DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0314
THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 197
and make a horrid discord with barbarous instruments of
music, connecting with the whole every kind of indecency.
At twelve o'clock the owner of the image entertains a great
multitude of bramhuns. After eating and drinking, they
literally ' rise up to play :' youths, dressed so as to repre-
sent Krishnu and his mistress Radha, dance together ; and
the festivities are thus continued till the crowd retire at
day-light. Some keep this feast for five nights, beginning
on the eleventh; and others for three nights, beginning on
the thirteenth.
On the 15th of the increase of the moon in the month
Kartiktt, another festival is held during three nights, to
celebrate the revels of this impure god with the milk-maids.
It is called the Rasu. Each night, after the ceremonies in
the temple are closed, the crowd carry the image out with
much noise, music, singing, and dancing; and place it in a
brick building in the street, which is open on all sides, and
has one highly elevated sitting place. This building is
annually gilt, ornamented, and grandly illuminated for this
festival. Sixteen small images of Krishnu are necessary
on this occasion; but a very small gold image, about the
size of a breast-pin, is placed as the object of adoration,
and afterwards given to the officiating bramhttn. At the
close of the festival, the clay images are thrown into the river.
Round the building in the street booths are erected,
filled with sweetmeats, playthings, and other articles, as at
an English fair. Here fathers and mothers, leading their
children by the hand, or carrying them on their hips", come
h This is the way in which all Hindoos carry their children : a child is
rarely seen in a person's arms, as in Europe. The same custom appears
to have existed among the Jews : ' Ye shall be borne upon her sides, and
be dandled upon her knees.' Isaiah Ixvi. 12.
and make a horrid discord with barbarous instruments of
music, connecting with the whole every kind of indecency.
At twelve o'clock the owner of the image entertains a great
multitude of bramhuns. After eating and drinking, they
literally ' rise up to play :' youths, dressed so as to repre-
sent Krishnu and his mistress Radha, dance together ; and
the festivities are thus continued till the crowd retire at
day-light. Some keep this feast for five nights, beginning
on the eleventh; and others for three nights, beginning on
the thirteenth.
On the 15th of the increase of the moon in the month
Kartiktt, another festival is held during three nights, to
celebrate the revels of this impure god with the milk-maids.
It is called the Rasu. Each night, after the ceremonies in
the temple are closed, the crowd carry the image out with
much noise, music, singing, and dancing; and place it in a
brick building in the street, which is open on all sides, and
has one highly elevated sitting place. This building is
annually gilt, ornamented, and grandly illuminated for this
festival. Sixteen small images of Krishnu are necessary
on this occasion; but a very small gold image, about the
size of a breast-pin, is placed as the object of adoration,
and afterwards given to the officiating bramhttn. At the
close of the festival, the clay images are thrown into the river.
Round the building in the street booths are erected,
filled with sweetmeats, playthings, and other articles, as at
an English fair. Here fathers and mothers, leading their
children by the hand, or carrying them on their hips", come
h This is the way in which all Hindoos carry their children : a child is
rarely seen in a person's arms, as in Europe. The same custom appears
to have existed among the Jews : ' Ye shall be borne upon her sides, and
be dandled upon her knees.' Isaiah Ixvi. 12.