Picturesque Kashmir / by Arthur Neve ; illustrated by Geoffroy W. Millais.

  • Arthur Neve
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Picturesque Kashmir / by Arthur Neve ; illustrated by Geoffroy W. Millais. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/228 page 64
    In order to secure this there must be a rigid following of rules, ascending by one rather precipitous route and descending by another. Tlie inversion of this would forfeit all tlie punya or merit. . . . Much of the impressiveness and solemnity of Amarnath seems connected wnth its majestic approach. There was mucli in the greyish-red limestone mountain and its towering, minster-like peaks, ])eculiarly combining gracefulness and massive- ness, to remind one of pictures of Horeb, and the plain at its base wliei'e rsracl lay on earth below Outstretched, with fear and wonder. Anything more ridiculous or puerile than the darshan, or sight of the deity, with the hope of which the poor pilgrim is beguiled as the goal of his expectation, it is scarcely possible to conceive.” The approach to the sacred cave is partly over snow, and the upper part of the valley is hlled with glaciers. I doubt if the cave is over 13,000 feet above the sea, though usuall} stated as from 14,000 to 16,000 feet. The great Himalayan god is represented by a block of ice projecting from the back of the cave, in front of which is a mutilated black limestone image of the bull of Shiva. The ice is a frozen sjwing, issuing from the crevices so common in dolomite rock. Some pigeons inhabit the recesses of the cave, and it is the sight ot these fluttering about in alarm at the shouts ol the pilgrims that awakens still greater entlmsiasm, for is not this the response of the gods? So they shout ^imarnath Ji Aa Jail with
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