Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 01

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 41

OF THE HINDUS.
them may be supplied by the local deities of the villagers, and by the admission of others to a participation in the worship paid to the presiding deities of each sect, yet there can be little doubt, that a large portion of the Hindu Pantheon formerly enjoyed honours, which have for some centuries past been withheld. In this predicament are INDRA, KUVERA, YAMA, VARUNA, GÁRUĐA, SESHA, and SomA, all of whom, in the golden age of Hindu idolatry, had, no doubt, temples and adorers: the light and attractive service of the god of love, indeed, appears to have been formerly very popular, as his temples and groves make a distinguished figure in the tales, poems, and dramas of antiquity: it is a feature that singularly characterises the present state of the Hindu religion, that if in some instances it is less ferocious, in others it has ceased to address itself to the amiable propensities of the human character, or the spontaneous and comparatively innocent feelings of youthful natures. The buffoonery of the Holi, and barbarity of the Charak Pújá, but ill express the sympathies which man, in all countries, feels with the vernal season, and which formerly gave rise to the festive Vasantotsava of the Hindus, and the licentious homage paid to Sakti and Bhairava, has little in common with the worship, that might be supposed acceptable to Káma and his lovely bride, and which it would appear they formerly enjoyed.
In the Vrihat Kathá, Daša Kumára, Malatí Mádhava, Mrichchhakati, &c.