Where Thousands of Pilgrims Congregate

Ladies' Mirror, 1 December 1924, Page 22

Where Thousands of Pilgrims Congregate

T 1 temple ,S within th , e walls of the Fort, built in the sixteenth century by Akbar, and now occupied by the British, and though one of the places most venerated by the Hindu, is but little known to the ordinary IOX,l OX ,A IS i /t's especially sacred, as it shelters the Undying Tree and Vishnu's feet, though the incredulous hold that the Tree is replaced yearly in secret by the priests. In the right foreground will be seen the sacred emblem of the Hindu religion, which bears the marks of that Mohamedan persecutor of the Hindus—Aurangzebe. _ When he took possession of Allahabad he drove the priests from the temple and, in religious cut with his tulwar at the sacred symbol. The blade bit deeply into the solid stone, and from one cut made' milk and from the other blood! Many are the offerings that are, to this day, proffered to the object of such an undoubted miracle. - Allahabad is situated on the junction of the sacred Ganges with the holy Jumna and, according to Hindu beiieis, a third river, unseeable by mortal eyes, also pours its waters into the conflux. To obtain certainty purification the pious Hindu bathes at the junction of the rivers ' regardless of alligators, corpses, and j 3 ciicr3.i n J to. The drawing shows a Pathan moneylender bargaining with a Marwari merchant—a case of when "Greek meets Greek.

(-(She harvester <3\ W. Lee Vtankey

" murmur of drifting waters, RShes rustling of wind stirred leaves —"

L,ak<iJ Kfinieri <SK Camera Study by Qeorgzs Qhanccs, F.R.P.S. IDunedin^