1383.] 
177 
Rajendralala Mitra —On ll/e Temples of Deoghar. 
(naming it). Should no dream come, it is understood that the person is too 
sinful and utterly unworthy of the god’s mercy. Formerly the fasting was 
continued sometimes to seven, eight, or nine days, and dreams came on 
after such protracted fasting; but, some deaths having taken place from 
starvation, the priests do not now permit a longer fasting than of three 
days. The sight of these miserable beings on the third day is pitiful indeed. 
I once noticed a woman of about 30 years of age, lean and emaciated, 
who was too weak to walk from her place to the vat, and to have a drink 
of water, and had to be led thereto by her companion. It should be added, 
however, that this absolute fast is highly efficacious in many cases. Per¬ 
sons who had suffered for months or years from painful chronic diseases, 
which had made life a burthen to them, have returned home perfectly 
cured, while others have been greatly relieved. Nervous diseases, particu¬ 
larly hysteria, are often cured. And there are not women wanting who 
profess that they have been cured of their barrenness. One common com¬ 
plaint among Hindu women is that their children die young, so that they 
cannot have two sons living at the same time, and for this they sometimes 
fast at the gate of the lord, and are not unoften blessed. Of course there 
can be no statistics to show the percentage of cures, and it must be com¬ 
paratively small, perhaps not more so than at Lourdes and other places in 
Europe, but it is sufficiently large to keep up a constant stream of pilgrims 
submitting to the fast. Some of those who are blessed have their names 
engraved on the pavement of the verandas, and there are a great many 
names so engraved. Formerly the pilgrims lay in the open courtyard, but 
about one hundred and fifty years ago the verandas were built to protect them 
from the sun and rain. 
Leaving now the great temple, I must go over the courtyard to notice 
the minor sanctuaries. The terrace, marked No. 1 on the annexed plan,* 
(Plate XV) is used by pandits on cold weather mornings for expounding the 
Sastras. It is also used for performing sraddhas. 
No. 2 has been replaced lately by a large stone temple, which the 
present Head Priest has erected in honour of his father. 
No. 3 is dedicated to the goddess Kali, a black stone image, similar 
to what is now prepared in Bengal to represent that divinity. The image 
is remarkably well executed. On the top of the door there is an inscrip¬ 
tion which gives the name of Harinatha 0 jha and the Sam vat date 1700. A 
second inscription on a side gives a different date. 
* I am indebted for this plan to Babu Rashabehari Dutt, Kanungo of Deoghar. 
He measured the temples without taking any angles, and the location of the different 
temples is, therefore, not absolutely correct. For all practical purposes, however, the 
plan is quite satisfactory. Since preparing it, I find Mr. Beglar has published one in 
the Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. VIII. 
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