Devil and Spirit Worship.—Every Hindu work containing allusions to native life, says Dr. Cald well, and the dictionaries of all the Hindu tongues, prove the general prevalence of a belief in the existence of malicious or mischievous demons, in demoniacal inflictions and possessions, and in the power of exorcisms. Spirit houses of Mysore are little sheds erected over white-ant hills. In Berar, when the Gonda fell a wood on a hill-side, they leave a little clump to serve as a refuge for the elf or spirit whom they have dislodged. The Brahmanic worship of the spirit of the dead is shown by their bringing back to the house the dead person's soul, supposed to have lost its home by the body's death. A stone or some such object is picked up at the grave, and carried reverentially back to the house, where it is worshipped for a few days, and then decently disposed of. The demons wor shipped are multitudinous. Chand Khan of the Dekhan is one of them. His tomb is worshipped on one bastion of every mud fort. The legend regarding him is to the effect that there was a difficulty encountered in the erection of a bastion, and he was sacrificed and buried to appease the obstructing demon. See Demon ; Devil; Shanar.
Unions of any sort, especially of waters, are held sacred by Hindus, and above all the union of the Ganga and Jumna near Allahabad,—the latter river having previously rec eived the Saraswati below Dehli, so that in fact all three unite at this famed sangam or confluence. But the Hindu poet feigns a subterrane flow of the Saraswati, and a mystical union at the sacred point, where hathing is deemed peculiarly efficacious. Major Moor once saw (p. 429) at Poona a well-modelled group in clay, where Radha's locks, tripartite, were plaited into the mystical Triveni by the amorous Krishna, who sat rapturously admiring the work of his hands. The Triveni, or three-plaited locks, in Hindu mythology, is the mystical union of these three sacred rivers, the Ganges, Jumna, and Saraswati, severally the consorts or energies of the three great powers. Coleman also says (pp. 394, 398) that the Triveni, or three-plaited locks, is allegorical of the holy rivers Ganga (or Ganges), Yamuna (or Junina), which join near Allahabad, the Saraswati being supposed to join the other two under ground. A Hindu dying near the imagined confluence of the three streams, or even of those of the Gang. and Yamuna, attains immediate beatitude; consequently self or self - permitted immolation, sati, etc., were meritorious on this peculiarly holy spot, and multitudes of pilgrims annually resort there to bathe. Other rivers are held sacred by Hindus, viz. the Godavery, the Sindhu or Indus, the
Krishna or Kistna, the Cauvery, and the Brahma putra. It is, however, the Ganges that is most revered. The Hindu longs to perform his ablu tions in its streams ; its waters are carried to remote distances, to be sold to persons who wish to perform with it their sacred rites ; many men and women formerly drowned themselves in the sacred stream, hoping by that means to reach their heavenly abode ; the bodies of those dying far and near are sent to be committed to its bosom ; and from still greater distances Hindus send in cremated bones of deceased relatives to be cast into the waters.
The union of the palmyra and the Urostigma religiosa is deemed holy, and their orchard is married to its adjacent well before its fruit can be partaken of.
The Hindus also reverence the impressions of feet. On the top of Adam's Peak in Ceylon is a natural hollow, artificially enlarged, said to be the impression of a foot of Buddha, as Buddhists say, hitt called by the Hindus, Sripada or Sripad meaning the divine footstep, Vishnu having, thej say, alighted on that spot in his avatara of llama although Mahomedans and Christians have also claimed that footmark as of their religious relics I Mullis make pilgrimages to the Sripad in Ceylon, and in other places where similar proofs of al avatar or descent have been discovered.
The Mahrattas make images in honour of de ceased ancestors, and of their guru or spiritual in structors, as 'Ares, or Pennies, or ',mores. Nat and Vira (Nat'lia, lord; Vim, brave) and Bharava are epithets applied to such domestic images.
Their leaf-platters, used as plates, are usually made of the leaves of the mango, the jamoon, Syzyginin jambolanmn, the banyan, and pipal trees. Part of the ceremony of a vow of friend ship, amongst Hindus, consists in dividing a bel or larger wood-apple, half of which is kept by each party, and from this compact is called bel bandar. Every Hindu, whatever his avocation, on his new year's day worships the object or imple ment by which he obtains his living, or, in western phrase, blesses and consecrates it. During the Durga puja, Durga is worshipped in the form of a water-pot. It is called Ghita-puja, also Ghatastha Fula. The water-pot being placed after certain invocations, Durga is supposed to enter it, and she is then worshipped. The bamboo is worshipped by the Tiperah people, the Cachari, and the Garo. They stick a bamboo in the ground during one of their religious festivals, and worship it. The Kol of Central India worship the sal tree (Vatica robusta).