Indian Antiquary Vol 16

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 23

JANUARY, 1887.]
ASIATIC SYMBOLISM.
13
this purpose. Some of the people also gave the idol might not be incommoded by them. this lad chains made of beads, which looked like This driving away of the flies with music lasted the stones of some fruit and had a very sweet half an hour, or until the two chief Brahmans odour others what looked like rosaries made made a very great noise with bells at three of coral and amber; and some chains of flowers. distinct intervals; after which they tapped the The idolaters wear these chains round their door with a mallet. On this being done, the necks, or say their prayers over these beads. door was immediately opened by six Brâhmans The idol on the small altar is called Morli Ram who were within the Pagoda. In the interior, (Muralidhar, he. Krishna) that is, the god and about six or eight paces distant from Morli," who they say is the brother of the one the entrance, was an altar on which was a on the high altar."
female idol, called by them Ram Kam," who In the above description the plan of the was the sister of Morli Ram. She had on temple which has the form of a cross, as have her right hand & boy like a Cupid, called the all the other Pagodas"; the image, of which god Lakemin (Lakshmana), and on her left arm only the head is visible, the rest of the body she carried an image of a female child, called being enveloped in a rich robe; the presenta- the goddess Sita (Sita)." The door of the temple tion of flowers, strings of beads, or other objects being opened, and the curtain drawn back, to the image, that they may be sanctified by the people, as soon as they saw the idol, all procontact with it,-recall much that is familiar strated themselves three times with their faces to us in modern European Christianity.
to the ground, putting their hands above The same traveller speaks" of another fine their heads; and when they stood up again they building nearthis Pagoda,-a College,-built by presented (as in the other Pagoda) bunches of the then Raja, in which some of his own song, flowers and strings of beads, in order that they and other lads of good caste were receiving might be made to touch the idol. In front of education at the hands of the resident Brahmans. the altar stood an old Brâhman who held in his On the left hand, at the entrance to the hands a lamp with nine lighted wicks, on which College, the Rajá had erected a Pagoda, which he, from time to time, dropped a species of was closed at the time of Tavernier's visit; but, incense, putting the lamp close to the idol." as he much wished to see the interior, he made This last point leads me to remark on the inquiries, and was told that, in order to do so, common use of incense in religious worship he most present himself at the door before sun- in India, amongst both Hindus and Jains. rise on the following morning, which he accord- When staying on Mount Abû in Rajputânî, ingly did. On his arrival there he found an I watched at least 50 Jain pilgrims,-men, immense concourse of men, women, and children women and children,-performing a part of awaiting the opening of the door; and he must their devotions, after they had made their give his own account of what he witnessed on offerings in the innermost shrine of one of the tbis occasion. At the hour fixed eight Brâh- Jain buildings there, whither, of course, I could mans advanced, four on each side of the door not follow them. They all seated themselves of the Pagoda, each having a thurible in his in the mantapa, or porch thereof, and were there hands. There were also many other Brahmans, censed by the attendant priest. The forms of who made a great noise with drums and other the censer and its chains were precisely that instruments. The two oldest amongst them which may be seen in any Roman Catholic sang one of their own hymns, the people join- Church. ing in, all having in their hands a peacock's tail, Again, it will be seen from the following or some other kind of fan, to chase away the flies, account, that the Qalmak (Calmuck) Tâtârs, so that when the door of the Pagoda was opened who are Buddhists, also use inoense in their
11 [Prudrakshas.-Ed.).
20 The translation of Morli Ram' by the god Morli' is very interesting, as showing that in Tavernier's time, as at the present day, the name Rama is employed frequently by Hindus to mean rod, irrespeotive of the particular 'god' meant.-ED.)
op. cit. p. 601. * This must be meant for Ramachandra, a male and
not a female deity and mythologically relative (bhói, Also brother'), of Muralidhar or Krishna : perhaps his invariable representation 48 & young hairless boy misled Tavernier.-ED.]
This settles the identity of Ram Kam, with Ramachandra, as male deities are usnally represented as having their wives, represented on a much smaller scale than themselves, sented on their thighs.-ED.)