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RELIGIOUS SECTS
festival, and not an uninteresting one: vast crowds, clad in their best attire, collecting in some open place in the vicinity of the town, and celebrating the event with music, singing, and dramatic representations of KŔishŇA's sports: all the public singers and dancers lend their services on this occasion, and trust for a remuneration to the gratuities of the spectators: at Benares the Rás Yatra is celebrated at the village of Sivapur, and the chief dancers and musicians, ranging themselves under the banners of the most celebrated of the profession, go out in formal procession: tents, huts, and booths are erected, swings and round-abouts form a favourite amusement of the crowd, and sweetmeats and fruits are displayed in tempting profusion: the whole has the character of a crowded fair in Europe, and presents, in an immense concourse of people, an endless variety of rich costume, and an infinite diversity of picturesque accompaniment, a most lively and splendid scene. The same festival is held from the tenth day of the light half of Kúár (Septr.Octr.) to the day of the full moon at Birindávan,
The 5th of Bhádra was the Navami, or ninth of the calendar, but it included a portion of the moon's passage through Rohini, and the strict Vaishnavas of the different sects should not have performed the Páraňa, the chose of the fast, earlier, or before 10 Dandas and 52 Palas after sun-rise, or about nine o'clock. Those Taishnaras, however, who wholly regulate their observance by the Asterism, and referring also to the necessity of commencing it with sun- rise, would only have begun their fast on the calendar Narami, and have held the Páraña on Friday the 10th, the third day after the proper birth-day of their deity.
