The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I Part 21

17. Previous exposure of the dead, and migration of souls.

Some of these customs are peculiar and interesting. It has been seen that for three days the home is impure, and no food is cooked in it except what is given to dogs; and since on the third day offerings are made on the spot where the body lay, it seems to be supposed that the dead man's spirit is still there. On the fourth day is the funeral feast, in which all relations and friends join, and after this the house becomes pure, it being presumably held that the dead man's spirit has taken its departure. For these three days food is cooked in the house and given to dogs, and immediately after the man is dead a dog is brought in to look at his face. It has been suggested that the manner of laying out the body recalls the time when it was simply exposed. But when it was exposed the body would have been devoured princ.i.p.ally by dogs and vultures, and the customs connected with dogs seem to arise from this. The cooked food given to dogs for three days is perhaps a subst.i.tute for the flesh of the dead man which they would have eaten, and the display of the body to a dog is in subst.i.tution for its being devoured by these animals, who now that it is exposed in a tower of silence no longer have access to it. It has further been seen how during the marriage rites, after an invitation has been issued to the ancestors to attend, a woman comes in barking like a dog. The other women drive her away and laughingly eat everything they can lay their hands on, perhaps in imitation of the way dogs devour their food. This custom seems to indicate that the Parsis formerly believed that the spirits of their ancestors went into the dogs which devoured their bodies, a belief which would be quite natural to primitive people. Such a hypothesis would explain the peculiar customs mentioned, and also the great sanct.i.ty which the Parsis attach to dogs. On the same a.n.a.logy they should apparently also have believed that the spirits of ancestors went into vultures; but it is not recorded that they show any special veneration for these birds, though it must be almost certain that they do not kill them. The explanation given for the custom of the exposure of the dead is that none of the holy elements, earth, fire or water, can be polluted by receiving dead bodies. But, as already stated, towers of silence cannot be a primitive inst.i.tution, and the bodies in all probability were previously exposed on the ground. The custom of exposure probably dates from a period prior to the belief in the extreme sanct.i.ty of the earth. It may have been retained in order that the spirits of ancestors might find a fresh home in the animals which devoured their bodies; and some platform, from which the towers of silence subsequently developed, may have been made to avoid defilement of the earth; while in after times this necessity of not defiling the earth and other elements might be advanced as a reason justifying the custom of exposure.

18. Clothes, food and ceremonial observances.

Parsi men usually wear a turban of dark cloth spotted with white, folded to stand up straight from the forehead, and looking somewhat as if it was made of pasteboard. This is very unbecoming, and younger men often abandon it and simply wear the now common felt cap. They usually have long coats, white or dark, and white cotton trousers. Well-to-do Parsi women dress very prettily in silks of various colours. The men formerly shaved the head, either entirely, or leaving a scalp-lock and two ear-locks. But now many of them simply cut their hair short like the English. They wear whiskers and moustaches, but with the exception of the priests, not usually beards. Neither men nor women ever put off the sacred s.h.i.+rt or the thread. They eat the flesh only of goats and sheep among animals, and also consume fish, fowls and other birds; but they do not eat a c.o.c.k after it has begun to crow, holding the bird sacred, because they think that its crowing drives away evil spirits. If Ahura Mazda represented the sun and the light of day, the c.o.c.k, the herald of the dawn, might be regarded as his sacred bird. Sometimes when a c.o.c.k or parrot dies the body is wrapped in a sacred s.h.i.+rt or thread and carefully buried. Palm-juice toddy is a favourite drink at almost all meals in Gujarat, and mahua spirit is also taken. Parsis must never smoke, as this would be derogatory to the sacred element fire. [370]

