OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS PART 291024 CONTD K RAJARAM IRS
In connection with the Pāmban Thullal, Mr Gopal Panikkar writes that
“sometimes the gods appear in the bodies of all these females, and
sometimes only in those of a select few, or none at all. The refusal of the
gods to enter into such persons is symbolic of some want of cleanliness in
them; which contingency is looked upon as a source of anxiety to the
individual. It may also suggest the displeasure of these gods towards the
family, in respect of which the ceremony is performed. In either case, such
refusal on the part of the gods is an index of their ill-will or
dissatisfaction. In cases where the gods refuse to appear in any one of
those seated for the purpose, the ceremony is prolonged until the gods are
so propitiated as to constrain them to manifest themselves. Then, after the
lapse of the number of days fixed for the ceremony, and, after the will of
the serpent gods is duly expressed, the ceremonies close.”
Sometimes, it is said, it may be considered necessary to rub away the
figure as many as one hundred and one times, in which case the ceremony is
prolonged over several weeks. Each time that the snake design is destroyed,
one or two men, with torches in their hands, perform a dance, keeping step
to Pulluvan's music. The family may eventually erect a small platform or
shrine in a corner of their grounds, and worship at it annually. The snake
deity will not, it is believed, manifest himself if any of the persons or
articles required [132]for the ceremony are impure, e.g., if the pot-drum
has been polluted by the touch of a menstruating female. The Pulluvan, from
whom a drum was purchased for the Madras Museum, was very reluctant to part
with it, lest it should be touched by an impure woman. In addition to the
pot-drum, the Pulluvans play on a lute with snakes painted on the reptile
skin, which is used in lieu of parchment. The skin, in a specimen which I
acquired, is apparently that of the big lizard Varanus bengalensis. The
lute is played with a bow, to which a metal bell is attached.
In the “Madras Census Report,” 1871,17 Surgeon-Major Cornish states that
there is a place near Vaisarpadi, close to Madras, in which the worship of
the living snakes draws crowds of votaries, who make holiday excursions to
the temple, generally on Sundays, in the hope of seeing the snakes, which
are preserved in the temple grounds; and, he adds, probably as long as the
desire of offspring is a leading characteristic of the Indian people, so
long will the worship of the serpent, or of snake-stones, be a popular
cult. He describes further how, at Rajahmundry in the Telugu country, he
came across an old ant-hill by the side of a public road, on which was
placed a stone representing a cobra, and the ground all round was stuck
over with pieces of wood carved very rudely in the shape of a snake. These
were the offerings left by devotees at the abode taken up by an old snake,
who would occasionally come out of his hole, and feast on the eggs and ghī
(clarified butter) left for him by his adorers. Around this place he saw
many women who had come to pray at the shrine. If they chanced to see the
cobra, the omen was interpreted favourably, and their prayers for progeny
would be granted. Concerning snake worship in the Tamil country, Mr W.
Francis writes as follows18:—
“A vow is taken by childless wives to install a serpent (nāgapratishtai),
if they are blessed with offspring. The ceremony consists in having a
figure of a serpent cut in a stone slab, placing it in a well for six
months, giving it life (prānapratishtai) by reciting mantrams and
performing other ceremonies over it, and then setting it up under a pīpal
tree (Ficus religiosa), which has been married to a margosa (Melia
Azadirachta). Worship, which consists mainly in going round the tree 108
times, is then performed to it for the next forty-five days. Similar
circumambulations will also bring good luck in a general way, if carried
out subsequently.”
It is further recorded by Mr F. R. Hemingway19 that, “Brāhmans and
the higher Vellālans think that children can be obtained by worshipping the
cobra. Vellālans and Kallans perform the worship on a Friday. Among the
Vellālans, this is generally after the Pongal festival. The Vellālans make
an old woman cry aloud in the backyard that a sacrifice will be made to the
cobra next day, and that they pray it will accept the offering. At the time
of sacrifice, cooked jaggery (crude sugar) and rice, burning ghī in the
middle of rice-flour, and an egg, are offered to the cobra, and left in the
backyard for its acceptance. The Pallis annually worship the cobra by
pouring milk on an ant-hill, and sacrificing a fowl near it. Valaiyans,
Pallans, and Paraiyans sacrifice a fowl in their own backyards.”
