DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0054
THE HINDOO RELIGION. xli
been cut, and lodging-houses erected. Such, however, is the
great mortality among the pilgrims, that a Hindoo of property
always makes his will before he sets out on this journey, and
takes a most affecting farewel of his disconsolate relations.
Southey's description p, in his ' Curse of Kehama,' though not
literally correct, conveys to the mind much of the horror which
a Christian spectator of the procession of the car cannot but feel.
Mr. Paterson finds in the images of this god, and his brother and
sister, which are worshipped together, an hieroglyphic of the
mystical word Om.
3. Ramu, a deified monarch, and the hero of the Ramayiinu,
comes in for a considerable share of the wretched devotion of
the Hindoos, especially in the western provinces. His history,
found in Valmeekee's epic poem, is partly before the public.
He is adored as the seventh Hindoo incarnation ; has an annual
festival, and is daily worshipped in the temples dedicated to him,
his brother, and his friend Hunoomanii; in which temples he
appears as a green man, with a bow and arrows in his hands,
sitting on a throne, having Seeta on his left: Ms brother Luksh-
munii holds a white umbrella over his head, and Hunoomanii
stands before him as his servant with joined hands. He is con-
sidered as a beneficent deity. Some think that Ramu was deified
f ' A thousand pilgrims strain,
Arm, shoulder, breast, and thigh, with might and main,
To drag that sacred wain,
And scarce can draw along the enormous load.
Prone fall the frantic votaries in its road,
And, calling on the god,
Their self-devoted bodies there they lay
To pave his chariot way;
On Jugunnat'h they call,
The ponderous car rolls on, and crushes all.
Through blood and bones it ploughs its dreadful path ;
Groans rise unheard; the dying cry,
And death and agony
Are trodden under foot by yon mad throng,
Who follow close, and thrust the deadly wheels along.'
vol. I. f
been cut, and lodging-houses erected. Such, however, is the
great mortality among the pilgrims, that a Hindoo of property
always makes his will before he sets out on this journey, and
takes a most affecting farewel of his disconsolate relations.
Southey's description p, in his ' Curse of Kehama,' though not
literally correct, conveys to the mind much of the horror which
a Christian spectator of the procession of the car cannot but feel.
Mr. Paterson finds in the images of this god, and his brother and
sister, which are worshipped together, an hieroglyphic of the
mystical word Om.
3. Ramu, a deified monarch, and the hero of the Ramayiinu,
comes in for a considerable share of the wretched devotion of
the Hindoos, especially in the western provinces. His history,
found in Valmeekee's epic poem, is partly before the public.
He is adored as the seventh Hindoo incarnation ; has an annual
festival, and is daily worshipped in the temples dedicated to him,
his brother, and his friend Hunoomanii; in which temples he
appears as a green man, with a bow and arrows in his hands,
sitting on a throne, having Seeta on his left: Ms brother Luksh-
munii holds a white umbrella over his head, and Hunoomanii
stands before him as his servant with joined hands. He is con-
sidered as a beneficent deity. Some think that Ramu was deified
f ' A thousand pilgrims strain,
Arm, shoulder, breast, and thigh, with might and main,
To drag that sacred wain,
And scarce can draw along the enormous load.
Prone fall the frantic votaries in its road,
And, calling on the god,
Their self-devoted bodies there they lay
To pave his chariot way;
On Jugunnat'h they call,
The ponderous car rolls on, and crushes all.
Through blood and bones it ploughs its dreadful path ;
Groans rise unheard; the dying cry,
And death and agony
Are trodden under foot by yon mad throng,
Who follow close, and thrust the deadly wheels along.'
vol. I. f