BENARES India, far more than in any part of Europe, even Italy, the life of the present is imposed upon the strata of successive past generations. Vedic, Brahminic, Buddhist, and Muslim civilizations have flourished and de cayed on nearly the same spot, and we find a city like Benares surviving all revolutions, and remaining a centre of commercial and religious life. It is impossible to tell when the Hindus began to build temples and tanks and ghats by the broad waters of the Ganges, and Benares be came the centre of Hindoo religious life. It was at an early stage in the world's history when men began to worship the fertilising power of a stream and to deify the beneficent gifts of nature. The beautiful goddess Ganga is the heroine of many a Hindu mythological legend. She is intimately connected with Siva, the chief deity of Benares, and the River Ganga is represented falling from his head. Siva is Time, the Sun, Fire, the destroyer, the generator. But it is as the generator he is worshipped at Benares. The temple which attracts the most worshippers and receives the highest meed of honour is dedicated to him, and his image is a plain lingam. Before it is the kneeling Bull, Nandin the gladdener. Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, writes :—" As the God of Justice, which character he shares with Yama and other deities, he rides a bull, the symbol of divine justice." It is, however, the common symbol of the Phallic worship, as re presented in the legend of Europa. It was for this reason that the Jews regarded the making of a golden calf as a deadly sin. The worship of the Bull was a part of the fetish worship of the Egyptians, and to make a calf was to relapse into the foul rites of their old masters. And the Lord said unto Moses, " Go, get thee down ; for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have cor rupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them ; they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, 0 Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Serpents are bound in Siva's hair, are round his neck, wrists, waist, arms, and legs. A crescent on his forehead or his hair is common in images or pictures of him. The male creator has from the earliest times been identified with the Sun, and the female with the crescent Moon ; and one of the symbols of this celestial union of the sexes was a Sun lying within the Moon's crescent. The crescent is the prominent symbol in all the lingam temples in India. It was the chief symbol of the Kaaba at Mecca, where the obscene worship of the black stone roused the sensitive mind of Muhammad. The Muhammadans adopted the symbol of the old cult, but against the cult like their founder they have waged ruthless war. Mahmud of Ghazni broke to pieces the lingam at Somnath, one of the most sacred shrines belonging to the worship : Aurangzeb at Benares destroyed the old temple of Siva, and built upon its site a mosque.
The rays of the setting sun fall on the gilded tower of the temple of Visvesvara, the Lord of all, as we approach the shrine. Over the narrow doorway which leads to the temple is a small figure of GaneS'a, the God of Prudence and Policy, first-born of Siva and Parvati. " He is represented with
an elephant's head, an emblem of sagacity ; and is fre quently attended by a rat, sometimes riding on one, the con duct of that animal being esteemed by the Hindus as peculiarly marked by wisdom and foresight : he has generally four hands, but sometimes six or eight or only two. He is invoked by a Hindu, I believe, of all sects, in the outset of any business ; if he build a house, an image of Ganega is previously propitiated and set upon or near the spot ; if he write a book, Ganega is saluted at its commencement, as he is also at the top of a letter ; beginning a journey Gan6a is implored to protect him, and for the accommoda tion of travellers his image is occasionally seen on the road side, especially where two roads cross ; but sometimes it is little else than a stone rudely chiseled into something like an elephant's head, with oil and red ochre daubed over it, decorated perhaps with a chaplet of flowers by some pious neighbour or traveller." Over the shops of bankers and other tradesmen the figure of Ganea is often seen. There is no deity so often addressed as the God of Wisdom and Pru dence. He bears a resemblance to Janus, " the god who presided over the beginning of all undertakings ; the first libations of wine and wheat were offered to him and a preface of all prayers was addressed to him." Passing through the doorway we enter an enclosure, where several shrines are visible. Worshippers, male and female, are paying their devotions at them. A half-naked Brahman, with clear-cut intellectual features and a bearing which de notes the breeding of centuries, pauses a few moments before one of the minor shrines, and then proceeds to the symbol of Siva, and bows with deep reverence before it. He then rises and gives to the priest his offering, a few pieces of silver, some grain and rice, and.he rings one of the bells sus pended from the roof to attract the attention of the god. Then comes a woman with a bright graceful robe thrown round her almond-coloured body so as to reveal its graceful contour, her jet black hair is tightly fastened by a roughly ornamented comb, and ornaments of gold and silver are on her wrists. With wonderful grace she carries a large plate containing bright flowers and rice and grain as em blems of fertility. Her whole soul seems overawed as she prostrates herself before the deity and invokes him for the blessing of fruitfulness. The temples of Visvesvara are not attractive from a purely architectural point of view. The carving upon them is poor, but the dome and tower glitter ing in the sun is effective. Leaving the enclosure we come to a large collection of lingams raised upon a platform, and into the wall are built many small idols. They are sup posed to have been taken from the old temple which Aurangzeb destroyed, whose remains form a large portion of the western wall of the mosque. The mosque itself is chiefly interesting on account of the Muhammadans having done what they had so often done in other parts of India— used the pillars of the Hindoo fane for their own shrine.