Phallic Miscellanies Part 7

The princ.i.p.al part of the rite called the Chakra is Shakti Sadhana or the purification of the female representing the Shakti. In the ceremony termed mantra Sadhana, we have already noticed the introduction of a female, the devotee always making his wife or mistress partner in his devotion. This cannot be done in a mixed society. For although the Vamis are so far degenerated as to perform rites such as human nature, corrupt as it is, revolts from with detestation, yet they have not sunk to that depth of depravity as to give up their wives to the licentiousness of men of beastly conduct.

Neither is it the ordination of the Shastras. For this purpose they prescribe females of various descriptions, particularly "a dancing girl, a female devotee, a harlot, a washerwoman, or barber's wife, a female of the Braminical or Sudra tribe, a flower girl, or a milk maid." Some of the Tantras add a few more to the list, such as a princess, the wife of a Kapali, or of a Chandal, of a Kulala, or of a conch seller. Others increase the number to twenty-six, and a few even to sixty-four. These females are distinguished by the name of Kula Shakti. Selecting and procuring females from the preceding cla.s.ses, the Vamacharis are to a.s.semble at midnight in some sequestered spot, in eight, nine, or eleven couples, the men representing Bhairavas or Viras, and the women Bhairavas or Nayikas. In some cases a single female personating the Shakti is to be procured. In all cases, the Kula Shakti is placed disrobed, but richly adorned with ornaments on the left of a circle (chakra) described for the purpose, whence the ceremony derives its name. Sometimes she is made to stand, totally dest.i.tute of clothing, with protuberant tongue and dishevelled hair.

She is then purified by the recitation of many mantras and texts, and by the performance of the mudra or gesticulations. Finally she is sprinkled over with wine, and if not previously initiated, the Bij mantra is thrice repeated in her ear. To this succeeds the worship of the guardian divinity; and after this, that of the female, to whom are now offered broiled fish, flesh, fried peas, rice, spirituous liquors, sweetmeats, flowers, and other offerings, which are all purified by the repeating of incantations and the sprinkling of wine. It is now left to her choice to partake of the offerings, or to rest contented simply with verbal worship. Most frequently she eats and drinks till she is perfectly satisfied, and the refuse is shared by the persons present. If, in any case, she refuses to touch or try either meat or wine, her worshippers pour wine on her tongue while standing, and receive it as it runs down her body in a vessel held below. This wine is sprinkled over all the dishes which are now served among the votaries.

Such is the preliminary called the purification of the Shakti. To this succeeds the devotional part of the ceremony. The devotees are now to repeat their radical mantra, but in a manner unutterably obscene. Then follow things too abominable to enter the ears of men, or to be borne by the feelings of an enlightened community; things, from which the rudest savage would turn away his face with disgust.

Here the diabolical business closes.

The religious practices of the Shaktas being such as are believed to lead to the possession of supernatural powers, many persons of this sect, taking advantage of the religious blunders of the great ma.s.s of the people, practice the most barefaced impositions. The credulity of the Hindus becomes to many an inexhaustible source of wealth, especially to those who are at the head of any religious establishment, where any form of the Shakti is the presiding divinity.

These priests who day and night attend on the G.o.ddess, and perform various mystical rites, gradually acquire the credit of having close intimacy and secret communication with her; and then gifts, presents, and votive offerings are incessantly poured on the altar. Under pretence of healing diseases of children, and curing barrenness, mothers and young women are induced to join in the worship of Kali, when the worthy votaries of the black G.o.ddess, the priests, thank her for having fulfilled the object of their wishes. Offerings are presented, not only for receiving blessings, but also for personal safety. Life and death are said to be in the hands of these Shiddhas.

They, if provoked, can sooner or later, kill the offender by the power of their mantras. This deadly ceremony is called Maranuchchatan. There is in one district, a temple dedicated to Shiddheswari, a form of Kali, the late attending priest of which was a man universally believed to be of no common rate. The belief yet prevails in the neighbourhood, that once in the height of indignation he caused the death of a rich native for having indirectly called him a drunkard.

