in East Bengal or Assam about the fifth century."

Dr. Bhattacharya states [378] that the practical essence of the Sakta
cult is the worship of the female organ of generation. According to a
text of the Tantras the best form of Sakti worship is to adore a naked
woman, and it is said that some Tantrics actually perform their daily
worship in their private chapels by placing before them such a woman. A
triangular plate of brass or copper may be taken as a substitute,
and such plates are usually kept in the houses of Tantric Brahmans. In
the absence of a plate of the proper shape a triangle may be painted
on a copper dish. In public the veneration of the Saktas is paid to
the goddess Kali. She is represented as a woman with four arms. In
one hand she has a weapon, in a second the hand of the giant she has
slain, and with the two others she is encouraging her worshippers. For
earrings she has two dead bodies, she wears a necklace of skulls,
and her only clothing is a garland made of men's skulls. In the Kalika
Puran [379] the immolation of human beings is recommended, and numerous
animals are catalogued as suitable for sacrifice. At the present time
pigeons, goats, and more rarely buffaloes, are the usual victims at
the shrine of the goddess. The ceremony commences with the adoration
of the sacrificial axe; various _mantras_ are recited, and the animal
is then decapitated at one stroke. As soon as the head falls to the
ground the votaries rush forward and smear their foreheads with the
blood of the victim. It is of the utmost importance that the ceremony
should pass off without any hitch or misadventure, [380] and special
services are held to supplicate the goddess to permit of this. If in
spite of them the executioner fails to sever the head of the animal at
one stroke, it is thought that the goddess is angry and that some great
calamity will befall the family in the next year. If a death should
occur within the period, they attribute it to the miscarriage of the
sacrifice, that is to the animal not having been killed with a single
blow. If any such misfortune should happen, Dr. Bhattacharya states,
the family generally determine never to offer animal sacrifices again;
and in this way the slaughter of animals, as part of the religious
ceremony in private houses, is becoming more and more rare. If a goat
is sacrificed, the head is placed before the goddess and the flesh
cooked and served to the invited guests; but in the c