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                          THE POPULAR RELIGION
                            AND FOLK-LORE OF
                             NORTHERN INDIA

                                   BY

                            W. CROOKE, B.A.
                          BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE



                             IN TWO VOLUMES

                                VOL. I.

                 A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED

                              WESTMINSTER
                       ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO.
                       2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W.

                                  1896







PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.


The success of this book has been much beyond my expectations. That
a considerable edition has been exhausted within a few months after
publication proves that it meets a want.

I have now practically re-written the book, and have taken
the opportunity of introducing a considerable amount of fresh
information collected in the course of the Ethnographical Survey of
the North-Western Provinces, the results of which will be separately
published.

For the illustrations, which now appear for the first time, I am
indebted to the photographic skill of Mr. J. O'Neal, of the Thomason
Engineering College, Rurki. I could have wished that they could have
been drawn from a wider area. But Hardwar and its shrines are very
fairly representative of popular Hinduism in Northern India.


W. Crooke.

Saharanpur,
February, 1895.



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Many books have been written on Brahmanism, or the official religion
of the Hindu; but, as far as I am aware, this is the first attempt
to bring together some of the information available on the popular
beliefs of the races of Upper India.

My object in writing this book has been threefold. In the first place
I desired to collect, for the use of all officers whose work lies
among the rural classes, some information on the beliefs of the people
which will enable