Travels in India (Tavernier) 132: Concerning the pilgrimages of the Idolaters to their pagodas

132

All the idolaters who are subjects of the Great Mogul and other Princes on either side of the Ganges, at least once in their lives make a pilgrimage to perform their devotion at one of the four pagodas which I have named, and most commonly to that of Jagannath, it being the principal and most considerable of all. The Brahmins and rich people make this pilgrimage oftener than once, some making it every four years, others every six or every eight years, when, placing the idols of their pagodas in litters they accompany their Brahmins in procession to the pagoda for which they have most reverence; but it is most frequently, as I have said, to that of Jagannath, and also to that of Benares, because both are on the Ganges, the water of which is held in special veneration by them.
These pilgrimages are not made, as in Europe, one by one, or two by two, but the population of a town or of several villages assemble in order to travel together in company. The poor who come from afar, sometimes 300 or 400 leagues, and who, with all the savings which they have accumulated for that purpose during their lives are unable to sustain the expenses of the journey, are assisted by the rich, who expend very great sums in such alms. Each one travels according to his station and means, some in pallankeens or litters, others in carriages ; and the poor, some on foot and others on oxen, the mother carrying her child, and the father the cooking utensils.
The god whom they carry in procession from the place they are leaving, in order that he may visit and pay the respect which he owes to the great RAm Ram, reposes at full length in a rich pallankeen covered with gold brocade with silver fringes, the mattress and cushion of the same material being under the head, feet, and elbows, as we see in the effigies on our tombs. The Brahmins distribute among the most important persons in the troop fans with handles 7 or 8 feet long, and covered with plates of gold and silver, the fan being at the end in the form of a kiln-shovel of 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and covered with the same brocade as the pallankeens. It is surrounded with peacock feathers, and makes a great current of air ; to it bells are sometimes attached to give a kind of music, and there are generally five or six of these fans for driving away the flies from the face of the idol ; those who carry them take turns from time to time, like those who carry the pallankeens, so that many may share in this honourable task. This custom should not appear more strange to us than that which I have seen practised in Saxony, and in many other parts of Germany, where, while a funeral oration for a man or a woman is delivered in the church, the body reposes at full length on a bier which is uncovered, and the people on both sides fan it constantly, when it is summer time, to drive away the flies attracted to the face of the defunct, who has then no more power of feeling than an idol.
In the year 1653, being on the road from Golconda to Surat with M. d’Ardillière, of whom I have elsewhere spoken, we met near Daulatabad more than 2000 persons, including men, women, and children, who came from the direction of Tatta with their idol, which they carried in a rich pallankeen, on their way to visit the great idol of the pagoda at Tirupati. This idol was laid on a mattress of red crimson velvet, and the covering and cushions were of the same stuff. The bamboo or stick which served to carry the pallankeen was covered with gold and silver brocade, and no one except the Brahmins had permission to approach it. We saw this long procession pass, and it was not without feeling much compassion for the blindness of these poor people.
[Here are the figures of the most famous idols, which I had the curiosity to have drawn on the spot.]