86 HINDU RELIGION. 



and a stranger, visiting these curious places of piety, 

 does not escape without a similar garland being thrown 

 over his shoulders, for which he is expected to dive 

 into his pocket and produce a rupee, and those who are 

 anxious for further distinction can have their forehead 

 marked with the emblem of the deity, which means 

 another rupee. There are also more substantial offer- 

 ings made by the believer in the Hindu Polytheism., 

 but if the gods get them, the Brahmans take care they 

 shall not keep them. 



On looking at the architectural works of India of 

 bygone days, they are almost without exception 

 sacred monuments ; religious ideas, contorted as they 

 are, govern the whole life of the Hindus in the greatest 

 as well as in the smallest matters — no room for a charge 

 of Erastianism here ; according to their extravagant 

 superstition, nothing is done without some suj)ernatural 

 agency. The Hindu religion presents a very confused 

 idea of doctrine, at first (about the thirteenth or 

 fourteenth century, B.C.). According to the Veda, 

 Brahm was God, all in all, the personification of the 

 elements, the world's Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, 

 and the Hindus believed in the final absorption of 

 their spirit into Brahm ; so far, therefore, their religion 

 was clearly Pantheism ; soon, however, he became the 

 invisible God, and his attributes were represented by 



