e number is 1,454. This does not include smaller
shrines in niches in the walls, which may be reckoned by thousands. The
temples are constantly increasing in number; at no previous period were
there so many as at present. Traders and bankers have prospered greatly
under our rule, and, if devout Hindus, they deem themselves bound to
devote a part of their wealth to the erection of a temple. A regard to
their honour as well as to their gods prompts them to this spending of
their money.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, the temples of Benares have
very little of either funded or landed property. The vast sum required
for the support of the priesthood comes mainly from the offerings of the
people.

The "Imperial Gazetteer" of India gives no account in its last census of
the castes of Benares, but we are sure that many thousands of the
inhabitants are Brahmans. They are greatly subdivided, and are so
different in rank and occupation that they keep as separate from each
other as if they had no caste in common. The Pundas officiate in the
temples; the Gangaputrs, the sons of the Ganges, minister at the
waterside; the Purohits are the family priests; and the Pundits, the
most esteemed of all, are the learned men who study the Shastres, and
expound them to the people as occasion requires. Hindus generally have
their Gurus, religious guides, who perform to them very much the work
done for Roman Catholics by father confessors. These may be family
priests, learned men; or, in the case of the lower castes, the lower
orders of Brahmans. A vast number of the sacred caste have nothing to do
with religious services. They are engaged in various businesses. A
considerable number are cooks in the houses of the wealthy, as from
their hand all can eat, while they in many cases would consider it an
intolerable insult to be asked to eat with their masters. Not a few are
beggars.

There are places in Benares to which people resort almost as much as to
the temple of Bisheshwar. Among these I may mention the tank of
Pishachmochan, a word meaning deliverance from demons, as bathing in it
is considered very efficacious in securing this end, and the temple and
tank of Durga at a place called Durgakund. At this latter place there
are many hundreds of monkeys--some say thousands, though this is
doubtless an exaggeration--which scamper about in all directions, and
fare well at the hands of Durga's worshippers. These animals are deemed
gods