Edgar Thurston

“ The burden of the chant is invariably stereotyped, and purports to have been gleaned from the warble of the feathered songsters of the forest. It prognosticates peace, plenty and prosperity to the house, the birth of a son to the fair, lotus-eyed house-wife, and worldly advancement to the master, whose virtues are as countless as the stars, and have the power to annihilate his enemies. It also holds out a tempting prospect of coming joy in an unknown shape from an unknown quarter, and concludes with an appeal for a cloth. ”

“ Vrinda then threw herself into a burning pit, and Jalandhar, once Vrinda’s chastity had gone, fell a prey to Siva’s thunderbolts. Then the gods came forth from their hiding place, and garlanded Siva. The demons were driven back to hell, and men once more passed under the tyranny of the gods. But Vishnu came not back from Vrinda’s palace, and those who sought him found him mad from grief, rolling in her ashes. Then Parvati, to break the charm of Vrinda’s beauty, planted in her ashes three seeds. And they grew into three plants, the tulsi, the avali, and the malti. ”

“ Let us be united; let us always take counsel together with good hearts and mutual love. May we grow in strength and prosperity together. Now we are one in minds, deeds, and desires. Thou art Rik, I am Sāmam; I am the sky, thou art the earth; I am the semen, thou art the bearer; I am the mind, thou art the tongue. Follow me faithfully, that we may have wealth and children together. Come thou of sweet [287] speech.” The bridegroom then does hōmam, repeating the following:—“We are offering oblations to Sōma, Gandharva, and Agni. ”

“ The stance on the plank is no easy matter, and not a few men come to grief, but it is soft falling in the slush. Marks are given for pace, style, sticking to the plank, and throwing up the biggest and widest splash. Sometimes a kind of gallows, perhaps twenty feet high, is erected on the course, and there is a round of applause if the splash reaches up to or above it. Sometimes the buffaloes bolt, scatter the crowd, and get away into the young rice. ”

“ From that universal sacrifice sprang the hymns called Rik and Saman, the Metres, and the Yajus. From it were produced horses, and all animals with two rows of teeth, cows, goats, and sheep. When they divided Purusha, into how many parts did they distribute him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were called his thighs and feet? The Brāhman was his mouth; the Rājanya became his arms; the Vaisya was his thighs; the Sūdra sprang from his feet. The moon was produced from his soul; the sun from his eye; Indra and Agni from his mouth ”

“ Next a plantain fruit is given to the bridegroom, who, after eating a small portion of it, hands it to the bride. The bride sits on a heap or bundle of paddy (unhusked rice) , and the bridegroom says “Oh! Varuna, bless her with wealth. May there be no ill-feeling between herself, her brothers and sisters. Oh! Brihaspathi, bless her that she may not lose her husband. Oh! Indra, bless her to be fertile. Oh! Savitha, bless her that she may be happy in all respects. Oh! girl, be gentle-eyed and friendly to me. Let your look be of such a nature as not to kill your husband. ”

“ Admitting that the deceased has committed them all, the performer cries aloud ‘Stay not their flight to God’s pure feet.’ As he closes, the whole assembly chants aloud ‘Stay not their flight.’ Again the performer enters into details, and cries ‘He killed the crawling snake. It is a sin.’ In a moment the last word is caught up, and all the people cry ‘It is a sin.’ As they shout, the performer lays his hand upon the calf. ”

“ Among Non-Brāhman castes in South Canara, it forms the binding portion of the marriage ceremony. After the pouring of ghī as an oblation, the bridegroom throws down a few twigs of dharbha grass, and repeats the formula:—“Oh! dharbha, thou art capable of giving royal powers, and the teacher’s seat. May I not be separated from thee.” Then the bride’s father, giving a vessel of water, says “Here is Arghya water.” The bridegroom receives it with the formula:—“May this water destroy my enemies. May brilliancy, energy, strength, life, renown, glory, splendour, and power dwell in me.” ”

“ For Vaishnavism is, like Buddhism, the most tolerant of systems. It is always ready to accommodate itself to other creeds, and delights in appropriating to itself the religious idea of all the nations of the world. It admits of every form of internal development. It has no organised hierarchy under one supreme head, but it may have any number of separate associations under separate leaders, who are ever banding themselves together for the extension of spiritual supremacy over ever increasing masses of population. ”

