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RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
in the Roman calendar, the fifth of the ides of February.
Quintus ab æquoreis nitidum jubar extulit annis, Lucifer, et primi tempora veris eunt.-Ovid, II, 149. 150.
After the Vasanta Panchamí, Káma the god of love, and his bride Ratí, pleasure, are to be worshipped with offerings of fruits and flowers1. In general observance, however, Vishnu and Lakshmi now take their places, as there are no temples to Kámadeva; nor indeed are the celebrations, which probably once occurred at this season, very particularly observed. The day is retained in the calendars, and constitutes a nominal fixed point, from which festivals, which become conspicuous enough a few weeks afterwards, are still said to commence.
SITALA SHASHTHÍ.- Sixth lunar day of the light half of Magha (3rd of February).-This ceremony is of a strictly private character, and is limited to married women who have children. The object is, in the present day, especially to protect them from the small-pox. The observance, however, seems to
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Ratí is personified as a young and beautiful female, richly attired and decorated, dancing and playing on the Víná; and Káma is represented as a youth with eight arms, attended by four nymphs, Pleasure, Affection, Passion, and Power,-bearing the shell, the lotus, a bow and five arrows, and a banner with the Makara, a figure composed of a goat and a fish, or, as before mentioned, the sign Capricorn.
