Chapter 21 (2)

=The Nāgpanchami Festival: Serpent Worship.=—The 5th is the Nagpanchami, or day set apart for the propitiation of the chief of the reptile race, the Naga or serpent. Few subjects have more occupied the notice of the learned world than the mysteries of Ophite worship, which are to be traced wherever there existed a remnant of civilization, or indeed of humanity; among the savages of the savannahs[4.21.66] of America, and the magi of Fars, with whom it was the type of evil,—their Ahrimanes.[4.21.67] The Nagas, or serpent-genii of the Rajputs, have a semi-human structure, precisely as Diodorus describes the snake-mother of the Scythae, in whose country originated this serpent-worship, engrafted on the tenets of Zardusht, of the Puranas of the priesthood of Egypt, and on the fables of early Greece.[4.21.68] Dupuis, Volney, and other expounders of the mystery, have given an astronomical solution to what they deem a varied ramification of an ancient fable, of which that of Greece, ‘the dragon guarding the fruits of Hesperides,’ may be considered the most elegant version. Had these learned men seen those ancient sculptures in India, which represent ‘the fall,’ they might have changed their opinion. The traditions of the Jains or Buddhists (originating in the land of the Takshaks,[4.21.69] or Turkistan) assert the creation of the human species in pairs, called _jugal_, who fed off the ever-fructifying _kalpa-vriksha_, which possesses all the characters of the Tree of Life, like it bearing

Ambrosial fruit of vegetable gold;

which was termed _amrita_, and rendered them immortal. A drawing, brought by [581] Colonel Coombs, from a sculptured column in a cave temple in the south of India, represents the first pair at the foot of this ambrosial tree, and a serpent entwined among the heavily laden boughs, presenting to them some of the fruit from his mouth. The tempter appears to be at that part of his discourse, when

... his words, replete with guile,
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fixed on the fruit she gazed.

This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient pagan temple; if Jain or Buddhist, the interest would be considerably enhanced. On this festival, at Udaipur, as well as throughout India, they strew particular plants about the threshold, to prevent the entrance of reptiles.

=The Rākhi Festival.=—This festival, which is held on the last day of Sawan, was instituted in honour of the good genii, when Durvasas the sage instructed Salono (the genius or nymph presiding over the month of Sawan) to bind on _rakhis_, or bracelets, as charms to avert evil. The ministers of religion and females alone are privileged to bestow these charmed wrist-bands. The ladies of Rajasthan, either by their handmaids or the family priests, send a bracelet as the token of their esteem to such as they adopt as brothers, who return gifts in acknowledgement of the honour. The claims thus acquired by the fair are far stronger than those of consanguinity: for illustration of which I may refer to an incident already related in the annals of this house.[4.21.70] Sisters also present their brothers with clothes on this day, who make an offering of gold in return.[4.21.71]

This day is hailed by the Brahmans as indemnifying them for their expenditure of silk and spangles, with which they decorate the wrists of all who are likely to make a proper return.

=Festivals in the month Bhādon: August-September.=—On the 3rd there is a grand procession to the Chaugan; and the 8th, or Ashtami, is the birth of Krishna, which will be described at large in an account of Nathdwara. There are several holidays in this month, when the periodical [582] rains are in full descent; but that on the last but one (Sudi 14, or 29th) is the most remarkable.

=Ancestor Worship.=—On this day[4.21.72] commences the worship of the ancestorial manes (the Pitrideva, or _father-gods_) of the Rajputs, which continues for fifteen days. The Rana goes to the cemetery at Ara, and performs at the cenotaph of each of his forefathers the rites enjoined, consisting of ablutions, prayers, and the hanging of garlands of flowers, and leaves sacred to the dead, on their monuments. Every chieftain does the same amongst the altars of the ‘great ancients’ (_bara burha_); or, if absent from their estates, they accompany their sovereign to Ara.

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Footnote 4.21.1:

_Travels in Scandinavia_, vol. i. p. 33.

Footnote 4.21.2:

_Bhumiputra._

Footnote 4.21.3:

_Vanaputra._

Footnote 4.21.4:

Suryas and Induputras.

