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Among the Kappiliyans of Madura and Tinnevelly a girl at her first monthly period remains under pollution for thirteen days, either in a corner of the house, which is screened off for her use by her maternal uncle, or in a temporary hut, which is erected by the same relative on the common land of the village.
What of to-day? TO-DAY: The Average Girl. Meenachi of Madura, if she could become articulate, might tell us something of the life of the average girl to-day. Being average, she belongs neither to the exclusive streets of the Brahman, nor to the hovels of the untouchable outcastes, but to the area of the great middle class which is in India as everywhere the backbone of society.
Imagine a festival night with these dimly lighted courts crowded with worshipers, the fierce and lustful images, the glorification of the lingam, the secret places of assignation! And this is the acme of Hindu religion! There are better things than this to be seen in Madura.
The Kadriyeh dervishes of Egypt adore a gigantic shoe, as an emblem of the sacred foot of the founder of their sect; and near Madura, a large leather shoe is offered in worship to a deity that, like Diana, presides over the chase. To the student of comparative religion the Phrabat, or Sacred Foot of Buddha, opens up a most interesting field of investigation.
I thank you also for the many addresses that you have been good enough to present to us, but I must come to business. It is a great pleasure to me to renew your acquaintance for reasons that I need not give you. I expect great things from Trichinopoly, Madura and a few places I could name. I take it that you have read my address on the Madras Beach on non-co-operation.
All the most beautiful portions of the temple as it now stands were built by Tirumala Nayak, the great Madura ruler of modern times, who ascended the throne in 1623 and reigned thirty-six years. One of the quadrangles opens out on a tank. An arcade runs around the tank, and the walls are painted with representations of the most famous pagodas in India.
The American Board in its mission at Madura, India, has acted upon this principle, and the result is seen in an aggregate of twenty-two thousand church-members. Our own most successful work has been among the Burmans and Karens, where we have seventy thousand members, and among the Telugus, where we have as many more.
There one can see the Juggernaut car drawn through the streets by a thousand men, though it is reluctantly admitted that the self-immolation of fanatics under the wheels is no longer allowed. "The Shiva temple at Madura is the more interesting as its towers are ornamented with six thousand idols."
Before proceeding to details we must shortly glance at the political condition of India in the first half of the fourteenth century, remembering that up to that time the Peninsula had been held by a number of distinct Hindu kingdoms, those of the Pandiyans at Madura and of the Cholas at Tanjore being the most important.
In the court around the central enclosure is a hall of about one thousand pillars; these are of granite, eighteen feet in height. On one side the pillars represent men astride rearing horses, the horses' feet being supported by the shields of men on foot beside them. This temple was built about 700 B.C. The tanks are of interest in Trichinopoly, but less so than in Madura.
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