connection with the system. Meat, strictly prohibited by ordinary Hinduism, intoxicating drinks, also strictly forbidden by the same authority, and grossly obscene acts are performed as part of the worship that is offered to the deity. Of old, without doubt, human sacrifices were offered at such festivals. But as this forms part of Hindu worship, rather than of mythology, it does not call for further notice here. The goddesses, and especially Devi, or Durga, the wife of Siva, are the supreme objects of worship amongst the Saktas; and they are worshipped as the incarnation of the energy or force of their divine husbands. The authority for this form of Hinduism are the Tantras, not the Puranas. As in the case of the more modern deities an attempt is made to identify them with the older, so expressions in the more ancient books are caught up and explained in such a way as to make it appear that the Tantric teaching is in harmony with, or a legitimate development of them.

Footnotes

^286:* Muir, O. S. T., iv. 420.

^286:+ Ibid., iv. 425.

^287:* Muir, O. S. T., iv. 430.

^287:+ Ibid., iv. 432.

^288:* Goldstucker, Chambers's Cyclopaedia, s.v. "Uma."

^289:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 329.

^290:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 334.

^290:+ Ibid., p. 209.

^291:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 331.

^294:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 334.

^296:* Ward, ii. 83.

^298:* Ward, ii. 88.

^299:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 335.

^302:* Ward, ii. 101.

^302:+ Ibid., p. 98.

^306:* Muir, O. S. T., iv. 432.

^307:* Muir, O. S. T., iv. 34.

^307:+ See illustration, p. 301.

^310:* There are four recensions of the Ramayana: Valmiki's, Vyasadeva's, the Adhuta, and the Adhyatma.

^310:+ Ward, ii. 116.

^312:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 338.

^313:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 337.

^313:+ "Indian Antiquities," ii. 184.

^314:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 210.

^315:* Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," 144 ff.

^317:* Ward, ii. 101-117.

^318:* Ward, ii. 187.