A Tour of the Missions: Observations and ConclusionsStrong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
A Tour of the Missions: Observations and Conclusions
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
East Asia -- Description and travel; Missions
Ahmedabad is not yet converted to Christianity. It is a celebrated
stronghold of Jainism, and here is another most splendid temple. It
was instructive to see the little houses on poles for the care of
birds, and for the feeding of lazy monkeys, while the poor and sick of
human kind in the neighborhood begged in vain for help. The Jain
temples are noted in all India for their beauty. Carving and gilding
can go no farther than they have gone in the decoration of this shrine
in Ahmedabad. But the troop of monkeys that came to us in the park to
be fed, seemed to us quite as sensitive to human needs as were the
holy men who sat about that temple of the Jains, for these latter
devotees use God's gifts not rationally, but for inferior ends, and
especially for their own interest and comfort. Ahmedabad is an
example, not of the worst, but still of a misplaced, religious zeal
that has lost its bearings because it has lost its God.
IX
BOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS
Bombay is a great city, the second, in population, of the British Empire
in India. While Calcutta has over a million people, Bombay comes only a
few short of that number. Its commerce is immense; its public buildings
are fashioned after European models; its streets are broad and finely
paved; there is every evidence of wealth and cultivation. But Hindus
greatly outnumber Mohammedans; Parsees are strong; Christians are
active, but still comparatively few. In thought and customs, Bombay is
still essentially Oriental, while yet profoundly influenced by modern
newspapers and modern inventions. It was a memorable change for us
travelers to emerge from its Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and then to find
ourselves, first in its Caves of Elephanta, and secondly, in its
Towers of Silence.
A word of explanation is necessary for each of these notable objects of
interest. Elephanta is a little island eight miles from Bombay, and so
named because of its general resemblance in shape to an elephant.
Elephanta Island forms a beautiful object as seen from the deck of the
little steamer that serves for a ferry, and the views from the summit of
Elephanta Hill, over the Bombay Bay, with the gleaming towers of the
green city in the distance, are very charming. The island is a great
resort, however, not so much for the views therefrom, as because it is
the seat of a rock-hewn temple excavated centuries ago in honor of Siva,
the Hindu god, whose province it is to destroy. Brahma is the Creator;
Vishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer. Siva was the god of
reproduction, however, as well as the god who destroys, and his worship
has been often connected with obscene and lascivious rites.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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