Saiva, Shaiva, Sivite Sect

_Saiva, Shaiva, Sivite Sect_.--The name given to Hindus who venerate Siva as their special G.o.d. Siva, whose name signifies 'The Propitious,' is held to have succeeded to the Vedic G.o.d Rudra, apparently a storm-G.o.d. Siva is a highly composite deity, having the double attributes of destroyer and creator of new life. His heaven, Kailas, is in the Himalayas according to popular belief. He carries the moon on his forehead, and from the central one of his three eyes the lightning flashes forth. He has a necklace of skulls, and snakes are intertwined round his waist and arms. And he has long matted hair (_jata_), from which the Ganges flows. It seems likely that the matted locks of the G.o.d represent the snow on the Himalayas, as the snow is in reality the source of the Ganges; the snow falling through the air and covering the peaks of the mountains might well suggest the hair of a mountain-G.o.d; and this interpretation seems to be accepted in Mr. Bain's _In the Great G.o.d's Hair_. Siva has thus three components from which the idea of death might be derived: First, his residence on the Himalaya mountains, the barren, lifeless region of ice and snow, and the cause of death to many pilgrims and travellers who ventured into it. Secondly, he is the G.o.d of the moon, and hence of darkness and night, which are always a.s.sociated with death. In this light he might well be opposed to Vishnu, the G.o.d of the sun and day, and the source of growth and life; their a.s.sociation as the two supreme deities representing the preservation and destruction of life, would thus, to some extent, correspond to the conflict of good and bad deities representing light and darkness among the Zoroastrians. Thirdly, Siva is a snake-G.o.d, and the sudden death dealt out by the poisonous snake has always excited the greatest awe among primitive people. The cobra is widely revered in India, and it is probably this snake which is a.s.sociated with the G.o.d. In addition the lightning, a swift, death-dealing power, is ascribed to Siva, and this may have been one of his earliest attributes, as it was probably a.s.sociated with his Vedic prototype Rudra. Whether Siva obtained his character as a G.o.d of destruction from one only of the above a.s.sociations, or from a combination of them, is probably not known. Two great forces lend the deity his character of a G.o.d of reproduction, the bull and the phallic emblem. The bull tills the soil and renders it fertile and capable of bringing forth the crops which form the sustenance of mankind; while the phallic emblem is wors.h.i.+pped as the instrument of generation. It is believed that there is a natural tendency to a.s.sociate these two objects, and to ascribe to the bull the capacity of inducing human fertility as well as the increase of the earth. It is in these two attributes that Siva is wors.h.i.+pped in the rural tract; he is represented by the emblem referred to standing on a circular grooved stone, which is the _yoni_, and in front of him is a stone bull. And he is revered almost solely as a beneficent deity under the name of Mahadeo or the Great G.o.d. Thus his dual qualities of destruction and reproduction appear to be produced by the combination in him of different objects of wors.h.i.+p; the Himalayas, the moon, the cobra and the lightning on the one hand, and the bull and the emblem of regeneration on the other. Other interesting characteristics of Siva are that he is the first and greatest of ascetics and that he is immoderately addicted to the intoxicating drugs _ganja_ and _bhang_, the preparations of Indian hemp. It may be supposed that the G.o.d was given his character as an ascetic in order to extend divine sanction and example to the practice of asceticism when it came into favour. And the drugs, [371] first revered themselves for their intoxicating properties, were afterwards perpetuated in a sacred character by being a.s.sociated with the G.o.d. Siva's throat is blue, and it is sometimes said that this is on account of his immoderate consumption of _bhang_. The _nilkanth_ or blue-jay, which was probably venerated for its striking plumage, and is considered to be a bird of very good omen, has become Siva's bird because its blue throat resembles his. His princ.i.p.al sacred tree is the _bel_ tree, [372] which has trifoliate leaves, and may have been held sacred on this account. The practice of Sati or the self-immolation of widows has also been given divine authority by the story that Sati was Siva's first wife, and that she committed suicide because she and her husband were not invited to Daksha's sacrifice. [373] Siva's famous consort is the multiform Devi, Kali or Parvati, of whom some notice is given elsewhere. [374] The cult of Siva has produced the important Sakta sect, who, however, venerate more especially the female principle of energy as exemplified in his consort. [375]

