediately recognized the triad of river goddesses (see fig. 1, plate 23). More and more astonished, he, after prostration, inquired how it could be that such divine personages, in propitiation of whose favour he with his family, among thousands of others, undertook long and painful pilgrimages, should descend to the menial occupations he had witnessed? After reproaching him for his undutiful conduct, they replied to this effect :- You have witnessed the filial and dutiful affection of the heads of this family to their aged and helpless parents; for them they seem solely to live, and for them they find delight in toiling; they seek no pleasures abroad, nor do they deem it necessary to undertake pilgrimages, which, holy as they may