Ceremonials of Worship. — A Brahman who attends to his religious duties, bathes before sun rise in cold water, and offers a water sacrifice or libation from his hand. He prays in this wise : He who meditates on Pundri kacha (he with the lotus eye), though a very great sinner, will be forgiven.
' If he sprinkle over his head water which is pure and holy, he will be purified and strength ened.
All sins committed during the night, by word, deed, mind, mouth, hands, feet, belly, organs, or in anger, will .be forgiven by Surie jotishi' (the light of the sun).
The next part of the ritual is the ceremony called Arg'hiam, which is performed to free the sun from the Rakshasa, who is striving to hinder its appearance. This consists in offering, four times, a water sacrifice or libation, by taking water in the hands and pouring it on the ground, as he four times pronounces the Vedic Gaitri, viz. O'm! Blifirbhuvl ssuvahit, O'm! Tatsa varEnnyinn, B'hargo devasyft dhimahi dhiyo yonaha pracho dayath.'—' gm! earth, air, heaven, O'm Let us meditate on the supreme splendour of the divine sun. May he illuminate our minds.' After this he prays, at length or briefly at will, in the form of a commenting or expounding of the above Gaitra.
He then prostrates himself (to Vasu deva or to Krishna, or to Vishnu if a Vaishnava) to Sarvan tariami, a god who pervades all creatures, and prays him to blesi all the Brahmans and cows within the four seas, mentioning his own name, his got'hram or tribe rishis. At the close he offers to Narayana his deeds by body, mouth, heart, and senses.
At noon, prayers are repeated, and he prays to Suria (the sun).
In the evening, prayers recur, and he implores Varuna (the god of the sky and regent of the west) in sacred words.
Hindn Society.—Hindus are classed as Vaidikam and Laokalam or Lao -kikam, clergy and laity. It is a common notion that the Brahmans of India are the priests of the Hindus, but this is not correct. Though of the priestly or sacred order, the vast bulk of this class are employed in lay pursuits, as soldiers, merchants, lawyers, clerks, perhaps in every avocation of daily life except such as involve manual labour, though they are even agriculturists in Northern India and Orissa. Various sects of Hindus have priests of the Sudra caste, and many aboriginal races employ members of their particular tribe or race. Speaking in a general way, it may be stated that where the people of India are followers of the Puranas and Vedas, their priests are invariably Brahmans ; but the extensive Lingaet sect, and the Jain, and all the sects or tribes who worship the village deities, or adhere to spirit or devil worship, select priests from their own classes. Also the Kansallar, or artificer tribes of Sudras, all of whom wear the sacred cord, select an ascetic member of their own caste as their priest, and have also family priests from their own circle. Indeed, they claim for themselves a superiority to the entire Brahmanical order, asserting their origin to be older ; and no one of the Kansallar would accept of water from a Brahman. But, in the usual discrepant character of the Hindu people, although the Kansallar claim that their caste possess this superiority, and though they possess the Brahmanical Vedas, yet their manner of conversing and dressing, and their women's clothes and ornaments, resemble those of non Brahmanical castes. In paying respect to Brah
mans, they say and use the Dandam, and not, as from an inferior to a superior, the Namaskaram, as one Brahman will to another. Amongst the Saiva sect, who have Brahman priests, the guru is styled Sankarachari, and is invariably a Sanyasi or ascetic. He resides in a matham or monastery along with other Brahmans, to whom he imparts religious instruction or preaches. He is greatly reverenced by his disciples, who regard him as almost equal to a god. The monastery is sup ported by the disciples' gifts. The members of these monasteries are charitable to all the poor, and erect temples out of surplus receipts. But the head of the establishment, the "Mat'hadi-padi, when he travels to superintend his followers, does so with vast pomp and display, in a litter of a peculiar form, often richly ornamented, and accompanied by a great concourse of people, with elephants, horses, and conveyances for his property. Like all Sanyasi and Brahmans engaged in religious duties, the members of the matham bathe thrice daily. Twice daily the chief worships the Saligrama, a fossil ammonite from the Gogra or Gandak, or a gold, silver, or copper idol of Krishna or of Siva. After washing the idol with water, he decorates it with the sectarian mark, and worships it with offerings of flowers and tulsi leaves ; he sips a little of the water used in the worship, and the rest is carefully preserved in a silver cup along with tulsi leaves, and dropped from a small spoon, Voodharni,' into the hands of disciples, who esteem the gift as cleansing from all sin. The head monk only eats once a-day, and before taking his meal he invariably presents it to the deity. Disciples, when they approach the head monk, prostrate themselves before him. Their mode of caring for the idol is in all its forms identical with that of caring for a living human being,—bathing and anointing it, offering it food, offering it praise and reverence in song, in dancing, and in prayer, and periodical, in some cases daily, and seasonal airings and processions. In exploring the great theatre in Ephesus, Mr. Wood discovered an inscription containing infor mation as to the endowments and worship of the temple of Diana, and laying down the route by which, on the birthday of the goddess, her silver shrines and other treasures were to be carried in procession from the temple to the great theatre through one city gate, and back to the temple through. another city gate, which was called the And this is a perfect representation of the customs of the Hindus of the present day, and precisely as noticed in Isaiah xlvi. 7 : 'They bear him upon the shoulder ; they carry him, and set him in his place.' Position and Religion of Hindu 1Vomen.—A great defect in their social system seems to be the un equal conditions of the sexes. In European house holds there is almost as little real mixing of different grades of society, as occurs amongst the different castes of India. But among the Hindus, although their creed permits the women to attain heaven on their demise, so long as they are here on earth, whatever secret influence a wife may have, it is not shown to the community. Specu lative as are the entire Brahmanical populations, and to a large extent also all the races called Hindus.