The Religions of India Part 53

Besides the Or[=a]ons' totem of the mouse, the Sunth[=a]ls have a goose-totem, and the Garos and Ka.s.sos (perhaps not to be included in either of the two groups), together with many other tribes, have totems, some of them _avatars_, as in the case of the tortoise. The Garos, a tribe between a.s.sam and Bengal, are in many respects noteworthy. They believe that their vessels are immortal; and, like the Bh[=a]rs, set up the bamboo pole, a religious rite which has crept into Hinduism (above, p. 378). They eat everything but their totem, immolate human victims, and are divided into 'motherhoods,'

M[=a]h[=a]ris, particular M[=a]h[=a]ris intermarrying. A man's sister marries into the family from which comes his wife, and that sister's daughter may marry his son, and, as male heirs do not inherit, the son-in-law succeeds his father-in-law in right of his wife, and gets his wife's mother (that is, his father's sister) as an additional wife.[22] The advances are always made by the girl. She and her party select the groom, go to his house, and carry him off, though he modestly pretends to run away. The sacrifice for the wedding is that of a c.o.c.k and hen, offered to the sun. The G.o.d they worship most is a monster (very much like civa), but he has no local habitation.

Of the Sav[=a]ras or Sauras of the Dekhan the most interesting deity is the malevolent female called Th[=a]kur[=a]n[=i], wife of Th[=a]kur.

She was doubtless the first patroness of the throttling Thugs (_thags_ are _[t.]haks_, a.s.sa.s.sins), and the prototype of their Hindu K[=a]l[=i]. Human sacrifices are offered to Th[=a]kur[=a]n[=i], while her votaries, as in the case of the Thugs, are noted for the secrecy of their crimes.

Birth-rites, marriage-rites, funeral rites (all of blood), human sacrifice, _tab[=u]_ (especially among the Burmese), witchcraft, worship of ancestors, divination, and demonology are almost universal throughout the wild tribes. In most of the rites the holy stone[23]

plays an important part, and in many of the tribes dances are a religious exercise.

Descendants of the great Serpent-race that once ruled M[=a]gadha (Beh[=a]r), the Bh[=a]rs, and Ch[=i]rus (Cheeroos) are historically of the greatest importance, though now but minor tribes of Bengal. The Bh[=a]rs, and Koles, and Ch[=i]rus may once have formed one body, and, at any rate, like the last, the Bh[=a]rs are Kolarian and not Dravidian. This is not the place to argue a thesis which might well be supported at length, but in view of the sudden admixture of foreign elements with the Brahmanism that begins to expand at the end of the Vedic period it is almost imperative to raise the question whether the Bh[=a]rs, of all the northern wild tribes the most cultivated, whose habitat extended from Oude (Gorakhpur) on both sides of the Ganges over all the district between Benares and Allah[=a]b[=a]d, and whose name is found in the form Bh[=a]rats as well as Bh[=a]rs, is not one with that great tribe the history of whose war has been handed down to us in a distorted form under the name of Bh[=a]rata (Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata). The Bh[=a]ratas, indeed, claim to be Aryans. But is it likely that a race would have come from the Northeast and another from the Northwest, and both have the same name? Carnegy believed, so striking was the coincidence, that the Bh[=a]rats were a R[=a]jput (Hindu) tribe that had become barbaric. But against this speaks the type, which is not Aryan but Kolarian.[24] Some influence one may suppose to have come from the more intelligent tribes, and to have worked on Hindu belief.

We believe traces of it may still be found in the cla.s.sics. For instance, the famous Frog-maiden, whose tale is told in the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata, reminds one rather forcibly of the fact that in Oude and Nep[=a]l frog-worship (not as totem) was an established cult.

