The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-26
VISIT TO A2NAHATMA.
Lives In a Cave. and Shows Himself
But Once Year.
From the aIadras Mail.

From the Madras Mail.
81 was told off on urgent famine inspec-
ton 10 get a disorder straight in village,
the name of which signifies sea of CO.
bras Famine and cobras, a double enc
rny-hard luck, thought. Famine bat
tied bravely and successfully, but there
was no sight or trace of the other, and
the sea was no better than a name The
village was perhaps never known for CO
bras, or they are now extinct. or. the be-
lief fingers still. the cobra played truant
from the time the Mahatma kathirappa
began TO work miracles. A shepherd youth
grazing cattle with has companions. by YER
bal command created a spring, in the ear
" twenties from a rock; it is perennial
to this day, proof against the worst
drought. He would secure the village
from famine and pesilence, or give time
" warning of their appearance-of course
the last two or three famines excepted
He lives in a cave over a hillock $50 feet
high known after him for miles around
and even in the village survey map. The
hiliock attracts the distant wayfarer by
what appears TO him turrets, ter the man.
ner OF the Jain architecture, but which
really are rudely carved mOnolithic dome
like rocks. His name Is on every lip, but
nobody knows his history.
lie Quest man AAEG NutdENs 4UQAt
three score and ten, tells me that the Ma
hatma should now almost be a centenarian.
PrefeFring solitude, renouncing his home
and hearth, he sought the cave. round
which a cloister stands furnishing abode
for about a dozen members of either sex.
and their cloister is closed against the pub
lie except for one day in the year, the full
moon day of the first month OF the Telugu
cycle year, when the Mahatma presents
himself to all seated on a slab at the en-
trance TO the cave. his body covered with
his mass of tangled hair, deaf mutelike
and retires unperceived to reappear again
the next year. The pilgrim offers pres
ents, vows are celebrated. car runs
around the hiliock. and the whole day is
spent in sightseeing and jubila ton. By the
miracles of his youth, and probably the
career OF his later life, kathirappa has be-
come a popular god within a radius of
some fifty miles. But the Aiahatma is in
buttons of the devout go TO support the in
mates of the closter who neither seek nor
refuse, who accept and give charity.
These strange beings are provisioned
by disciples living in hUts at the entrance
to the cloister or at the foot Of the hill.
fantastic stories of their demigod. who in
flesh and in spirit claim 70 be connected
with the Maha tina, and who pass from
the cradle to the grave in their little clois-
ter, beyond the paAe OF law or public gaze.
The Mahatma is evidently inscrutable to
the layman. How much longer his NOR
tal frame will show itself and the fate
after its disappearance Of the little hill coll
ony dependent on him are puzzles which
cannot pretend 70 solve. Everything
| connected with the Mahatma Is held in
veneration. but Ramappa. his grandson.
drove me 10 the next famine station IN q
cart drawn by the Mah1tmas animals.
This is sacrilege, they say but cannot the
| liberal hire, and the present Of two silver
| bits that made at the cioister save meg''