Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/209

 KHE 201 that any are of mueh antiquity. The only image of any interest is one .called Dhanakdhári Náth at Majhgaon in Nighásan. It is of white marble, the head dress consists of a high cone rising from a circular cap, without any ornament. It is clearly of Tartar or Thibet origin, its owner is a Jángre Chhattri, and lias connexions withiu the Thibet inountains. The extreme plainness of the figure and the absence of all details render it useless to theorize about an image which is interesting and unique pro- bably in Oudh. Among sacred places may be mentioned the shrine of Deokáli in Kheri, Balmiár Barkhár in Muhamdi, and a number of shrines in Haidarabad. The Mandua festival. --The fair at Mandwa or Marwa in Dhaurahra is of recent origin. The pilgrims number 15,000, and assemble round the tomb of their spiritual leader a Sunár, Munna Dás, who died about sixty years ago. Among their customs are to salaam with both hands, to abstain from flesh meat, to worship an unlighted lamp. Recently the river Chauka diverged from its ancient course and cut a new one to the south. In its destroying progress it reached the temple and had cut away a brick or two when the prayers of the attendant priest are said to have averted further damage. The river certainly changed its channel, and the temple is now high and dry. A shrine in honour of Tulshi Dás, the author of the Bhắkha Rámáyana at Dhaurahra, is of more iaterest. He resided here for fifteen years, and is said to have cursed the Bisens; hence their loss of all power in the district. The worship of Mahadeo.-The worship of Maháden at Gola calls for more extended notice. I found it very difficult on tlie spot to get any exact details, the priests were unwilling to make any admission which would tell against the antiquity of their shrine. My own impression is that up till the time of Alamgir the shrine was simply a Buddhist ruin, venerated by the neighbours as the superstitious Hindu does venerate anything old and mysterious. There is a tradition that Alamgir endeavoured when visiting the place to drag out of the earth the great stone pillar which represents Mahadeo; that the elephants barnessed to chains could not move it, although excavations had been made all round, and when the emperor approached to discover the cause, tongues of flame darted from the bottom of the pillar towards him. The dismayed monarch is said to have retired, and endowed the shrine with extensive rent-free lands. It is pro- bable that some lieutenant of the emperor's was terrified into abandoning his design of digging for gold beneath the foundations of the pillar by some casily contrived stratagem as above related. It is not likely that any endowment was given; there is no trace of such in the records, and if there had been the buildings would have been more extensive and splen- did than they are. Further, the god's power was apparently limited to harm- less pyrotechnics ; for one of the circumcised, with his Jeddart axe, struck the top of the pillar, and sliced off a huge fragment, leaving the divinity a most unsightly and decayed looking object : we are not told that this sacrilege was punished in any way. The monastery was formerly in the hands of the Joshis, but is now, and has been for at any rate eleven generations, managed by the