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KRISHNA-BOODH-SIVA-DOORGA.

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as passing through an equal variety of adventures, most of them in the highest degree strange and unnatural; but he does not appear under so many characters, nor are his exploits on the whole so striking. Although the destroyer be his proper appellation, it seems more applicable to Doorga, his female partner, whose aspect and deeds do indeed combine whatever is most awful and terrific. He is represented as being of a silver colour, exhibiting various shapes, having sometimes five faces, sometimes only one with three eyes. Elsewhere he is seen naked riding on a bull, with serpents hanging from his ears like jewels. Worship is rendered to him by numerous votaries, who exalt him as the supreme deity, greater and more ancient than either Brama or Vishnu. He is peculiarly revered in the mountain-territory; and, under the appellation of Mahadeo, is described as throned in the most inaccessible precipices of the Himmalehs. But the chief disgrace of his religion consists in the lingam, a symbol resembling the phallus of the ancients, which is not only displayed in the temples, but worn round the necks of all his votaries. Yet it is remarkable that these sectaries make a boast of leading more pure and even austere lives than the generality of Hindoo devotees.

Doorga is the chief among the female deities, and indeed the most potent and warlike member of the Hindoo pantheon. The Greeks had Minerva, an armed and martial goddess, whose prowess equalled that of their greatest male divinities; but she was a weak and pacific maiden when compared with the spouse of the Indian destroyer. The wars waged by the latter, and the giants who fell beneath the might of her arm, form prominent themes in the wild records of Hindoo mythology. Her original name was Parvati; but hearing that a giant named Doorga had enslaved the gods, she resolved to destroy him. He is said to have led into the field a hundred millions of chariots and one hundred and twenty millions of elephants. In order to meet this overwhelming force, Parvati caused nine millions of warriors, and a corresponding supply of weapons, to issue out of her own substance. The contest, however, was ultimately decided by her personal struggle with the giant, whose destruction she then succeeded in effecting. In honour of this achievement, the gods conferred upon their deliverer the name of the huge enemy whom she had

overcome.

Doorga has equalled Vishnu in the variety of shapes into which she has multiplied herself, and of names by which she has been distinguished. The most remarkable being with whom she has shared her identity is Cali, or Kalee, who under her own name is a principal object of Hindoo adoration. Every humble characteristic of her original is in Kalee heightened and carried to the extreme. She is black, with four arms, wearing two dead bodies as earrings, a necklace of sculls, and the hands of several slaughtered giants round her waist as a girdle. Her eyebrows and breast appear streaming with the blood of monsters whom she has slain and devoured. Yet India has no divinity more popular, nor one on whose shrine more lavish gifts are bestowed. Not content, as the male deities generally are, with the simple offerings of rice, fruit, vegetables, and milk, she must see her altars flow with the blood of goats and other animals. The ancient books contain directions for the performance even of human sacrifices to this cruel goddess. The bands of robbers by whom Bengal is infested hold Kalee in peculiar honour, looking specially to her for protection and aid, and invoking, by dark incantations, her blessing on their unhallowed exploits.

It would be of little interest to enter into details respecting the minor divinities, whose number is very great. Indra, though presiding over the elements, and invested with the lofty title of King of Heaven, is not destined to reign for ever; he has even, by the efforts of men and giants, been already repeatedly driven from his station. Kartikeya, the god of war, riding on a peacock, with six heads and twelve hands, in which numerous weapons are brandished, presents a striking specimen of the fantastic forms in which Hindoo superstition invests its deities. Ganesa, a fat personage with the head of an elephant, is so revered that nothing must be begun without an invocation to him, whether it be an act of religious worship, opening a book, setting out on a journey, or even sitting down to write a letter. Surya is the deified sun; Pavana is the god of the winds; Agnee, of fire; Varuna, of the waters. Yama, the Indian Pluto, pronounces sentence on the dead; but his judgment-seat is not beneath the earth, but in its southern extremity, at a place called Yamalaya. A large share of homage is attracted to him by the mingled influence of fear and hope.

