. Popular religion and folk-lore of Northern India . ect from men, but women and children attend herservice in large numbers on Sitalas seventh, Sitala KiSaptami, which is her feast day. In Bengal she is wor-shipped on a piece of ground marked out and smeared withcow-dung. A fire being lighted, and butter and spiritsthrown upon it, the worshipper makes obeisance, bowinghis forehead to the ground and muttering incantations. Ahog is then sacrificed, and the bones and offal being burnt,the flesh is roasted and eaten, but no one must take homewith him any scrap of the Two special shrines
. Popular religion and folk-lore of Northern India . ect from men, but women and children attend herservice in large numbers on Sitalas seventh, Sitala KiSaptami, which is her feast day. In Bengal she is wor-shipped on a piece of ground marked out and smeared withcow-dung. A fire being lighted, and butter and spiritsthrown upon it, the worshipper makes obeisance, bowinghis forehead to the ground and muttering incantations. Ahog is then sacrificed, and the bones and offal being burnt,the flesh is roasted and eaten, but no one must take homewith him any scrap of the Two special shrines of Sitala in Upper India may bespecially referred to. That at Kankhal near Hardwar has acurious legend, which admirably illustrates the catholicityof Hinduism. Here the local Sitala has the special title ofTurkin, or the Muhammadan lady. There was once a 1 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, ii. 1161; Tylor, Early History,143 ; Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i. 229 ; Sir W. Scott, Lectureson Demonology, 105. 2 Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. z _i O a < z < << 0U-IZ asx .*.u The Codlings of Disease. 127 princess born to one of the Mughal Emperors, who, accord-ing to the traditions of the dynasty, when many of the chiefladies of the harem were of Hindu birth, had a warm sym-pathy for her ancestral faith. So she made a pilgrimageto Hardwar, and thence set off to visit the holy shrinessituated in the upper course of the Ganges. When shereached the holy land of Badarinath, the god himselfappeared to her in a dream, and warned her that she beinga Musalman, her intrusion into his domains would probablyencourage the attacks of the infidel. So he ordered her toreturn and take up her abode in Kankhal, where as a rewardfor her piety she should after her death become the guardiangoddess of children and be deified as a manifestation ofSitala. So after her death a temple was erected on the siteof her tomb, and she receives the homage of multitudes ofpilgrims. There is ano
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidpopularrelig, bookyear1896
