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JUNE, 1882.]
PANDHARPUR
153
Poor, simple country-folks ; it is custom, rather than real conviction, that brings them to Pan. dharpur. But custom in India is omnipotent.
Tukârâm and his brother poets, who extol the importance of bhakti, do not inculcate extreme asceticism. We were therefore rather surprised to see at least six persons, during the festival, who were performing dandawat around the temple, some of them having come in the samo fashion from great distances. They prostrated themselves on their faces on the ground; with a small piece of stick they made a semicircle as far in front of the head as the arm could reach ; they then rose and, planting their feet on the mark thus made, prostrated themselves again. Another man had come, rolling like a log at the rate of two miles a day, from the neighbourhood of Nagpûr, occupying about two years in the achievement. We talked with these people. Some of them disliked the interruption; but one man, after a friendly conversation, said "Gentlemen, if your words are true, I had better go home at once."
In most cases such austerities were performed in fulfilment of a vow. Some blessing had been prayed for and the vow made. When the votary believed that the prayer had been heard, the vow was faithfully performed. In other cases, righteousness was sought for; the penance was a work of supererogation done to merit a great reward in the next birth. In one case the object was distinctly stated to be worldly good in the present birth. I think that in three out of the six cases, the observance was in fulfilment of a vow. In one instance a child had been given; in another, a child had recovered from sickness; in a third, a nephew had done so.
We were not a little touched by these last cases and the details mentioned in connexion with them. Those poor hearts were grateful, how ever much mistaken as to the mode of rendering thanks and as to the Being who had granted the blessing. We tried to deal tenderly, as well as faithfully, with such worshippers as these.
The crowding of the worshippers into the small apartment in which the god resides was reported to us as exceedingly great. Women were often injured in the dreadful crush ; sometimes subjected to sad indignities; sometimes had their ornaments torn off. A thoughtful English magistrate had ruled, a few years before, that the sexes, on the great day of the feast, should, as far as possible, be kept separate. Even as we could see, the police peons beat the people mercilessly with twisted and knotted cloths, to keep them, as they said, in order. Altogether, the scene was one of terrible confusion; and it passed our power to conceive how any feeling akin to devotion could long animate the breast of any of the struggling, reeking multitude.' But the sight of the image was overpayment for all their toils and trials. So, at least, they said,-even as Tuka sang more than two hundred years ago
Said Tuka, This is all my happiness
I shall see the blessed face of Vithoba. Western readers would hardly believe that the very men who were thus earnest in worshipping would, next day or perhaps an hour later, enjoy a little playful banter, or even downright ridicule of the whole exhibition. We had heard an abhang of Nåma's quoted, in which the glory of Pandharpur and Vithobâ was celebrated in strains more wildly hyperbolical than anything Tukâ ever wrote. Well, we made a parody on Námk's verses, and repeated the lines to the people. They were instantly caught up and repeated with laughter, till we regretted that we had ever uttered them; and for this reason, that we did not deem it right to treat any religious belief with ridicule. But be it remembered that the Hindus themselves can, at one hour, worship their deity with all seeming reverence, and at another quiz him without mercy. Strange people; when shall we fully understand them ?
We had heard that the observances at Gopalpur on the great and closing day of the festival would far surpass in interest anything
• Of lato several new entrances have been made by Government. Ingress and egrees are now far easier than before and within the temple people can breathe more freely. These improvements were made at the suggestion of deputy collector who died soon after they were effected. The god we displeased with his foolish Interference, and punished him with death; Bo say the people connected with the temple.
Thus, Ganesa, the remover of difíoulties--"Ganěsa
sublime," as Campbell calls him in the "Pleasures of Hope," violating both prosody and common sense is a god much worshipped. Yet, with his elephant head and huge belly, he rides on a rat. Accordingly, the following lines are popular all over Maharashtra
Poor Ganpati bewails his rat
Abstracted by felonious oat; "Short are my thighs ; how can I trudge ?
And how shall this big belly budge py
