ALLAHABAD. 
121 
their idolatrous rites in secret during the persecutions 
to which they were subjected under the tyranny of 
the less humane and less politic successors of Akbar. 
This wise monarch was particularly partial to 
Allahabad. He was in fact the founder of the modern 
city, “intending it as a stronghold to overawe the 
surrounding countries, for which, from local circum- 
stances, it was well adapted. In the year 1765 it 
was taken by the British army under Sir Robert 
Fletcher/’ * 
Allahabad is considered a place of great sanctity, 
and is the constant resort of numerous pilgrims. 
“ When a pilgrim arrives here, he first sits down upon 
the brink of the river and has his head and body 
shaved, so that each hair may fall into the water, the 
sacred writings promising him a million of years 
residence in heaven for every hair thus deposited. 
After shaving he bathes, and the same day or the 
next, performs the obsequies of his deceased ancestors. 
The tax accruing to government for permission to 
bathe is only three rupees for each person ; but a 
much greater expense is incurred in charity and gifts 
to the Brahmins, who are seen sitting by the river 
side. Many persons renounce life at the holy con- 
fluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, by going in a 
boat, after the performance of certain solemnities, to 
the exact spot where the rivers unite, where the de- 
votee plunges into the stream with three pots of 
water tied to his body. Occasionally also some lives 
are lost by the eagerness of the devotees to rush in 
and bathe at the most sanctified spot at a precise 
* Hamilton’s Description of Hindostan, page 301. 
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