Footnote 4.21.5:

[For the Vedic cult of Sūrya see Macdonell, “Vedic Mythology,”
_Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_, 1897, p.
30 ff.]

Footnote 4.21.6:

The Sauromatae or Sarmatians of early Europe, as well as the Syrians,
were most probably colonies of the same Suryavansi who simultaneously
peopled the shores of the Caspian and Mediterranean, and the banks of
the Indus and Ganges. Many of the tribes described by Strabo as
dwelling around the Caspian are enumerated amongst the thirty-six
royal races of India. One of these, the Sakasenae, supposed to be the
ancestors of our own Saxon race, settled themselves on the Araxes in
Armenia, adjoining Albania. [There are no grounds for these
comparisons.]

Footnote 4.21.7:

[There are no grounds for this classification.]

Footnote 4.21.8:

Long after the overthrow of the Greek kingdom of Bactria by the Yuti
or Getes [Sakas] this region was popular and flourishing. In the year
120 before Christ, De Guignes says: “Dans ce pays on trouvait
d’excellens grains, du vin de vigne, plus de cent villes, tant grandes
que petites. Il est aussi fait mention du Tahia situé au midi du
Gihon, et où il y a de grandes villes murées. Le général chinois y vit
des toiles de l’Inde et autres marchandises, etc., etc.” (_Hist. Gén.
des Huns_, vol. i. p. 51).

Footnote 4.21.9:

Yavan or Javan is a celebrated link of the Indu (_lunar_) genealogical
chain; nor need we go to Ionia for it, though the Ionians may be a
colony descended from Javan, the ninth from Yayati, who was the third
son of Ayu, the ancestor of the Hindu as well as of the Tatar
Induvansi. [Yavana is the general term for a foreigner, especially the
non-Hindu tribes of the N.W. Frontier, and those beyond them.] The
Asuras, who are so often described as invaders of India, and which
word has ordinarily a mere irreligious acceptation, I firmly believe
to mean the Assyrians. [This theory was adopted by J. Fergusson, _Cave
Temples of India_, 34.]

Footnote 4.21.10:

[Such analogies of custom do not prove ethnical identity.]

Footnote 4.21.11:

[The theory breaks down, because the name of the sword of Argantýr was
Tyrfing, or better Tyrfingr, the derivation of which word, as Mr. H.
M. Chadwick kindly informs me, according to Vigfússon’s _Icelandic
Dictionary_, is from _tyrfi_, a resinous fir-tree used for kindling a
fire, because the sword flamed like resinous wood.]

Footnote 4.21.12:

See Turner’s _History of Anglo-Saxons_ for Indo-Scythic words.

Footnote 4.21.13:

There were no less than four distinguished leaders of this name
amongst the vassals of the last Rajput emperor of Delhi; and one of
them, who turned traitor to his sovereign and joined Shihabu-d-din,
was actually a Scythian, and of the Gakkhar race, which maintained
their ancient habits of polyandry even in Babur’s time. The Haoli Rao
Hamira was lord of Kangra and the Gakkhars of Pamir.

Footnote 4.21.14:

Turner, when discussing the history of the Sakai, or Sakaseni, of the
Caspian, whom he justly supposes to be the Saxons of the Baltic, takes
occasion to introduce some words of Scythic origin (preserved by
ancient writers), to almost every one of which, without straining
etymology, we may give a Sanskrit origin. [There is no ground for
ascribing a Scythic origin to the proper names in the text.]

Scythic. Sanskrit or Bhakha.

Exampaios sacred ways _Agham_ is the sacred
book; _pai_ and _pada_,
a foot; _pantha_, a
path.

Arimu one _Ad_ is _the first_;
whence _Adima_, or man.

Spou an eye.

Oior a man.

Pata to kill _Badh_, to kill.

Tahiti the chief deity is Vesta Tap is heat or flame; the
type of Vesta.

Papaios ” ” Jupiter Baba, or Bapa,
the universal father.
The Hindu Jiva-pitri, or
_Father_ of Life [?].

Oitosuros ” ” Apollo Aitiswara, or Sun-God,
applicable to Vishnu,
who has every attribute
of Apollo; from _ait_,
contraction of _aditya_,
the sun.

