CHAPTER 22
Khadga Sthapana, Sword Worship.
If we look westward from this the central land of earliest civilization, to Dacia, Thrace, Pannonia, the seats of the Thyssagetae or western Getae, we find the same form of adoration addressed to the emblem of Mars, as mentioned by Xenophon in his memorable retreat, and practised by Alaric and his Goths, centuries afterwards, in the Acropolis of Athens. If we transport ourselves to the shores of Scandinavia, amongst the Cimbri and Getae of Jutland, to the Ultima Thule, wherever the name of Gete prevails, we shall find the same adoration paid by the Getic warrior to his sword.
The Frisian Frank also of Gothic race, adhered to this worship, and transmitted it with the other rites of the Getic warrior of the Jaxartes; such as the adoration of the steed, sacred to the sun, the great god of the Massagetae, as well as of the Rajput, who sacrificed it at the annual feast, or with his arms and wife burnt it on his funeral pile. Even the kings of the ‘second race’ kept up the religion of their Scythic sires from the Jaxartes, and the bones of the war-horse of Chilperic were exhumed with those of the monarch. These rites, as well as those long-cherished chivalrous notions, for which the Salian Franks have ever been conspicuous [584], had their birth in Central Asia; for though contact with the more polished Arab softened the harsh character of the western warrior, his thirst for glory, the romantic charm which fed his passion, and his desire to please the fair, he inherited from his ancestors on the shores of the Baltic, which were colonized from the Oxus. Whether Charlemagne addressed his sword as Joyeuse,[[3]] or the Scandinavian hero Angantýr as the enchanted blade Tyrfing (Hialmar’s bane), each came from one common origin, the people which invented the custom of Khadga Sthapana, or ‘adoration of the sword.’ But neither the falchion ‘made by the dwarfs for Suafurlama,’ nor the redoubled sword of Bayard with which he dubbed the first Francis,—not even the enchanted brand of Ariosto’s hero, can for a moment compare with the double-edged khanda (scimitar) annually worshipped by the chivalry of Mewar. Before I descant on this monstrous blade, I shall give an abstract of the ceremonies on each of the nine days sacred to the god of war.
The Dasahra Festival.
Asoj 2nd. In similar state he proceeds to the Chaugan, their Champ de Mars, where a buffalo is sacrificed; and on the same day another buffalo victim is felled by the nervous arm of a Rajput, near the Toranpol, or triumphal gate. In the evening the Rana goes to the temple of Amba Mata, the universal mother, when several goats and buffaloes bleed to the goddess.
The 3rd. Procession to the Chaugan, when another buffalo is offered; and in the afternoon five buffaloes and two rams are sacrificed to Harsiddh Mata.[[8]]
On the 4th, as on every one of the nine days, the first visit is to the Champ de Mars: the day opens with the slaughter of a buffalo. The Rana proceeds to the temple of Devi, when he worships the sword, and the standard of the Raj Jogi, to whom, as the high-priest of Siva, the god of war, he pays homage, and makes offering of sugar, and a garland of roses. A buffalo having been previously fixed to a stake near the temple, the Rana sacrifices him with his own hand, by piercing him from his travelling throne (raised on men’s shoulders and surrounded by his vassals) with an arrow. In the days of his strength, he seldom failed almost to bury the feather in the flank of the victim; but on the last occasion his enfeebled arm made him exclaim with Prithiraj, when, captive and blind, he was brought forth to amuse the Tartar despot, “I draw not the bow as in the days of yore.”
On the 5th, after the usual sacrifice at the Chaugan, and an elephant fight, the procession marches to the temple of Asapurna (Hope); a buffalo and a ram are offered to the goddess adored by all the Rajputs, and the tutelary divinity of the Chauhans. On this day the lives of some victims are spared at the intercession of the Nagar-Seth, or chief-magistrate,[[9]] and those of his faith, the Jains.
On the 6th, the Rana visits the Chaugan, but makes no sacrifice. In the afternoon, prayers and victims to Devi; and in the evening the Rana visits Bhikharinath, the chief of the Kanphara Jogis, or split-ear ascetics.[ascetics.]
The 7th. After the daily routine at the Chaugan, and sacrifices to Devi (the goddess of destruction), the chief equerry is commanded to adorn the steeds with their new caparisons, and lead them to be bathed in the lake. At night, the sacred fire (hom) is kindled, and a buffalo and a ram are sacrificed to Devi; the Jogis [586] are called up and feasted on boiled rice and sweetmeats. On the conclusion of this day, the Rana and his chieftains visit the hermitage of Sukharia Baba, an anchorite of the Jogi sect.
8th. There is the homa, or fire-sacrifice in the palace. In the afternoon, the prince, with a select cavalcade, proceeds to the village of Samina, beyond the city walls, and visits a celebrated Gosain.[[10]]
9th. There is no morning procession. The horses from the royal stables, as well as those of the chieftains, are taken to the lake, and bathed by their grooms, and on returning from purification they are caparisoned in their new housings, led forth, and receive the homage of their riders, and the Rana bestows a largess on the master of the horse, the equerries, and grooms. At three in the afternoon, the nakkaras having thrice sounded, the whole State insignia, under a select band, proceed to Mount Matachal, and bring home the sword. When its arrival in the court of the palace is announced, the Rana advances and receives it with due homage from the hands of the Raj Jogi, who is presented with a khilat; while the Mahant, who has performed all the austerities during the nine days, has his patra[[11]] filled with gold and silver coin. The whole of the Jogis are regaled, and presents are made to their chiefs. The elephants and horses again receive homage, and the sword, the shield, and spear are worshipped within the palace. At three in the morning the prince takes repose.
