38 PICTURES AND PEN-PICTURES

enshrined, an idol of Shiva endowed with special sanctity;

grey and weather-beaten, this temple is jealously
.guarded by priests and disciples. On the ghats along
the quietly flowing river, daily life is refreshingly
blended with religion. Outside the town, at the end of
a sandy track, the temple where Kalidasa is said to
have received his gift from the Goddess of Knowledge
slumbers peacefully on the edge of open fields.

Away to the left is the palace of Ujjain with its
pretty garden overlooking the river, and its artistically
arranged tanks and fountains. Across the town, once
more towards the open fields, is the observatory
constructed by the order of Eaja Jay Singh of Jaypur
-in the eighteenth century; the wierd geometrical shapes
of the masonry instruments are accurately graded and
marked for astronomers' calculations. Already the
ancient Hindus reckoned their longitude from the
meridian of Ujjain,

The setting sun casts fantastic shadows across the
observatory buildings, soon the Polar Star will be seen
at the end of the narrow slanting wall, two hundred
years old and still accurate. Over the town chimneys
smoke where temple towers were once silhouetted against
the evening skies, and factory hooters sound at the time
that temple bells were wont to call the people to
'evening worship; a strident band rends the air announ-
cing the latest screen-hit of Ujjain's cinema—twilight
descends across the Malwa plateau.