The story runs thus:-At a feast given to the Brahmans by this native gentleman, the priest of Shiddheswari was invited to his house,-the latter, on account of the manifold duties of the temple, was late in his attendance, on which the host, being displeased with his conduct, said to him as he entered the door, "Well, Bhattacharjya, now I believe the dimness of your eyes has vanished," alluding to his known habit of drinking. At this raillery, the rage of the favourite of Kali knew no bounds. He instantly returned to the temple and closed its doors, strictly enjoining his servants not to disturb his meditation before flames from the funeral pile of the wretched host ascended to the skies. And, wonderful to relate, an hour had scarcely elapsed, before the sons of the host came to the priest with clothes around their necks, fell suppliant on their knees, and with folded hands implored his mercy, saying, "O! Sir, save us and our family." The priest smiling, asked them what was the matter, to which they replied, weeping, "Our father is no more. No sooner had your holy feet left our doors, than on a sudden blood came out rushing from his mouth, he fell on the ground and expired. Save us, we entreat thee, and the rest of his family, for we have not offended against thy holy divinity." On this, the wrath of the priest was pacified, and he spoke to them in an affectionate tone; "No fear, my children, you are safe, go home and perform your father's funeral obsequies."

Another marvellous anecdote is told of him, as well as of many others of similar character. When on one occasion he was bringing liquor concealed in a water-pot, a person whose object was to expose him, stopped him on the way and wanted to see what was in the pot. To this he calmly replied, nothing but milk. Saying this, he poured out the contents, and the liquor was found converted into milk. Such persons, by taking advantage of the fears of the superst.i.tious Hindus, extort money and other presents from them.

Much of the splendour of the Hindu idolatry consists in the celebration of the Shakta rites. The great festivals, which are annually celebrated in Bengal, such as the Durga Puja, the Jagaddhari and Kali Pujas, the Charak, the Basanti, Rutanti and Falahari Pujas, are all Shaktya observances, and for the most part performed by the worshippers of the Shakti. These festivals themselves, and the exhibitions that accompany them, exert a pernicious influence over the morals of the people. The spirit in which these religious days are kept, the splendid and fascinating ceremonies connected with them, and the merry exhibitions, including savage music and indecent dancing, that form a part of the worship, cannot but captivate and corrupt the heart and overpower the judgment of youth.

The Shakta processions are utterly abominable. One of them takes place after the blood-offerings at public festivals. Of a similar character are those which go before and follow the images, when carried to be thrown into the river or into a pond. On these occasions the Shaktas utter terms most grossly obscene, loudly and repeatedly, and make gestures the most indecent that can be imagined; and all this before their G.o.ddess and the public.

The habit of drinking wine, which prevails so widely among the Shaktas, produces baneful effects on the minds of the Hindus. Leaving the Kaulas as out of the question, since they themselves train up their children in the habit of drinking, the Shaktas in general are more forward in trying the qualities of the prohibited article than any other sect of the orthodox Hindus, and their example stimulates others to do the same. This is one of the reasons why the drinking of spirituous liquors, which was almost unknown among the Hindus of yore, has gradually become so prevalent among them, as at this day. The tenets of the Shaktas open the way for the gratification of all the sensual appet.i.tes, they hold out encouragement to drunkards, thieves and dacoits; they present the means of satisfying every l.u.s.tful desire; they blunt the feelings by authorising the most cruel practices, and lead men to commit abominations which place them on a level with the beasts. The Shaktya worship is impure in itself, obscene in its practices, and highly injurious to the life and character of men.[14]

[14] See Calcutta Review for 1855.

CHAPTER VII.

Considerations respecting the origin of Phallic worship-Comparisons between Indian and Egyptian practices and doctrines.