The time for this worship to Begin is October; it is different to thunder-worship (July, the _n[=a]ga_-feast), and the frog is subordinate to the snake. And, again, the snake-worship that grows so rapidly into the Hindu cult can scarcely have been uninfluenced by the fact that there are no less than thirty snake-tribes.[2]

But despite some interesting points of view besides those

touched upon here, details are of little added value, since it is manifest that, whether Kolarian or Dravidian, or, for the matter of that, American or African, the same rites will obtain with the same superst.i.tion, for they belong to every land, to the Aryan ancestor of the Hindu as well as to the Hindu himself. Even totemism as a survival may be suspected in the 'fish' and 'dog' people of the Rig Veda, as has recently been suggested by Oldenberg. In the Northeast of India many tribes worship only mountains, rivers, and Manes, again a trait both Vedic and Hinduistic, but not necessarily borrowed. Some of these tribes, like the Kh[=a]s[=i]as of Oude, may be of R[=a]jput descent (the Khasas of Manu, X. 22), but it is more likely that more tribes claim this descent than possess it. We omit many of the tribal customs lest one think they are not original; for example, the symbol of the cross among the [=A]bors, who worship only diseases, and whose symbol is also found among the American Indians; the sun-worship of the Katties, who may have been influenced by Hinduism; together with the cult of Burmese tribes too overspread with Buddhism. But often there is a parallel so surprising as to make it certain that there has been influence. The Niadis (of the South), for example, worship only the female principle. Many other tribes worship _cakti_ almost exclusively. The Todas worship stone images, buffaloes, and even cow-bells, but they have a celibate priesthood! We do not hesitate to express our own belief that the _cakti_-worship is native and drawn from similar cults, and that the celibate priesthood, on the other hand, is taken from civilization.

Such a fate appears to have happened in modern times to several deities, now half Brahmanized. For example, Vet[=a]la (worshipped in many places) is said in the Dekhan to be an _avatar_, or, properly speaking, a manifestation of civa. What is he in reality? A native wild G.o.d, without a temple, worshipped in the open air under the shade of a tree, and in an enclosure of stones. Just such a deity, in other words, as we have shown is worshipped in just such a way by the wild tribes. A monolith[26] in the middle of twelve stones represents this primitive Druidic deity. The stones are painted red in flame-shape for a certain distance from the ground, with the upper portion painted white.

Apparently there is here a sun-G.o.d of the aborigines. He is worshipped in sickness, as is civa, and propitiated with the sacrifice of a c.o.c.k, without the intervention of any priest. The c.o.c.k to Aesculapius ("_huic gallinae immolabantur_") may have had the same function originally, for the c.o.c.k is always the sun-bird. Seldom is Vet[=a]la personified. When he has an image (and in the North he sometimes has temples) it is that of an armless and legless man; but again he is occasionally represented as a giant 'perfect in all his parts.'[27] To the Brahman, Vet[=a]la is still a mere fiend, and presides over fiends; nor will they admit that the red on his stones means aught but blood. In such a G.o.d, one has a clue to the gradual intrusion of civa himself into Brahmanic worship. At first a mountain lightning fiend, then identified with Rudra, a recognized deity, then made anthropomorphic. There are, especially in the South, a host of minor Hindu deities, half-acknowledged, all more or less of a fiendish nature in the eyes of the orthodox or even of the civaite. Seen through such eyes they are no longer recognizable, but doubtless in many instances they represent a crude form of nature-worship or demonology, which has been taken from the cult of the wild tribes, and is now more or less thoroughly engrafted upon that of their civilized neighbors.[28]

One of the most interesting, though not remarkable, cases of similarity between savage and civilized religions is found in the worship of snakes and trees.[29] In the N[=a]ga or dragon form the latter cult may have been aided by the dragon-worshipping barbarians in the period of the northern conquest. But in essentials not only is the snake and dragon worship of the wild tribes one with that of Hinduism, but, as has been seen, the tatter has a root in the cult of Brahmanism also, and this in that of the Rig Veda itself. The poisonous snake is feared, but his beautiful wave-like motion and the water-habitat of many of the species cause him to be a.s.sociated as a divinity with Varuna, the water-G.o.d. Thus in early Hinduism one finds snake-sacrifices of two sorts. One is to cause the extirpation of snakes, one is to propitiate them, Apart from the real snake, there is revered also the N[=a]ga, a beautiful chimerical creature, human, divine, and snake-like all in one. These are worshipped by sectaries and by many wild tribes alike. The N[=a]ga tribe of Chota N[=a]gpur, for instance, not only had three snakes as its battle-ensign, but built a serpent-temple.[30]

