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appropriated to a math or Hindu monastery. Among the persons attached to the monastery are certain devout Hindus who have come to the sacred city to die; but by far the larger number of residents are young men receiving instruction in the Hindu Sástras. The Sankatá Ghát, leading down to the river, is a short distance from this place. On the stairs stands a large figure of Mahábír, the monkey-god; and lower down is a domed temple, containing an emblem of Siva, over which a goblet is suspended, from which water drops incessantly upon the idol, through a hole in the bottom.

To the north of Sankatá Ghát is Rám Ghát, on the steps of which is a temple, or, more properly, a room, filled with the most grotesque collection of deities to be found in Benares. The images are dressed in brightcoloured garments interwoven with tinsel, and are of various shapes and forms. Some present a hideous appearance, having large eyes and mouths, and being destitute of hands and feet. The whole collection looks like a doll-shop of a very vulgar description. It is difficult to understand how persons in their senses can pay divine homage to such frightful objects; yet, on conversing with the priests, they boldly defended the adoration of them, and perceived, or pretended to perceive, neither the absurdity nor the degradation of such a proceeding.

Most of the gháts leading from the streets of the city down into the river have been built by Rajas or other powerful natives, and are, generally, provided with one or more temples, especially Siválayas, or temples dedicated to Siva.

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CHAPTER XII.

THE Bengali population of Benares.-The popular Temple of Kedareswar. -Legend of Kedár. -Mánsarwar Tank and surrounding Temples.— Balkrishna and Chaturbhuj Idols.-Máneswar Temple.-The Great Image of Tilubhandeswar.-Ancient mutilated Statue.-Temple of Duláres war.-Peepul tree at Chaukí Ghát-Swinging gods.

THE Bengalis inhabiting Benares form a considerable community. They reside, for the most part, by themselves, in a quarter of the city called the Bengali Tolá, and are noted chiefly for the superior education which many of them have received, in comparison with the Hindustani portion of the population. Not a few among them are more or less acquainted with the English language, and pride themselves on this circumstance, and on the various kinds of knowledge which, through its instrumentality, they have acquired. In their social habits, however, many of this class are not much, I fear, in advance of their neighbours; although, I rejoice to be able to say, there is reason to believe that some have made considerable progress in such matters, of late years. Being more enlightened than Hindus generally, it is strange that, in many respects, their inner domestic life is scarcely better than theirs. Some of them are beginning to educate their wives and daughters, and are anxious for their intellectual improvement. Yet the uneducated portion of the Bengali community adhere to the customs of

Hindu society just as rigidly as other inhabitants of the city, cling with equal pertinacity to caste, and exhibit the same blind and senseless attachment to idolworship. A great difference is observable amongst Bengalis, however; and numbers of them are utterly unsound in the faith of Hinduism; for their understandings, having been strongly affected by their English studies, have become sufficiently cleared to perceive the foolishness of idolatry. These occupy the position of great social and religious reformers, and are engaged in a very important work, which is none other than the entire regeneration of native society. I look upon this class of Bengalis, together with the educated Parsees, as in the van of national improvement and progress.

The Bengali Tolá, with its neighbourhood, is bestrewn with shrines and deities, which seem to be as numerous here, or nearly so, as in that quarter of the city occupied by the temple of Bisheswar. But the temple most frequented by the Bengalis, and which holds the position of a cathedral or chief ecclesiastical edifice in this district of the city, is the temple of Kedáreśwar, or, as it is called, with equal propriety, Kedárnáth. This is a large building, rising from the banks of the Ganges, from which a fine stone ghát descends to the bed of the river. It stands in the middle of a spacious court, at the four corners of which are four temples crowned with domes. The verandah running round the inner side of the enclosure contains several small shrines and a numerous collection of idols. Most of these latter are of a diminutive size, but not all; for two figures in brass, covered over with cloth, so far as

I could judge, appeared to be of imposing dimensions. They stand in a cage-like looking place; but why they are so concealed from the public gaze by the wrappings about them, it is hard to say. Perhaps it is in order to protect them from the dust and filth of the enclosure, or because they have not been, as yet, properly consecrated and transformed into deities worthy of worship, by means of certain ceremonies prescribed by the sacred books and performed by the Brahmans, which, as is fondly asserted, are capable of producing such an astounding and impossible result. The principal temple in the centre of the quadrangle, like the temples at each of its corners, is surmounted by a' dome. Its outer walls, as high as the ceiling of the court, and, indeed, all the walls of the court and passages, and the pillars of the inner verandah, are painted red and white, the former colour predominating. The entrance to the temple itself is on its eastern side, from which a broad path leads down to the Ganges. Two black stone statues in bass-relief, six feet in height, stand on either side of the doorway, and are supposed to guard the approach to the inner chamber. The figures are exceedingly well executed, and have a striking and lifelike appearance. Each has four hands, and, in form and posture, is the exact counterpart of the other. In one hand they hold a trident, in the second a club, in the third a flower, while the fourth is empty, and is raised for the purpose of attracting attention, one finger being extended as though expressive of prohibition or warning. The meaning of this peculiar position of the finger is, I understand, as if these doorkeepers stopped

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