The principal bathing ghāt has been lately rebuilt in a most splendid
manner by the Government of Bengal, under the superintendence of an
officer of engineers; it is now both elegant and commodious, and will
prevent the destruction of so many human beings, which so often occurred
by the sudden rush of the devotees through the old and narrow ghāt to
reach the water at the propitious moment, which was often at midnight.
The auspicious moment is calculated by the Brahmans, who aver that a
great increase in the efficacy of the rite is derivable from its
performance, when Jupiter is in Aquarius, which happens every twelfth
year, or when the sun enters Aries.
A wandering mendicant in the foreground is playing on an _ektara_, a
one-stringed instrument, formed of a gourd, surmounted by peacocks’
feathers—the Paganini of the East!