Tree and plant worship is quite as antique as is snake-worship. For not only is _soma_ a divine plant, and not only does Yama sit in heaven under his 'fair tree' (above, p. 129), but 'trees and plants'

are the direct object of invocation in the Rig Veda (V. 41. 8); and the Brahmanic law enjoins upon the faithful to fling an offering, _bali_, to the great G.o.ds, to the waters, and 'to the trees';[31] as is the case in the house-ritual. We shall seek, therefore, for the origin of tree-worship not in the character of the tree, but in that of the primitive mind which deifies mountains, waters, and trees, irrespective of their nature. It is true, however, that the greater veneration due to some trees and plants has a special reason. Thus _soma_ intoxicates: and the _tulas[=i]_, 'holy basil,' has medicinal properties, which make it sacred not only in the Krishna-cult, but in Sicily.[32] This plant is a G.o.ddess, and is wed annually to the c[=a]lagr[=a]ma stone with a great feast.[33] So the _cam[=i]_ plant is herself divine, the G.o.ddess cam[=i]. Again, the mysterious rustle of the _bo_ tree, _pipal_ may be the reason for its especial veneration; as its seeming immortality is certainly the cause of the reverence given to the banian. It is not necessary, however, that any mystery should hang about a tree. The palm is tall, (civa's) _ac.o.ka_ is beautiful, and no trees are more revered. But trees are holy _per se_. Every 'village-tree' (above, p. 374, and Mbh[=a]. ii. 5. 100) is sacred to the Hindu. And this is just what is found among the wild tribes, who revere their hut-trees and village-trees as divine, without demanding a special show of divinity. The birth-tree (as in Grecian mythology) is also known, both to Hindu sect and to wild tribe. But here also there is no basis of Aryan ideas, but of common human experience. The ancestor-tree (totem) has been noticed above in the case of the Gonds, who claim descent from trees. The Bh[=a]rs revere the (civaite!) _bilva_ or _bel_, but this is a medicinal tree. The marriage-tree is universal in the South (the tree is the male or female ancestor), and even the Brahmanic wedding, among its secondary after-rites, is not without the tree, which is adorned as part of the ceremony.

Two points of view remain to be taken before the wild tribes are dismissed. The first is that Hindu law is primitive. Maine and Leist both cite laws as if any Hindu law were an oracle of primitive Aryan belief. This method is ripe in wrong conclusions. Most of the matter is legal, but enough grazes religion to make the point important. Even with the sketch we have given it becomes evident that Hindu law cannot be unreservedly taken as an exponent of early Brahmanic law, still less of Aryan law. For instance, Maine regards matriarchy as a late Brahmanic intrusion on patriarchy, an inner growth.[34] To prove this, he cites two late books, one being Vishnu, the Hindu law-giver of the South. But it is from the Southern wild tribes that matriarchy has crept into Hinduism, and thence into Brahmanism. Here prevails the matriarchal marriage*rite, with the first espousal to the snake-guarded tree that represents the mother's family. In many cases geographical limitations of this sort preclude the idea that the custom or law of a law-book is Aryan.[35]

The second point of view is that of the Akkadists. It is claimed by the late Lacouperie, by Hewitt, and by other well-known writers that a primitive race overran India, China, and the rest of the world, leaving behind it traces of advanced religious ideas and other marks of a higher civilization. Such a cult may have existed, but in so far as this theory rests, as in a marked degree it does rest, on etymology, the results are worthless. These scholars identify Gandharva with Gan-Eden, K[=a]ci (Benares) with the land of the sons of Kush; Gautama with Chinese ('Akkadian') _gut_, 'a bull,' etc. All this is as fruitful of unwisdom as was the guess-work of European savants two centuries ago. We know that the Dasyus had some religion and some civilization. Of what sort was their barbaric cult, whether Finnish (also 'Akkadian')[36] or aboriginal with themselves, really makes but little difference, so far as the interpretation of Aryanism is concerned; for what the Aryans got from the wild tribes of that day is insignificant if established as existent at all. A few legends, the Deluge and the Cosmic Tree, are claimed as Akkadian, but it is remarkable that one may grant all that the Akkadian scholars claim, and still deny that Aryan belief has been essentially affected by it.[37] The Akkadian theory will please them that cannot reconcile the Rig Veda with their theory of Brahmanic influence, but the fault lies with the theory.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The Dasyus, heathen, or pagans, are by no means a wholly uncivilized ma.s.s to the poets of the Rig Veda. They have wealth, build forts, and are recognized as living in towns or forts. We learn little about them in Brahmanic literature, except that they bury their dead and with them their trinkets. Their graves and dolmen gray-stones are still found.]

