Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/509

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379
BRAHMAN

of public worship and of the temple and Matha establishments, but must also feed every Brahmin who comes to the place. The following description of a Matha visited by Mr. Walhouse *[1] gives a very good idea of what one of these buildings is like: ' The building was two-storeyed, enclosing a spacious quadrangle round which ran a covered verandah or cloister; the wide porched entrance opened into a fine hall supported by massive pillars with expanding capitals handsomely carved; the ceiling was also wooden, panelled and ornamented with rosettes and pendants as in baronial halls, and so were the solid doors. Within these was an infinity of rooms, long corridors lined with windowless cells, apartments for meditation and study, store-rooms overflowing with all manner of necessaries, granaries, upper rooms with wide projecting windows latticed instead of glass with pierced wood-work in countless tasteful patterns, and in the quadrangle there was a draw-well and small temple,while a large yard behind contained cattle of all kinds from a goat to an elephant. All things needful were here gathered together. Outside sat pilgrims, poor devotees, and beggars waiting for the daily dole, and villagers were continually arriving with grain, vegetables,etc.' The periodical change of the swāmi presiding over the temple of Krishna is the occasion of a great festival known as the Pariyāya, when Udipi is filled to overflowing by a large concourse of Mādhvas, not only from the district but from more distant parts, especially from the Mysore territory. [A very imposing object in the temple grounds, at the time of my visit in 1907, was an enormous stack of fire-wood for temple purposes.] The following is a description †[2] of a festival at the Udipi

  1. * Fraser's Magazine, May 1875.
  2. † Loc. cit.