Chapter II: The Heroic and Village Godlings (2)

One of his distinctive forms is Kâl Bhairon, or Kâla Bhairava, whose image depicted with his dog is often found as a sort of warden in Saiva temples. One of his most famous shrines is at Kalinjar, of which Abul Fazl says "marvellous tales are related." [253] He is depicted with eighteen arms and is ornamented with the usual garlands of skulls, with snake earrings and snake armlets and a serpent twined round his head. In his hands he holds a sword and a bowl of blood. In the Panjâb he is said to frighten away death, and in Râjputâna Col. Tod calls him "the blood-stained divinity of war." [254] The same godling is known in Bombay as Bhairoba, of whom Mr. Campbell [255] writes--"He is represented as a standing male figure with a trident in the left hand and a drum (damaru) in the right, and encircled with a serpent. When thus represented he is called Kâla Bhairava. But generally he is represented by a rough stone covered over with oil and red lead. He is said to be very terrible, and, when offended, difficult to be pleased. By some he is believed to be an incarnation of Siva himself, and by others as a spirit much in favour with the god Siva. He is also consulted as an oracle. When anyone is desirous of ascertaining whether anything he is about to undertake will turn out according to his wishes, he sticks two unbroken betel-nuts, one on each breast of the stone image of Bhairava, and tells it, if his wish is to be accomplished, that the right or left nut is to fall first. It is said, like other spirits, Bhairava is not a subordinate of Vetâla, and that when he sets out on his circuit at night, he rides a black horse and is accompanied by a black dog."

In the Panjâb he [256] is usually represented as an inferior deity, a stout black figure, with a bottle of wine in his hand; he is an evil spirit, and his followers drink wine and eat meat. One set of ascetics, akin to the Jogis, besmear themselves with red powder and oil and go about begging and singing the praises of Bhairon, with bells or gongs hung about their loins and striking themselves with whips. They are found mainly in large towns, and are not celibates. Their chief place of pilgrimage is the Girnâr Hill in Kâthiawâr. That very old temple, the Bhairon Kâ Asthân near Lahore, is so named from a quaint legend regarding Bhairon, connected with its foundation. In the old days the Dhînwâr girls of Riwâri used to be married to the godling at Bandoda, but they always died soon after, and the custom has been abandoned. We shall meet later on other instances of the marriage of girls to a god.

As a village godling Bhairon appears in various forms as Lâth Bhairon or "Bhairon of the club," which approximates him to Bhîmsen, Battuk Bhairon or "the child Bhairon," and Nand Bhairon, in which we may possibly trace a connection with the legend of the divine child Krishna and his foster-father Nanda. In Benares, again, he is known as Bhaironnâth or "Lord Bhairon," and Bhût Bhairon, "Ghost Bhairon," and he is regarded as the deified magistrate of the city, who guards all the temples of Siva and saves his votaries from demons. [257]

But in his original character as a simple village godling Bhairon is worshipped with milk and sweetmeats as the protector of fields, cattle and homestead. Some worship him by pouring spirits at his shrine and drinking there; and on a new house being built, he is propitiated to expel the local ghosts. He is respected even by Muhammadans as the minister of the great saint Sakhi Sarwar, and in this connection is usually known as Bhairon Jati or "Bhairon the chaste." [258] But as we have seen, he is becoming rapidly promoted into the more respectable cabinet of the gods, and his apotheosis will possibly finally take place at the great Saiva shrine of Mandhâta on the Narmadâ, with which a local legend closely connects him. [259] All over Northern India his stone fetish is found in close connection with the images of the greater gods, to whom he acts the part of guardian, and this, as we have already seen, probably marks a stage in his promotion.

He has, according to the last census, only five thousand followers in the Panjâb, as compared with one hundred and and seventy-five thousand in the North-Western Provinces.

Worship of Ganesa.

On pretty much the same stage as these warden godlings whom we have been considering is Ganesa, whose name means "lord of the Ganas" or inferior deities, especially those in attendance on Siva. He is represented as a short, fat man, of a yellow colour, with a protuberant belly, four hands, and the head of an elephant with a single tusk. Pârvatî is said to have formed him from the scurf of her body, and so proud was she of her offspring that she showed him to the ill-omened Sani, who when he looked at him reduced his head to ashes. Brahma advised her to replace the head with the first she could find, and the first she found was that of an elephant. Another story says that Ganesa's head was that of the elephant of Indra, and that one of his tusks was broken off by the axe of Parasurâma. Ganesa is the god of learning, the patron of undertakings and the remover of obstacles. Hence he is worshipped at marriages, and his quaint figure stands over the house door and the entrance of the greater temples. But there can be little doubt that he, too, is an importation from the indigenous mythology. His elephant head and the rat as his vehicle suggest that his worship arose from the primitive animal cultus.

