Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 621

THE IDOLS DESCRIBED
The low elevation
58l
the difficulty with which the
a way through a single narrow and habitually
elosed passage
the unhealthy odours rising from the mass
of fresh and decaying flowers
the burning lamps
the oil
and butter spilt in libations the excrements of the bats
that take up their abode in these dark places
finally, and
above all, the fetid perspiration of a multitude of unclean
and malodorous people
all contribute to render these
sacred shrines excessively unhealthy.
Only a Hindu could
remain for any length of time in their heated and pestilential
precincts without suffocation 1
The principal idol is generally placed in a niche. It is
clothed with garments more or less magnificent, and on
great festivals is sometimes adorned with rare vestments
and rich jew els. A crown of gold set with precious stones
often adorns its head.
For the most part, however, the
idols of stone wear a cap like a sugar-loaf, which imparts
to the whole figure the appearance of a pyramid.
The
Hindus, by the way, appear to have a special fancy for the
form of a pyramid, which perhaps is due to some symbolical
degree.
;
air finds
;
;
;
;
;
;
—
.
r
We
notion.
know that various nations of antiquity, among
others the Egyptians, regarded the pyramid as the symbol
of immortality and of life, the beginning of which was
represented by the base and the end or death by the summit.
The pyramid was also the emblem of fire.
In vain are Hindu idols decked with rich ornaments
they are not rendered thereby less disagreeable in appear-
ance.
Their physiognomy is generally of frightful ugliness,
which is carefully enhanced by daubing the images from
time to time with a coating of dark paint. Some of the
idols, thanks to the generous piety of rich votaries, have
their eyes, mouth, and ears of gold or silver
but this
makes them, if possible, yet more hideous. The attitudes
in which they are represented are either ridiculous, gro-
tesque, or obscene.
In short, everything is done to make
them objects of disgust to any one not familiar with the
sight of these strange monsters.
The idols exposed to public veneration in the temples
;
;
The Abbe nowhere remarks on the burning of camphor, which plays
conspicuous a part in all Hindu worship, and which acts at the same
time as a disinfectant. Ed.
1
iso