anga (Ganges). It is to
this magic name, probably, that the town owes its numerous magnificent
temples, and the selectness of the Brahmans who inhabit the banks of
the river. Twice a year pilgrims flock here to pray, and on these solemn
occasions the number of the visitors exceeds that of the inhabitants,
which is only 35,000. Very picturesque, but equally dirty, are the
houses of the rich Brahmans built on both sides of the way from the
centre of the town to the Godavari. A whole forest of narrow pyramidal
temples spreads on both sides of the river. All these new pagodas
are built on the ruins of those destroyed by the fanaticism of the
Mussulmans. A legend informs us that most of them rose from the ashes
of the tail of the monkey god Hanuman. Retreating from Lanka, where
the wicked Ravana, having anointed the brave hero's tail with some
combustible stuff set it on fire, Hanuman, with a single leap through
the air, reached Nassik, his fatherland. And here the noble adornment
of the monkey's back, burned almost entirely during the voyage, crumbled
into ashes, and from every sacred atom of these ashes, fallen to
the ground, there rose a temple.... And, indeed, when seen from
the mountain, these numberless pagodas, scattered in a most curious
disorderly way, look as if they had really been thrown down by handfuls
from the sky. Not only the river banks and the surrounding country, but
every little island, every rock peeping from the water is covered
with temples. And not one of them is destitute of a legend of its
own, different versions of which are told by every individual of the
Brahmanical community according to his own taste--of course in the hope
of a suitable reward.

Here, as everywhere else in India, Brahmans are divided into two
sects--worshippers of Shiva and worshippers of Vishnu--and between the
two there is rivalry and warfare centuries old. Though the neighborhood
of the Godavari shines with a twofold fame derived from its being the
birthplace of Hanuman and the theatre of the first great deeds of Rama,
the incarnation of Vishnu, it possesses as many temples dedicated to
Shiva as to Vishnu. The material of which the pagodas consecrated to
Shiva are constructed is black basalt. And it is, exactly, the color
of the material which is the apple of discord in this case. The black
material is claimed by the Vaishnavas as their own, it being of the
same color as the burned tail of Rama's ally. They try to prove tha