RAM GHAT

147

THE BUILDINGS AT GHÔSLA GHẤT

temple, is one of those colossal mud figures of Bhima, which have been alluded to previously. This one, however, is noticeable, as the artist takes unusual pride and care in the execution of it. It is amusing to observe the figure as it is gradually built up every year from about the first week in November until the whole is completed. The head alone is first carefully:

finished on the stone terrace in front of the temple, and, being perfectly erect, the observer might imagine that the sculptor's task was finished. The next day, however, a sloping bank of clay is heaped up in front of

THE HEAD OF BHÍMA

the terrace, and the body and legs of this extraordinary figure begin to appear. The right arm is detached from the ground, and holds a wooden club, Bhima's favourite weapon. A further touch of realism is given by the painting of the face, including an elegant moustache and the sectarial mark of Vaishnavite.

The figure remains in all its grotesqueness, with eyes staring out over the Ganges, until the monsoon flood rises and sweeps it entirely away.

Farther on is Chôr Ghât, the ghât of the Thief. There is a narrow staircase here by which access to the city can be gained without using any of the main

BHIMA COMPLETED

thoroughfares. Tradition says that a noted thief used to come by this staircase when he wished to bathe in the Ganges unobserved. Close by this ghât is the fragment of a stone column, now worshipped as a lingam, which is probably one of the lâts, or columns, erected by Asoka or some other Buddhist sovereign, and inscribed with proclamations of the Buddhist faith. There is another of these, also worshipped as a lingam, called Lât Bhairo, in the northern quarter

of the city, close to a large tank and other ancient remains.

Panchganga, or the ghât of the five sacred rivers, is so called from the five colossal flights of steps which lead up to the city from this point. Great blocks of picturesque buildings, flanking and overarching the steps, rise in tiers, one behind the other, until, at the summit of the high ridge which overlooks the river, Aurangzib's mosque with its lofty minarets forms a landmark visible for miles around, and perpetuates the intolerant zeal of the great Muhammadan iconoclast. Here stood formerly a great temple of Shiva, which Aurangzib destroyed, and perhaps in ancient times that one which Hiuen Thsang described, made of stone skilfully carved and of richly-painted wood, containing a brazen statue of Mahâdeva, a hundred feet high, grave and majestic, filling the spectator with awe, and seeming as it were indeed alive". The five flights of steps would then appropriately symbolize the five sacred rivers flowing from the Himalayan heights, where Shiva's paradise is placed.

Panchganga Ghât is one of the five places of pilgrimage in Benares, and on the occasion of a Hindu festival the scene is almost as striking as at Manikarnika. In the month of Kartik the edge of the ghât is lined with a forest of bamboo poles, from which Chinese lanterns are suspended, placed there by the bathers, so that when the moon is on the wane the Pitris, the Fathers who dwell above in Pitriloka, may not be left in darkness. It is a pretty custom, too, that which the women observe on the full-moon night of the same month, when, after a bath at Panchganga, they place some sweetmeats in the moonlight, believing

PANCHGANGA GHẬT

151

LAMPS FOR THE PITRIS

that the falling dews will sprinkle them with amrita, the heavenly nectar with which King Soma refreshes gods, the Pitris, and men.

At the corner of one of the flights of steps are three remarkable stone lamp-stands, cone-shaped and fitted from top to bottom with numberless bracket oilreceptacles. When these are lighted up at the Diwâlt, or other great Hindu festival, they appear like blazing