110 BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



acters. The stone is frequently perfumed and bathed and the water, 

 which is beheved to have acquired cleansing virtues, is drank by the 

 worshiper. Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 92736, U.S.N.M.) Gift of 

 Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore. 



77. Stand for the plate holding a family divinity (garurasana) . — The 

 support upon which the plate or tat is placed is sun-shaped, and may 

 refer to the discus or chacra, one of the attributes of Vishnu. The 

 support is held up by a kneeling figure with wings terminating in ele- 

 phants' heads, and with hands clasped as in adoration, which prob- 

 ably represents the Garuda, a composite being, half man and half 

 bird, the vehicle or vahan of Vishnu. Calcutta, India. (Cat. No. 

 92739, U.S.N.M.) Gift of Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore. 



78. Zebu {Bos indicus). — Of marble, painted and gilded. Zebu is 

 the name of the common domestic ox of India, which is also found 

 in China, Japan, and East Africa. Its distinguishing characteristic 

 is one, more rarely two humps of fat on the shoulders. Those of 

 white or light gray color are sacred to Siva, the third member of the 

 Hindu triad or Trimurti. The cow is the most sacred animal among 

 the Hindus. All that comes from her is thought to possess extraor- 

 dinary purifying qualities. Once a year images of the cow, like those 

 of the gods, are bathed in the river. India. Height, 10% inches; 

 length, 11% mches. (Cat. No. 214327, U.S.N.M.) 



79. Sacred cow. — Miniature model of wood. Burmah. (Cat. No. 

 16697, U.S.N.M.) Gift of Otis T. Mason. 



80. Two worshippers before an altar. — Statuette of marble, painted 

 and gilded. Height, 10 mches. India. (Cat. No. 154901, U.S.N.M.) 



3. ASCETICS 



Asceticism primarily consists in the contradiction and suppression 

 of natural desires under the mandate of some higher or supposed 

 higher ideal. Its aim is to discipline the body into subjection to the 

 soul's development. Through self-inflicted privation or suffering 

 man also seeks to appease the assumed anger of gods or demons and 

 to win their favor. In India ascetic practices have been widely prev- 

 alent from the earliest times. There is probably no country in 

 which asceticism has been so widely and constantly practiced and in 

 which its ideals have been held in such high regard as in India. The 

 mortification of the body and the self-inflicted penances associated 

 therewith have been carried to lengths beyond anything familiar to 

 other peoples. The thought that essentially underlies the Indian con- 

 ception of asceticism and prompts the adoption of the ascetic life is 

 the desire to escape from the never-ending cycle or round of succes- 

 sive existences (samsara), in which all created beings are involved and 

 which brings in its train the suffering and misery to which all such 

 beings are subject. It is also a conviction of Hindu thought that the 