The Worship of the Great Mothers.

From these generally benevolent village godlings we pass on to a very obscure form of local worship, that of the Great Mothers. It prevails both in Aryan and Semetic lands, [260] and there can be very little doubt that it is founded on some of the very earliest beliefs of the human race. No great religion is without its deified woman, the Virgin, Mâyâ, Râdhâ, Fâtimah, and it has been suggested that the cultus has come down from a time before the present organization of the family came into existence, and when descent through the mother was the only recognized form. [261]

We have already met instances of this mother-worship in the case of Gangâ Mâî, "Mother Ganges," and Dhartî Mâtâ, "the Earth Mother." We shall meet it again in Sîtalâ Mâtâ, "the small-pox Mother."

In the old mythology Aditî, or infinite space, was regarded as the Eternal Mother, and Prâkritî was the Eternal Mother, capable of evolving all created things out of herself, but never so creating unless united with the eternal spirit principle embodied in the Eternal Male, Parusha. There appears to have been a tendency on the part of the Indo-Germanic race to look upon their deities as belonging to both sexes at once, and hence the dualistic idea in Brâhmanism of Ardhanari, or the androgynous Siva. [262]

We shall meet later on with the ghost of the unpurified mother, the Churel, which is based on a different but cognate association of ideas. Akin to this, again, is the worship of the Satî, or model wife, to which we shall refer again, and that of the Châran women of Gujarât, who were obliged to immolate themselves to prevent outrage from the Kolis and other freebooters.

This worship, probably derived from one of the so-called non-Aryan races, was subsequently developed into that of the female energies of the greater gods, a Brâhmânî of Brahma, Indrânî of Indra, and so on; and thus the simple worship of the mother has developed and degenerated into the abominations of the Tantras. These mothers are usually regarded as eight in number, the Ashta Mâtrî, but the enumeration of them varies. Sometimes there are only seven--Brâhmî or Brâhmânî, Maheshvarî, Kaumârî, Vaishnavî, Vârâhî, Indrânî or Aindrânî, or Mahendrî and Châmundâ. Sometimes the number is nine--Brâhmânî, Vaishnavî, Raudrî, Vârâhî, Narasinhikâ, Kaumârî, Mahendrî, Châmundâ, Chandikâ. Sometimes sixteen--Gaurî, Padmâ, Sachî, Medhâ, Savitrî, Vijayâ, Jayâ, Devasenâ, Svadhâ, Svâhâ, Sântî, Pushtî, Dhritî, Tushtî, Atmadevatâ, Kuladevatâ. [263] They are closely connected with the worship of Siva and are attendants on his son Skanda, or Kârttikeya, and rise in the later mythology to a much greater number.

Mother-worship in Gujarât.

But it is in Gujarât that this form of worship prevails most widely at the present day. Sir Monier-Williams enumerates about one hundred and forty distinct Mothers, besides numerous varieties of the more popular forms. They are probably all local deities of the Churel type, who have been adopted into Brâhmanism. Some are represented by rudely carved images, others by simple shrines, and others are remarkable for preferring empty shrines, and the absence of all visible representations. Each has special functions. Thus one called Khodiâr, or "mischief," is said to cause trouble unless propitiated; another called Antâî causes and prevents whooping cough; another named Berâî prevents cholera; another called Marakî causes cholera; Hadakâî controls mad dogs and prevents hydrophobia; Asapurâ, represented by two idols, satisfies the hopes of wives by giving children. Not a few are worshipped either as causing or preventing demoniacal possession as a form of disease. The offering of a goat's blood to some of these Mothers is regarded as very effectual. A story is told of a Hindu doctor who cured a whole village of an outbreak of violent influenza, attributed to the malignant influence of an angry Mother goddess, by simply assembling the inhabitants, muttering some cabalistic texts, and solemnly letting loose a pair of scapegoats in a neighbouring wood as an offering to the offended deity. One of these Mothers is connected with the curious custom of the Couvade, which will be discussed later on. [264] Another famous Gujarât Mother is Ambâ Bhavânî. On the eighth night of the Naurâtra the Râna of Danta attends the worship, fans the goddess with a horsehair fly-flapper, celebrates the fire sacrifice, and fills with sweetmeats a huge cauldron, which, on the fall of the garland from the neck of the goddess, the Bhîls empty. Among the offerings to her are animal sacrifice and spirituous liquor. The image is a block of stone roughly hewn into the semblance of a human figure. [265]

Mother-worship in Upper India.

