20 J. H. Bivett-Carnac — The Snake Symlol in India. [No. 1, 



It might be expected that the Nag or Cobra would be seen at its best 

 in the carvings or idols of Nageshwar, the Cobra or Snake Temple of 

 Benares. But in this I was disappointed ; Nageshwar, as I saw it, consisted 

 of two temples, or an inner and outer shrine, the one called Sideshwar, the 

 other Nageshwar. In the outer or Nageshwar shrine was a large sized 

 stone Mahadeo, of ordinary construction without the snake on it or round 

 it. The old woman in charge of the temple, the priest being absent, 

 assured me that a snake had once surmounted the Mahadeo, but that the 

 symbol had been worn away by much veneration. The story was most 

 probably manufactured for the occasion in consequence of my manifest dis- 

 appointment at the absence of the Nag. 



A Bull or Nandi and a Cobra faced the Mahadeo. The contents of 

 the inner temple were peculiar. The Mahadeo consists of a broad black 

 stone in shape something like a tumulus. It is sunk some little dej^th 

 below the ground, and is surrounded by four stone slabs forming a small 

 square tank. There was no yoni with this Mahadeo, the tank perhaps 

 representing the yoni. On the top of the Mahadeo had been traced, 

 with some sort of white pigment, a circle with a central dot or cup 

 mark, exactly similar in shape to the circles with centres noticed in 

 my paper on the Kumaon Rock-markings. These marks are common 

 enough at Benares, and are to be seen painted on the bamboo umbrellas 

 which line the ghats and are also dabbed about freely on the walls of 

 buildings. Further enquiry has confirmed the opinion expressed by me 

 and supported by Mr. Campbell of Islay in my paper on Kumaon rock 

 markings, that, whatever it may have meant in Europe, in India the sign 

 © means Mahadeo. There seems to be little doubt that at Nageshwar 

 the snake god is Mahadeo himself, or that he is worshipped under that name, 

 and that Nageshwar is a temple of Siva or Mahadeo in the form of a Nag 

 or cobra. 



These same marks were to be seen on a Mahadeo in a small shrine 

 under a tree close by. In front of Nageshwar were the graves of the Gosains 

 of the temple. They resemble the graves of Chandeshwar in Kumaon, 

 noticed in my paper on the Kumaon Rock Markings. The Kumaon 

 graves were evidently the graves of Gosains of the Siva sect who I have 

 since learnt are always buried, not burnt.* At Benares, as at Chandeshwar, 



* Vide Tod's Kajasthan, Vol. I, p. 445. " The priests of Eklinga are termed 

 " Gosain or Ooswami which, signifies control over the senses. The distinguishing mark 

 " of the faith of Siva is the crescent on the forehead. They bury their dead in a sit- 

 " ting posture, and erect cairns over them which are generally conical in form. I 

 " have seen a cemetery of these, each of very small dimensions, which may he described 



