450 SURVEY OF THE GANGES: 



Dwim a door or passage.* The Ganges ^ after forcing its way through 

 an extensive tra6t of mountainous country, here first enters on the plains ; 

 and the veneration .which the Hindus have for this river, would natural- 

 ly point out this as a place deserving of peculiar worship. At the com- 

 mencement of the hot weather, an annual pilgrimage is enjoined, and 

 attended by people from all parts of Hindustan and the Dekhin, for the 

 purpose of making their ablutions in the holy stream. The bathing com- 

 mences in the month of Chaitra, when the sun is in Mina or Pisces, and 

 concludes on the day he enters Mesha or Aries, agreeably to the solar 

 coniputation of the Hindus y and corresponding with the loth April, on 

 which day the sun has actually advanced 2o°j in that sign. Every twelfth 

 year is celebrated with greater rejoicings, and is called the Cumbka, 

 plilat so denoted from the planet Jupiter being then in the sign of Aqua-- 

 rius. Whether this sign be symbolical of the purpose for which they 

 meet, or whether the injun6lion be arbitrary or accidental, is not ascer- 

 tained ; but a pilgrimage at these duodecennial periods is considered the 

 most fortunate and efficacious. The present was one of those periods ; 

 being just twelve years since the visit of Col. Hardwicke to the fair, 

 when the contentions, which took place between the different sefls of re- 

 ligious mendicants, were attended with considerable bloodshed, as related 

 in the sixth volume of Asiatick Researches. To prevent a repetition of 

 such outrages, the detachment assembled for the preservation of peace 

 was this year of greater strength than usual. The fair is totally uncon^ 

 nedted with the ostensible purport of the meeting; but the Hindu neve? 

 loses sight of his wprldiy interests, and a Mela is a necessary conse- 



' ''* IlaradtBriray vtho caWed (^angndwara. li is written Mandwara in the Ci^darac'handa 

 of the Scnnda Purdna^ and other Purdnas. This marks a different etymology ; from Jlari^ 

 VisiiNu, not fro.a J/arsj Maha de'va. Note b^ the Presiikni. 