In the Hills what is known as the Mâtrî Pûjâ is very popular. The celebrant takes a plank and cleans it with rice flour. On it he draws sixteen figures representing the Mâtrîs, and to the right of them a representation of Ganesa. Figures of the sun and moon are also delineated, and a brush made of sacred grass is dipped in cow-dung and the figures touched with it. After the recital of verses, a mixture of sugar and butter is let drop on the plank, three, five, or seven times. The celebrant then marks the forehead of the person for whose benefit the service is intended with a coin soaked in butter, and keeps the money as his fee. The service concludes with a waving of lamps to scare vicious ghosts, singing of hymns and offering of gifts to Brâhmans. [266]

At Khalârî, in the Râêpur District of the Central Provinces, is a Satî pillar worshipped under the name of Khalârî Mâtâ. According to the current legend Khalârî Mâtâ often assumes a female human form and goes to the adjacent fairs, carrying vegetables for sale. Whoever asks any gift from her receives it. Once a young man returning from a fair was overtaken by a strange woman on the road, who said she was going to see her sister. She asked him to go in front, and said that she would follow. Not wishing to allow a beautiful young woman to travel alone at night, he hid himself among some bushes. Presently he heard a great jingling noise and saw a four-armed woman go up the steep, bare hill and disappear. It was quite certain that this was Khalârî Mâtâ herself. [267]

In many parts of the plains, Mâyâ, the mother of Buddha, has been introduced into the local worship as the Gânwdevî, or village goddess. Her statues, which are very numerous in some places, are freely utilized for this purpose. In the same way a figure of the Buddha Asvaghosha is worshipped at Deoriya in the Allahâbâd District as Srinagarî Devî. [268]

The Jungle Mothers.

As an instance of another type of Mother-worship we may take Porû Mâî of Nadiya. She is "represented by a little piece of rough black stone painted with red ochre, and placed beneath the boughs of an ancient banyan tree. She is said to have been in the heart of the jungles, with which Nadiya was originally covered, and to have suffered from the fire which Râja Kâsi Nâth's men lighted to burn down the jungle." [269] She is, in fact, a Mother goddess of the jungle, of whom there are numerous instances. In the North-Western Provinces she is usually known as Banspatî or Bansapatî Mâî (Vanaspatî, "mistress of the wood"). Agni, the fire god, is described in the Rig Veda as "the son of the Vanaspatis," or the deities of the large, old forest trees. [270] Another name for her in the Western Districts is Âsarorî, because her shrine is a pile of pebbles (rorî) in which her votaries have confidence (âsâ) that it will protect them from harm. The shrine of the jungle mother is usually a pile of stones and branches to which every passer-by contributes. When she is displeased she allows a tiger or a leopard to kill her negligent votary. She is the great goddess of the herdsmen and other dwellers in the forest, and they vow to her a cock, a goat, or a young pig if she saves them and their cattle from beasts of prey. Sometimes she is identified with the Churel, more often with a Havva or Bhût, the spirit, usually malignant, of some one who has met untimely death in the jungle. Akin to her is the Ghataut of Mirzapur, who is the deity of dangerous hill passes (ghât) and is worshipped in the same way, and Baghaut, the ghost of a man who was killed by a tiger (bâgh). These all, in the villages along the edge of the jungle, merge in character and function with the divine council, or Deohâr, of the local gods.

Other Mother Goddesses.

Another of these divine mothers, Mâtâ Januvî or Janamî, the goddess of births, is a sort of Juno Lucina among the Râjputs, like the Greek Ilithyia, or the Carmenta of the Romans. Her power rests in a bead, and all over Northern India midwives carry as a charm to secure easy delivery a particular sort of bead, known as Kailâs Maura, or "the crown of the sacred mountain Kailâsa." Difficult parturition is a disease caused by malignant spirits, and numerous are the devices to cure it. The ancient Britons, we are told, [271] used to bind a magic girdle, impressed with numerous mystical figures, round the waist of the expectant mother, and the jewel named Aetites, found in the eagle's nest, applied to the thigh of one in labour, eases pain and quickens delivery. Sir W. Scott [272] had a small stone, called a toad-stone, which repelled demons from lying-in women.

