The sacred symbols of the Hindus

THE Marwari Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, lately passed a resolution against the practice of using pictorial representations of Hindu gods and goddesses as designs for stamps and tickets and labels on boxes and packages of various kinds of goods and articles of merchandise imported into the country. These are objects of worship to many millions of Hindus, and when they are thrown away in streets and are trampled upon, the community naturally feels hurt. The Chamber appeals to the European and Indian importing houses to gradually reduce the use of the standard stamps, tickets and labels of this kind with a view to their ultimate abandonment. The request is reasonable and practical and will doubtless receive the attention of the several Chambers of Commerce. The use of these sacred symbols is not a long standing one; and must doubtless have been suggested by Hindu traders themselves. It is some Hindu trader who must have sent portraits of his gods and goddesses to Germany for being printed and published. It is also the Hindu traders who obtained for sale in this country clay models of Hindu gods and goddesses from Germany.