Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/30

 admirably wrought, but the shield on which they are fastened is evidently of Anglo-Indian design ; and the effect produced is most discordant and un pleasing*

The Indian goldsmith has sometimes to execute his work on a truly colossal scale, reminding one of the gold work done for Solomon's temple and house. If a Hindu has to undergo puri- fication, one of the necessary rites is to step through the yom the mystic symbol of female power* This is often done by sitting for an instant on the scar of a tree, bearing a similitude to the sacred symbol. Sometimes the scar forms a true matrix, or the cavity may penetrate the whole thickness of the tree, when the Hindu will step in and out of it, or what is holiest, will pass right through it, in sign of his regeneration* But when the two Brahmans whom Ragan at ha Rao [Ragoba] the Maratha Peishwa sent to England in 17B0 returned to India, they were compelled to pass through a yom made of the finest gold before they could be readmitted into caste. Ragoba himself, on his defeat and expulsion from his capital, had a cow of gold made, and was passed through it, in the hope of bettering his fortune. The King of Travancore about the same time, wishing to atone for all the blood he had spilt in his wars, was persuaded by the Brahmans that it was necessary for him to be born again ; when a cow of gold was made of immense value, through which the King, after lying in It for some time, was passed, regenerated, and freed from all the burden of the crimes of his former life* It is said that to this day the rajas of Travancore, on succeeding to the throne, all go through the same ceremony, and thereby are elevated to the status of Brahmans.