United States or Faroe Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Among those most easy of access are the Ganesh Lena, as they are called, hollowed out of the vast rounded scarp, which rising a hundred feet above the plain projects from the Hatkeshvar and Suleman ranges about a mile northward of the town.
"My altars are few beside those of Ganesh or Bhairon, but the fire-carriages bring me new worshippers from beyond the Black Water the men who believe that their God is toil. I run before them beckoning, and they follow Hanuman." "Give them the toil that they desire, then," said the River. "Make a bar across my flood and throw the water back upon the bridge.
Equally noteworthy is the part played by the revival of Ganpati celebrations in honour of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, perhaps the most popular of all Hindu deities, in stimulating political disaffection in the Deccan.
"My altars are few beside those of Ganesh or Bhairon, but the fire-carriages bring me new worshippers from beyond the Black Water the men who believe that their God is toil. I run before them beckoning, and they follow Hanuman." "Give them the toil that they desire, then," said the River. "Make a bar across my flood and throw the water back upon the bridge. Once thou wast strong in Lanka, Hanuman.
Ganesh makes me laugh, with his elephant's head; and Tooni says that Allah is not my God. 'Tooni says, Sunni went on reflectively, 'that my God is in her little black book. But I have never seen him. Perhaps this Englishman will show him to you, suggested Moti. 'But His Highness, your father, will he allow strange gods to be brought to the people?
In the centre of the back wall, between two ancient stone seats, glowers a rude "eidolon," aflame with red lead and ghi, so thickly smeared indeed that the original features and form of the god have well-nigh disappeared. Yet this is Ganesh, the kindly Ganesh, who turns not a deaf ear to the prayers of his servants and in whose honour the stone steps were hewn and laid.
Even as he was making his prayers, a crack between the stones of the floor gaped, and, closing, caught him by the heel. Then he heard the Gods walking in the temple in the darkness of the columns, and Shiv called to his son Ganesh, saying "Son, what hast thou done in regard to the lakh of rupees for the mendicant?"
And Ganesh woke, for the moneylender heard the dry rustle of his trunk uncoiling, and he answered, "Father, one-half of the money has been paid, and the debtor for the other half I hold here fast by the heel." The child bubbled with laughter. 'And the moneylender paid the mendicant? it said. 'Surely, for he whom the Gods hold by the heel must pay to the uttermost.
As to the matter of prayers, for those who were not followers of the Prophet, who carried no little prayer carpet to kneel upon, face to Mecca, there was, it being a Rajput town, always the shrine of Shiva and his elephant-headed son, Ganesh, to receive obeisance from the Hindus.
"And to cover that weariness they, my people, will bring to thee, Shiv, and to thee, Ganesh, at first greater offerings and a louder noise of worship. But the word has gone abroad, and, after, they will pay fewer dues to our fat Brahmins. Next they will forget your altars, but so slowly that no man can say how his forgetfulness began. "I knew I knew!
Word Of The Day