Artimpasa, ” ” Venus Apsaras because born from
or Aripasa the froth or essence,
‘_sara_,’ of the waters,
‘_ap_’ [‘going in the
water’].

Thamimasadus ” ” Neptune Thoenatha; or _God of the
Waters_.

Apia wife of Papaios, or Earth Amba, Ama, Uma, is the
_universal mother_; wife
of ‘Baba Adam,’ as they
term the universal
father.

See Turner’s _History of the Anglo-Saxons_, vol. i. p. 35. [Many of
the identifications are obsolete.]

Footnote 4.21.15:

Sir W. Jones, “On the Lunar Year of the Hindus,” _Asiatic Researches_,
vol. iii. p. 257.

Footnote 4.21.16:

Bhaskara saptami, in honour of the sun, as a form of Vishnu (Varaha
Purana) Makari, from the sun entering the constellation _Makara_
(Pisces), the first of the solar Magha (see _Asiatic Researches_, vol.
iii. p. 273).

Footnote 4.21.17:

See Vol. I. p. 91.

Footnote 4.21.18:

This word appears to have the same import as Thor, the sun-god and war
divinity of the Scandinavians. [? _Thāwar_, Saturday; Skt. _sthāvara_,
‘stationary.’]

Footnote 4.21.19:

Odin is also called _As_ or ‘lord’; the Gauls also called him Oes or
Es, and with a Latin termination Hesus, whom Lucan calls Esus; Edda,
vol. ii. pp. 45-6. The celebrated translator of these invaluable
remnants of ancient superstitions, by which alone light can be thrown
on the origin of nations, observes that Es or Oes is the name for God
with all the Celtic races. So it was with the Tuscans, doubtless from
the Sanskrit, or rather from a more provincial tongue, the common
contraction of Iswara, the Egyptian Osiris, the Persian Syr, the
sun-god. [These words have, of course, no connexion. Syria perhaps
derives its name from the Suri, a north-Euphratian tribe
(_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iv. 4845).]

Footnote 4.21.20:

Which Mallet, from Hesychius, interprets ‘good star.’ [The name
Goetosyrus or Octosyrus (Herodotus iv. 59) is so uncertain in form
that it is useless to propose etymologies for it (E. H. Minns,
_Scythians and Greeks_, 86). Rawlinson (_Herodotus_, 3rd ed. ii. 93)
compares Greek αἴθος, Skt. _sūrya_, in the sense ‘bright, burning
Sun.’]

Footnote 4.21.21:

Mallet’s _Northern Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 42.

Footnote 4.21.22:

[Much of this is from Sir W. Jones, Wilford and Paterson (_Asiatic
Researches_, i. 253, iii. 141, viii. 48). Herodotus (i. 216) ascribes
the custom of Sun sacrifice to the Massagetae.]

Footnote 4.21.23:

[The Mughal emperors followed the same practice (Manucci i. 98).]

Footnote 4.21.24:

In his delight for this diversion, the Rajput evinces his Scythic
propensity. The grand hunts of the last Chauhan emperor often led him
into warfare, for Prithiraj was a poacher of the first magnitude, and
one of his battles with the Tatars was while engaged in field sports
on the Ravi. The heir of Jenghiz Khan was chief huntsman, the highest
office of the State amongst the Scythic Tatars; as Ajanbahu, alike
celebrated in either field of war and sport, was chief huntsman to the
Chauhan emperor of Delhi, whose bard enters minutely into the subject,
describing all the variety of dogs of chase.

Footnote 4.21.25:

A hog in Hindi; in Persian _khuk_, nearly our _hog_ [?].

Footnote 4.21.26:

Chief of Salumbar.

Footnote 4.21.27:

Chief of Hamirgarh.

Footnote 4.21.28:

[On the slaughter of the boar representing a corn-spirit see Sir J.
Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, 3rd ed. Part v. vol. i. 298 ff.; Robertson
Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 2nd ed. 290 f.]

Footnote 4.21.29:

He has been the father of more than one hundred children, legitimate
and illegitimate, though very few are living.

