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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
gaudy train of followers moving in stately procession through the bazars to the quiet temple garden which the spiritual teacher has chosen for his abode. There we see him dismount from his elephant, leave his retinue behind, as well as sword, parasol, diadem, shoes and chowries, the five emblems of dignity and power, to greet the Guru in all humility. We see him take his seat in the assembly and attentively listen to the sermon, till its last words have died away. Then he draws nearer and engages the Guru in an animated discussion regarding the secrets of life and death, heaven and hell.
At another occasion, the chronicler invites us to watch the queen at her preparations for Pūjā. Workmen are sent to the temple to erect a flower-shamiana, and decorate it with gay patterns representing swans and peacocks, koyals and cranes, gazelles and horses, bears and wolves, and other birds and beasts, all beautifully inlaid in flower-mosaic. Water is sprinkled on the streets leading to the temple, and the bazars are swept and tidied by her orders. At last she leaves her apartments, refreshed from her bath, sumptuously dressed and adorned, mounts her chariot, and drives to the lotuslake. There she wades into the water, has another ablution, gathers the most perfect of the lotus-flowers with her own hand, and takes them with her to the temple, followed by crowds of slave-girls, who carry flower-baskets and censors. With her own hand too she washes, decorates and worships the idol, as it is customary with her family, and then waits for the arrival of the king.
Another time, the princess may be watched celebrating some auspicious festival. On a little stool she sits, under a specially erected shamiana of the loveliest flowers, in the very centre of a skilful design of the town with all its streets and lanes, outlined on the floor in grains of multi-coloured rice. Presently, she has to submit to a shower-bath poured over her by slave-girls from pitchers of silver and gold. Then she is dressed and decked and led to her royal father, at whose feet she bows, and who places, her in his lap, asking the prime-minister with paternal pride whether he ever saw such a beauty of a little princess before.
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