On the sacred plain of Kurukshetra there once stood a fort, known as Chakravyûha, and to the moderns as Chakâbu Kâ Qila, from which to the present day immense ancient bricks are occasionally dug. Popular belief ascribes great efficacy to these bricks, and in cases of protracted labour, one of them is soaked in water, which is given to the patient to drink. Sometimes an image of the fort, which is in the form of a labyrinth or maze, is drawn on a dish, which is first shown to the mother and then washed in water, which is administered to the woman. All through Nepâl and the neighbouring districts, the local rupee, which is covered with Saiva emblems, is used in the same way, and Akbar's square rupee, known as the Châryârî, because it bears the names of the four companions (Châr-Yâr) of the Prophet, is credited with the same power. There are numerous Mantras or mystic formulæ which are used for the same purpose.

Dread famine has become a goddess under the title of Bhûkhî Mâtâ, the "hunger Mother," who, like all the deities of this class, is of a lean and starved appearance. [273] An interesting ceremony for the exorcism of the hunger Mother is recorded from Bombay. The people subscribed to purchase ten sheep, fifty fowls, one hundred cocoanuts, betel nuts, sugar, clarified butter, frankincense, red powder, turmeric, and flowers. A day previous to the commencement of the ceremony, all the inhabitants of the village, taking with them their clothes, vessels, cattle, and other movable goods, left their houses and encamped at the gate or boundary of the village. At the village gate a triumphal arch was erected, and it was adorned with garlands of flowers and mango leaves covered with red powder and turmeric. All these things are, as we shall see, well known as scarers of demons. The villagers bathed, put on new clothes, and then a procession was formed. On coming to the triumphal arch the whole procession was stopped. A hole was dug in the ground, and the village watchman put in it the head of a sheep, a cocoanut, betel nuts, with leaves and flowers. The arch was then worshipped by each of the villagers. The village watchman first entered the arch, and he was followed by the villagers with music, loud cheering, and clapping of hands. The whole party then went to the village temple, bowed to the village god, and went to their respective houses. The blood of the ten sheep and fifty fowls was offered to the village god, and the flesh was distributed among the people. A dinner was given to Brâhmans and the rite came to an end. [274] The idea of the sanctity of the arch is probably based on the same principle as that of perforated stones, to which reference will be made in another connection.

Greatest of all the mother goddesses of the Râjputs is Mâmâ Devî, the mother of the gods. She is thus on the same plane as Cybele Rhea and Demeter, the Corn Mother, who gives the kindly increase of the fruits of the earth. In one of her temples she is represented in the midst of her numerous family, including the greater and the minor divinities. Their statues are all of the purest marble, each about three feet high and tolerably executed, though evidently since the decline of the art. [275]

Worship of Gansâm Deo.

We now come to consider some divinities special to the Drâvidian races, who touch on the North-Western Provinces to the south, across the Kaimûr and Vindhyan ranges, the physical as well as the ethnical frontier between the valleys of the Ganges and Jumnâ and the mountain country of Central India. The chief Gond deity is Gansâm Deo. Some vague attempt has been made to elevate him into the pantheon of Brâhmanism, and his name has been corrupted into Ghanasyâma, which means in Sanskrit, "black like the heavy rain clouds of the rainy season," and is an epithet of Râma and of Krishna. One legend derives him from an actual Gond chieftain, just as many of the local godlings whom we shall consider afterwards have sprung from real living persons of eminence, or those who have lost their lives in some exceptional way. It is said that this chieftain was devoured by a tiger soon after his marriage. As might have been expected, his spirit was restless, and one year after his death he visited his wife and she conceived by him. Instances of such miraculous conceptions are common in folk-lore. [276] "The descendants of this ghostly embrace are, it is said, living to this day at Amoda, in the Central Provinces. He, about the same time, appeared to many of his old friends, and persuaded them that he could save them from the maws of tigers and other calamities, if his worship were duly inaugurated and regularly performed; and in consequence of this, two festivals in the year were established in his honour; but he may be worshipped at any time, and in all sickness and misfortunes his votaries confidently appeal to him." [277]

In the Hill country of Mirzapur, the shrine of Gansâm is about one hundred yards from the village site and without any ornamentation. Both inside and outside is a platform of mud, on which the deity can rest when so disposed. The only special offerings to him are the curious water-pots (kalsa) already described, and some rude clay figures of horses and elephants, which are regarded as the equipage (sawârî) of the deity. In the Central Provinces, "a bamboo with a red or yellow flag tied to the end is planted in one corner, an old withered garland or two is hung up, a few blocks of rough stone, some smeared with vermilion, are strewn about the place which is specially dedicated to Gansâm Deo." [278]

Worship of Dântan Deo and Lalitâ.

