Note 138 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.

In India many deities live in caves. There are cave temples of Kâlî, Annapûrna, and Sûraj Nârâyan, the Sun god, at Hardwâr. Kumaun abounds in such temples. That at Gaurî Udyâr is where Siva and Pârvatî once halted for the night with their marriage procession. Their attendants overslept themselves and were turned into the stalactites for which the cave is famous. Another is called from its depth Pâtâla Bhuvaneswar, from the roof of which a white liquid trickles. The attendant of the shrine says that this was milk in the olden days, but a greedy Jogi boiled his rice in it and since then the supply has ceased. Another is called Guptâ Gangâ or “the hidden Ganges,” whose waters may be heard rushing below. Hence bathing there is as efficacious as in the sacred river itself.138 Among the Korwas of Chota Nâgpur, their bloodthirsty deity has a cave for her residence. Mahâdeva, say the Gonds, shut up the founders of their race in a cave in the Himâlayas, but Lingo removed the stone and released sixteen crores of Gonds. Talâo Daitya, a noted demon of Kâthiâwâr, lives in a cave where a lamp is lit which never goes out, however violently the wind may blow or the rain may fall. Saptasrî Devî, a much dreaded spirit in the Konkan, lives in a cave; such is also the case with the eight-armed Devî at Asthbhuja, in the Mirzapur District. Her devotees have to creep through a narrow passage into what is now the shrine of the goddess, but is said to have been, and very probably was, a cave.139