[Footnote 55: Compare the Nautch dances on R[=a]macandra's birthday. Religious dances, generally indecent, are also a prominent feature of the religions of the wild tribes (as among American and African savages, Greeks, etc., etc.).]
[Footnote 56: The 'Easter bonnet' in Indic form.]
[Footnote 57: In sober contrast stands the yearly orthodox Çráddha celebration (August-September), though Brahmans join in sectarian fêtes.]
[Footnote 58: Wilson draws an elaborate parallel between the Hol[=i] and the Lupercalia, etc. (Carnival). But the points of contact are obvious. One of the customs of the Hol[=i] celebration is an exact reproduction of April-Fool's day. Making "Hol[=i] fools" is to send people on useless errands, etc. (Festum Stultorum, at the Vernal Equinos, transferred by the Church to the first of November, "Innocents' Day").]
[Footnote 59: Stevenson, JRAS. 1841, p. 239; Williams, loc. cit.; Wilkins, Modern Hinduism, ch. III.]
[Footnote 60: The daily service consists in dressing, bathing, feeding, etc It is divided into eight ridiculous ceremonies, which prolong the worship through the day.]
[Footnote 61: The brilliant displays attracted the notice of the Greeks, who speak of the tame tigers and panthers, the artificial trees carried in wagons, the singing, instrumental music, and noise, which signalized a fête procession. See Williams, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 62: Such, for instance, is the most holy temple of South India, the great temple of Çr[=i]rangam at Trichinopoly. The idol car, gilded and gaudy, is carved with obscenity; the walls and ceilings are frescoed with bestiality. It represents Vishnu's heaven.]
[Footnote 63: From this name or title comes the Gita
Govinda, a mystic erotic poem (in praise of the cow-boy god)
exaltedly religious as it is sensual (twelfth century).]
[Footnote 64: VP.l. 2. 63. The 'qualities' or 'conditions'
of God's being are referred to by 'goodness' and
'darkness.']