The group of natives seated on the ground are a particular cast of
Hindūs, who profess to charm serpents, to reduce them to subjection, and
to prevent their poison from proving fatal. They roam about the country,
carrying a boa constrictor in a basket, which they twine around their
necks and display to the passers by. They have also a number of the
cobra di capello, which, being placed on the ground, rear themselves up,
and, spreading out their hoods, sway themselves about in a fashion which
the men call dancing, accompanied by the noise of a little hand-drum.
The snake charmers strike the reptiles with their hands, and the snakes
bite them repeatedly on their hands as well as on their arms, bringing
blood at every bite: although the venomous fangs have been carefully
removed, the bite itself must be disagreeable; nevertheless the natives
appear not to mind it in the least. At the conclusion of the _tamāshā_
(fun), they catch the cobras and cram them all into _gharās_ (earthen
vessels), and carry the boas off in a basket. The snake charmers remind
us of the text, “They are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear;
which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so
wisely.” (Psalm lviii. 4, 5.)
The two men on the left are pilgrims with holy water. In the cold season
of the year, Hindūs from all parts of Upper India, perform pilgrimages
to the sacred places on the Ganges: although the stream throughout is
considered holy, there are parts of peculiar sanctity, such as Hurdwar,
Benares, Allahabad, &c. The roads swarm with devotees; they proceed in
large groups, generally well dressed, carrying on their shoulders a
large bamboo, supporting at each end a covered basket, containing small
stumpy bottles of the thinnest green glass, having long necks: they are
filled with Ganges water at the sacred places, and sealed with the seal
of the Brahman. These people travel all over the country, selling the
sacred water at a high price at the distant stations. Some of the
bottles contain a quart; others are not above two inches high; they are
of all sizes, and the price varies accordingly. The salutation of these
people on passing is, “_Ram ram_,” or “_Bom bom Mahadēo_,”—a pilgrim of
this class is called a _Kanwar-wālā_. The men come for this water to
place it in their houses for religious and medicinal uses, and sometimes
perform a journey on the occasion of five or six months; it is also used
in the English courts of justice, in administering an oath to an Hindū.
The frames in which the baskets are carried are decorated with feathers
of the sacred peacock and small red flags; and every party appears to
have one amongst them more ornamented than the rest, with a large arched
cover, and numerous bells attached to it.
A _jumna-pār_ goat, so called because these goats are bred on the other
side the Junma, is lying on the ground—they are of enormous size, with
very broad, long, thin, and silky ears, as soft as velvet. These animals
are better adapted for marching than the small Bengalī goat; but unless
they can go into the _jangal_ and browse, they become thin and lose
their milk.
On the opposite side of the river is the Jellinghy flat and her steamer,
returning from Allahabad to Calcutta. The steamer herself is not the
vessel in which passengers live; but attached to, and towed by her, is a
vessel as large as the steamer herself, called a flat, built expressly
to convey passengers and government treasure. It is divided into cabins,
with one large cabin in the centre, in which the passengers dine
together. The deck is covered with an awning.
The view on the left of the native vessel exemplifies the structure of
the ghāts on the water’s edge. The continuity of the line of steps is
interrupted by hundreds of stone piers of various forms, which may be
classed under three distinct heads: some are merely intended to give
solidity to the masonry; others are built for the accommodation of the
_ghātiyās_ (ghāt attendants), and _gangā-putras_ (sons of the Ganges),
who enjoy hereditary possession of most of the ground between high and
low water mark, and whose ancestors have resided on the spot from time
immemorial in hereditary attendance upon pilgrims; the third sort
consists of _mut’hs_ or small temples, erected at the expense of
pilgrims and others: they generally have a flat roof, which serves the
_ghātiyā_ as a _chabūtāra_ or terrace to sit and converse upon. The
large _chatrs_, or umbrellas, so numerous on the ghāts, are fixtures, to
protect the people from the intense heat of the sun in India.
On the river’s edge are seen one or two _murhīs_—chambers into which the
sick are removed when at the point of death, that their sins, to the
last moment of existence, may be washed away by the holy stream.
In the midst of hundreds and hundreds of temples and ghāts, piled one
above another on the high cliff, or rising out of the Ganges, the mind
is perfectly bewildered: it turns from beauty to beauty, anxious to
preserve the memory of each; and the sketcher throws down the pencil in
despair. Each ghāt presents a study: the intricate architecture, the
elaborate workmanship, the elegance and lightness of form, and the
picturesque groups of natives that crowd to their devotions, form as
fine a subject for a picture as an artist could select.
How soon Benares, or rather the glory of Benares—its picturesque
beauty—will be no more! Since the year 1836 many ghāts and temples have
sunk, undermined by the rapid stream which now sets full upon the most
beautiful cluster of the temples on its banks: some have been engulphed,
some are falling; and ere long, if the Ganges encroach at an equal rate,
but little will remain of the glory of the most holy of the Hindū
cities.
In the rains, some of the temples are submerged to the cornice; many
Hindūs, notwithstanding, are bold enough to swim through an impetuous
current, and to dive under the porch and doorway, for the honour of
continuing their customary worship despite of perils and personal
inconvenience.