Download Ebook - Free History Ebooks

Architectural and Other Customs 187
or until the two chief Brahmans made a very great noise
with bells at three distinct intervals ; after which they tapped
the door with a mallet. On this being done, the door was
immediately opened by six Brahmans, who were within the
Pagoda. In the interior, about six or eight paces distant
from the entrance was an altar on which was a female idol,
called by them Ram Ram ' who was the sister of Morli
Ram. She had on her right hand a boy like a Cupid, called
the god Lakemin " (Lakshmana), "and on her left arm she
carried an image of a female child, called the goddess Sita.'-
" The door of the temple being opened, and the curtain
drawn back, the people, as soon as they saw the idol, all
prostrated themselves three times with their faces to the
ground, putting their hands above their heads, and when
they stood up again they presented (as in the other Pagoda)
bunches of flowers and strings of beads, in order that they
might be made to touch the idol. In front of the altar
stood an old Brahman who held in his hands a lamp with
nine lighted wicks, on which he from time to time dropped
a species of incense, putting the lamp close to the idol."
This last point leads us to remark on the common use
of incense in religious worship in India, amongst both Hindus
and Jains. When staying on Mount Abu in Rajputana we
saw at least fifty Jaina pilgrims, men, women and children
perform a part of their devotions, after they had made their
' This must be meant for Ramachandra a male and not a female deity, and
mythologically a relative (bhai also " brother") of Muralidhar or Krishna :
his invariable representation as a young hairless boy misled Tavernier.
perhaps
2 This settles the identity of Ram Ram with Ramachandra, as male deities
are usually represented as having their wives on a much smaller scale than
themselves, seated on their thighs.