Hinduism, and the worshippers of this god number
amongst them most of those who wish to throw off all
the impurities and extravagances of the debased religion
which are so common in India.
This part may well be closed with an extract from
Atkinson’s “ Himalayan Districts.” * “ The importance
of the Kumaun Himalaya, in the history of religion in
India, is mainly due to the existence therein of the great
shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath, containing forms
of Vishnu and Siva, which still hold a foremost position
in the beliefs of the great majority of Hindus.
To them the Kumaun Himalaya is what Palestine is
to the Christian, the place where those whom the Hindu
esteems most spent portions of their lives, the home
of the great gods, the ‘ great way ’ to final liberation.
This is a living belief, and thousands every year prove
their faith by visiting the shrines. The later devotional
works are full of allusions to the Himalaya, and wherever
a temple exists the celebrant sings the praises of Kedarnath
and Badrinath. To many the fruition of all
earthly desires is the crowning glory of a visit to
the sacred places, by which the sins of former births
are cleansed, and exemption from metempsychosis
obtained. Each rock and rivulet is dedicated to some
deity, or saint, and has its own appropriate legend.
Nature in her wildest and most rugged forms bears
witness to the correctness of the belief that here is the
home of the ‘ great god,’ and when, wearied with toiling
through the chasms in the mountains which form the
approach to the principal shrines, the traveller from
the plains is told to proceed in respectful silence
lest the god should be angered, he feels ‘ the presence.’
And should the forbidden sounds of song and music
* Cf. p. 703-xii.
arise, and the god in wrath hurl down his avalanche
on the offenders, then the awe-stricken pilgrim believes
that he has seen his god, terrible, swift to punish, and
seeks by renewed austerities to avert the god’s displeasure.
All the aids to worship in the shape of
striking scenery, temples, mystic and gorgeous ceremonial,
and skilled celebrants are present, and he must
indeed be dull who returns from his pilgrimage unsatisfied.”