[Footnote 2: Some scholars think that the Dravidians entered from the Northwest later than the Kolarians, and, pushing them to either side of the peninsula, descended through them to the South. The fact that some Kolarian tribes closely related by language are separated (to East and West) by hundreds of miles, and have lost all remembrance of their former union, favors this view of a Dravidian wedge splitting and pa.s.sing through the Kolarian ma.s.s. But all here is guess-work. The Dravidians may have been pushed on by Kolarians that entered later, while the latter may have been split by the Aryan invasion; and this seems to us more probable because the other theory does not explain why the Kolarians did not go South instead of taking to the hills of the East and West.]

[Footnote 3: The whole list of these tribes as given by Cust, _Sketch of the Modern Languages of the East Indies_, is as follows: The Kolarians include the Sunth[=a]ls, Mund[=a]ri Koles (Koches), Kh[=a]rians, Juangs, Korwas, Kurs, Sav[=a]ras, Mehtos, Gadabas, P[=a]h[=a]rias; the Dravidians include the tribes called Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese, Malay[=a]lim, Tulu, Kudagu, Toda, Kota, Khond, Gond, Or[=a]on, R[=a]jmah[=a]li, Keik[=a]di, Yeruk[=a]la.]

[Footnote 4: The sacrifices of the wild tribes all appear to have the object of pleasing or placating the G.o.d with food, animal or vegetable; just as the Brahmanic sacrifice is made to please, with the secondary thought that the G.o.d will return the favor with interest; then that he is bound to do so. Sin is carried away by the sacrifice, but this seems to be merely an extension of the simpler idea; the G.o.d condones a fault after an expression of repentance and good-will.

What lies further back is not revealed in the early texts, though it is easy to make them fruitful in "theories of sacrifice."]

[Footnote 5: Of course no tribe has what civilization would call a temple, but some have what answer to it, namely, a filthy hut where live the G.o.d and his priest. Yet the Gonds used to build roads and irrigate very well.]

[Footnote 6: The (R[=a]j) Gonds were first subdued by the R[=a]jputs, and where the Hindus and Gonds have intermarried they are known as R[=a]j Gonds. Others have become the 'Mohammedan Gonds.' Otherwise, in the case of the pure or '[=A]ssul' (the greater number), neither Hindu nor Mohammedan has had much influence over them, either socially or religiously. The Gonds whipped the British in 1818; but since then they have become 'pacified.']

[Footnote 7: It is often no more than a small hatchet stuck in the belt, if they wear the latter, which in the jungle is more raiment than they are wont to put on.]

[Footnote 8: The snake in the tree is common to many tribes, both being tutelary. The Gonds are 'sons of the forest Trees,' and of the northern bull.]

[Footnote 9: It seems to us that this feature need not be reckoned as a sign of exogamy. It is often, so far as we have observed, only a stereotyped form to express bashfulness.]

[Footnote 10: Some say earth-_G.o.d._ Thus the account given in JRAS. 1842, p. 172, says 'male earth-G.o.d as ancestor,'

but most modern writers describe the divinity as a female.

Some of the Khonds worship only earth (as a peac.o.c.k). This is the peac.o.c.k revered at the Pongol.]

[Footnote 11: The Gonds also have a boundary-G.o.d. Graves as boundaries are known among the Anglo-Saxons. Possibly Hermes as boundary-G.o.d may be connected with the Hermes that conducts souls; or is it simply as thief-G.o.d that he guards from theft? The Khond practice would indicate that the corpse (as something sacred) made the boundary, not that the boundary was made by running a line to a barrow, as is the case in the Anglo-Saxon connection between barrow and bound.]

