votaries to have the exclusive enjoyment of these Rás Mandalis; for this would be an act of self-denial, not consistent with their tenets. They themselves perform the part of Krishna with the gopis, and represent the Rás Lilá. It occurs in one part of the evidence in the Libel Case that the enactment of this " amorous sport" may be witnessed upon the payment of a fee, and one of the witnesses had actually paid the fee to see it performed between the Maháráj, as Krishna, and a young Bháttiá girl. CHAPTER VIII. PROFLIGACY OF THE MAHARAJAS. OUR whole narrative has been scarcely anything but one continuous recital of the profligacy, debauchery, and licentiousness of the notorious Mahárájas. They find their infatuated votaries such willing victims, that their unresisting weakness tends to perpetuate and aggravate the evil; for all propensities, good and bad, by the very force of habit, become strengthened and confirmed. We cannot wonder, then, that these Mahárájas, accustomed from infancy to be treated with veneration, and to have every desire immediately and profusely met and gratified, should not desist from practices that have become bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Nurtured in indolence and sensuality, with the barest smattering of education, what can it be expected they should become but the precocious practitioners of every depravity? Accustomed to delicate nurture, the choicest viands, the richest habiliments, the smiles of women, and the abject and debasing servility of men, they unwittingly become gross sensualists; and the great wonder is, that, in the continuous practice of so much debauchery and dissipation, they should live even to the age of manhood. Comparatively few of them reach old age. The Mahárájas must be often well-favoured, to inspire women with so strong a passion as to purchase intercourse with them at any cost, as they have sometimes done; for this surely cannot always be traced to a religious source, but must often arise from depraved sensuality. Women have been known to part with their personal ornaments to purchase intercourse with these priests; and, upon returning home, they have pretended to their husbands, or to the elders of the house, that the ornaments were lost in the crush of the throng which pressed to pay adoration to the image of the idol. The Mahárájas are solicitous to obtain the notice of all their female votaries; but only their particular favorites, or the exceptional charms of a beautiful female novice, specially allure them. That they may not lose any opportunity of fascinating, they go to the temple attired in the choicest raiment, from which streams the rich perfume of the unguents they have been anointed with: they are as odorous and as iridescent as a parterre of bright coloured and sweet scented flowers. Can we wonder, then, at the infatuation of the females, thus assailed through every sense, and whose imaginations are intoxicated by the desire and expectation of realizing sensuous connection with an incarnate god? Some females, in their impassioned devotion, dedicate themselves wholly to this sensual enjoyment; and are so strongly impressed with its beneficial and meritorious efficacy, that they dedicate their daughters to the same service. It has often happened, in the case of the sickness of husband or child, that, in order to procure their recovery, women have vowed to dedicate their daughters to the embraces of the priest. But it must be remembered that females, when young, are already initiated, as far as sight is concerned, in the alluring mysteries of this profligate religious frenzy: they behold from infancy all the processes of the atrocious superstition, and grow up to maturity in the pestilential atmosphere of moral impurity. They are thus prepared for what follows. The profligacy, debauchery, and licentiousness which characterize the sect of Vallabháchárya have been noticed by several distinguished persons, two or three of whom flourished some hundred years ago. Dámodar Svámi, a dramatic writer, com posed a Sanskrit drama entitled Pákhanda Dharma Khandan (The Smashing of Heretical Religion), in the year of Samvat 1695 (about A.D. 1639), in which a distinct reference to Vallabháchárya and his sect is made as follows: आर्ये विदितमेव भवत्या वेदैः क्वापि पलायितं प्रियतमे वाती पिन श्रूयते सांख्यं योग पुराण धर्म निचयः क्ष्मांतर्गतो दृश्यते श्रीमद्वल्लभविठ्ठलेश्वरमुखैः श्रुत्यर्थबाधोद्यतैः प्रोक्तं स्वात्म निवेदनं युवतिभिः संदृश्यते सांप्रतं कंठे कर्णे च हस्ते कटितटविषये मस्तके काष्ठमालां वृंदायाः संदधानो मृगपदसदृशं चंदनं वे ललाटे राधेकृष्णेति जल्पन् श्रुतिपथविमुखो वेदिकान् भर्त्स्यमानः स्त्रीवृंदैः कामपूरैः प्रति पदमिलितो वैष्णवी चुंबमानः भो भो वैष्णवाः श्रूयतां आलिंगनं भुजनिबंधनमायताच्यः स्वच्छं निपानमशनं स्वपराद्य भेदः स्वात्मार्पर्ण युवतिभिर्गुरुषु प्रयुक्तं धन्यंच वैष्णवमतं भुवि मुक्तिहेतुः परस्परं भोज्यमहर्निशं रतिः स्त्रीभिः समं पानमनंतसौहृदं श्री गोकुलेशार्पित चेतसां नृणां रीतिः परा सुंदरि सारवेदिनां यत्पादुका पूजन मुख्यधर्मः सुतास्नुषादार समर्पणंच न पूजनं ब्राह्मण वैदिकानां नवा तिथेः श्राद्धव्रतोपवासः [TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE. ] "The Sútradhára (says to the Nati):-O dear, the Vedas have fled somewhere; no one knows the story of their flight (i.e. whither they have gone). The collection of the Sánkhya, Yoga, and the Puráņas, has sunk into the bowels of the earth. Now, young damsels, look to the self-dedication preached by Shrimat Vallabha Vittaleshvara, who has conspired to falsify the meaning of the Vedas. “ Enters a Vaishnava, having on his neck, ear, hand, head, and around his loins, a wreath made of the Vrinda (Ocymum Sanctum, or Tulsi), having on his forehead Gopichandana (a substitute for sandalwood). He is one who repeats Rádhá! Krishņa! Being opposed to the Shruti, he is the reproacher of those who adhere to the Vedas. He finds at every step crowds of females filled by káma (lust or cupid). He is the kisser of female Vaishnavas. Ye Vaishnavas, ye Vaishnavas, hear the excellent and blessed Vaishnava doctrine the embracing and clasping with the arms the large-eyed damsels, good drinking and eating, making no distinction between your own and another's, offering one's self and life to gurus, is in the world the cause of salvation. "Mutual dining, carnal intercourse with females night and day, drinking, forming endless alliances, are the surpassing, beautiful customs of the persons who have consecrated their souls to Sri Gokulesha. Charity, devotion, meditation, abstraction, the Vedas, and a crore of sacrifices, are nothing: the nectarine pleasure of the worshippers of the Páduká (wooden-slipper), in Sri Gokula, is better than a thousand other expedients. Our own body is the source of enjoyment, the object of worship reckoned by all men fit to be served. If sexual intercourse do not take place with the Gokulesha, the paramour of men is useless, like a worm or ashes. "The chief religion of the worshippers of the Páduká is the consecration of a daughter, a son's wife, and a wife, and not the worship of Brahmaņas learned in the Vedas, hospitality, the Shraddha (funeral ceremonies), vows, and fastings."* Sámal Bhatta, a distinguished Gujaráti poet, who flourished in Gujarát about a hundred and fifty years ago, in his poem entitled Sudá Boteri (Seventy-two Parrots) makes the following remarks in the twenty-fourth story of the book : વૈષ્ણવ ધરમમાં કહું | કનૈયે કીધું કાંમ || સોલ રાહસ્ર સંતોષીયા || નટવર જેનાં નામ || ૨૩ || * Translated by Dr. John Wilson. |