lion, with dependent mane, hung out its red tongue.  This was Nagendra’s boita khana.  To left and right of the grass plats stood a row of one-storied buildings, containing on one side the daftar khana (accountant’s office) and kacheri (court-house); on the other the storehouse, treasury, and servants’ dwellings.  On both sides of the gate were the doorkeepers’ lodges.  This first mahal was named the kacheri bari (house of business); the next to it was the puja mahal (division for worship).  The large hall of worship formed one side of the puja mahal; on the other three sides were two-storied houses.  No one lived in this mahal.  At the festival of Durga it was thronged; but now grass sprouted between the tiles of the court, pigeons frequented the halls, the houses were full of furniture, and the doors were kept locked.  Beside this was the thakur bari (room assigned to the family deity):  in it on one side was the temple of the gods, the handsome stone-built dancing-hall; on the remaining sides, the kitchen for the gods, the dwelling-rooms of the priests, and a guest-house.  In this mahal there was no lack of people.  The tribe of priests, with garlands on their necks and sandal-wood marks on their foreheads; a troop of cooks; people bearing baskets of flowers for the altars; some bathing the gods, some ringing bells, chattering, pounding sandal-wood, cooking; men and women servants bearing water, cleaning floors, washing rice, quarrelling with the cooks.  In the guest-house an ascetic, with ash-smeared, loose hair, is lying sleeping; one with upraised arm (stiffened thus through years) is distributing drugs and charms to the servants of the house; a white-bearded, red-robed Brahmachari, swinging his chaplet of beads, is reading from a manuscript copy of the Bhagavat-gita in the Nagari character; holy mendicants are quarrelling for their share of ghi and flour.  Here a company of emaciated Boiragis, with wreaths of tulsi (a sacred plant) round their necks and the marks of their religion painted on their foreheads, the bead fastened into the knot of hair on their heads shaking with each movement, are beating the drums as they sing: 

    “I could not get the opportunity to speak,
    The elder brother Dolai was with me.”

The wives of the Boiragis, their hair braided in a manner pleasing to their husbands, are singing the tune of Govinda Adhi Kari to the accompaniment of the tambourine.  Young Boisnavis singing with elder women of the same class, the middle-aged trying to bring their voices into unison with those of the old.  In the midst of the court-yard idle boys fighting, and abusing each other’s parents.