In the Tamil country, children whose birth is attributed to a vow taken
by childless mothers to offer a snake cut on a stone slab, sometimes have a
name bearing reference [134]to snakes given to them, i.e., Sēshāchalam,20
Sēshamma, Nāgappa, or Nāgamma. Nāga, Nāgasa, or Nāgēswara, occurs as the
name of a totemistic exogamous sept or gōtra of various classes in Ganjam
and Vizagapatam. In the Odiya caste of farmers in Ganjam, members of the
Nāgabonso sept claim to be descendants of Nāgamuni, the serpent rishi.
Nāgavadam (cobra’s hood) is the name of a subdivision of the Tamil Pallis,
who wear an ornament called nāgavadam, representing a cobra, in the dilated
lobes of the ears.
Ant (i.e., white-ant, Termes) hills, which have been repeatedly referred
to in this chapter, are frequently inhabited by cobras, and offerings of
milk, fruit, and flowers are consequently made to them on certain
ceremonial occasions. Thus it is recorded,21 by the Rev. J. Cain that when
he was living in Ellore Fort in the Godāvari district, in September, 1873,
“a large crowd of people, chiefly women and children, came in, and visited
every white-ant hill, poured upon each their offerings of milk, flowers,
and fruit, to the intense delight of all the crows in the neighbourhood.
The day was called the Nāgula Chaturdhi—Chaturdhi, the fourth day of the
eighth lunar month—and was said to be the day when Vāsuki, Takshakā, and
the rest of the thousand Nāgulu were born to Kasyapa Brahma by his wife
Kadruva.22 The other chief occasions when these ant-hills are resorted to
are when people are affected with earache or pains in the eye, and certain
skin diseases. They visit the ant-hills, pour out milk, cold rice, fruit,
etc., and carry away part of the earth, which they apply to the
[135]troublesome member, and, if they afterwards call in a Brāhman to
repeat a mantra or two, they feel sure the complaint will soon vanish. Many
parents first cut their children’s hair near one of these hillocks, and
offer the first fruits of the hair to the serpents residing there.”
The colossal Jain figure of Gomatēsvara, Gummatta, or Gomata Rāya, at
Srāvana Belgola in Mysore,23 is represented as surrounded by white-ant
hills, from which snakes are emerging, and with a climbing plant twining
itself round the legs and arms.
On the occasion of the snake festival in the Telugu country, the Bōya
women worship the Nāgala Swāmi (snake god) by fasting, and pouring milk
into the holes of white-ant hills. By this a double object is fulfilled.
The ant-hill is a favourite dwelling of the cobra, and was, moreover, the
burial-place of Valmīki, from whom the Bōyas claim to be descended. Valmīki
was the author of the Rāmāyana, and is believed to have done penance for so
long in one spot that a white-ant hill grew up round him. On the
Nāgarapanchami day, Lingāyats worship the image of a snake made of earth
from a snake’s hole with offerings of milk, rice, cocoanuts, flowers, etc.
During the month Aswija, Lingāyat girls collect earth from ant-hills, and
place it in a heap at the village temple. Every evening they go there with
wave-offerings, and worship the heap. At the Dipāvali festival,24 the
Gamallas (Telugu toddy-drawers) bathe in the early morning, and go in wet
clothes to an ant-hill, before which they prostrate themselves, and pour a
little water into one of the holes. Round the hill they wind five turns of
cotton thread, and return home. Subsequently [136]they come once more to
the ant-hill with a lamp made of flour paste. Carrying the light, they go
three or five times round the hill, and throw split pulse (Phaseolus Mungo)
into one of the holes. On the following morning they again go to the hill,
pour milk into it, and snap the threads wound round it.
The famous temple of Subramanya in South Canara is said to have been in
charge of the Subramanya Stānikas (temple servants), till it was wrested
from them by the Shivalli Brāhmans. In former times, the privilege of
sticking a golden ladle into a heap of food piled up in the temple on the
Shasti day is said to have belonged to the Stānikas. They also brought
earth from an ant-hill on the previous day. Food from the heap, and some of
the earth, are received as sacred articles by devotees who visit the sacred
shrine.
At the Smasanākollai festival in honour of the goddess Ankalamma at
Malayanūr, some thousands of people congregate at the temple. In front of
the stone idol is a large ant-hill, on which two copper idols are placed,
and a brass vessel is placed at the base of the hill, to receive the
various offerings.
At a wedding among the nomad Lambādis, the bride and bridegroom pour
milk into an ant-hill, and offer cocoanuts, milk, etc., to the snake which
lives therein. During the marriage ceremonies of the Dandāsis (village
watchmen in Ganjam), a fowl is sacrificed at an ant-hill. At a Bēdar
(Canarese cultivator) wedding, the earth from an ant-hill is spread near
five water-pots, and on it are scattered some paddy (unhusked rice) and
dhāl (Cajanus indicus) seeds. The spot is visited later on, and the seeds
should have sprouted.
