Meer Hassan Ali, B.: Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: descriptive of their manners, customs, habits, and religious opinions ; made during a twelve years residence in their immediate Society (Band 2) (London, 1832)

HINDOO IDOL. 147

slab of stone eight feet by four, surrounded by
about a hundred figures in,different attitudes.
Luchmee, who is of course the most prominent,
is figured with eight arms; in his right hands, are
sabres, in his left, shields ; his left foot upon
the hand of a female, and the right on a snake.
This figure is about four feet high, and finely
formed, standing in a martial attitude; his dress
(unlike that of the modern Hindoo) is represented
very tight, and, altogether, struck me as more
resembling the European than the Asiatic : on
his head I remarked a high-crowned military
cap without a peak : the feet were bare. There
can be no doubt this figure is emblematical;
the Hindoos however make it an object of their
impure and degrading worship.

I could not help expressing my surprise
on finding this idol in such excellent condi-
tion, having had so many samples through-
out Kannoge of the vengeance exercised by
Mussulmaun zeal, on the idols of the Hin-
doos. My guide assured me, that this relic
of antiquity had only been spared from the
general destruction of by-gone periods by its

T. 2