rubÿ *•. The image has alfo a mouth and nofe painted with vermilion.
None, except Pariars, are denied admittance to the pre-
fence of the deity. The Ayeen Akberry, p. 18, gives a moftfuper-
ftitious account of the difcovery of this image; the author fpeaks
o f more images than one : He fays, “ the Brahmins waih the
“ images of Jagrenaut fix times every day, and drefs them
“ every time in freih clothes ; as foon as they are drelfed fifty-
« fix Brahmins attend them, and prefent them with various
« kinds of food : the quantity of vi&uals oflfered to thefe idols
jg £*q ye^y great as to feed twenty thoufand perfons ? This
image is never removed out of the temple, but its effigies is
often carried in proceffion in a moil enormous coach four Hones
high, with fixteen wheels, and capable of containing two
hundred perfons - it is drawn by a cable o f great length , zealous
votaries will fling themfelves before the wheels, to gain a
death that is to enfure a happy immortality. Hamilton vifited
this holy temple, but was not admitted into the interior; the
report of that part he had from a Hindoo fervant whom he fent
in, and who gave him his remarks. There are no windows,
but it is lighted by a hundred lamps.
Cells f o r N e a r the Pagoda are feveral cells or convents, the lodgings of
b rahm in s . ^ Brabmim. there are about fiVe hundred ; part of whom are
perpetually employed in the praifing of the deity, attended with
the mufic of tabors and cymbals, while another part is bufied
in dreffing quantities of rice for the ufe of thé numerous poor,
hut a portion is always offered firfl to Jagrenaut-, much alfo is
* Antequil du Perron.
fold
fold at a very cheap rate to the multitudes o f pilgrims who
crowd here from all parts of India. Thefe are not permitted to
pay their refpeits to his godffiip till they have performed their
ablutions in the adjoining tank or refervoir, which is made of
different colored ftones.
T he legend of Jagrenaut is, that he was a foreigner, but L egend.
was found on the ffiore by certain filhermen in his prefent
form, that he addreffed himfelf to them, and informed them,
that he came in pure charity to refide among them, and re-
quefted a proper lodging, which thè reigning prince immediately
fupplied in its prefent form.
M. Sonnerat fays, that he is the fame with Quichena ; that, Same with
Q uichena ;
able traveller gives two figures of him, in vol. i. tab. 46,47 ; in
one he is reprefented dancing on the Calengam, or the Cobra
de Capello, which he had killed in fight : in the other he is entangled
from head to foot in the fatal ferpent. M. Sonnerat
fuppofes him to have been the fame with the Apollo of the w ith A pollo.
Greeks, who flew the great ferpent Python. The Indians celebrate
their deity with numbers of feitivals in memory o f his
triumph over the Indian Python, nor do they think their falva-
tion fecure without paying one pilgrimage to his Pagoda. That
able writer Sir William Jones, in his Differtations on the
Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, gives us the figure o f Surya,
or the Indian Apollo, but does not mention him as the fame
with the great Jagrenaut or Quichena.
T h is temple is defcribed in the Ayeen Akberry, ii. 18. The.
account merits the reader’s attention. What a field o f taite and
fpeculation will not India be to a future Mecanas patronizing a
V o l. SS T fuitable