7 The pīpal or aswatha (Ficus religiosa). Many villages have such a tree
with a platform erected round it, on which are carved figures of the
elephant god Ganēsa, and cobras. Village panchāyats (councils) are often
held on this platform.
9 Elayads, Ilayatus, or Nambiyatiris, are priests at most of the snake
groves on the west coast.
20Sēsha or Adisēsha is the serpent, on which Vishnu is often represented as
reclining.
In addition to the observance of penances and fasting, Hindus of all
castes, high and low, make vows and offerings to the gods, with the object
of securing their good-will or appeasing their anger. By the lower castes,
offerings of animals—fowls, sheep, goats, or buffaloes—are made, and the
gods whom they seek to propitiate are minor deities, e.g., Ellamma or
Muneswara, to whom animal sacrifices are acceptable.1 The higher castes
usually perform vows to Venkatēswara of Tirupati, Subramanya of Palni,
Vīrarāghava of Tiruvallur, Tirunārayana of Mēlkote, and other celebrated
gods. But they may, if afflicted with serious illness, at times, as at the
leaf festival at Periyapalayam (p. 148), seek the good offices of minor
deities.
“A shrine,” Mr F. Fawcett writes,2 “to which the Malayālis (inhabitants of
Malabar), Nāyars included, resort is that of Subramaniya at Palni in the
north-west of the Madura district. Not only are vows paid to this shrine,
but men, letting their hair grow for a year after their father’s death,
proceed to have it cut there. The plate shows an ordinary Palni pilgrim.
The arrangement which he is carrying is called a kāvadi (portable shrine).
There [138]are two kinds of kāvadi, a milk kāvadi containing milk, and a
fish kāvadi containing fish. The vow may be made in respect of either, each
being appropriate to certain circumstances. [Miniature silver kāvadis, and
miniature crowns, are sometimes offered by pilgrims to the god.] When the
time comes near for the pilgrim to start for Palni, he dresses in
reddish-orange clothes, shoulders his kāvadi, and starts out. Together with
a man ringing a bell, and perhaps one with a tom-tom, with ashes on his
face, he assumes the rôle of a beggar. The well-to-do are inclined to
reduce the beggar period to the minimum, but a beggar every votary must be,
and as a beggar he goes to Palni in all humbleness and humiliation, and
there he fulfils his vow, leaves his kāvadi and his hair, and a small sum
of money. Though the individuals about to be noticed were not Nāyars, their
cases illustrate very well the religious idea of the Nāyar as expressed
under certain circumstances. It was at Guruvayūr (in Malabar) in November
1895. On a high raised platform under a peepul tree were a number of people
under vows, bound for Palni. A boy of fourteen had suffered as a child from
epilepsy, and seven years ago his father vowed on his behalf that, if he
was cured, he would make his pilgrimage to Palni. He wore a string of beads
round his neck, and a like string on his right arm. These were in some way
connected with the vow. His head was bent, and he sat motionless under his
kāvadi, leaning on the bar, which, when he carried it, rested on his
shoulder. He could not go to Palni until it was revealed to him in a dream
when he was to start. He had waited for his dream seven years, subsisting
on roots (yams, etc.), and milk—no rice. Now he had had the longed-for
dream, and was about to start. Another pilgrim was a man wearing an oval
band of silver over the lower portion of the forehead, almost covering his
eyes; his tongue protruding beyond the mouth, and kept in position by a
silver skewer through it. The skewer was put in the day before, and was to
be left in for forty days. He had been fasting for two years. He was much
under the influence of the god, and whacking incessantly at a drum in
delicious excitement. Several of the pilgrims had a handkerchief tied over
the mouth, they being under a vow of silence. [At Kumbakonam in the Tanjore
district, ‘there is a math in honour of a recently deceased saint named
Paradēsi, who attained wide fame in the district some years ago. He never
spoke, and was welcomed and feasted everywhere, and was the subject of many
vows. People used to promise to break cocoanuts in his presence, or clothe
him with fine garments, if they obtained their desire, and such vows were
believed to be very efficacious.’3 At the Manjēshwar Temple in South
Canara, there is a Darsana, (man who gets inspired) called the dumb
Darsana, as he gives signs instead of speaking. Bishop Whitehead records4
the case of a Brāhman, who had taken a vow of silence for twenty-one years,
because people make so much mischief by talking. He conversed by means of
signs and writing in the dust]. One poor man wore the regular instrument of
silence, the mouth-lock5—a wide silver band over the mouth, and a skewer
piercing both cheeks. He sat patiently in a tent-like affair. People fed
him with milk, etc. The use of the mouth-lock is common with the Nāyars,
when they assume the pilgrim’s robes and set out for Palni. Pilgrims
generally go in crowds under charge of a priestly guide, one who, having
made a certain number of journeys to the shrine, wears a peculiar sash and
other gear.”