For the bulk of the evidence respecting Phallic or Nature Worship, and for ill.u.s.trations of its original character and ultimate developments, it is evident that India is the land to which we must chiefly look for information: for this reason the majority of the preceding pages deal with that part of the world. Historically perhaps there is considerable difficulty in deciding as to where this worship originated; its antiquity is so great, and its diffusion throughout various countries so general and extensive, that it appears impossible to say whether Greece, Rome, India, or Egypt was its earliest home or birthplace.

There are some considerations, however, which render it probable that it was in India where its earliest manifestations were exhibited.

Whatever impurities and abominations may have cl.u.s.tered round it in comparatively modern times, the fact must not be lost sight of, that in its earlier phases in that country nothing was a.s.sociated with it that was calculated to cause any offence to the most refined and modest of minds. Very little judgment is needed to understand that the tendency of practices thus appealing to the most easily excited of the animal pa.s.sions would be downward rather than upward, that instead of growing pure and free from the taint of l.u.s.tful desires, the almost inevitable fruit would be impurity and licentious indulgence; it is not likely therefore that the more respectable worship of early India would be the product of the gross practices of the other nations we have named. We can see clearly enough, we think, the origin of this worship resting upon the highest aspirations of the human soul. In endeavouring to frame a theological system and arrange a method of worship to meet the cravings of the mind for intercourse with the creative powers of the universe, men would be sure to fix their thoughts upon those means and agents by which living beings and things were brought into existence, and which, to say the least of it, acted as secondary causes in the creative work. These, of course, would be the generative organs of men and animals in general, and for want of better and more exalted teaching, they would easily enough persuade themselves that it was a proper thing to worship the power symbolized by such objects, if they did not actually worship the objects themselves. Perhaps originally, the first of these two ideas was all that was intended or contemplated, for it is undeniable that many cases have come under our notice in which men were really rendering adoration to an unknown spiritual power when they appeared to be doing nothing but worshipping a graven image.

There is no doubt the religious system of the Hindus is very ancient, and it has been supposed by some that it was formed about the same time as that of the Egyptians, from which that of the Greeks and other western nations was in some measure derived. Many points of resemblance have been observed between them, too many, and too striking, to have been fortuitous. Even some of the inhabitants of Ethiopia appear to have been of the same origin with those of Hindostan, and both the Ethiopians and Egyptians seem to have had some connection or intercourse with the Hindoos; but of what kind it was, or when it subsisted, we have no certain account; and they appear to have been so long separated, that at present they are in total ignorance of each other.

According to Eusebius and Syncellus, some people from the river Indus settled in the neighbourhood of Egypt in the reign of Amenophis, the father of Sesostris, and many Egyptians, banished by their princes, settled in other countries and went as far as India. It is also supposed that many of the priests of Egypt left the country on the invasion of it by Cambyses. But such circ.u.mstances as these are not sufficient to account for the great resemblance between the two systems. The Hindoos themselves say that their sacred books came from the West, but they themselves, no doubt, as well as their books, came from that quarter, and their sacred books, it is supposed, were probably composed while the seat of the empire was in Persia.

There are a few Egyptian words similar to those in the ancient language of Hindostan, which seem to shew that the two people had some affinity to each other. _Brama_, p.r.o.nounced _birouma_ in Malabar, signifies man, and so did _pirouma_ in the language of Egypt. The name of the river of Egypt, Nile, is probably Sanscrit, since _nila_ in that language, signifies blue, and the ancients say it had its name from that colour.

But circ.u.mstances of much more importance than these discover some early connection between Hindostan and Egypt. The names and figures of the twelve signs of the Zodiac among the Hindoos are nearly the same with ours, which came from Egypt through Greece, and each of these signs is divided into thirty degrees. Both the Egyptians and Hindoos had also the same division of time into weeks, and they denominated each of the days by the names of the same planets.

The resemblance between the Oriental and Occidental systems extends much farther than Egypt. The office and power of the Druids in the northern parts of Europe, did not differ much from those of the Brahmins; and the Etruscans, from whom the Romans derived the greatest part of their learning and religion, had a system which had a near affinity with that of the Persians and Indians, and they wrote alternately to the right hand and the left.

