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164
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
Bathing in sacred streams constitutes an indispensable part of most of the ceremonial observances of the Hindus; and where such rivers are not within access, their place is supplied by other pieces of water of less lofty pretensions; a dirty puddle may take the place of the holy Gangá. At the winter solstice, bathing at the confluence of the Ganges with the ocean is particularly meritorious, and accordingly a vast concourse of people is annually assembled at Gangá Ságar, or the mouth of the Hugli branch of the Ganges, at the period of the Makara Sankranti, agreeably to the limitations above assigned to it; that is, its identification with the 1st of Mágha or the 12th of January. Wherever such assemblages take place, objects of a secular nature are now, as they have ever been, blended with those of devotion; and the Melá, which originates in purposes of pilgrimage, becomes equally or in a still greater degree a meeting of itinerant merchants, or a fair*.
The number of persons who assemble at Gangá Ságar is variously estimated. Some years ago they were considered to average about one hundred thousand: but I have been informed by high authority that latterly the number has increased to double that amount. They come from all parts of India, the larger proportion, of course, from the contiguous provinces of Bengal and Orissa; but there are many from the Dekhan and from Hindustan, and even from
* [G. de Tassy, Mémoire sur les particularités de la religion Musulmane dans l'Inde. Paris : 1831, p. 26 ff.]
