190 PILGRIMAGES book III
CHAPTER XIII
Concerning the pilgrimages of the Idolaters to their Pagodas.
All the
idolaters who are subjects of the Great Mogul and • other Princes on
either side of the Ganges at least once in their lives make a
pilgrimage to perform their devotions at one of the four pagodas which
I have named, and most commonly to that of Jagannath, it being the
principal and most considerable of all. The Brahmans and rich people
make this pilgrimage more than once, some every four years, others
every six or every eight years, when they place the idols of their
pagodas in litters and accompany their Brahmans in procession to the
pagoda for which they have most reverence ; but it is most frequently,
as I have said, to that of Jagannath, and also to that of Benares,
because both are on the Ganges, the water of which is held in special
veneration by them.
These pilgrimagesx
are not made as in Europe, by one or two individual pilgrims, but the
people of a town or several villages assemble and travel together in
company. The poor who come from afar, sometimes 300 or 400 leagues,
with all the savings which they have accumulated for that purpose
during their lives, are unable to bear the expenses of the journey, and
they are assisted by the rich, who expend very great sums in such alms.
Each one travels according to his station and means, some in
pallankeens or litters, others in carriages ; and the poor, some on
foot and others on oxen, the mother carrying her child and the father
the cooking utensils.
The god whom they carry in procession 2
from the place they are leaving, to visit and pay his respects to the
great Ram Ram, reposes at full length in a rich pallankeen covered with
gold brocade with silver fringes, with a mattress and cushion of the
same material under his head, feet, and elbows, as we see in the
effigies on our tombs. The Brahmans distri-
1 On pilgrimages in India see Sleeman, Bambles, 588 fi.; Hastings, Eney. Religion and Ethics, x. 24 ff. Pilgrimages are not confined to the four temples described by Tavernier.
a See vol. i. 236.
