Diamond Hunter: Idolater Pilgrimages to Their Pagodas, Tavernier Page 206



	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 pilgrimages^x 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.