In connection with kāvadis, it may be noted that, at the time of the annual
migration of the sacred herd of cattle belonging to the Kāppiliyans
(Canarese farmers in the Madura district) to the hills, the driver is said
to carry a pot of fresh-drawn milk within a kāvadi. On the day on which the
return journey to the Kambam [140]valley is commenced, the pot is opened,
and the milk is said to be found in a hardened state. A slice thereof is
cut off, and given to each person who accompanied the herd to the hills. It
is believed that the milk would not remain in good condition, if the sacred
herd had been in any way injuriously affected during its sojourn there. The
usual vow performed at the shrine of Dandāyudhapāni or Subramanya near
Settikulam in the Trichinopoly district is to carry milk, sugar, flour,
etc., in a kāvadi, and offer it to the god.6 A case is recorded7 from
Ceylon, in which a man who was about to proceed with a kāvadi to a shrine
was held by several men, while a blow with the palm of the hand caught him
in the middle of the back, to numb the pain created by the forcing of sharp
iron hooks into the fleshy part of the back.
Reference has been made (p. 137) to the offering of hair by devotees at the
Palni shrine. When people are prevented from going to a temple at the
proper time, hair is sometimes removed from their children’s head, sealed
up in a vessel, and put into the receptacle for offerings when the visit to
the temple is paid. In cases of dangerous sickness, the hair is sometimes
cut off, and offered to a deity.
“The sacrifice of locks,” Mr A. Srinivasan writes, “is meant to propitiate
deceased relations, and the deity which presides over life’s little joys
and sorrows. It is a similar intention that has dictated the ugly
disfigurement of widows. We meet with the identical fact and purpose in the
habit of Telugu Brāhmans and non-Brāhmans in general, sacrificing their
whole locks of hair to the goddess Ganga of Prayaga, to the god Venkatēsa
of Tirupati, and other local gods. The Brāhman ladies of the south have
more ecently managed to please Ganga and other gods with just one or two
locks of hair.”
Sometimes, in performance of a vow, Patnūlkāran (Madura weaver) boys are
taken to the shrine at Tirupati for the tonsure ceremony.8 Married couples
desirous of offspring make a vow that, if a child be granted to them, they
will perform the ceremony of the first shaving of its head at the temple of
the god who fulfils their desire.9 It is said10 that Alagarkōvil in the
Madura district is such a favourite place for carrying out the first
shaving of the heads of children, that the right to the locks presented to
the shrine is annually sold by auction.
Writing in 1872, Mr Breeks remarked11 that “about Ootacamund, a few Todas
have latterly begun to imitate the religious practices of their native
neighbours, and my particular friend Kinniaven, after an absence of some
days, returned with a shaven head from a visit to the temple of Siva at
Nanjengudi” (in Mysore).
A Toda who came to see me had his hair hanging down in long tails reaching
below the shoulders. He had, he said, let it grow long because his wife,
though married five years, had borne no child. A child had, however,
recently been born, and he was going to sacrifice his locks as a
thank-offering at the Nanjengōd temple. By the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, the
fire-walking ceremony is celebrated to propitiate the deity Jeddayaswāmi,
to whom vows are made. In token thereof, they grow one twist or plait of
hair, which is finally cut off as an offering to Jeddayaswāmi.
By some Gavaras (a cultivating caste) of Vizagapatam, special reverence is
paid to the deity Jagganāthaswāmi of Orissa, whose shrine at Puri is
visited by some, while others take vows in the name of the god. On the day
of the car festival at Puri, local car festivals are held in Gavara
villages, and women carry out the performance of their vows. A woman, for
example, who is under a vow, in order that she may be cured of illness or
bear children, takes a big pot of water, and, placing it on her head,
dances frantically before the god, through whose influence the water which
rises out of the pot falls back into it, instead of being spilt. The class
of Vaishnavite mendicants called Dāsari claims descent from a wealthy
Sūdra,12 who, having no offspring, vowed that, if he was blessed with
children, he would devote one to the service of the deity. He subsequently
had many sons, one of whom he named Dāsan, and placed entirely at the
service of the god. Dāsan forfeited all claim to his father’s estate, and
his descendants are therefore all beggars.13 In a note on the Dāsaris of
Mysore,14 it is stated that “they become Dāsas or servants dedicated to the
god at Tirupati by virtue of a peculiar vow, made either by themselves or
their relatives at some moment of anxiety or danger, and live by begging in
his name. Among certain castes (e.g., Banajiga, Tigala, and Vakkaliga), the
custom of taking a vow to become a Dāsari prevails. In fulfilment of that
vow, the person becomes a Dāsari, and his eldest son is bound to follow
suit.”