Another great sect of southern India, the Lingayats, wors.h.i.+p him in the character of the _lingam_ or phallic emblem, and are noticeable as being a Sivite sect who have abolished caste. The Sivite orders of Gosains or Dasnamis and Jogis also const.i.tute an important feature of Hinduism. All these are separately described. Apart from them the Hindus who call themselves Saivas because they princ.i.p.ally venerate Siva, do not appear to have any very special characteristics, nor to be markedly distinguished from the Vaishnavas. They abstain from the consumption of flesh and liquor, and think it objectionable to take life. Their offerings to the G.o.d consist of flowers, the leaves of the _bel_ tree which is sacred to him, and ripe ears of corn, these last being perhaps intended especially for the divine bull. The sect-mark of the Saivas consists of three curved lines horizontally drawn across the forehead, which are said to represent the _tirsul_ or trident of the G.o.d. A half-moon may also be drawn. The mark is made with Ganges clay, sandalwood, or cowdung cakes, these last being considered to represent the disintegrating force of the deity. [376]

Sakta, Shakta Sect

_Sakta, Shakta Sect_.--The name of a Hindu sect, whose members wors.h.i.+p the female principle of energy, which is the counterpart of the G.o.d Siva. The metaphysical ideas of Saktism are thus described by Sir Edward Gait: [377]

"Saktism is based on the wors.h.i.+p of the active producing principle, Prakriti, as manifested in one or other of the G.o.ddess wives of Siva (Durga, Kali, Parvati) the female energy or Sakti of the primordial male, Purusha or Siva. In this cult the various forces of nature are deified under separate personalities, which are known as the divine mothers or Matrigan. The ritual to be observed, the sacrifices to be offered, and the _mantras_ or magic texts to be uttered, in order to secure the efficacy of the wors.h.i.+p and to procure the fulfilment of the wors.h.i.+pper's desire, are laid down in a series of religious writings known as Tantras. The cult is supposed to have originated in East Bengal or a.s.sam about the fifth century."

Dr. Bhattacharya states [378] that the practical essence of the Sakta cult is the wors.h.i.+p of the female organ of generation. According to a text of the Tantras the best form of Sakti wors.h.i.+p is to adore a naked woman, and it is said that some Tantrics actually perform their daily wors.h.i.+p in their private chapels by placing before them such a woman. A triangular plate of bra.s.s or copper may be taken as a subst.i.tute, and such plates are usually kept in the houses of Tantric Brahmans. In the absence of a plate of the proper shape a triangle may be painted on a copper dish. In public the veneration of the Saktas is paid to the G.o.ddess Kali. She is represented as a woman with four arms. In one hand she has a weapon, in a second the hand of the giant she has slain, and with the two others she is encouraging her wors.h.i.+ppers. For earrings she has two dead bodies, she wears a necklace of skulls, and her only clothing is a garland made of men's skulls. In the Kalika Puran [379] the immolation of human beings is recommended, and numerous animals are catalogued as suitable for sacrifice. At the present time pigeons, goats, and more rarely buffaloes, are the usual victims at the shrine of the G.o.ddess. The ceremony commences with the adoration of the sacrificial axe; various _mantras_ are recited, and the animal is then decapitated at one stroke. As soon as the head falls to the ground the votaries rush forward and smear their foreheads with the blood of the victim. It is of the utmost importance that the ceremony should pa.s.s off without any hitch or misadventure, [380] and special services are held to supplicate the G.o.ddess to permit of this. If in spite of them the executioner fails to sever the head of the animal at one stroke, it is thought that the G.o.ddess is angry and that some great calamity will befall the family in the next year. If a death should occur within the period, they attribute it to the miscarriage of the sacrifice, that is to the animal not having been killed with a single blow. If any such misfortune should happen, Dr. Bhattacharya states, the family generally determine never to offer animal sacrifices again; and in this way the slaughter of animals, as part of the religious ceremony in private houses, is becoming more and more rare. If a goat is sacrificed, the head is placed before the G.o.ddess and the flesh cooked and served to the invited guests; but in the case of a buffalo, as respectable Hindus do not eat the flesh of this animal, it is given to the low-caste musicians employed for the occasion. Wine is also offered to the G.o.ddess, and after being consecrated is sprinkled on every kind of uncooked food brought before her. But the wors.h.i.+pper and his family often drink only a few drops. The Saktas are divided into the Daks.h.i.+nacharis and Bamacharis, or followers of the right- and left-handed paths respectively. The Daks.h.i.+nacharis have largely abandoned animal sacrifices, and many of them subst.i.tute red flowers or red sandalwood as offerings, to represent blood. An account of those Bamacharis who carry s.e.xual practices to extreme lengths, has been given in the article on Vam-Margi. The sect-mark of the Saktas is three horizontal lines on the forehead made with a mixture of charcoal and b.u.t.ter. Some of them have a single vertical line of charcoal or sandalwood. In the Central Provinces Sakta is a general term for a Hindu who eats meat, as opposed to the Vaishnavas and Kabirpanthis, who abjure it. The animals eaten are goats and chickens, and they are usually sacrificed to the G.o.ddess Devi prior to being consumed by the wors.h.i.+ppers.

