Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Seite 740

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A CELEBRATED TEMPLE DESECRATED
This temple of Belgola, being only a day's journey from
Seringapatam, has been frequently visited by Europeans.
It was a great source of grief to the devotees of the sect to
see this punyasthala (holy place) denied by a crowd of un-
believing visitors.
And what was still worse, these inquisi-
tive foreigners were often accompanied by their dogs and
In one resting-place they would
their Pariah servants.
cook a stew, in another they would roast a piece of beef
under the very nose, as it were, of the idol, whose sense of
smell, the Jains thought, was infinitely disgusted by the
smoke of this abominable style of cooking. At last the guru
attached to the temple, shocked at all this desecration, fled
from the unhallowed spot, and retired to some solitary place
on the Malabar coast. After three years of this voluntary
exile, he returned to his former abode on the assurance that
Europeans had ceased to visit the place, and that the temple
had been thoroughly purified. Now, I ask you whethei it
not the duty of any well-conducted man, even if he does
is
not respect them, at least not to openly outrage the preju-
dices, feelings, and customs of any people amongst whom
he may happen to be thrown, no matter how peculiar or
What pleasure could
ridiculous they may appear to him.
be derived, or what good could be gained, by exciting the
anger and contempt of those from whom one has nothing
to fear, and who cannot retaliate
An invalid European officer, who was going to the Malabar
coast for change of air, on passing near Belgola, was seized
with the idea of spen