It may be noted that, in the Canarese country, a custom obtains among the
Bēdars and some other castes, under which a family which has no male issue
must dedicate [143]one of its daughters as a Basavi.15 The girl is taken to
the temple, and married to the god, a tāli (marriage badge) and toe-rings
being put on her. Thenceforward she becomes a public woman, except that she
should not consort with any one of lower caste than herself. It may be
added that a Basavi usually lives faithfully with one man, and she works
for her family as hard as any other woman.
Married couples, to whom offspring is born after the performance of a vow,
sometimes name it after the deity whose aid has been invoked, such as
Srinivāsa at Tirupati, Lakshminarasimha at Sholingūr, or some other local
god or goddess. At Negapatam, some Hindus make vows to the Mīrān
(Muhammadan saint) of Nāgur, and name their child after him. The name thus
given is not, however, used in every-day life, but abandoned like the
ceremonial name given prior to the Hindu upanāyana ceremony. In the Telugu
country, the poorer classes of Hindus sometimes promise that, if a son is
born to them, they will call him after a Muhammadan Fakir, and,
consequently, it is far from uncommon to find a Hindu named Fakirgadu or
Fakirappa, with a Hindu termination to a Muhammadan commencement.16
It has been noted (p. 138) that some pilgrims to the shrine at Palni have a
skewer piercing both cheeks. It is recorded by Bishop Whitehead17 that
“devotees go to the shrine of Durgamma at Bellary with silver pins about
six inches long thrust through their cheeks, and with a lighted lamp in a
brass dish on their head. On arriving before the shrine, they place the
lamp on the ground, and the pin is removed, and offered to the goddess.”
The Bishop was told that the object of this ceremony is to enable the
devotee to come to the shrine with a concentrated mind.
A common form of vow made to Māriamman at Pāppakkālpatti in the
Trichinopoly district is a promise to stick little iron skewers into the
body. In performance of vows, the Sēdans and Kaikōlans (weaver castes)
pierce some part of the body with a spear. The latter thrust a spear
through the muscles of the abdomen in honour of their god Sāhā-nayanar at
Ratnagiri.
At the annual festival of the goddess Gangamma at Tirupati, a Kaikōlan
devotee dances before the goddess, and, when he is worked up to the proper
pitch of frenzy, a metal wire is passed through the middle of his tongue.
It is believed that the operation causes no pain or bleeding, and the only
remedy adopted is the chewing of margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves and
some kunkumam (red powder) of the goddess. If, during a temple car
procession, the car refuses to move, the Vīramushtis (Lingāyat mendicants),
who are guardians of the idol, cut themselves with their swords until it is
set in motion. There is a proverb that the Siva Brāhman (temple priest)
eats well, whereas the Vīramushti hurts himself with the sword, and suffers
much. The Vīramushtis are said, in former days, to have performed a
ceremony called pāvadam. When an orthodox Lingāyat was insulted, he would
swallow his lingam, and lie flat on the ground in front of the house of the
offender, who had to collect some Lingāyats, and send for a Vīramushti. He
had to arrive accompanied by a pregnant Vīramushti woman, priests of
Draupadi, Pachaiamman, and Pothurāja temples, some individuals from the
nearest Lingāyat mutt, and others. Arrived at the house, the pregnant woman
would sit down in front of the person lying on the ground. [145]With his
sword the Vīramushti man then made cuts in his scalp and chest, and
sprinkled the recumbent man with the blood. He would then rise, and the
lingam would come out of his mouth. Mondi mendicants, when engaged in
begging, cut the skin of the thighs with a knife, lie down and beat their
chest with a stone, vomit, roll in the dust or mud, and throw ordure into
the houses of those who will not contribute alms. It was noted, in a recent
report of the Banganapalle State, that an inām (grant of rent-free land)
was held on condition of the holder “ripping open his stomach” at a certain
festival.
K RAJARAM IRS 291024 TO BE CONTD.
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