Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/211

 KHE 203 That this circuit is also a later novelty, due to absorption and assimila- tion of minor local cults, is proved by the fact that the image of Mahá- deo at this last mentioned place was only discovered about forty years ago by the zamindar to whom its presence beneath the earth was revealed in a dream. In other words the priest thought there were not enough toll- gates and erected another series, taking advantage of certain local sacella. The devices of this society have been crowned with success, the fame and sanctity of the temple of Gola Gokarannáth have spread far and wide, and 150,000 people are supposed to have assembled at the last festival. No doubt the cause of this may be traced to the fact that the place was always reckoned a sacred one, and the devotional feelings of the people had always turned to it. At first probably they worsbiped the sun here, then Gautama Buddha, now Mabadeo. Deokáli, the western gate, is still noted for its tauk where the sun-worshippers assemble even now. That the Gosháins, when they introduced the worship of Mahádeo, grafted it on Puddha worship is quite clear. Like the Buddhist monks they chose the edge of a great forest into which the anchorites might retire during the cold weather; they adopted the yellow garb, the celibacy, of the religious orders; they called their priests samads in imitation of the Buddbists; and here, adopting the vital principels of Buddhisin, they overturned the caste hierarchy, the levitical system which confined the priesthood to one tribe, and they allowed numbers of all castes to adopt the sacerdotal profession. The worsbip of Mahadeo in Kheri, far from being a repulsive and sensual phallic cult, is a graft from Buddhism, in which little has been changed except the symbol of adoration. The tendency to abandon the worship of Vishnu, and Bhawáni, Ganesh, and the skull-docked Shiva, for a simple pillar may be owing to a greater yearning after monotheism, may be derived from the Buddhist adoration of pillars, but is probably mainly a revulsion from the worship of deified human beings, and of more or less monstrous demons. At any rate it is a purer and more spiritual faith than any other now. prevalent in Oudh. Such will be the testimony of those who have been present at what are called its orgies, but which to the careful observer will appear to be nothing but the exuberance of devotion in an excitable people. Those who discover a necessary connexion between this cult and phallic worship are fond of pointing to the popular admission that it is a lingam which is adored. In the first place one may mix with the crowd of adorers for hours and days without ever hearing the word ling, while Mahadeo is on the lips of every pilgrim as he dips in the sacred tank or counts his beads. Further, the phallic meaning of ling is only a derivative one; the only proper Sanskrit meaning of ling is sacred place. In the Dekkan and in the east of India whore phallic worship is really a prevalent almost an exclusive cult, the general term has been applied to and appro- priated by the species, but there is nothing but mere assumption to show that this has taken place in Oudh. I have no exact statistics of the numbers of temples, these shrines are more the token of wealth than of religious feeling. The Musalmans arc