Notes: 

1.  Tavernier notes that Ganges water is often given at weddings, ’each guest receiving a cup or two, according to the liberality of the host’.  ‘There is sometimes’, he says, ‘2,000 or 3,000 rupees’ worth of it consumed at a wedding.’ (Tavernier, Travels, ed.  Ball, vol. ii, pp. 231, 254.)

2. Ante, Chapter 5, [3].

3.  Jagannath (corruptly Juggernaut, &c.), or Puri, on the coast of Orissa, probably is the most venerated shrine in India.  The principal deity there worshipped is a form of Vishnu.

4.  Water may not be offered to Jagannath, but the facts stated in this chapter show that it is offered in other temples of Vishnu.

5.  Bindachal is in the Mirzapur district of the United Provinces.  Baijnath is in the Santal Parganas District of the Bhagalpur Division in the province of Bihar and Orissa.  The group of temples at Deogarh dedicated to Siva is visited by pilgrims from all parts of India.  The principal temple is called Baijnath or Baidyanath.  Deogarh is a small town in the Santal Parganas (I.G., 1908, s.v.  Deogarh; A.S.R., vol. viii (1878), pp. 137-45, Pl. ix, x; vol. xix (1885), pp. 29-35 (crude notes), Pl. x, xi).

6.  Pandit Saligram, who was Postmaster-General of the North-Western Provinces some years ago, became one of these wandering friars, and other similar cases are recorded.

7.  Seet Buldee Ramesur in original edition.  The temple alluded to is that called Ramesvaram (Ramisseram) in the small island of Pamban at the entrance of Palk’s Passage in the Straits of Manaar, which is distinguished by its magnificent colonnade and corridors. (Fergusson, Hist.  Ind. and Eastern Arch., vol. i, pp. 380-3, ed. 1910.) The island forms part of the so-called Adam’s Bridge, a reef of comparatively recent formation, which almost joins Ceylon with the mainland.  A railway now runs along the ‘bridge’, and the pilgrims have an easy task.

The Kedarnath temple is in the Himalayan District of Garhwal (United Provinces), at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet.

8.  The author’s other works show that the Thugs frequently assumed the guise of ascetics, and much of the secret crime of India is known to be committed by men who adopt the garb of holiness.  A man disguised as a fakir is often sent on by dacoits (gang-robbers) as a spy and decoy.  ’Three-fourths of these religions mendicants, whether Hindoos or Muhammadans, rob and steal, and a very great portion of them murder their victims before they rob them; but they have not any of them as a class been found to follow the trade of murder so exclusively as to be brought properly within the scope of our operations. . . .  There is hardly any species of crime that is not throughout India perpetrated by men in the disguise of these religious mendicants; and almost all such mendicants are really men in disguise; for Hindoos of any caste can become Bairagis and Gosains; and Muhammadans of any grade can become Fakirs.’ (A Report on the System of Megpunnaism, 1839, p. 11.) In the same little work the author advises the compulsory registration of ’every disciple belonging to every high priest, whether Hindoo or Muhammadan’, and a stringent Vagrant Act.  His suggestions have not been acted on.