And warbled prayers, restored the day,
When Ganga from his brow, with heavenly fingers prest,
Sprang radiant, and descending, graced the caverns of the west [575].
COLUMNS OF TEMPLES AT CHANDRĀVATI.
To face page 670.
The Goddess Ganga.
The Aghori Ascetics.
The ὠμοφαγία, or eating raw flesh with the blood, was a part of the secret mysteries of Osiris, in commemoration of the happy change in the condition of mankind from savage to civilized life, and intended to deter by disgust the return thereto.[[54]]
The Buddhists pursued this idea to excess; and in honour of Adiswara, the First, who from his abode of Meru taught them the arts of agriculture, they altogether abandoned that type of savage life, the eating of the flesh of animals,[[55]] and confined themselves to the fruits of the earth. With these sectarian anti-idolaters, who are almost all of Rajput descent, the beneficent Lakshmi, Sri, or Gauri, is an object of sincere devotion.