touring season, but I do not think it was on the occasion of the annual fair in honour of Ganpati in December-January. Chinchvad lies on the main Bombay-Poona line road, and I remember jolting in a tonga over a typical Deccan side-road down to the village. We walked through a narrow and tortuous street—again typical of the larger Deccan villages—until we reached a gateway, inside which was a largish open courtyard in front of a pillared building. The whole of the courtyard was filled with rows of Brahmans, naked except for the loin-cloth, engaged in being feasted at the expense of the Dev, or more correctly perhaps at the expense of the Dev's properties. So far as I remember there were two or three long rows of seated Brahmans, forming two side of a square; and between them and the building were various cooks, servants and others engaged in distributing the food, giving out the leaf platters from which the Brahmans ate, and removing the remains of the food. The Dev was, I was told, seated in the darker part of the pillared building; but there was so great a crowd of attendants and so forth that I was unable to distinguish him clearly; and the Karbari did not suggest my being formally introduced into his presence, probably because the ceremonial feast was in full swing. So far as I can recollect—and the memory is a little dim—the Dev was a thin personage of more than middle age, of a tranquil and thoughtful countenance, presenting a strong contrast to the Vallabhacharya Maharajas, or men-gods, of whom in later years I saw three. The latter showed no trace of asceticism. I only saw the Dev in the distance and with great difficulty and my recollection of him therefore is not very clear.
The Brahmans who were being fed did not appear to object to my presence in the least, though of course I stayed on the outside of the lines and only remained a few minutes. It is true that the last real incarnation is supposed to have died in 1810; but, in common belief, the subsequent and present representatives of the family are also divinities, though they are not direct descendants of the original Devs. For all practical purposes the Dev of Chinchvad is still "the God" in the eyes of the Maratha Kunbis and other Deccan people, and naturally it is to the advantage of the priests who officiate at the Chinchvad temples