Satnami

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin of the sect_.

2. _Ghasi Das, founder of the Satnami sect_.

3. _The message of Ghasi Das_.

4. _Subsequent history of the Satnamis_.

5. _Social profligacy_.

6. _Divisions of the Satnamis_.

7. _Customs of the Satnamis_.

8. _Character of the Satnami movement_.

1. Origin of the sect.

_Satnami Sect_ [381] (A wors.h.i.+pper of the true name of G.o.d).--A dissenting sect founded by a Chamar reformer in the Chhattisgarh country of the Central Provinces. It is practically confined to members of the Chamar caste, about half of whom belong to it. In 1901 nearly 400,000 persons returned themselves as adherents of the Satnami sect, of whom all but 2000 were Chamars. The Satnami sect of the Central Provinces, which is here described, is practically confined to the Chhattisgarh plain, and the handful of persons who returned themselves as Satnamis from the northern Districts are believed to be adherents of the older persuasion of the same name in Northern India. The Satnami movement in Chhattisgarh was originated by one Ghasi Das, a native of the Bilaspur District, between A.D. 1820 and 1830. But it is probable that Ghasi Das, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, got his inspiration from a follower of the older Satnami sect of northern India. This was inaugurated by a Rajput, Jagjiwan Das of the Bara Banki District, who died in 1761. He preached the wors.h.i.+p of the True Name of the one G.o.d, the cause and creator of all things, void of sensible qualities and without beginning or end. He prohibited the use of meat, lentils (on account of their red colour suggesting blood) of the brinjal or eggplant, which was considered, probably on account of its shape, to resemble flesh, and of intoxicating liquors. The creed of Ghasi Das enunciated subsequently was nearly identical with that of Jagjiwan Das, and was no doubt derived from it, though Ghasi Das never acknowledged the source of his inspiration.

2. Ghasi Das, founder of the Satnami sect.

Ghasi Das was a poor farmservant in Girod, a village formerly in Bilaspur and now in Raipur, near the Sonakan forests. On one occasion he and his brother started on a pilgrimage to the temple at Puri, but only got as far as Sarangarh, whence they returned e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. '_Satnam, Satnam_.' From this time Ghasi Das began to adopt the life of an ascetic, retiring all day to the forest to meditate. On a rocky hillock about a mile from Girod is a large _tendu_ tree (_Diospyros tomentosa_) under which it is said that he was accustomed to sit. This is a favourite place of pilgrimage of the Chamars, and two Satnami temples have been built near it, which contain no idols. Once these temples were annually visited by the successors of Ghasi Das. But at present the head of the sect only proceeds to them, like the Greeks to Delphi, in circ.u.mstances of special difficulty. In the course of time Ghasi Das became venerated as a saintly character, and on some miracles, such as the curing of snake-bite, being attributed to him, his fame rapidly spread. The Chamars began to travel from long distances to venerate him, and those who entertained desires, such as for the birth of a child, believed that he could fulfil them. The pilgrims were accustomed to carry away with them the water in which he had washed his feet, in hollow bamboos, and their relatives at home drank this, considering it was nectar. Finally, Ghasi Das retired to the forests for a period, and emerged with what he called a new Gospel for the Chamars; but this really consisted of a repet.i.tion of the tenets of Jagjiwan Das, the founder of the Satnami sect of Upper India, with a few additions. Mr. Chisholm [382] gave a graphic account of the retirement of Ghasi Das to the Sonakan forests for a period of six months, and of his reappearance and proclamation of his revelation on a fixed date before a great mult.i.tude of Chamars, who had gathered from all parts to hear him. An inquiry conducted locally by Mr. Hira Lal in 1903 indicates that this story is of doubtful authenticity, though it must be remembered that Mr. Chisholm wrote only forty years after the event, and forty more had elapsed at the time of Mr. Hira Lal's investigation. [383] Of the Chamar Reformer himself Mr. Chisholm writes: [384] "Ghasi Das, like the rest of his community, was unlettered. He was a man of unusually fair complexion and rather imposing appearance, sensitive, silent, given to seeing visions, and deeply resenting the harsh treatment of his brotherhood by the Hindus. He was well known to the whole community, having travelled much among them; had the reputation of being exceptionally sagacious and was universally respected."

