DEIVALL properly Dipawali. SANSK. From Dipa, a lamp, and Ali, a row. A Hindu religious festival held about the end of October, in the last two days of the last half of Aswin and three days of Kartik, in honour of the goddess Kali and of Lakshmi, and to commemorate the destruction by Vishnu of the demon Taraki. The Hindus, after bathing in the Ganges or other river, anoint with oil, put on their best attire, perform a sraddha, and at night worship Lakshnai. On this festival of lamps all Hindus propitiate Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth aud fortune, by offering at her shrine. In Rajasthan, on the Amavus, or ides of Kartik, every city, village, and encampment exhibits a blaze of splendour from lamps. Stuffs, pieces of gold and sweetmeats, are carried in trays and consecrated at the temple of Lakshmi, to whom the day is consecrated. The mita of Mewar dines with his prime minister ; and this officer and his near relatives offer an oblation by pouring oil into a terra-cotta lamp, which the sovereign holds. Every vota,ry of Lakshmi tries
his chance of the dice, and from their success in the Dewali foretell the state of their affairs for the ensuing year. On the first day of the Dewali, the whole Hindu population/ of an Indian city bear branches of the sami, tulsi, and other sacred trees in procession, and walk round all the temples iu the neighbourhood, offer salutation and prayer to their country's gods, in their several incarnations. A rainfall at that period of the year is highly advantageous to growing crops, and a proverb of the people of N. India is,— ' Je min piya Diwali, Jiya phus, jiya hali.' If showers f all about the time of the Diwali festival,' [what matter] whether you are lazy (lit. a bundle of sticks) or a real ploughman, [the crops are sure to be equally fine.]—Postans' 1V. India, ii. p. 177 ; Tod's _Rajasthan, i. 70, 279. See Leviticus xxiii. 40.