To the east of the Mirzapur District, there is a projecting mass of rock, which, looked at from a particular place, bears a rude resemblance to a hideous, grinning skull, with enormous teeth. This has come to be known as Dântan Deo or "the deity of the teeth," and is carefully propitiated by people when they are sick or in trouble. Akin to this deity is Lalitâ, who is worshipped to the west of the Province. She is the sister of Kâlî, and brings bad dreams. Her speciality is her long teeth, and she has sometimes a curious way of blowing up or inflating the bodies of people who do not pay her due respect.

Worship of Dûlha Deo, the Bridegroom Godling.

Another great godling of the Drâvidian races is Dûlha Deo, "the bridegroom godling." In his worship we have an echo of some great tragedy, which still exercises a profound influence over the minds of the people.

The bridegroom on his way to fetch the bride, is, by established Hindu custom, treated with special reverence, and this unfortunate bridegroom, whose name is forgotten, is said to have been killed by lightning in the midst of his marriage rejoicings, and he and his horse were turned into stone. In fact, like Ganymede or Hylas, he was carried off by the envy or cruel love of the merciless divine powers.

He is now one of the chief household deities of the Drâvidian people. Flowers are offered to him on the last day of Phâlgun (February), and at marriages a goat. Among some of the Gond tribes he has the first place, and is identified with Pharsipen, the god of war. In the native States of Rîwa and Sarguja, even Brâhmans worship him, and his symbol or fetish is the battle-axe, the national weapon of the Drâvidian races, fastened to a tree. In Mirzapur he is pre-eminently the marriage godling. In the marriage season he is worshipped in the family cook-room, and at weddings oil and turmeric are offered to him. When two or three children in the same hamlet are being married at the same time, there is a great offering made of a red goat and cakes; and to mark the benevolent character of the deity as a household godling, the women, contrary to the usual rule, are allowed a share of the meat. This purely domestic worship is not done by the Baiga or devil priest, but by the Tikâit or eldest son of the family. He is specially the tribal god of the Ghasiyas, who pour a little spirits in the cook-room in honour of him and of deceased relatives. The songs in his honour lay special stress on the delicacies which the house-mother prepares for his entertainment. Among the Kharwârs, when the newly married pair come home, he is worshipped near the family hearth. A goat is fed on rice and pulse, and its head is cut off with an axe, the worshipper folding his hands and saying, "Take it, Dûlha Deo!"

On the day when this worship is performed, the ashes of the fireplace are carefully removed with the hands, a broom is not used, and special precautions are taken that none of the ashes fall on the ground.

General Sleeman gives the legend of Dûlha Deo in another form.

"In descending into the valley of the Narmadâ over the Vindhya range from Bhopâl, one may see on the side of the road, upon a spur of the hill, a singular pillar of sandstone rising in two spires, one turning and rising above the other to the height of some twenty to thirty feet. On the spur of a hill, half a mile distant, is another sandstone pillar not quite so high. The tradition is that the smaller pillar was the affianced bride of the larger one, who was a youth of a family of great eminence in those parts. Coming with his uncle to pay his first visit to his bride in the marriage procession, he grew more and more impatient as he approached nearer and nearer, and she shared the feeling. At last, unable to restrain himself, he jumped from his uncle's shoulders, and looked with all his might towards the place where his bride was said to be seated. Unhappily she felt no less impatient than he did, and they saw each other at the same moment. In that moment the bride, bridegroom, and uncle were, all three, converted into pillars, and there they stand to this day, a monument to warn mankind against an inclination to indulge in curiosity. It is a singular fact that in one of the most extensive tribes of the Gond population, to which this couple is said to have belonged, the bride always, contrary to the usual Hindu custom, goes to the bridegroom in procession to prevent a recurrence of this calamity." [279]

This legend is interesting from various points of view. In the first place it is an example of a process of thought of which we shall find instances in dealing with fetishism, whereby a legend is localized in connection with some curious phenomenon in the scenery, which attracts general attention. Secondly, we have an instance of the primitive taboo which appears constantly in folk-lore, where, as in the case of Lot's wife, the person who shows indiscreet curiosity by a look is turned into stone or ashes. [280] Thirdly, it may represent a survival of a custom not uncommon among primitive races, where the marriage capturing is done, not by the bridegroom, but by the bride. Thus, among the Gâros, all proposals of marriage must come from the lady's side, and any infringement of the custom can only be atoned for by liberal presents of beer given to her relations by the friends of the bridegroom, who pretends to be unwilling and runs away, but is caught and subjected to ablution, and then taken, in spite of the resistance and counterfeited grief and lamentations of the parents, to the bride's house. [281] It may then reasonably be expected that this custom of marriage prevailed among some branches of the Gond tribe, and that as they came more and more under Hindu influence, an unorthodox ritual prevailing in certain clans was explained by annexing the familiar legend of Dûlha Deo.