more burūj. We had now arrived at Azīmabad, as the ancient city of Patna is called by the Muhammadans, which extends a great distance along the bank of the river, and is supposed to have been, among others, the site of the ancient Palibothra; the Hindoo appellation is Sri Nagar.
"The hypocrites of Bhagulpūr, the footpads of Kuhulgaon, and the bankrupts of Patna, are all famous[1]." The Hindoos were coming down in large parties, preceded by tomtoms (native drums), and musical instruments of all sorts, to bring their offerings to the river. They carried baskets filled with fruits or vegetables to the river-side, and great bunches of plantains, and washed them in the river. The Brahmans poured water on the offerings, prayers were repeated, the people bathed and returned home.
It was the festival of the Sun—the Sūraj Pūja. The dresses of the people were of the most brilliant colours. Flags of a bright crimson colour, bearing the image of Hūnūmānnūmān?] blazoned in white upon them, were flying at the end of long slender bamboos.
Advancing higher up the river, near the old fort, there are picturesque houses of all sorts, intermixed with Hindoo temples, fine trees, and distant masjids. A sandbank in the centre of the Ganges was covered with temporary huts of straw, where the devout were bathing and offering flowers and fruits; it was a beautiful scene, that animated multitude on the sandbank and in the river, with the high bank on the opposite side covered with the houses and the temples of the city. The pinnaces and vessels of all sorts were decked with flags. Large parties of women, dressed in the gayest attire and the most various colours, were doing pūja, bathing in the river, or presenting their offerings of fruit, flowers, &c., to the attendant Brahmans. "While bathing, the Hindoos repeat certain incantations, in order to bring the waters of all the holy places in the heaven of Sōōry[)u] into the spot where they are standing, and thus obtain the merit of bathing, not only in Gunga, but in all the sacred rivers, &c., in the
- ↑ Oriental Proverbs, No. 136.
