Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 2.djvu/85

 CHAr. II.] HINDOO EITES AND CEREMONIES. 49

The observances already mentioned are rather the preliminaries of the ad. — festival than its actual celebration, which can only be seen with all its accom- ^

paniments in the vicinity of the temple itself, situated near the extremity of a origin of the plain immediately south-east of the capital of British India, and known by the kI^^ ° name of Kali-GJiat. It owes its site, and the veneration in which it is held, to a very singular legend. Siva's wife was Sati, the daughter of Brahma. After ' the marriage the two gods quarrelled. Brahma, who was the aggressor, not only ' insulted his son-in-law by leaving him uninvited to a banquet which he gave to the immortals, but stigmatized him as a wandering beggar, a dweller among tombs, a carrier of human skulls. Sati took the quarrel so much to heart, that she proceeded to the banks of the Ganges and yielded up her life, thereby furnishing an example, on which the Brahmins for want of a better have eagerly seized, to justify the immolation of widows, hence called satis or suttees. Siva on beholding his wife's lifeless body was literally di.sti'acted, and tlirusting his trident into it beo-an whirlino- it in the air with frantic sfestures. His violence shook the three worlds, and threatened the universe with destruc- tion. Even the gods were in alarm, and Vishnu, as preserver, hastened to interpose. With the view of calming Siva he reminded him that the world has no real existence, and that everything in it is only rtiaya, or illusion. This was but sorry comfort, and Siva m his frenzy continued to rage and gesticulate as furiously as before. It next occurred to Vishnu that his fellow-god would calm down if Sati's body was removed from liis sight, and therefore while it was whirling on the trident, he took a scimitar and kept hacking it till the whole had disappeared. Siva was not aware of this hacking process till it was completed, but as soon as the object which made him frantic was removed, re- turned to a sound mind. He was afterwards completely consoled by the return of Sati to him under the form of Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya. From the rapidity with which her body was whirled when Vishnu hewed it in pieces, the fragments were carried to great distances, and have made all the places where they were found famous. The toes of the right foot fell at Kali- Ghat and had lain in the ground undiscovered for ages, when a Brahmin, to whom their position had been revealed in a dream, dug them up, and erected on the site the temple which now bears the name of Kali. The hideous form usually borne by the idol has already been described, and it therefore only remains to give an account of the great day of the festival. The means have happily been provided by a most competent eye-witness, and we shall therefore do little more than abridge and occasionally quote verbatim from the graphic description given by Dr. Duff. '

At early dawn the native population of Calcutta begin to move in myriads its ap- along the road leading to Kali-Ghat — mere spectators, m promiscuous throngs, described. gaily dressed as for a holiday — and devotees in isolated groups, easily distin-

' India and Indian Missions. Vol. II. 96