[Footnote 12: Some may compare Bellerophon !]

[Footnote 13: Tutelary deities are of house, village, groves, etc. The 'House-G.o.d' is, of course, older than this or than Hinduism. The Rig Veda recognizes V[=a]stoshpati, the 'Lord of the House,' to whom the law (Manu, III. 89, etc.) orders oblations to be made. But Hinduism prefers a female house-G.o.ddess (see above, p. 374). Windisch connects this Vedic divinity, V[=a]stos-pati, with Vesta and Hestia.

The same scholar compares Keltic _va.s.sus, va.s.sallus_, originally 'house-man'; and very ingeniously equates Va.s.sorix with Vedic _vas[=a][.m] r[=a]j[=a]--vic[=a][.m]

r[=a]j[=a]_, 'king of the house-men' (clan), like _h[.u]skarlar_,'house-fellows,' in Scandinavian (domesticus, *_ouk(tes)_). Windisch, _Va.s.sus und Va.s.sallus_, in the _Bericht. d. k. Sachs. Gesell_. 1892, p. 174.]

[Footnote 14: That is to say, a dead man's spirit goes to heaven, or is re-born whole in the tribe, or is re-born diseased (anywhere, this is penal discipline), or finally is annihilated. Justly may one compare the Brahmanic division of the Manes into several cla.s.ses, according to their destination as conditioned by their manner of living and exit from life. It is the same idea ramifying a little differently; not a case of borrowing, but the growth of two similar seeds. On the other hand, the un-Aryan doctrine of transmigration may be due to the belief of native wild tribes. It appears first in the catapatha, but is hinted at in the 'plant-souls' of the RV. (above, pp. 145,204,432), possibly in RV. I. 164. 30,38; Botlingk, _loc. cit_., 1893, p. 88.]

[Footnote 15: This tribe now divides with the Lurka Koles the possession of Chota Nagpur, which the latter tribe used to command entire. The Or[=a]ons regard the Lurka Koles as inferiors. Compare JRAS. 1861, p. 370 ff. They are sometimes erroneously grouped with the Koles, ethnographically as well as geographically. Risley, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, p.

x.x.xII.]

[Footnote 16: Something like this is recorded by Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 243, as the belief of an American tribe, which holds that the fate of the dead depends on the manner of death, the funeral rites, or "some such arbitrary circ.u.mstance" (as in Greece).]

[Footnote 17: Compare the epic 'Mouse-people,' M[=u]shikas, as well as Apollo's mouse. Possibly another Hindu mark of sectarianism may be traced to the wild tribes, the use of vermilion markings. This is the most important element in the Bengal wedding rite (Risley).]

[Footnote 18: Above the Sunth[=a]ls, who inhabit the jungle and lower slopes of the R[=a]jmah[=a]l hills, live the P[=a]h[=a]r[=i]as, who never tell a lie (it is said), and whose religion in some aspects is worth noticing. They believe in one G.o.d (over each village G.o.d), who created seven brothers to rule earth. The P[=a]h[=a]r[=i]as descend from the eldest of these brothers. They believe in transmigration, a future state, and oracles. But it is questionable whether they have not been exposed to Buddhistic influence, as 'Budo Gosain' is the name of the supreme (sun-)G.o.d.]

[Footnote 19: In the ninth century Orissa was formed of the territories of Khonds, Koles, and Sav[=a]ras. In the old grouping of tribes these, together with the Gonds and Bhils, were the "five children of the soil" between the Vindhya mountains, the east chain of the Gh[=a]ts, and the mouth of the G.o.d[=a]var[=i] to the centre of the valley of the Nerbudda. The last mentioned tribe of Bhils (Bheels) is almost devoid of native religion, but is particularly noted for truth, honesty, and fidelity. JRAS. 1844, pp. 181, 189, 192; 1852, p. 216 ff. It is an ancient race, but its origin is not certain.]

