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they are useful institutions; and, however limited in their benefits 

 to particular castes and descriptions of people, they are the nur- 

 series of literature, medicine, and science, as far as is deemed 

 necessary among the Hindoos. But I cannot praise a religion 

 which encourages thousands, perhaps millions, of idle vagabonds, 

 who practise no virtue; but under the mask of piety, with a sort 

 of stoical apathy and pharisaical zeal, undergo these needless 

 austerities and penances near their celebrated temples, or pervade 

 the provinces of Hindostan, singly, and in large bodies, to make 

 depredations on the hard-earned property of the poor villagers, 

 and violate the chastity of their wives and daughters, under a 

 eloak of sanctity and religious perfection. 



The number of these medicants who assemble at the festivals 

 and jattaras held in the vicinity of Baroche, and especially under 

 the embowering fane at Cubbeer-Burr, is astonishing. The island 

 covered by that sacred tree, the banks of the Nerbudda, and the 

 river itself, are thronged beyond conception from the adjacent 

 districts, and distant parts of Hindostan: especially the holy 

 precincts of Succulterah, a large village on the banks of the 

 Nerbudda, a few miles from Baroche, much celebrated for the 

 sanctity of its temples. In the Sacred Is/cs of the West, Captain 

 Wilford mentions this as a place of great antiquity, under the 

 name of Suela-Tirtha; and relates a curious anecdote which oc- 

 curred there about three hundred and fifteen years before the 

 Christian sera, taken from the Cumarica-chanda. 



" About the time of Alexander's invasion of India, Chanacya, 

 a wicked and revengeful priest, that he might establish the base- 

 born Chandra-gupta on the imperial throne, caused his eight royal 