3. The message of Ghasi Das.

The seven precepts of Ghasi Das included abstinence from liquor, meat and certain red vegetables, such as lentils chillies and tomatoes, because they have the colour of blood, the abolition of idol wors.h.i.+p, the prohibition of the employment of cows for cultivation, and of ploughing after midday or taking food to the fields, and the wors.h.i.+p of the name of one solitary and supreme G.o.d. The use of _taroi_ [385]

is said to have been forbidden on account of its fancied resemblance to the horn of the buffalo, and of the brinjal [386] from its likeness to the s.c.r.o.t.u.m of the same animal. The prohibition against ploughing after the midday meal was probably promulgated out of compa.s.sion for animals and was already in force among the Gonds of Bastar. This precept is still observed by many Satnamis, and in case of necessity they will continue ploughing from early morning until the late afternoon without taking food, in order not to violate it. The injunction against the use of the cow for ploughing was probably a sop to the Brahmans, the name of Gondwana having been historically a.s.sociated with this practice to its disgrace among Hindus. [387] The Satnamis were bidden to cast all idols from their homes, but they were permitted to reverence the sun, as representing the deity, every morning and evening, with the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n 'Lord, protect me.' Caste was abolished and all men were to be socially equal except the family of Ghasi Das, in which the priesthood of the cult was to remain hereditary.

4. Subsequent history of the Satnamis.

The creed enunciated by their prophet was of a creditable simplicity and purity, of too elevated a nature for the Chamars of Chhattisgarh. The crude myths which are now a.s.sociated with the story of Ghasi Das and the obscenity which distinguishes the ritual of the sect furnish a good instance of the way in which a religion, originally of a high order of morality, will be rapidly degraded to their own level when adopted by a people who are incapable of living up to it. It is related that one day his son brought Ghasi Das a fish to eat. He was about to consume it when the fish spoke and forbade him to do so. Ghasi Das then refrained, but his wife and two sons insisted on eating the fish and shortly afterwards they died. [388]

Overcome with grief Ghasi Das tried to commit suicide by throwing himself down from a tree in the forest, but the boughs of the tree bent with him and he could not fall. Finally the deity appeared, bringing his two sons, and commended Ghasi Das for his piety, at the same time bidding him go and proclaim the Satnami doctrine to the world. Ghasi Das thereupon went and dug up the body of his wife, who arose saying '_Satnam._' Ghasi Das lived till he was eighty years old and died in 1850, the number of his disciples being then more than a quarter of a million. He was succeeded in the office of high priest by his eldest son Balak Das. This man soon outraged the feelings of the Hindus by a.s.suming the sacred thread and parading it ostentatiously on public occasions. So bitter was the hostility aroused by him, that he was finally a.s.sa.s.sinated at night by a party of Rajputs at the rest-house of Amabandha as he was travelling to Raipur. The murder was committed in 1860 and its perpetrators were never discovered. Balak Das had fallen in love with the daughter of a Chitari (painter) and married her, proclaiming a revelation to the effect that the next Chamar Guru should be the offspring of a Chitari girl. Accordingly his son by her, Sahib Das, succeeded to the office, but the real power remained in the hands of Agar Das, brother of Balak Das, who married his Chitari widow. By her Agar Das had a son Ajab Das; but he also had another son Agarman Das by a legitimate wife, and both claimed the succession. They became joint high priests, and the property has been part.i.tioned between them. The chief _guru_ formerly obtained a large income by the contributions of the Chamars on his tours, as he received a rupee from each household in the villages which he visited on tour. He had a deputy, known as Bhandar, in many villages, who brought the commission of social offences to his notice, when fines were imposed. He built a house in the village of Bhandar of the Raipur District, having golden pinnacles, and also owned the village. But he has been extravagant and become involved in debt, and both house and village have been foreclosed by his creditor, though it is believed that a wealthy disciple has repurchased the house for him. The golden pinnacles were recently stolen. The contributions have also greatly fallen off.

