B.3 Ch. 12: Description of Principal Idolaters Pagodas, Description

B.3 Ch. 11: Most Celebrated Idolater's Pagodas

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B.3 Ch. 12: Description of Principal Idolaters Pagodas, Description

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186	AJODHYA	BOOK III

image of a child, standing, made of massive silver, and nearly 2 feet in height, and it is said that this girl living a holy life, the infant was taken to her by the Brahmans to learn her creed and how to live well; but at the end of three or four years, during which the child had dwelt with the girl, it became so clever and accomplished that all the Rajas and Princes of the country wished for it, and, at last, one of them carried it off one night and it has not since been seen. This idol has on her left, at the base of the altar, another idol representing an old irian, whom they say had been the servant of Ram-Marion and the child, and the Brahmans pay great reverence to this idol. They come to it only once a year for worship, and it is necessary for them to arrive on a prescribed day, which is the first day of the moon in November, because the pagoda is only opened at full moon.¹ During the fifteen days which intervene all the pilgrims, both men and women, must fast at times, and bathe three times every day, without leaving a single hair on their bodies, all being easily removed by the use of a certain earth with which they rub themselves.²

CHAPTER XII Continuation of the description of the principal Pagodas of the Idolaters of India. After the pagodas of Jagannath and Benares, the most considerable used to be that of Muttra,³ about 18 coss from interpreted to mean ' he that moves on the waters', really means ' Son of Nara, the Primal Male', in Hindu belief. Tavernier, writing from hearsay, represents the image as that of a goddess. ¹ The reference is perhaps to the Ramlila, or miracle play describing the exploits of Bama, held from the 8th day of the waning moon of the month Kuar, September-October, until the 15th of the waxing moon. But there is an important local bathing fair in honour of Rama in October-November (Imperial Gazetteer, v. 176). * The reference is to the use of lime and arsenic as depilatories. ³ Matura in the original. The antiquities of Muttra, or, as it is properly called, Mathura, have been very fully described by F. S. Growse, Mathura, 3rd ed. Allahabad, 1883. The temple on the platform described by Ta vernier was that of Kesavadeva, Krishna with the long locks, which

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