294f Lieul.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establix/iments ofMetvar. 



every variety of saccharine preparation, fi-om the sacar-cand (sugar-candy) 

 of the celestial empire, with which Kaniya sweetens his evening repast, to 

 that more common sort which enters into the peras of Mat'hura, the food 

 of his infancy ; the shawls of Caslmier, the silks of Bengal, the scarfs of 

 Benares, the brocades of Guzerat, 



" the flower and choice 



" Of many provinces from bound to bound," 



with whatever is rare in art or nature, all contribute to enrich the shrine of 

 Nat'hdwara. But it is with the votaries of tlie maritime provinces of India 

 that he has most reason to be satisfied ; in the commercial cities of Surat, 

 Cambay, Muscat-mandavi, &c. &c., where the Mukliias, or comptrollers de- 

 puted by the high-priest, reside to collect the benefactions, and transmit them 

 as occasion requires. A deputy resides on the part of the high-priest at Mul- 

 tan, who invests the distant worshippers of Kaniya with the zunu and canti 

 (the cordon and necklace). Even from Samarcand the pilgrims repair with 

 their offerings to Nat'hdwara ; and a sum, seldom less than ten thousand 

 rupees, is annually transmitted by the votaries from the Arabian ports of 

 Muscat, Mocha, and Jidda ; which contribution is very probably augmented, 

 not only by the votaries who dwell at the mouths of the Wolga,* but by the 



* Pallas gives an admirable and evidently faithful account of the worship of CRisitxA and other 

 Hindu divinities in the city of Astracan, where a Hindu mercantile colony is established. They 

 are termed Multani, from the place whence they migrated — Multan, near the Indus. This class 

 of merchants of the Hindu faith is disseminated over all the countries, from the Indus to the 

 Caspian : and it would have been interesting had the professor given us any account of their 

 period of settlement on the western shore of the Caspian sea. In costume and feature, as repre- 

 sented in the plate given by that autlior, they have nothing to denote their origin ; though their 

 divinities might be seated on any altar on the Ganges. The Multanis of the " Indeskoi Dvor, or 

 Indian Court" aX Astracan, have erected a pantheon, in which Crisiina, the god of all Vishnue 

 merchants, is seated, ^jr/mHS infer pares, in front of Joggernat'ii, Rama, and his brothers, who 

 stand in the back-ground ; while Siva and his consort Ashta-bhu'ja {the eight-armed), form an 

 intermediate line, in which is also placed a statue which Pallas denominates Miirli; but Pallas mis- 

 took the flute (mtiraU) of the divine CRiSHNAfor arod. The principal figure we shall describe in 

 his own words. " In the middle was placed a small idol with a very high bonnet, called Gupaledshi, 

 " At its right there was a large black stone, and on the left two smaller ones of the same colour, 

 " brought from the Ganges, and regarded by the Hindus as sacred. These fossils were of the 

 " species called Sankara, and appeared to be an impression of a bivalve muscle." Minute as is 

 the description, our judgment is further aided by the plate. GupafoMj is evidently Gopalji, 

 the pastoral deity of Vrij (from gao, a cow, and pali, a herdsman). The head-dress worn by 

 him and all the others, is precisely that still worn by Crishna, in the sacred dance at Muttra : 

 and so minute is the delineation, that even the pera or sugar-ball is represented, although the 



