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made about a tree, to which offerings are made, and afterwards the whole is set on fire. For a luminous account of the Hol(=i], which is perhaps the worst open rite of Hinduism, participated in by all sects and classes, we may cite the words of the author of AnteBrahmanical Religions: "It has been termed the Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus. Verses the most obscene imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion. Figures of men and women, in the most indecent and disgusting attitudes, are in many places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are thrown upon all that are seen passing along the road; all business is at a stand, all gives way to license and riot."[59]
Besides these the most brilliant festivals are the R[=a]s Y[=a]tr[=a) in Bengal (September October), commemorating the dance of Krishna with the gop[=ils or milkmaids, and the 'Lamp-festival' (D[=i]p[=a]I[=a]), also an autumnal celebration.
The festivals that we have reviewed cover but a part of the year, but they will suffice to show the nature of such fêtes as are enjoined in the Pur[ra]nas. There are others, such as the eightfold[60] temple-worship of Krishna as a child, in July or August; the marriage of Krishna's idol to the Tulasi plant; the Awakening of Vishnu, in October, and so forth. But no others compare in importance with the New Year's and Spring festivals, except the Bengal idol-display of Jagann[=a]th, the Rath Y[=a]tr[=a] of 'Juggernaut'; and some others of local celebrity, such as the D[=u]rg[=a]-p[=u]j[=a].[61] The temples, to which reference has often been made, have this in common with the great Çivaite festivals, that to describe them in detail would be but to translate into words images and wallpaintings, the obscenity of which is better left undescribed. This, of course, is particularly true of the Civa temples, where the actual Linga is perhaps, as Barth has said, the least objectionable of the sights presented to the eye of the devout worshipper. But the Vishnu temples are as bad. Architecturally admirable, and even wonderful, the interior is but a display of sensual immorality.[62]