Formerly an annual fair was held at Bhandar to which all the Satnamis went and drank the water in which the _guru_ had dipped his big toe. Each man gave him not less than a rupee and sometimes as much as fifty rupees. But the fair is no longer held and now the Satnamis only give the _guru_ a cocoanut when he goes on tour. The Satnamis also have a fair in Ratanpur, a sacred place of the Hindus, where they a.s.semble and bathe in a tank of their own, as they are not allowed to bathe in the Hindu tanks.

5. Social profligacy.

Formerly, when a Satnami Chamar was married, a ceremony called Satlok took place within three years of the wedding, or after the birth of the first son, which Mr. Durga Prasad Pande describes as follows: it was considered to be the initiatory rite of a Satnami, so that prior to its performance he and his wife were not proper members of the sect. When the occasion was considered ripe, a committee of men in the village would propose the holding of the ceremony to the bridegroom; the elderly members of his family would also exert their influence upon him, because it was believed that if they died prior to its performance their disembodied spirits would continue a comfortless existence about the scene of their mortal habitation, but if afterwards that they would go straight to heaven. When the rite was to be held a feast was given, the villagers sitting round a lighted lamp placed on a water-pot in the centre of the sacred _chauk_ or square made with lines of wheat-flour; and from evening until midnight they would sing and dance. In the meantime the newly married wife would be lying alone in a room in the house. At midnight her husband went in to her and asked her whom he should revere as his _guru_ or preceptor. She named a man and the husband went out and bowed to him and he then went in to the woman and lay with her. The process would be repeated, the woman naming different men until she was exhausted. Sometimes, if the head priest of the sect was present, he would nominate the favoured men, who were known as _gurus_. Next morning the married couple were seated together in the courtyard, and the head priest or his representative tied a _kanthi_ or necklace of wooden beads round their necks, repeating an initiatory text. [389] This silly doggerel, as shown in the footnote, is a good criterion of the intellectual capacity of the Satnamis. It is also said that during his annual progresses it was the custom for the chief priest to be allowed access to any of the wives of the Satnamis whom he might select, and that this was considered rather an honour than otherwise by the husband. But the Satnamis have now become ashamed of such practices, and, except in a few isolated localities, they have been abandoned.

6. Divisions of the Satnamis.

Ghasi Das or his disciples seem to have felt the want of a more ancient and dignified origin for the sect than one dating only from living memory. They therefore say that it is a branch of that founded by Rohi Das, a Chamar disciple of the great liberal and Vaishnavite reformer Ramanand, who flourished at the end of the fourteenth century. The Satnamis commonly call themselves Rohidasi as a synonym for their name, but there is no evidence that Rohi Das ever came to Chhattisgarh, and there is practically no doubt, as already pointed out, that Ghasi Das simply appropriated the doctrine of the Satnami sect of northern India. One of the precepts of Ghasi Das was the prohibition of the use of tobacco, and this has led to a split in the sect, as many of his disciples found the rule too hard for them. They returned to their _chongis_ or leaf-pipes, and are hence called Chungias; they say that in his later years Ghasi Das withdrew the prohibition. The Chungias have also taken to idolatry, and their villages contain stones covered with vermilion, the representations of the village deities, which the true Satnamis eschew. They are considered lower than the Satnamis, and intermarriage between the two sections is largely, though not entirely, prohibited. A Chungia can always become a Satnami if he ceases to smoke by breaking a cocoanut in the presence of his _guru_ or preceptor or giving him a present. Among the Satnamis there is also a particularly select cla.s.s who follow the straitest sect of the creed and are called _Jaharia_ from _jahar_, an essence. These never sleep on a bed but always on the ground, and are said to wear coa.r.s.e uncoloured clothes and to eat no food but pulse or rice.