roof, round which the astrolabes, &c. are arranged. A
half-naked Astronomer-Royal, with a large sore on his
stomach, took me round—he was a pitiful object, and
3. BRASS AZIMUTH CIRCLE.
(DIAMETER, 2 FEET.)
told me he was very hungry. The observatory is
nominally supported by the Rajah of Jeypore, who
doles out a too scanty pittance to his scientific corps.
In the afternoon I visited the Sar-nath, a singular
Boodhist temple, a cylindrical mass of brickwork, faced
with stone, the scrolls on which were very beautiful,
and as sharp as if freshly c u t: it is surmounted by a
tall dome, and is altogether about seventy or a hundred
feet high. Of the Boodh figures only one remains, the
others having been used by a recent magistrate of
Benares in repairing a bridge over the Goomtee !
Benares is the Mecca of the Hindoos, and the
number of pilgrims who visit it is incalculable. Casi
(its ancient name, signifying splendid) is alleged to be
no part of this world, which rests on eternity, whereas
Benares is perched on a prong of Siva’s trident, and is
hence beyond the reach of earthquakes.* Originally
built of gold, the sins of the inhabitants were punished
by its transmutation into stone, and latterly into mud
and thatch : whoever enters it, and especially visits its
principal idol (Siva fossilised), is secure of heaven.
On the 18tli I left Benares for Ghazepore, a pretty
town situated on the north bank of the river, celebrated
for its manufacture of rose-water, the tomb of Lord
Cornwallis, and a site of the Company’s stud. The
Rose gardens surround the town : they are fields, with
low bushes of the plant grown in rows, red with
blossoms in the morning, all of which are, however,
plucked long before midday. The petals are put into
clay stills, with twice their weight of water, and the
produce exposed to the fresh air, for a night, in open
* Probably an allusion to the infrequency of these phenomena in this
meridian; they being common both in Eastern Bengal, and in Western
India beyond the Ganges.