“ The small body of Parivāra Bants, and the few Jain Bants that do not follow the aliya santāna system, are probably the descendants of a few families who allowed their religious conversion to Hinduism or Jainism to have more effect on their social relations than was commonly the case. Now that the ideas regarding marriage among the Bants are in practice assimilated to a great extent to those of most other people, the national rule of inheritance is a cause of much heart-burning and quarrelling, fathers always endeavouring to benefit their own offspring at the cost of the estate. ”

“ The Rowthan (Muhammadan merchant) from the Tamil country is near at hand to lend money, as he has carried his bazar to the very heart of the Badaga villages. First it is a bag of rāgi (food grain) , a piece of cloth to throw on the coffin, or a few rupees worth of rice and curry-stuff doled out by the all-accommodating Rowthan at a price out of all proportion to the market rate, and at a rate ranging from six pies to two annas for the rupee. The ever impecunious Badaga has no means of extricating himself, with a slender income, which leaves no margin for redeeming debts. ”

“ If sense remains to the wretched man, he knows that now his death is nigh. Despair and the gold make recovery impossible, and there are none who have swallowed the Birianhana, and yet have lived. If insensibility or deathly weakness make it impossible for the coin to pass the thorax, it is carefully bound in cloth, and tied to the right arm, so that there may be nought to hinder the passage of a worthy soul into the regions of the blessed. ”

“ I have even known a man get rid of the coin presented to him, by offering it, with flowers and a cocoanut, to the village goddess at her shrine, and present her with another coin as a peace-offering, to get rid of the pollution created by my money. ”

“ The boy then worships the sun thus:—“That bright eye created by the gods, which rises in the east, may we see it a hundred autumns; may we live a hundred autumns; may we rejoice a hundred autumns; may we live a hundred autumns; may we rejoice a hundred autumns; may we be glad a hundred autumns; may we prosper a hundred autumns; may we speak a hundred autumns; may we live undecaying a hundred autumns; and may we long see the sun.” The ceremonial is brought to a close on the first day by the boy begging rice from his mother and other female relations. ”

“ Lord Varuna, whatever offence we, as men, have committed against divine beings, whatever work of thine we have neglected through ignorance, do not destroy us, Oh! Lord, for such sin. Whatever sin is attributed to us by our enemies, as by gamblers at dice, whatever sins we may have really committed, and what we may have done without knowing, do thou scatter and destroy all these sins. ”

“ The ignorance prevailing among the women of the richer section of the landed classes (on the east coast) is so great that it is not uncommon to ridicule a woman by saying that what she knows about paddy (rice) is that it grows on a tree. But, in a district like South Canara, the woman that does not know agriculture is the exception. I have often come across respectable women of the landed classes like the Bants, Shivallis, and Nairs, managing large landed estates as efficiently as men. The South Canara woman is born on the land, and lives on it. ”

“ The practice of human sacrifice, or Meriah rite, has been abolished within the memory of men still living, and replaced by the equally efficacious slaughter of a buffalo or sheep. And I have notes on a substituted ceremony, in which a sacrificial sheep is shaved so as to produce a crude representation of a human being, a Hindu sect mark painted on its forehead, a turban stuck on its head, and a cloth around its body. ”

“ May you ever preserve in you the Siva Linga. If you do so, you will have plenty of milk and food, and you will prosper for one thousand years in name and fame, kine and coin.’ If more than one have to receive the linga on the same day, each of them has to undergo this ceremony. After the ceremony is over, the priest returns to his village with the rice, etc., and fees. Every house, in which a boy has received the linga, has to give a grand feast on that day. Even the poorest Badaga must feed at least five other Badagas. ”

“ Firm dwelling, firm origin; the firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness. Thou art the pillar of the stars. Thus protect me against my adversaries.” They then proceed to perform the Sthālipāka ceremony, in which the bride should cook some rice, which the bridegroom offers as an oblation in the sacred fire. In practice, however, a little food is brought, and placed in the fire without being cooked. The purōhit decorates a Ficus stick with dharbha grass, and gives it to the bridegroom. ”

