Author : Joseph Roberts
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 648 pages
File Size : 20,51 MB
Release : 2015-06-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781330169384
Book Description
Excerpt from Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred Scripture Collected From the Customs, Manners, Rites, Superstitions, Traditions of the Hindoos, Vol. 4 The Síva of India is both male and female; his right side being of the former, and his left of the latter sex; and his wife assumed both appearances, as circumstances might require. "'The Babylonians called Succoth-benoth, Mylitta, signifying Mother.' The wife of Síva, and she only (as far as I know), is called Máthá, or 'Mother.' "Amongst the Assyrians, 'the daughters or women once in their lives had to make a sacrifice of virtue to that goddess, Succoth-benoth.' And Lempriere says of her: 'A surname of Venus, among the Assyrians, in whose temples all the women were obliged to prostitute themselves to strangers.' The wife of Síva, amongst many other names, is called Váli or Báli, under which appellation she assumed the form of a girl of twelve years of age. And in Madura, Balane, and other places, beautiful virgins used to go the temple once in their lives, to offer themselves in honour of the goddess. The story was, that a god had converse with them, In all the temples of Siva and his consort (where it can be afforded), women are kept to dance and sing before the idols. "Amongst the Assyrians and others, 'the votaries of the above-named goddess worship sometimes in the dress of men, and at other times in that of women." The dancing-girls of many of the temples on that continent of India, at the feast called Mánampu, do the same thing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.