It was nine o'clock,
the usual time of the morning prayers.
Sham Rao went to the well
to get ready, and dress himself, as he said, though the process
was more like undressing. In a few moments he came back wearing
only a dhuti, as during dinner time, and with his head uncovered.
He went straight to his idol room. The moment he entered we heard
the loud stroke of a bell that hung under the ceiling, and that
continued tolling all the time the prayers lasted.
The Babu explained to us that a little boy was pulling the bell
rope from the roof.
Sham Rao stepped in with his right foot and very slowly. Then he
approached the altar and sat on a little stool with his legs crossed.
At the opposite side of the room, on the red velvet shelves of
an altar that resembled an etagere in the drawing-room of some
fashionable lady, stood many idols. They were made of gold, of
silver, of brass and of marble, according to their im-portance and
merits. Maha-Deva or Shiva was of gold. Gunpati or Ganesha of
silver, Vishnu in the form of a round black stone from the river
Gandaki in Nepal. In this form Vishnu is called Lakshmi-Narayan.
There were also many other gods unknown to us, who were worshipped
in the shapes of big sea-shells, called Chakra. Surya, the god
of the sun, and the kula-devas, the domestic gods, were placed in
the second rank.
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