MIRZAPŪR.
Mirzapūr is a military cantonment, famous for its beautiful ghāts, and noted for its carpet manufactory and cotton mart. Some remarkably picturesque Hindū temples are on the ghāts, with fine trees in the back ground. The cliff is abrupt, and the river is always crowded with vessels full of merchandise: steamers having plenty of cargo to land are generally detained here four or five hours. Mirzapūr is from Calcutta, via Bhagirathī, 748 miles, and by dāk route, 455.
The scene before you is very singular; it represents the finale of the Kalī-pūjā festival: the goddess is seen on a platform in the boat in the foreground, covered by an awning, and adorned with flags: on the steps of the ghāt, a similar image is being put into a boat, and from every part of the city the worshippers are bringing forth the idols. One of the boats is towed by a dinghī, in which they are firing a feu de joie from a matchlock.
In the house of the Bengalī babū you beheld a nāch, and the worship of the goddess Dūrga, a yellow woman, with ten arms. You have now before you another form of the same Hindū deity, under the name of Kalī, the black, the terrific. When this goddess is worshipped in the month of May, it is called the Phuluharī festival, on account of the quantity of fruits and flowers offered to the idol at this particular season: animals are sacrificed in her honour, and jack fruit and mangoes are presented to her in that particular month.
The day after the worship, the people carry the goddess in state to the river, and place the image on a platform, between two boats; the worshippers, attended by the discordant music of tom-toms (native drums) and horns, row the image out into the stream, and sink her in the deep waters: the women weep and utter lamentations on parting with the idol.
This goddess is represented as a black woman, with four arms: in one hand she carries a scimitar, one is bestowing a blessing, another forbids fear, and the fourth holds the head of the giant whom she slew.
She wears a necklace of skulls, her tongue hangs out of her mouth, her jet-black hair falls to her heels. Having drunk the blood of the giants she slew, her eyebrows are bloody, and the blood is falling in a stream down her breast: her eyes are red, like those of a drunkard: she stands trampling on her husband Siva. Kālī had a contest with the giant Ravŭna, which lasted ten years: having conquered him, she became mad with joy, and her dancing shook the earth to its centre. To restore the peace of the world, Siva, her husband, threw himself amongst the dead bodies at her feet. She continued her dancing, and trampled upon him. When she discovered her husband, she stood still, horror-struck and ashamed, and threw out her tongue to an uncommon length; by this means Siva stopped her frantic dancing, and saved the universe. “The Philistine cursed David by his gods.” A Hindū sometimes in a fit of anger, says to his enemy, “The goddess Kalī shall devour thee; may Dūrga destroy thee!”