been termed the
Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus. Verses the most obscene
imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion. Figures of men and
women, in the most indecent and disgusting attitudes, are in many
places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are
uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves
disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with
their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are
thrown upon all that are seen passing along the road; all business is
at a stand, all gives way to license and riot."[59]

Besides these the most brilliant festivals are the R[=a]s Y[=a]tr[=a]
in Bengal (September-October), commemorating the dance of Krishna
with the _gop[=i]s_ or milk-maids, and the 'Lamp-festival'
(D[=i]p[=a]l[=a]), also an autumnal celebration.

The festivals that we have reviewed cover but a part of the year, but
they will suffice to show the nature of such fetes as are enjoined in
the Pur[=a]nas. There are others, such as the eightfold[60]
temple-worship of Krishna as a child, in July or August; the marriage
of Krishna's idol to the Tulasi plant; the Awakening of Vishnu, in
October, and so forth. But no others compare in importance with the
New Year's and Spring festivals, except the Bengal idol-display of
Jagann[=a]th, the Rath Y[=a]tr[=a] of 'Juggernaut'; and some others of
local celebrity, such as the D[=u]rg[=a]-p[=u]j[=a].[61] The temples,
to which reference has often been made, have this in common with the
great Civaite festivals, that to describe them in detail would be but
to translate into words images and wall-paintings, the obscenity of
which is better left undescribed. This, of course, is particularly
true of the Civa temples, where the actual Linga is perhaps, as Barth
has said, the least objectionable of the sights presented to the eye
of the devout worshipper. But the Vishnu temples are as bad.
Architecturally admirable, and even wonderful, the interior is but a
display of sensual immorality.[62]

HISTORY OF THE HINDU TRINITY.

In closing the Puranic period (which name we employ loosely to cover
such sects as are not clearly modern) we pause for a moment to cast a
glance backwards over the long development of the trinity, to the
units of which are devoted the individual Pur[=a]nas. We have shown
that the childhood-tales of Krishna are of late (Puranic) origin, and
that most of the cow-boy exploits ar