of them are performed in the course of the day at the temple of Bhuvaneshwar in Orissa.  It is clear that the spirit of these rites is very different from that which inspires public worship in other civilized countries at the present day.  They are not congregational or didactic, though if any of the faithful are in the temple at the time of the god’s levee it is proper for them to enter and salute him.  Neither do they recall the magical ceremonies of the Vedic sacrifices.[415] The waving of lights (arati) before the god and the burning of incense are almost the only acts suggestive of ecclesiastical ritual.  The rest consists in treating a symbol or image as if it were a living thing capable of enjoying simple physical pleasures.  Here there are two strata.  We have really ancient rites, such as the anointing or ornamenting of stones and offerings of food in sacred places.  In this class too we may reckon the sacrifice of goats (and formerly of human beings) to Kali.[416] But on the other hand the growing idea of Bhakti, that is faith or devotion, imported a sentimental element and the worshipper endeavoured to pet, caress and amuse the deity.

It is hard to see anything either healthy or artistic in this emotional ritual.  The low and foolish character of many temple ceremonies disgusts even appreciative foreigners, but these services are not the whole of Hindu worship.  All Hindus perform in the course of the day numerous acts of private devotion varying according to sect, and a pious man is not dependent on the temple like a Catholic on his church.  Indian life is largely occupied with these private, intimate, individual observances, hardly noticeable as ceremonies and concerned with such things as dressing, ablution and the preparation of food.

The monastic institutions of India seem due to Buddhism.  There were wandering monks before the Buddha’s time, but the practice of founding establishments where they could reside permanently, originated in his order.  There appears to be no record of Hindu (as opposed to Buddhist) monasteries before the time of Sankara in the ninth century, though there must have been places where the learned congregated or where wandering ascetics could lodge.  Sankara perceived the advantage of the cenobitic life for organizing religion and founded a number of maths or colleges.  Subsequent religious leaders imitated him.  At the present day these institutions are common, yet it is clear that the wandering spirit is strong in Hindus and that they do not take to monastic discipline and fixed residence as readily as Tibetans and Burmese.  A math is not so much a convent as the abode of a teacher.  His pupils frequent it and may become semi-resident:  aged pilgrims may make it their last home, but the inmates are not a permanent body following a fixed rule like the monks of a Vihara.  The Sattras of Assam, however, are true monasteries (though even there vows and monastic costume are unknown) and so are the establishments of the Swaminarayana sect at Ahmedabad and Wartal.