PERIODICAL MEETINGS AT HURDWAR. 
249 
the sufferers, and the number of maimed and otherwise 
injured has, I believe, never been correctly ascertain- 
ed, but it must have been very great. 
Since this fatal occurrence, the passage in which 
the principal mischief took place, has been consider- 
ably enlarged, in order to facilitate the access to the 
river; an additional flight of steps has been also 
built, so as to obviate all likelihood of a similar 
accident. It created a great sensation at the time 
among the superstitious devotees, who were unable to 
account for such a severe visitation ; while some of 
the more devout among them looked upon it as an 
involuntary holocaust on the part of the sufferers, pre- 
ordained by Siva himself, and likely to render him 
the more propitious towards those who had survived 
this wholesale destruction. 
It formerly happened that, during these periodical 
meetings at Hurdwar, there frequently occurred very 
fatal contentions among the hostile tribes assembled 
there. A year seldom or never passed during which 
much blood was not shed, as some of the en- 
counters between these semi-barbarous tribes in- 
habiting the neighbouring districts, who then crowded 
hither, were of the most sanguinary kind. The in- 
terference of the British Government has completely 
put a stop to this evil, and such wise regulations 
have been established for the maintenance of order, 
that these meetings now invariably terminate without 
riot or bloodshed. 
The grand periods for the observance of religious 
ceremonies at Hurdwar are once every twelve years, 
when Jupiter is in Aquarius at the time of the sun’s 
