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OF THE HINDUS.
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platters of sugar and ginger, or milk or salt, with scarlet or saffron-tinted strings and golden bracelets. She is to be worshipped by both sexes, but especially by women; and women themselves, not being widows, are also to be treated with peculiar homage. In the Deví Purána it is enjoined, that various kinds of grain, and condiments, and confections, and plates made of baked clay, should be given on this day by maidens to the goddess. The due observance of the rite is said to secure a flourishing progeny. The worship of Gauri, at this season, seems to be popular in the South of India, as the Calendar specifies the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of Mágha to be equally consecrated to her. In Bengal little regard is paid to this celebration, although worship is sometimes offered to Umá, on behalf of unmarried females, in reference to the means adopted by Gauri or Umá, whilst yet a maiden, to propitiate Siva, and obtain him for her husband'. This last circumstance renders it not unlikely, that the epithet Varadá ought to be differently interpreted, and that it means the giver of a husband, a bridegroom being one sense of Vara, and the part which is assigned in it to unmarried girls, the presents to be made by and to them--the offerings to be made for them and the reward of the rite-a family of children, leave little doubt of the correctness of the interpretation. Now this festival, it is to be observed, occurs in the last
See Sir Wm. Jones's Ode to Bhavání; also translation of Kumara Sambhava, by Dr. Mill, Journal As. S. B., Vol. II, p. 329.
