A HINDU SIMON STYI.ITES 



Photo by D. S. Herrick 



Saint Simon Stylites, the first of the pillar saints, died in the year 459, having spent the 

 last 2)1 years of his life on a pillar near Antioch. Doubtless the early Christian saints bor- 

 rowed this devotion from India, where it has been practiced for thousands of years. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE GODS 



By John J. Banninga 



WHEN the gods get married the 

 people are merry indeed. Then 

 hundreds and thousands throng 

 to Madura from all the villages of South 

 India, for it may be expected that the 

 gods w^ill be in good humor on such an 

 occasion and be willing to bestow the 

 blessings so long withheld. 



The marriage ceremonies last for sev- 

 eral days and each day has its special 

 functions, but throughout them all the 

 people keep coming until the last and 

 great day of the festival, when AUagar 

 comes from his distant temple to bring 

 his offering to his sister, Meenachi, when 

 certainly not less than 100,000 people 



are on hand to pay their respects to this 

 popular god. 



Siva and Meenachi are the principal 

 personages in the marriage ceremony. 

 Siva, as one of the gods of the Hindu 

 Trinity, is worshiped in all parts of India, 

 but in each part he has joined to him- 

 self as wife one of the better known 

 and more dearly beloved goddesses, of 

 local fame and popular worship. In 

 South India she is Meenachi, sometimes 

 spoken of as the local substitute for the 

 bloody goddess. Kali, for whom Calcutta 

 is named, but Meenachi is certainly more 

 human and more feminine than the cruel 

 goddess of the North. 



1314 