Footnote 4.21.30:

That this can be done without any loss of dignity by the _Sahib log_
(a name European gentlemen have assumed) is well known to those who
may have partaken of the hospitalities of that honourable man, and
brave and zealous officer, Colonel James Skinner, C.B., at Hansi. That
his example is worthy of imitation in the mode of commanding, is best
evinced by the implicit and cheerful obedience his men pay to his
instructions when removed from his personal control. He has passed
through the ordeal of nearly thirty years of unremitted service, and
from the glorious days of Delhi and Laswari under Lake, to the last
siege of Bharatpur, James Skinner has been second to none. In
obtaining for this gallant and modest officer the order of the Bath,
Lord Combermere must have been applauded by every person who knows the
worth of him who bears it, which includes the whole army of Bengal.
[James Skinner, 1778-1841. See Compton, _Military Adventurers_, 389
ff.; Buckland, _Dict. Indian Biography_, s.v.]

Footnote 4.21.31:

Evinced in the presentation of the _sriphala_, the fruit of _Sri_,
which is the coco-nut, emblematic of fruitfulness.

Footnote 4.21.32:

Another point of resemblance to the Roman Saturnalia.

Footnote 4.21.33:

A hall so called in honour of Ganesa, or Janus, whose effigies adorn
the entrance. [Janus probably = Dianus: Ganesa, ‘lord of the troops of
inferior deities’ (_gana_).]

Footnote 4.21.34:

See p. 394.

Footnote 4.21.35:

See p. 324.

Footnote 4.21.36:

[See Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, viii. 868 f.]

Footnote 4.21.37:

It fell on the 18th March 1819.

Footnote 4.21.38:

[For festivals in honour of Gauri see _IA_, xxxv. (1906) 61.]

Footnote 4.21.39:

Personification of spring.

Footnote 4.21.40:

Here we have Gauri as the type of the earth.

Footnote 4.21.41:

[The Gardens of Adonis, for which see Sir J. Frazer, _Adonis_,
_Attis_, _Osiris_, 3rd ed. i. 236 ff.]

Footnote 4.21.42:

Here the Hindu mixes Persian with his Sanskrit, and produces the
mongrel dialect Hindi.

Footnote 4.21.43:

Takht, Pat, Persian and Sanskrit, alike meaning _board_.

Footnote 4.21.44:

The Ephesian Diana is the twin sister of Gauri, and can have a
Sanskrit derivation in Devianna, ‘the goddess of food,’ contracted
Deanna, though commonly Anna-de or Anna-devi, and Annapurna, ‘filling
with food,’ or the nourisher, the name applied by ‘the mother of
mankind,’ when she places the repast before the messenger of heaven:

“Heavenly Stranger, please to taste
These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom
All perfect good, unmeasured out, descends,
To us for food and for delight, hath caused
The earth to yield.”
_Paradise Lost_, Bk. v. 397-401.

[Diana is the feminine form of Dianus, Janus.]

Footnote 4.21.45:

ii. 59-64.

Footnote 4.21.46:

_Analysis of Ancient Mythology_, p. 312.

Footnote 4.21.47:

[_Germania_, ix.]

Footnote 4.21.48:

Hesus is probably derived from Iswara, or Isa, _the_ god. Toth was the
Egyptian, and Teutates the Scandinavian, Mercury. I have elsewhere
attempted to trace the origin of the Suevi, Su, or Yeuts of Yeutland
(Jutland), to Yute, Getae, or Jat, of Central Asia, who carried thence
the religion of Buddha into India as well as to the Baltic. There is
little doubt that the races called Jotner, Jaeter, Jotuns, Jacts, and
Yeuts, who followed the Asi into Scandinavia, migrated from the
Jaxartes, the land of the great Getae (Massagetae); the leader was
supposed to be endued with supernatural powers, like the Buddhist,
called Vidiavan, or magician, whose haunts adjoined Aria, the cradle
of the Magi. They are designated Aripunta [?], under the sign of a
serpent, the type of Budha; or Ahriman, ‘the foe of man.’ [Much of
this crude speculation is taken from Wilford (_Asiatic Researches_,
iii. 133).]

Footnote 4.21.49:

The German Ertha, to show her kindred to the Ila of the Rajputs, had
her car drawn by a cow, under which form the Hindus typify the earth
(_prithivi_).

