SACRED TALES OF INDIA

During the great pujahs which consume so much of our means, women are left in the background. Their special province is these ceremonies, Vratas, as they are called. Each has a Katha or tale tacked on to it, which is piously recited by the most elderly of the assembled female worshippers. Each story is illustrative of the might and glory of the particular god or goddess that is being honoured and in itself forms a highly interesting part of the ceremony. Most of the tales may seem to unbelievers to be as wild and childish as nursery legends, yet they are delightful. They please less by the variation of "moving accidents" than by the homeliness of their construction. They are extremely interesting also for the light they throw on the recesses of the Indian woman’s heart.