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Among a superstitious people, it is not wonderful that the grand objects of nature should be personified and excite a feeling of devout veneration. Great rivers, from their mysterious sources, their broad expanse, and their unceasing motion, tend to inspire ideas peculiarly solemn. They are accordingly very favourite objects of Hindoo worship. There is scarcely in heaven or earth a name more sacred than Ganges. Its waters are said to descend from above, and to purify from every stain the man who undergoes in them a thorough ablution. To die on its banks, moistened by its stream, is deemed a sure passport to paradise. Journeys extending to thousands of miles are undertaken for the purpose of beholding and bathing in its sacred current. Many rash devotees even yield themselves to a voluntary death amid its waves, fancying that they thus secure complete felicity in the future world; others devote their offspring to a similar destiny. In the courts of Bengal a portion of the waters of the Ganges is produced. upon which witnesses are required to make oath,-this form of attestation being esteemed of all others the most binding, though some scruple to employ an object so holy for this secular purpose. The Nerbudda, the Godavery, the Kistna, the Cavery, and almost every stream that rolls

through this vast region, have likewise a sacred character, though none in so eminent a degree as the Ganges.

The Hindoo is also much addicted to a worship which indicates the lowest degradation of the human mind,—that of the brute creation. His most exalted deities, the creators and preservers of the world, scarcely command a reverence equal to that bestowed on the cow. This useful animal is saluted with every expression of profound affec tion and veneration. She is called the mother of the gods and of three worlds. The highest deities are humbly entreated to appear under the form of milch kine, as that in which they will be most grateful and serviceable to their votaries. Even their dung is thought to confer a holy character upon every object on which it is smeared. Two great Indian princes, the Rajah of Travancore and the Pe ishwa Ragoba, being each enclosed in the body of a golden cow and then drawn out, were regarded as having expe rienced a new birth; the statue was immediately cut in pieces and distributed among the Bramins. In their treaties with the British, the native princes on some occasions urged most earnestly that the soldiers should not be permitted to kill a cow within the precincts of their territory.

The monkey also ranks high among the objects of Hin doo worship. The exploits of Hanuman, with his innu merable host of four-footed brethren, are among the most conspicuous incidents in the Ramayana. Princes and great men often indulge in the strange freak of celebrating with pomp and profusion the marriage of monkeys. The ani mal, like a great chief, is seated in a palanquin, and fol lowed by a train of singing and dancing girls, amid the display of fireworks. Garoora, the king of birds, is another object of veneration, though not equally distinguished.

The ideas of man respecting an invisible world and a future state of retribution form a most important element in his religious belief. On this subject the sentiments of devout Hindoos are often profound, overcoming in some instances the love of life, and impelling them to strange modes of suicide.

But their creed derives its peculiar character from the tenet, so generally diffused throughout the East, respecting the transmigration of souls. According to this belief, the spirit of man after death is not conveyed into a different

TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.

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state of existence, but goes to animate some other mortal body, or even one belonging to the brute creation. The receptacle into which it then enters is decided by the course of action followed during the present life. The virtuous man may rise from an humble caste to the rank of a prince, or even of a Bramin, while the depraved not only sink into degradation as human beings, but even have their souls enclosed in the bodies of animals. With this view the Hindoo oracles endeavour to establish a certain conformity between the offences committed and the condition under which they are expiated. The thief is converted into some animal addicted to steal the articles which were the wonted objects of his own depredation. The pilferer of grain is metamorphosed into a rat; while he who stole roots or fruit becomes an ape. The person thus lowered in the scale of being must pass through a long succession of degraded births ere he can reassume the human form and endowments. This belief is so familiar to the Hindoo that his conversation is filled with allusions to it. If he see any one suffering under evils that seem unmerited, he at once pronounces them the penalty of sin committed in a previous stage and form of existence. Even on seeing a cow or dog receive a severe beating, he infers that the soul which animates them must, under its human shape, have committed some offence worthy of such castigation. Wives who consider themselves injuriously treated by their husbands, or servants by their masters, indulge the earnest hope that in some future state of being they shall exchange conditions, and obtain the opportunity of a signal retaliation.

This doctrine, which might seem to confine human souls to this earthly sphere, does not however exclude the belief that in many instances they are conveyed to a heaven or a hell. These places of reward and punishment are minutely described, and set forth with that studied adaptation to merits and offences which makes a striking part of the Hindoo system. There are celestial mansions, variously graduated, to be reached only by Bramins or persons of high attainments, or for performing works of extraordinary sanctity. These bear much resemblance to the paradise of Mohammed, being scenes of voluptuous enjoyment perfamed by sweet flowers, fanned by the softest breezes, glit

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