Footnote 4.21.50:

Let it be borne in mind that Indu, Chandra, Soma, are all epithets for
‘the moon,’ or as _he_ is classically styled (in an inscription of the
famous Kumarpal, which I discovered in Chitor), Nisanath, the ruler of
darkness (Nisa).

Footnote 4.21.51:

[Kedārnāth has, of course, no connexion with the _cedar_ tree. The
origin of the name ‘Lord of Kedār’ is unknown; probably Kedār was an
old cult title of Siva.]

Footnote 4.21.52:

I have before remarked that a Sanskrit etymology might be given to
this word in Ila and Isa, _i.e._ ‘the goddess of the earth’ [?] [p.
636, note].

Footnote 4.21.53:

I was informed at Naples that four thousand of these were dug out of
one spot, and I obtained while at Paestum many fragments and heads of
this goddess.

Footnote 4.21.54:

Prichard’s _Researches into the Physical History of Man_, p. 369. [For
a full discussion of ὠμοφαγία see Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to
the Study of Greek Religion_, 483 ff.]

Footnote 4.21.55:

The Buddhists of Tartary make no scruple of eating flesh.

Footnote 4.21.56:

_Durga_, ‘a fort’; as Suvarnadurg, ‘the golden castle,’ etc., etc.

Footnote 4.21.57:

Literally _Tripoli_, ‘the three cities,’ _pura_, _polis_.

Footnote 4.21.58:

[The double jasmin (_Michelia champaka_).]

Footnote 4.21.59:

Cupid’s bow is formed of a garland of flowers.

Footnote 4.21.60:

Madana, he who intoxicates with desire (_kama_), both epithets of the
god of love. The festivals on the 13th and 14th are called Madana
trayodasi (the tenth) and Chaturdasi (fourteenth).

Footnote 4.21.61:

_Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii. p. 278.

Footnote 4.21.62:

[Savitri-vrata means ‘the vow to Savitri,’ and has no connexion with
the _vata_ or banyan-tree. But the tree is worshipped in connexion
with it on 15th light or dark fortnight of the month Jeth (_Census
Report, Baroda_, 1901, i. 127).]

Footnote 4.21.63:

_Ap_, ‘water,’ and _sara_, ‘froth or essence.’ [The word means ‘going
in the waters, or between the waters of the clouds.’]

Footnote 4.21.64:

The Romans held the calends of June (generally Jeth) sacred to the
goddess Carna, significant of the sun. Carneus was the sun-god of the
Celts, and a name of Apollo at Sparta, and other Grecian cities. The
Karneia was a festival in honour of Apollo.

Footnote 4.21.65:

The story of the vigils of Parvati, preparatory to her being reunited
to her lord, consequent to her sacrifice as _Sati_, is the counterpart
of the Grecian fable of Cybele, her passion for, and marriage with,
the youth Atys or _Papas_, the _Baba_, or universal father, of the
Hindus.

Footnote 4.21.66:

How did a word of Persian growth come to signify ‘the boundless brake’
of the new world?

Footnote 4.21.67:

_Ari_, ‘a foe’; _manus_, ‘man.’ [Angro Mainyush, ‘destructive
spirit.’]

Footnote 4.21.68:

[There is no reason to believe that snake-worship was not
independently practised in India.]

Footnote 4.21.69:

This is the snake-race of India, the foes of the Pandus.

Footnote 4.21.70:

See p. 364.

Footnote 4.21.71:

I returned from three to five pieces of gold for the _rakhis_ sent by
my adopted sisters; from one of whom, the sister of the Rana, I
annually received this pledge by one of her handmaids; three of them I
have yet in my possession, though I never saw the donor, who is now no
more. I had, likewise, some presented through the family priest, from
the Bundi queen-mother, with whom I have conversed for hours, though
she was invisible to me; and from the ladies of rank of the
chieftains’ families, but one of whom I ever beheld, though they often
called upon me for the performance of brotherly offices in consequence
of such tie. There is a delicacy in this custom, with which the bond
uniting the cavaliers of Europe to the service of the fair, in the
days of chivalry, will not compare.

Footnote 4.21.72:

Sacred to Vishnu, with the title of _Ananta_, or
infinite—_Bhavishyottara_. (See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii. p.
291.) Here Vishnu appears as ‘lord of the manes.’

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