Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838 (1837)
by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Hurdwar—The Gate of Vishnoo
2389800Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838 — Hurdwar—The Gate of Vishnoo1837Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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HURDWAR, THE GATE OF HARI OR VISHNOU.

Artist: J. D. Harding - Engraved by: F. J. Havell




HURDWAR—THE GATE OF VISHNOO.


Fling wide the sacred city gates,
    Wide on the open air;
A higher Conqueror awaits
    Than he whose name they bear.

He comes not in the strength of war,
    He comes not in its pride;
No banners are around his car,
    No trumpets at his side.

Not in the midst of armed bands
    The Christian Chief appears,
No swords are in his followers’ hands,
    They strive with prayers and tears.

For faint and weak those followers seem,
    Yet mighty is their voice:
The Ganges’ old and holy stream
    Will in its depths rejoice.

Low is the voice with which they plead—
    A voice of peace and love;
Peaceful and loving is the creed
    Whose emblem is the dove.

Far in the East a star arose,
    And with its rising brought
God’s own appointed hour to those
    By whom it had been sought.

And still that guiding star hath shone
    O’er all its light hath won;
And it will still keep shining on
    Until its work be done.

A glorious ending at its birth
    Was to that planet given:
For never will it set on earth,
    Till earth is lost in heaven.

Fling wide the ancient city’s gates,
    The hours of night are past,
And Christ, the Conqueror, awaits
    Earth’s holiest and her last.


Hurdwar signifies the Gate of Hari, or Vishnoo, the Saviour of the Hindoo mythology, and has, from the earliest times, been one of the most considerable places of Hindoo pilgrimage and purification. Amongst the hordes who flock to immerse themselves in the holy stream, in the month of April, at the point where it first emancipates itself from the gigantic mountains which give it birth, are many victims of disease, or in the last stage of life, who have literally crawled hundreds of miles, apprehensive lest they should expire from exhaustion before they reach the sacred goal; and ere they arrive, exhibit signs of the most extravagant joy at finding themselves once more able to lave their limbs in the sacred stream. The number of persons usually collected on these occasions varies from two to three thousand; and once in twelve years, when particular ceremonies are observed, they have been computed at a million.