Lieut. -Colonel Ton on the Religious Establishments ofMewar. 315 



Apollo, besides being honoured as a deity presiding over tlie healing art, 

 was especially invoked by the Greeks in epidemic disorders; and the 

 shrines of Crishna were thronged with votaries beseeching him to avert 

 that scourge, emphatically called marri, or death ; the cholera, yet raging 

 in India. 



But I have trespassed too long with these analogies, and must proceed 

 to describe some of the cliief festivals of the Apollo of Nat'hdvvara, of which 

 the anniversary of his birtii {Jenem), the Jhul-jhulni, or swinging on tlie 

 water, and the Ancuta are the most remarkable. The latter, as the more 

 imposing of the three, may satisfy curiosity. On this occasion the seven 

 forms or statues {sat^h-rupa) of Heri-Crishna are brought together from the 

 different capitals of Rajast'han, when mountains [ciila') of food (a?2) are 

 piled up for their repast, and at a given signal attacked and levelled by the 

 myriads of votaries assembled from all parts. 



About eighty years ago, on a memorable assemblage at the Ancuta, 

 before warfare had devastated Rajast'han and circumscribed the means of the 

 faithful disciples of Heri, amongst the multitude of Fis/inues of every region 

 were almost all the Rajpiit princes ; Rana Ursi of Mewar, Raja Bijy 

 Sing of Marwar, Raja Glj Sing of Bikaner, and Blhadur Sing of Kish- 

 engurh. Rana Ursi presented to the god a io7-a, or massive golden anklet- 

 chain set with emeralds : Buy Sing a diamond necklace worth "25, 000 ru- 

 pees : the other princes according to their means. They were followed by an 

 old woman of Surat with infirm step and shaking head, who deposited four 

 coppers in the hand of the high-priest, which were received with a gra- 

 cious smile, not vouchsafed to the lords of the earth. " The Rand is in 

 luck," whispered the chief of Kishengurh to the Rana. Soon afterwards the 

 statue of Heri was brought forth, when the same old woman placed at its 

 feet a bill of exchange for 70,000 rupees (35,000 crowns). The mighty 

 were humbled, and the smile o{' the Gosaen was explained. Such gifts, and 

 to a yet greater amount are, or were, far from uncommon from the sons 

 of commerce, who are only known to belong to the flock from the distin- 

 guishing necklace [canti) of the sect.* 



That predatory system which reduced these countries to a state of the 

 most degraded anarchy, greatly diminished the number of pilgrimages to 



• Gibbon records a similar offering of 200,000 sesterces to the Roman churcli, by a strangei', 

 in the reign of Decius. 



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