St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-05-23
Gbe CALIFORNIAN.
IFrom an Occasional Correspondent
THE FAIR OF KRISHNA.

IOuS faIT at aCtrd-B1nurdl1dn, III
honor of Krishna, of whom | lately
wrote. This fair is conspicuous to a
foreigner for two reasons, first, the
wealthy rajas come here in large
numbers and hence the amount OF
money lavished on the fair is very
large; second, many educated Ben
gals and others especially attend
this fair; hence foreigner can find
English speaking natives at every
turn. The program is issued in Eng
lish and an effort is made to mix
European or Christian civilization
with the lowest form of Indian idol
airy. This is young India" again ::
Speaking the English language,
smoking his cigarette, printing the
Lords prayer in English at the head
of his letter paper, as it was in let
ter received by me during the fair
from a HindOO gentleman, and wor-
shipping the sensual Krishna. 1t is
fair to say, however, that the man
usually apologies for his worship
while he puffs his cigar and says that
The women don't know any better
so he came to bring the women"
There is, however, d young India
which has forsaken idolatry, and
whose religion at present seems to be
to oppose Christianity.
But about the fair. The boys will
ask What do they do there" The
idol which represents krishna is
taken from the great temple and car
RED to a garden in grand procession
twice a day for ten days. The night
procession is made brilliant and won
derfully grand by hundreds of torches
moving about and by fireworks ar
ranged on long poles on either side
of the road, being fired as the idol
passes. The procession is led by
very large elephant, who has been
trained to keep constantly i'll motion
but to go at the rate of about one
mile an hour, To see his efforts to
move all the time and not get ahead
too fast made him the curiosity of
the procession. After this monster
elephant followed camels, then ca
parisoned horses led by their grooms
with empty saddles, then a band of
music followed by a company of ma
tive soldiers, furnished by a native
Hindoo raja. After these a company
of boys with banners. then came the
priests and next the idol elevated on
a large platform carried on the
shoulders of men, seated OH the inn
age of some animal and being famed
by the priests. Being on this ele-
waited platform the idol was quite
above the people SO all could see it.
One day the idol is placed on an i'm
age of a lion; next on an image half
bird and half monkey; next a lion
with elephants head; then on
throne; then on an elephant.
The seventh day is a great day and
the idol is taken out of the jOggan-
matt car, large temple-like car 40
feet high covered from bottom to
top with images of Krishna. This is
drawn by the people themselves with
long ropes. The crowd of people is
the real exhibition on that day.
Early in the morning every house
top, every wall, every elevated place
is covered with people and the large
open plain between the temple and
the garden is one mass of human be-
ings. We climbed to the top of a
temple to look down on the mass.
The car drawing was personally di-
rected by the richest native gentle
men i'll India aided by educated
wealthy friends who pulled with
others at the ropes. One thing was
few people showed any
thing like a spirit of worship and
very few indeed did we see prostrat-
ing themselves as the car passed by.
1t was merely great show. One
lady friend wished to get a nearer
view of the car and the images so we
pressed our way through the crowd
and by aid of an attendant got in
the front line of the circle near the
great wheels. krishna was repre-
sented by two special images, one as
a warrior driving the war chariot.
There were three full sized images of
horses in front of where the idol sat,
and reinS were placed in the hands of
the idol. In the centre of the car he
was represented as III the days he
spent with the milk maids and other
lovers, and the lovers were represent
ed by pretty little girls, not images
but real, carried i'll the car with the
idol. Education, wealth and idOla-
try" Nothing | ever see in India
stirs my very soul with sadness like
= H. t1,- L.,
shrine
On the eighth day the idol is taken
out at evening only, with a great
display of torches and fireworks, and
after the entrance into the garden
the deity is supposed to sit on his
horse in the gateway of the garden
and direct a battle which is illustrat-
ed in a magnificent display of fire
works. The image of the horse on
which the idol rides is full size, made
of metal washed with gold, so that
it glitters beautifully in the light.
The idol is a small insignificant look
ing figure, hence the horse attracts
the most attention. All the animals
as ridden by the idol are
beautifully made, so that they glitter
like silver or gold, as they are carried
through the sun or torch light
Everything seemed significant in
this procession. Before entering the
garden the entire procession stopped
while the band played God save the
Queen" and when the fireworks
were ready the deity waited for the
English magistrate to finish his din
ner and gain good position before
the fireworks could be fired. Which
IS the real Master?
After the fireworks we were per-
mitted to enter the garden devoted
to the idol that was called heaven.
This is indeed beautiful place and