Oriental Scenery/Part 4/Plate 11
No. XI.
DHUAH KOONDE.
Dhuah Koonde presents another of those magnificent circumstances in nature which in so great a degree excite the pious fervour of the Hindoos.
It is curious to remark in the history of mankind, what strange objects superstition has sometimes fixed upon to lavish its regards. Animals and stones, and even vegetables, have in their turn obtained this flattering distinction. Whirlwinds and cloud have by many been accounted the occasional residence of immortal spirits; and so striking an object as one of these tremendous falls of water could not fail to come in for a share of reverence from the superstitious folly of man.
The respect which in India is paid to this awful phenomenon may, however, be more naturally accounted for than many of the prejudices that have taken possession of the human mind. A large river is almost universally a blessing to man in a state of society; and water generally, but in hot climates more particularly, is an obvious source of endless comforts and advantages. It cannot therefore be surprising that the ancient philosophical priests, and fabricators of mythological systems, who well knew its importance in the economy of nature, should regard this beneficial element as entitled to peculiar respect, which they accordingly made the basis of many salutary customs, whereof there is perhaps none more so than the ceremony of ablution, so prevalent in all the Asiatic countries. When water by such high sanction had acquired divine attributes, and the sacred fluid was believed capable of washing away the blemishes of sin, we cannot wonder that the unreasoning multitude, impressed with such opinions, should behold the foaming torrent, falling in thunder down the precipice, with equal dread and veneration; and imagine the holy haze that fills the surrounding atmosphere must give an extraordinary degree of sanctity to such situations, and consequently a superior efficacy to their ablutionary rites. They approach the sacred stream as into the presence of a superior being; and while their corporeal members are really cleansed, they piously believe, that by so close a contact with the divinity their spiritual part must necessarily acquire a corresponding purity.
Whatever regret we may feel on observing in these ceremonies the human reason so abused, and creatures of such amiable capacities made the dupes of doctrines so preposterous, we are in some measure consoled in the reflection, that this duty, like many others by the magic of Braminical delusion, is made one of the means whereby the views of man are directed to a superintending cause, and of cherishing that hope of future happiness, which tends so powerfully to counteract the unavoidable ills of life.
The cataract of Dhuah Koonde, like those of Puppanassum, and Tancanche, attract visitors from all parts of the country; but not having the convenience of choultries, or similar accommodations, as at those places, they pitch their tents together in some favourable situation near to the water, and thus form a little society, which becomes a kind of fair, that enables these good people to mingle somewhat of cheerfulness with their devotion.
Dhuah Koonde is in the neighbourhood of Sassaram, in the province of Bahar.
Dhuah Koonde, in the Bernares district.