Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/144

 CHAPTER XLVII.

RADHA KRISHN[)U]—SPORTING IN ASSAM.

Festival of the Birthday of Krishn[)u]—The Rās—The Rākhī—Krishn[)u] or Kaniyā—Sports of the Gopīs—The Elephant—The Horse—Gopal[)u]—Gopī Nat'h[)u]—Radha Krishn[)u]—Krishn[)u] destroying the Serpent—Monotony of Life in India—The Holy Monkey—Sporting in Assam—Buffalo Shooting—Tiger Hunting on Foot—The Baghmars—The Spring-bow—An Earthquake—Risk of Life in the Bhagmar Department—The Burying-Ground at Goalparah.

1837, Aug.—The first few days in this month we were blessed with cooling and heavy rain. On the 6th, the annual festival of the Jenem, or birthday, and the sports of Krishn[)u], the Bāiza Bā'ī invited me to the camp: on my arrival I found her Highness seated under a large mango tree; from one of its boughs a swing was suspended, in which the Gaja Rājā and another lady were amusing themselves. This festival, in celebration of the sports of the most popular of the Hindoo deities, was held in all due form by the Mahrattas; it took place by torch-light, in the cool of the evening. In the forests on the banks of the Yamuna Krishn[)u] passed his time, playing on the flute, swinging under the trees, dancing, and sporting with the gopīs. The young Princess was therefore amusing herself in the swing as a necessary ceremony; after which, some sixty or eighty Mahratta women came forward, and performed several dances sacred to the season, singing as they moved on the turf, in a circular dance called the rās, in imitation of the gopīs; and the "Songs of Govinda," as addressed by Kaniyā to Radha and her companions, were rehearsed at this festival, with a scenic represen