Lieul.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments ofMcwar. 319 



man of Telingana, of the tribe of Bliardhwaja, of the race of Gur, of the 

 branch Tyturi.* As the supreme head of the Vishnu sect his person is held 

 to be Ansa, or " a portion of the divinity ;" and it is maintained that so late 

 as the father of the present incumbent, Apollo manifested himself and con- 

 versed with the high priest. The presentpontiff is now aboutthirty years of age. 

 He is of a benign aspect, with much dignity of demeanour : courteous, yet 

 conscious of the homage due to his high calling : meek, as becomes the 

 priest of GoviNDA, yet with the finished manners of one accustomed to the 

 first society. His features are finely moulded, and his complexion good. 

 He is about the middle size, though as he rises to no mortal, I could not 

 exactly judge of his height. When I saw him he had one only daughter, to 

 whom he is much attached. He has but one wife, nor does Crishna allow 

 polygamy to his priest, and what is yet more natural, he has interdicted 

 suttees. In times of danger the high priest of Apollo, like some of his pro- 

 totypes in the dark ages of Europe, poised the lance, and found it more 

 effective than spiritual anathemas, against those who would first adore the 

 god, and then plunder him. Such were the Mahratta chiefs, Jesswunt Rao 

 HoLKAR and Bapu Sindia. Damodra accordingly made the tour of his 

 extensive diocese at the head of four hundred horse, two standards of foot, 

 and two field-pieces. He rode the finest mares in the country ; laid aside 

 his pontificals and the " yellow mantle,"t for the quilted dugla, and was 

 summoned to matins by the kettle-drum instead of the bell and cymbal. In 

 this he only imitated " the black god," Shamnat'h, who often mixed in the 

 ranks of battle, and " dyed his saffron robe in the red-stained field." Had 

 Damodra been captured on one of these occasions by any marauding Pat'han, 

 and incarcerated, as he assuredly would have been, for ransom, the marauder 

 might have replied to the Rana, as did the Plantagenet king to the Pope 

 when the surrender of the captive church-militant bishop was demanded, 

 " Is this thy son Joseph's coat?" But, notwithstanding this display of 

 martial principle, which covered with a helmet the shaven crown, his conduct 

 and character are amiable and unexceptionable, and he furnishes a striking 

 contrast to the late head of the Visunu establishments in Marvvar, who com- 

 menced with the care of his mastei-'s conscience, and ended with that of the 



* I am not aware of the import of Tyluri. 



f Hence liis epithet Pitumbra, under which he is worshipped by the Raka. Synonimous 

 with this is the name of Pandurang, by which he is chiefly known in the Dekhan ; from Pandu, 

 yellow ocre, and rang, colour. 



