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88
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1882.
1. On p. 146, vol. I. we are told that the chief bathing day at the Magh-meld is the day of full moon; and on p. 151 this statement is repeated. The fact, however, is that though during the month of Magh there are several days of special bathing at the Junction here, of which the day of full moon is one, the chief bathing-day is the day of the Amdvasyd, the day which we English people call the day of the new moon. Dr. Hunter's statement is, in fact, wrong by fifteen days. The error arone, perhape, from the circumstance that the Hindds date the beginning of their month from the day of full moon.
2. On p. 151 the writer of the article says that the Magh-meld is held at the Junction of the Ganges and the Jamuna in December and January The fact is, however, that the Meld always begins in the latter month, and never in the former; and it extends into February.
3. On p. 146 we are told that the Magh-meld is held on the plain below the Fort,' and on p. 151' on the plain near the Fort. As there happens to be a large plain near the Fort' on which no Meld is ever held, it is only reasonable to suppose that the plain mentioned in each of these state. ments is one and the same. It is evident that the writer never visited the spot in the rainy months: had he done so he would have noticed that the plain' he speaks of had disappeared. The spot has, indeed, something of the appearance of a plain in the dry months : but it is, in fact, not a plain at all, in the ordinary sense of the term, but the sand-bed (formed by the Junction of the rivers) left high and dry when the rivers have receded into their narrow normal channels. If the writer had walked on the said 'plain,' he would have had good evidence that he was walking on very fine sand, on which the water rises to a height of twenty or thirty feet in the rains; sand. bed' should be substituted for 'plain.'
4. The writer of the article, speaking of the Hinda Temple in the Fort, calls it the under. ground chambers. There is, in fact, only one chamber. When the Fort was built the Temple was spared, probably on account of the revenue which Akbar's Government obtained from it; but the very considerable elevation of the Fort necessitated the building over of the Temple, so that the Temple which, in earlier times was above. ground, is now said to be 'under-ground.' The explanation is important, inasmuch as it removes the difficulty of accounting for the construction
unang for the construction of a place of worship in a subterraneous position.
5. In the said Temple is the famous Akshayavriksha, or sacred banian tree (lit. The un
decaying tree") celebrated in the Ramdyana and other popular books of the Hindds. The writer of the article in question is very far from orthodoxy, and must have been mourned over by many a learned Brahmana. He irreverently sug. gests that the tree is a sham, and that the priests are a set of wilful impostors. It is, says he,' renew. ed secretly by the priests when it threatens to decay. If a missionary had gone so far as to unveil the deception in these bald terms, it would have been considered 'bad form.' The wisdom of the maxim of the British Government as to leaving the people to the free enjoyment of their religioue practices will hardly be doubted by any man of understanding, but when it thus comes to a case of obtaining money under false pretences, it clearly is the duty of the ruling Power to interpose with its function of protecting the people from the rapacity of men who utilize the immense leverage of an ecclesiastical position with the distinct design of practising fraud in order to transfer money from other people's pockets to their own. A man who is guilty of a wilful offence against the civil law ought not to be exempted from punishment on the plea that the offence was committed in the interests of religion. A Government which has a reputation to maintain can hardly lay claim to the character of equity if it suspends in the case of an offending priest a law which it relentlessly applies in the case of an ordinary shop-keeper. To interfere with the Hindus in their homage of the tree, is one thing to interfere with the priests in regard to their practice of obtaining immense sums of money by fraud, is quite another. Let us hope that the learned Compiler of the Gazetteer will perceive the force of this in his present exalted position.
J. D. BATE. Allahabad, Jan. 27th.
5. ON OPPROBRIOUS NAMES.-To my note to "Folklore in the Panjab," No. 10, ante, vol. X. p. 331, I add the following names which have lately come to my notice in Kachabri
(1) Chhittar, an old shoe (Panj.). (2) Jhapa, a broom.
The name Mirchå, pepper, has been noted in the same articte (p. 332): there are two brothers, contractors, in Amb&la, called
(3) Mircha (Mall), peppercorn, (Hind. mirch, pepper): and
(4) Kirchi (Mall), atom (Hind. kirach, a grain, atom).
R. C. TEMPLE.
