CHAPTER XXXVII
THE PILGRIMAGE TO AMARNATH
(i) The scuffle over Ramdas
At night Ramdas and the pilgrim pandit were lodged
in a house of another pandit, a resident of Mattan and friend
of the escort. Next morning Ramdas came out of the
house to have a view round. The importance of Mattan lies
firstly in its clear spring of water which is collected in a
small reservoir kept scrupulously clean and in which fishes
sport—it is a delight to see and drink and bathe in this
cool, transparent water—and secondly in the old ruins of
the Marthand temple at a higher altitude. He paid a visit
to the ruins; except for the outer fallen walls and a dilapi-
dated middle arched door-way, there remains nothing of
the temple. The ruins strike the observer with an idea of
the majesty, hugeness and solidity of the structure when it
was sound and whole. He spent an hour amidst these ruins,
witnessing the surrounding landscape. The temple was of
God Martand, hence the name.
Another morning, as he was tramping along the main
,road towards a cave, a, mile and a half from Mattan, he met
•at tfre outskirts a crowd gathered on the road. When he
neared it he heard a violent altercation in progress between
a pandit and a sparsely clothed sadhu. From their talk
Ramdas could make out that the sadhu had beaten a
pandit in his own house for refusing to give him some fire-
wood for which the sadhu had gone abegging to his door.
There was a commotion over the affair.
Ramdas passed on and reached the wayside hill. Ascend-
ing a few yards he came up to the narrow mouth of a cave
A little away, at the front of the cave to its right, was
seated a girl in. sannyasi robes before a fire. He was drawn
to the place. By her sida was a shallow gap in the hill
which she had made her temporary abode. She was quite