St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-06-07
C1te GaIedunia1t.
LETTER FROM INDIA.
Moradabad, India, April

mOTauaOduy 1HOIoiJ APih L.
Dear Caledonian Your weekly WIS.,
telling us all about dear old st.
nsbury are very much priced in
India home, almost under the
Adow of the grand Himalaya noun
ms. During the past year we have
IN extending our borders and have
bned our work at Mattra, shrine
~ sacred and celebrated among the
indus, as being the birth place of
kishna the favorite deity or incarna-
IN of many sects and peoples of
Elia. wish to tell you something
this shrine and of this deity. Re-
BRING to your maps you will see that
attra is neal Agra on the banks of
be Jumna river. In these days we
IN reach it by rail, and as pilgrims
ave learned that it is easier to ride
a good railway carriage than to
ak hundreds of miles with sore feet,
e will surely find the cars crowded.
rriving at the station of Mattra we
bcure a coach for the afternoon, for
bout one dollar, and drive off toward
he city. We enter it on the river
pad and note at once that the entire
ank is covered with temples and bath
ng CHATS. We stop for moment and
oys, priests and monkeys gather
round us by the score. The boys
rant pice to buy grain for the mon
eys, and as we are sight seeing, we
and out a couple of pice. A peddler,
i IsO of the crowd standing around,
rOvides the grain and soon scores of
monkeys gather to pick up the grain.
Ne step forward to one of the bathing
that's, and note great numbers of large
Irtles in the water. The boys again
Fant pice saying they will call up
hany more. Cracked grain is scatter
q on the water and sure enough as
se boys call Gao" "ao"-cOme, come
drove of turtles comes forward.
any of these are quite as large as
very large goose. These mon
eys and turtles are held as sacred,
ID the monkeys are also held to be
Try troublesome deities. At these
rines every merchant who sells eat
bles, sits with a club and yet, the sly
donkey will steal his goods. One
eetmeat peddler had his candies all
scely assorted on a very large stand
Eld watched with club in hand. AS
lex as thought the sly monkeys
me behind overturned his stand
Eathered what sweets they could carry
nd sprang to the top of the house.
n saw this as we stood beside the
Bad quietly talking to the people.
AS we pass along this main street
ear the river we find that the city,
Dntaining about 10000 people, is ex
ellently built of solid masonry. Many
II the buildings are of stone with the
aoor-ways beautifully carved and 9th
ers are faced with stone, thus giving
he place the appearance of a stone
city. We enter the doorway of one
eery large temple, we are not allowed
ID go inside. The centre or most
Sacred portion of this rests altogether
On polished stone pillars, and in this
Sacred place rests the idol. The tenn
4 Die is so fully endowed that the income
q is said to amount to Rs 100 $500 per
Gay, we asked the man in charge, what
was done with the money. He seemed
astOnished ut the question but replied
that Brahmins were fed by it. AS we
&pass on through the city we see many
shops, where idols are sold. Most of
these were of brass, they were of va
riOus sizes, many being quite small so
as to be easily carried away. One of
our party bought two pounds of these
small deities at fifty cents per pound.
We enter our carriage again and drive
up the banks of the Jumna, six miles
to Bindraban 1.-THE grove or Jangle OF
Bindra.) The place is celebrated as
the forest or pasture ground where
Krishna spent his youth playing his
tricks with the milk maids. All or
nearly all of his images have reference
to these days at Bindra ban. One idol
is called the "Makkan Choir" (Butter
thief which represents him as stealing
butter. This city of about 23O0 people
is noted for it's wonderful temples
q One of these built in the form of q
II Greek cross is much the finest anC
n most impressive religious edifce tina
4 Hindu art has produced in upper India
a at least. The central compartment il
surmOunted by Il dome of singularly
"A fine proportions, and the four arms o
q the cross are rooted by arches of point
ed form as in Gothic churches. Thi
building would make very gOOt
church with no important changes ex
cept TO place doors and windows ii
the open arches.
There is one temple in this place
that cost 4,500,n00 rupees, about 81,
25O,OOO. 1t covers several acres o
ground, no Christian can enter the cen
a trail or sacred portion so that it canno
be described. But as we look dOwI
! from the high tower over the gateway
the entire centre, some $50 feet wide
by 300 feet long, seems to rest on stOn,
pillars. Then outside of this is II cOur
running around this centre, and theI
outside of this are rooms or temple
again surrounded by very high walls
Outside of this wall is the court of tin
gentiles witch we visited, about 80 fee
wide extending quite round the inne
buildings, and outside of this court ar
the houses or room for entertainin
the Brahmin guests and pilgrims VIII
come to this shrine, one thOusan
guests can be easily entertained. Thi
temple has. an endowment yieldin
so, lS0 rupees per year or about l54 ri
pees 1879 per day. Here we aske
again about the use made of TIL
money. The same reply is made
"Brahmins and Pilgrims are fed" 81
there no school connected with til
temple for teaching boys 7" we ask
"NO school here, there is governmer
school in the city," is the reply. S
+ all this is for food for idle Brahmin.
mendicant priests, ETC., etc.
On our way back we stop to visit
temple now being erected. We he;
that no new temples to idolatry are b'
ing erected in India in these days, bl
we see this new structure in this plaC
where Hinduism is still really aliv
On this new temple are hundreds
men at work. Stones are being save