“ In the Gazetteer of Anantapur it is stated that the Telugu New Year’s day is the great occasion for driving pig, and the Bōyas are the chief organisers of the beats. All except children, the aged and infirm, join in them, and, since to have good sport is held to be the best of auguries for the coming year, the excitement aroused is almost ludicrous in its intensity. It runs so high that the parties from rival villages have been known to use their weapons upon one another, instead of upon the beasts of the chase. ”

“ The bride’s money is divided between her parents and maternal uncle, the Bichādi, and the caste men. A pig is purchased, and carried by two men on a pole to the scene of the marriage. The caste people, and the married girl carrying a brass vessel, go round the animal, to the accompaniment of music. The girl, as she goes round, pours water from the vessel on the ground. A thread is tied round the neck of the pig, which is taken to the bridegroom’s hut, and cut up into two portions, for the parties of the bridegroom and bride, of which the former is cooked and eaten on the same day. ”

“ The tongue of the delinquent is burnt with a hot sandal stick, and a new waist thread put on. He is taken to the temple, where he stands amidst the assembled Badagas, who touch his head with a cane. He then prostrates himself at the feet of the Parpattikāran, who smears his forehead with sacred ashes. It is, further, the duty of [81] the Parpattikāran to be present on the occasion of the Kannikattu (pregnancy) ceremony.
A quarter of a century ago, a Badaga could be at once picked out from the other tribes of the Nīlgiris by his wearing a turban. ”

“ Remarriage of widows is very common, and a widow may marry the brother of her deceased husband. It is said to be etiquette among the Badagas that, when a woman’s husband is away, she [106] should be accessible to her brothers-in-law. Instances occur, in which the husband is much younger than his wife, who, until he has reached maturity, cohabits with her paternal aunt’s son, or some one whom she may have a fancy for. The marriage ceremony of the Udayas is carried out on an elaborate scale, and is based on the type of ceremonial which is carried out by some castes in the plains. ”

“ A man’s deceased relatives, for at least three generations, are among his cherished divinities, and must be honoured [299] by daily offerings and adoration, or a nemesis of some kind is certain to overtake his living family. The object of a Hindu funeral is nothing less than the investiture of the departed spirit with an intermediate gross body—a peculiar frame interposed, as it were parenthetically, between the terrestrial gross body, which has just been destroyed by fire, and the new terrestrial body, which it is compelled to ultimately assume. ”

“ If the omens are auspicious, they are satisfied. Some, instead of so going, go to a temple, and seek the omens either by placing flowers on the idol, and watching the direction in which they fall, or by picking up a flower from a large number strewn in front of the idol. If the flower picked up, and the one thought of, are of the same colour, it is regarded as a good omen. The betrothal ceremony is an important event. As soon as the people have assembled, the bridegroom’s party place in their midst the pariyam cloth and jewels. ”

“ Standing up before the assembled Badagas, an elder says “To-day we have acted up to the observances of our ancestors and forefathers. New ones should not be considered as old, or old as new. There is not a man carrying a head (wise man) , or a woman carrying breasts (wise [121] woman) . May he become united with the men of his clan and caste.”
The funeral rites of the Udayas differ in some important details from those of the Badaga sub-division. The buffalo catching, and leading the animal round the corpse, are omitted. ”

“ Further, two people, whose gōtras are the same, may marry if they have a different title. Thus, a man, whose gōtra is Goru and title Podhāno, may marry a girl of a family of which the gōtra is Goru, but title other than Podhāno.
Infant marriage is the rule, and, if a girl does not secure a husband before she reaches maturity, she goes through a mock marriage ceremony, in which the bridegroom is represented by a brass vessel or an arrow. Like many other Oriya castes, the Aliyas follow the Chaitanya form of Vaishnavism, and also worship various Tākurānis (village deities) . ”

“ A local tradition describes the Travancore Kshaurakans as pursuing their present occupation owing to the curse of Surabhi, the divine calf. Whatever their origin, they have faithfully followed their traditional occupation, and, in addition, many study medicine in their youth, and attend to the ailments of the villagers, while the women act as midwives. When a high-caste Hindu dies, the duty of supplying the fuel for the funeral pyre, and watching the burning ground, devolves on the barber. ”