832 Observation upon the past and present [Oct. 



are the original images), stand unmutilated, while at Mandatta, nearly 

 every figure has lost a nose, or a limb, and in one place, where a very 

 beautiful temple was approached by avenues of large elephants, not 

 only has the temple been violently thrown down, but the trunk of 

 almost every elephant has been barbarously cut off and thrown into 

 the river*. The history of Agasteswar, one of the twelve lings, (at 

 Vwdrika,) contains a pleasing moral. The dewtas defeated by daityas 

 applied for assistance to Agasta. They found the saint performing 

 tapasya, his thoughts abstracted from worldly concerns, and his eyes 

 closed in deep devotion. At the tale of their wrongs, however, his 

 eyes opened and such angry fire flashed from them that in an instant 

 the daityas were annihilated. But when the holy man reflected that 

 the province of saints is not to destroy but to save, wra^r ^T^t "Stt^ 

 ^TT^§ K% sorrow seized his soul. Vain had been his prayers and 

 fasts, his dreadful penances and long probation, one moment of anger 

 had cancelled them all, and with an exhausted body and broken spirit, 

 he prepared to seek absolution for his sin in a tedious course of unre- 

 lenting severities. But the god he had worshipped took compassion up- 

 on him. Desired to make what request he pleased, the sage only begged 

 remission from his crime, and that the deity would inhabit some ling to 

 which he might forever express his gratitude. Eux^s 8"ccuas ovKavni<o6os6eos; 

 Ma had ho pardoned the supplicant ; oblivion restored serenity to his 

 mind, and the ling of Agasteswar still relieves the repentant sinner 

 from the gnawings of an evil conscience. Besides these 84 lings there 

 are 1 1 ancient Rudras, each of which has a distinguishing appellative. 

 The skull- adorned, the three-eyed, the air-clothed (i.e. naked), he 

 who wears a turban of matted hair, whose ornaments are snakes, who 

 wanders where he lists, the lord of light, &c.f All these forms are re- 

 presented by the ling, and the temples which cover them are for the most 

 part small and plain. The Ganeshas can hardly be numbered, but six 

 are distinguished by superior antiquity and by sesquipedilian names : 

 there is also a Chintamani of much repute, a few miles from Oujein. 

 The chaturthi (4 th) of every month J, is devoted to its worship and in the 

 month of Chaitra, there is a melah on the four Wednesdays. "We find 

 twenty four matas and three devis mentioned in the Avanti khand ; 

 the devis being a Lakshmi, a Saraswati and an Annapurnd, they are all 



* See Tod's Rajasthan, 2 : 395, note. 



f Kapall, Trilochan, Digambar, Jatadhari, Surup surbang muMar, Vdma- 

 chart, Kulanhth, &c. 



X The 4th day of the month is always kept as a fast by pious Hindus. 