Several remarkable general principles were held alike by the ancient Egyptians and the Hindoos. They both believed that the souls of men existed in a prior state, and went into other bodies after death. They had the same ideas of the body being a prison to the soul, and imagined that they could purify and exalt the soul by the mortification of the body; and from the idea of the great superiority of spiritual to corporeal substances, they held all _matter_ in great contempt. They also believed (according to La Croze) that plants had a principle of animation.

Several religious ideas and customs were common to both countries. The Egyptians of Thebais represented the world under the figure of an egg, which came from the mouth of Cneph, and this resembled the first production according to the Hindoo system. Several of the Egyptian deities were both male and female, which corresponds with the figure of the lingam with the Hindoos. This obscene figure, at least the phallus, was much used in the Egyptian worship, and from Egypt it was carried into Greece, where it was used in the mysteries of Bacchus. As the Hindoos worshipped their G.o.d Siva under this figure, and carried it in procession, the Egyptians and Greeks did the same with the phallus. Also, the lascivious postures of the Egyptian women before their G.o.d Apis, were the same as those of the Hindoo women before their idols. The Hindoos also chose their sacred bulls by the same marks as were used by the Egyptians.

Then, again, the account of the flight of the Egyptian G.o.ds, as given by the Greeks, and their concealing themselves under the forms of animals, bears some resemblance to the various transformations of Vishnu. Also, the Egyptians worshipped the Nile and the Hindoos the Ganges. Some of the Hindoo temples have the same remarkable form, viz., that of a pyramid, or cone. That the pyramids of Egypt had some religious use can hardly be doubted. All the paG.o.das are in that form, or have towers of that form in the buildings which surround them. The temples in Pegu are also of a conical form. Sir William Jones says that the pyramids of Egypt, as well as those discovered in Ireland, and probably also the tower of Babel, seem to have been intended for images of Mahadeva, or Siva. One other thing, the onion, which was held in veneration by the Egyptians, is not eaten by the Hindoos.

Not only do we find the same general principles, and the same, or similar, religious customs, but some of the same G.o.ds among the Hindoos, Egyptians, and Greeks. The Egyptian Cneph was the Supreme intelligence, which was never lost sight of by the Hindoos. With the Egyptians, Isis represented not only the moon, but sometimes the powers of Nature, which were supposed to have been in a great measure derived from the moon; and in Bengal and j.a.pan, also, the same is called Isari, or Isi, and is described as a G.o.ddess with many arms.

According to Sir William Jones, Iswara of the Hindoos is the Osiris of the Egyptians, and Nared, a distinguished son of Brahma, resembles Hermes, or Mercury. A statue of Jupiter had a third eye in its forehead, and Siva has three eyes. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch say that Osiris signifies a person that has many eyes, and Siva is drawn with an additional eye in his forehead, though the phallus is his usual form. Osiris was said to have been killed by Typhon, and Chib cut off the head of Brahma.

Indra of the Hindoos, called also Divespiter, is Jupiter, or Diespiter; the bull of Iswara is the Apis, or Ap, of Egypt. Cartraya, with six faces and many eyes, was the Egyptian Orus, and the Mars of Italy. Sri, or Iris, called also Pedna, and Camala, was Ceres, and according to Herodotus, she was the Egyptian Isis. Ganesu was Ja.n.u.s.

Visuacarman, the Indian forger of arms for the G.o.ds, was Vulcan. The Rama of India is Dyonisus, called also Bromius by the Greeks: Krishnu or Vishnu, is Apollo, and in Irish, it signifies the sun. According to the Vedas and other sacred works, a bad genius, or giant, seizes on the sun and moon when they are eclipsed, and the Egyptians ascribed the same thing to their Typhon, who was said even to have swallowed their G.o.d Horus, or the Sun.

