Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 326

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DISGUSTING RELIGIOUS ORGIES
and several Sudras were
iniquities
initiated
into
which were carried on there.
mysterious
the
They drank and
ate to excess everything that is forbidden to a Hindu, not
excepting even the flesh of the cow, and the abominations
practised on these occasions are too disgusting to be
described.
They always finished up with sacrifices and
displays of magic, the supposed effects of which spread
fear and consternation amongst the peaceable inhabitants
of the whole neighbourhood, for the superstitious terrors
of the Hindu are easily awakened.
People were on the
point of appealing to the magistrates for protection against
these diabolical assemblies, when the debauchees who com-
posed them, seeing they were about to be discovered, left
the province and never dared to appear there again.
Amongst the abominable rites practised in India is one
which is only too well known it is called sakti-puja
l
sakti meaning strength or power
Sometimes it is the
wife of Siva to whom this sacrifice is offered
sometimes
they pretend that it is in honour of some invisible power.
The ceremony takes place at night with more or less secrecy.
The least disgusting of these orgies are those where they
confine themselves to eating and drinking everything that
the custom of the country forbids, and where men and
women, huddled together in indiscriminate confusion,
openly and shamelessly violate the commonest laws of
decency and modesty.
The Namadharis, or followers of Vishnu, are the most
frequent perpetrators of these disgusting sacrifices. People
of all castes, from the Brahmin to the Pariah, are invited
to attend.
When the company are assembled, all kinds of
meat, including beef, are placed before the idol of Vishnu.
Ample provision is also made of arrack, toddy and opium,
and any other intoxicating drug they can lay their hands
on.
The whole is then offered to Vishnu. Afterwards the
pujari, or sacrificer, who is generally a Brahmin, first of
all tastes the various kinds of meats and liquors himself,
;
;
.
;
It is more correctly described as the power or energy of the god as
represented in some of the many female forms.' It has been estimated
that of the Hindus in Bengal, about three-fourths are devoted to the
worship of sakti, though the forms of worship vary greatly. In Bengal
the Vnmacharis observe the most disgusting rites of all.
Ed.
1
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