[Footnote 20: Trees are revered by the Brahmans also, as by the American Indians. Schoolcraft, i. 368. The tree-spirit is an advance on this (Brahmanic and Hinduistic).]

[Footnote 21: Thus the Bhils' wedding is simply a mutual promise under the _sing[=a]_ tree. These savages, however, live together only so long as they choose. When the family separates, the father takes the elder children, and the mother takes the younger ones. They are polygamous. It is from this tribe that the worship of Aghor[=i], the Vindhya fiend, accepted as a form of K[=a]l[=i], was introduced into civaite worship. At present their religion is a mixture of Hindu and native superst.i.tion. Thus, like the Gonds, they worship stone images of G.o.ds placed in a circle, but they recognize among these G.o.ds several of the Hindu divinities.]

[Footnote 22: Rowney, _Wild Tribes_, p. 194. The goose-totem of the Sunth[=a]ls is also Brahm[=a]'s sign. As Vishnu is carried on an eagle, and civa on a bull, so Brahm[=a] rides a goose (or flamingo). The 'ten ancestors' demanded of the Brahman priest were originally on the mother's side as well as on the father's. Weber, _R[=a]jas[=u]ya_, p. 78. The matriarchal theory is, however, southern. (Compare the oblations to the ancestresses in Vishnu's law-book, 74.)]

[Footnote 23: The marriage-stone, as in the Hindu rite is quite common. Of lesser superst.i.tions the _tab[=u]_, a.n.a.logous to the avoidance of unlucky names among the Hindus, may be mentioned. Friendship among girls is cemented by a religious ceremony. After this, among the Or[=a]ons, the two avoid each other's name, calling each other only 'my flower' or 'my meet-to-smile' (Rowney). In this tribe exogamy is 'more respectable,' but not necessary. The girls are generally bought, and have fixed prices, but we have seen the customary price (twenty-five pigs) cited only for a.s.sam among the Meeris. If one man cannot pay so much, several unite, for polyandry prevails all through the northern tribes (JRAS. XI. 38), and even in the Punj[=a]b.]

[Footnote 24: Sherring (JRAS. V. 376) says decidedly that Bh[=a]rs, or Bh[=a]rats, and Ch[=i]rus cannot be Aryans.

This article is one full of interesting details in regard to the high cultivation of the Bh[=a]rat tribe. They built large stone forts, immense subterranean caverns, and made enormous bricks for tanks and fortifications (19 X 11 X 2-1/2 inches), the former being built regularly to east and west (_surajbedi_). One of their chief cities lay five miles west of Mirz[=a]pur, and covered several miles, entirely surrounding the Puranic city of Vindhyacal, built in the midst of it. Six or seven hundred years ago the Bh[=a]rs held Oude and Benares. Carnegy's opinion is given in his _Races, Tribes, and Castes of the Province of Oude_ (Oudh).

The Bh[=a]rs, says Elliot, _Chronicles of Oonayo_, built all the towns not ending in _pur_, _mow_, or _[=a]b[=a]d_ (Hindu, Mongol, Mohammedan). Their sacra (totems?) are the bamboo, _bel_-tree, tortoise, and peac.o.c.k.]

[Footnote 25: JRAS. XII. 229; IA. XXII. 293.]

[Footnote 26: Among the southern Koders the dolmen form grave-stones; perhaps the religious employment of them in this wise led to the idea of the G.o.d-stone in many cases; but it is difficult to say in monolith-worship whether the stone itself be not a G.o.d; not a fetish, for (as has been said by others) a fetish is a G.o.d only so long as he is regarded as being useful, and when shown to be useless he is flung away; but a G.o.d-stone is always divine, whether it grants prayers or not.]

[Footnote 27: Wilson's note to Stevenson's description, JRAS. 1838, p. 197. The epic disease-G.o.ds are not unique.

The only G.o.d known to the Andaman Islanders (Bay of Bengal) was a disease-devil, and this is found as a subordinate deity in many of the wild tribes.]

[Footnote 28: In the current _Indian Antiquary_ there is an exceedingly interesting series of papers by the late Judge Burnell on Devil-worship, with ill.u.s.trations that show well the character of these lower objects of worship.]