The Egyptians at certain festivals carried the images of their G.o.ds in procession. Herodotus says they drew one of them in a carriage with four wheels, and the same was done by the Hindoos. The Egyptians held cows in much greater veneration than any other animals; they were sacred to Isis, and never sacrificed. Some superst.i.tious respect was also paid to horned cattle by the Persians. In an account of the Zendavesta, Ormusd, the Supreme Being, directs Zerdusht to render worship and praise to the _Supreme Ox_, and to the rain, of which the angel Jashter, who subsists in the form of an ox, is the distributor.

The Hindoos made some use of the image of a bull, as Mr. Sonnerat relates in his account of some of their Temples, though they never carried their superst.i.tion in this respect so far as the Egyptians, who made live bulls the immediate objects of their worship.

It may be said that in all this there is a great deal of mere conjecture, and therefore of uncertainty; the evidence, however, upon which it is founded, coming from a number of independent sources from writers of repute, learning, and veracity-is not easily disposed of.

It seems conclusive that systems very like one another indeed prevailed in different parts of the world, and though similar situations may lead to similar sentiments, and corresponding practices, the above mentioned similarity is too great, and extends to too many particulars, to be thus accounted for. It is not at all extraordinary that men who had no communication with each other should be equally worshippers of the sun, moon, and stars, that they should fancy deep caverns, or thick woods, to be haunted with spirits, that particular rivers should have their several genii, or deities dispensing their waters at their pleasure, as the sun, they might suppose, did his heat, and the moon, the stars, and the planets their peculiar influences; but that they should adopt the same rites in the worship of these natural deities, and especially that they should give them _attributes_, and even _names_, so nearly alike, is beyond the effect of accident.

The conclusion we come to, and which we think is fully warranted by all the circ.u.mstances, is, that the great ma.s.s of phallic worship existing in different parts of the world began in India, and gradually found its way into the western nations, becoming, as was perfectly natural with such a system, more and more depraved as time went on, and as it was found that it could be made subservient to the desires and pa.s.sions of licentious men.

Our frontispiece represents a pious female propitiating Mahadeva or Siva in his generative character, indicated by the Linga, inserted in its appropriate receptacle, the Argha, or Yoni. The engraving is taken from a picture which Moor describes as being delicately executed, the female being young, handsome, and elegantly dressed. She is performing the ceremony of _Linga puja_, to which such frequent references is made in these pages, and she has spread out in front of her the various objects required in that service. The symbol is placed in one of the many domestic temples, common at one time in India, known as Dewal, or Devel, from Deva, a _deity_, and _havela_, a house, literally a house of G.o.d. It is this erection which is ordinarily written paG.o.da, by the English, a word not used in India. The stone of the building is white, its lines gold, and it is surmounted by a gold spire, called Sekra; when temples, or other things have a conical, or pine-apple shaped termination, such ornament is called Kalasa. The exterior of the temple is white, its interior, ash coloured, like its patron deity, the Linga and Asgha are of black stone with gilt edges: the Linga (the upright conical stone), which has mystical orange coloured lines traced on it, is crowned with encircled folds of Bilva flowers; and a chaplet of three strings of them, white with yellow buds at regular distances, hangs pendent from the top of the Linga, falling towards the termination or spout of the Argha. The Bilva is a shrub consecrated to Mahadeva, who alone wears a chaplet of its flowers, which are offered in sacrifice to no other deity. The various implements used in the puja to Siva are, five lighted lamps; (or one lamp with five wicks) a spouted vessel holding l.u.s.tral water; a cup for ghee; another cup for water with which to sprinkle the flowers; and a bell rung at certain times to scare away evil spirits.

The woman sits on an embroidered carpet, called Asana: her right hand is in a bag of gold brocade, the hand being supposed to hold a rosary of round beads, 108 in number without the connecting ones.

This picture admirably ill.u.s.trates the true character of the original lingam-worship of India, and fully bears out all that has been said respecting its original freedom from the indecencies which afterwards became so flagrant and universal.