. What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is added an account of what the world believes today, by countries. only reverence their rivers, but actually wor-ship them, dividing them into male and female deities^But the Ganges, both in their poems, their Pooranus,and in the ceremonial customs of the natives, appearsto rank highest among the river deities. She is declaredto have descended from Vishnus heaven; an anniversary ofwhich event is ce
. What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is added an account of what the world believes today, by countries. only reverence their rivers, but actually wor-ship them, dividing them into male and female deities^But the Ganges, both in their poems, their Pooranus,and in the ceremonial customs of the natives, appearsto rank highest among the river deities. She is declaredto have descended from Vishnus heaven; an anniversary ofwhich event is celebrated by particular festivities. Themost extravagant things are related in the Pooranus re-specting the purifying nature of these waters ; and severalworks have been written to extol the saving properties ofthe Ganges. Its waters are carried to immense distances;everything they touch becomes purified; crowds of Hindoosperform their worship on the river, daily, after purifyingthemselves in the stream ; the sick are laid on its banks,expecting recovery from the mere sight of this goddess;and it is reckoned a great calamity not to die within sightof this river. 6. Worship of Fish.—Even the finny tribesare honored by the Hindoos, though the worship paid to. PORTICO OF PADOGA AT PONDICHERKY. INDIA. THE JUGGERNAUT. 137 them is of an inferior sort. 7. The Worship of Books isvery common among this people. The lower orders havesuch a profound respect for a book, that they think every-thing in such a form must be divine/ On several occasionsa book is converted into an image, and worshipped with allthe form used before the most popular idol. 8. Worshipof Stones.—The Shalugramu, as a form of Vishnu, is morefrequently worshipped than any other idol in India/ not the Lingu itself; which, perhaps, ought to beplaced next, and which is also a stone. The representativesof Punchanunu and other gods are shapeless stones. Manyimages of idols sold in the markets are made of sto
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectreligions, bookyear18