The 10th, or Dasahra,[[12]] is a festival universally known in India, and respected by all classes, although entirely military, being commemorative of the day on which the deified Rama commenced his expedition to Lanka for the redemption of Sita;[[13]] the ‘tenth of Asoj’ is consequently deemed by the Rajput a fortunate day for warlike enterprise. The day commences with a visit from the [587] prince or chieftain to his spiritual guide. Tents and carpets are prepared at the Chaugan or Matachal mount, where the artillery is sent; and in the afternoon the Rana, his chiefs, and their retainers repair to the field of Mars, worship the khejra tree,[[14]] liberate the nilkanth or jay (sacred to Rama), and return amidst a discharge of guns.
11th. In the morning, the Rana, with all the State insignia, the kettledrums sounding in the rear, proceeds towards the Matachal mount, and takes the muster of his troops, amidst discharges of cannon, tilting, and display of horsemanship. The spectacle is imposing even in the decline of this house. The hilarity of the party, the diversified costume, the various forms, colours, and decorations of the turbans, in which some have the heron plume, or sprigs from some shrub sacred to the god of war; the clusters of lances, shining matchlocks, and black bucklers, the scarlet housings of the steeds, and waving pennons, recall forcibly the glorious days of the devoted Sanga, or the immortal Partap, who on such occasions collected round the black changi and crimson banner of Mewar a band of sixteen thousand of his own kin and clan, whose lives were their lord’s and their country’s. The shops and bazaars are ornamented with festoons of flowers and branches of trees, while the costliest cloths and brocades are extended on screens, to do honour to their prince; the toran (or triumphal arch) is placed before the tent, on a column of which he places one hand as he alights, and before entering makes several circumambulations. All present offer their nazars to the prince, the artillery fires, and the bards raise ‘the song of praise,’ celebrating the glories of the past; the fame of Samra, who fell with thirteen thousand of his kin on the Ghaggar; of Arsi and his twelve brave sons, who gave themselves as victims for the salvation of Chitor; of Kumbha, Lakha, Sanga, Partap, Amra, Raj, all descended of the blood of Rama, whose exploits, three thousand five hundred years before, they are met to celebrate. The situation of Matachal is well calculated for such a spectacle, as indeed is the whole ground from the palace through the Delhi portal to the mount, on which is erected one of the several castles commanding the approaches to the city. The fort is dedicated to Mata, though it would not long remain stable (achal) before a battery of thirty-six pounders. The guns are drawn up about the termination of the slope of the natural glacis; the Rana and his court remain on horseback [588] half up the ascent; and while every chief or vassal is at liberty to leave his ranks, and “witch the world with noble horsemanship,” there is nothing tumultuous, nothing offensive in their mirth.
The steeds purchased since the last festival are named, and as the cavalcade returns, their grooms repeat the appellations of each as the word is passed by the master of the horse; as Baj Raj, ‘the royal steed’; Hayamor, ‘the chief of horses’; Manika, ‘the gem’; Bajra, ‘the thunderbolt,’ etc., etc. On returning to the palace, gifts are presented by the Rana to his chiefs. The Chauhan chief of Kotharia claims the apparel which his prince wears on this day, in token of the fidelity of his ancestor to the minor, Udai Singh, in Akbar’s wars. To others, a fillet or balaband for the turban is presented; but all such compliments are regulated by precedent or immediate merit.
The Toran Arch.
Gates.
Ganesa.
“Strife arose between Mahadeo and the faithful Parvati: she fled to the mountains and took refuge in a cave. A crystal fountain tempted her to bathe, but shame was awakened; she dreaded being seen. Rubbing her frame, she made an image of man; with her nail she sprinkled it with the water of life, and placed it as guardian at the entrance of the cave.” Engrossed with the recollection of Parvati,[[21]] Siva went to Karttikeya[[22]] for tidings of his mother, and together they searched each valley and recess, and at length reached the spot where a figure was placed at the entrance of a cavern. As the chief of the gods prepared to explore this retreat, he was stopped by the Polia. In a rage he struck off his head with his discus (chakra), and in the gloom discovered the object of his search. Surprised and dismayed, she demanded how he obtained ingress: “Was there no guardian at the entrance?” The furious Siva replied that he had cut off his head. On hearing this, the mountain-goddess was enraged, and weeping, exclaimed, “You have destroyed my child.” The god, determined to recall him to life, decollated a young elephant, replaced the head he had cut off, and naming him Ganesa, decreed that in every resolve his name should be the first invoked.
Invocation of the Bard to Ganesa.
“Oh, Ganesa! thou art a mighty lord; thy single tusk[[23]] is beautiful, and demands the tribute of praise from the Indra of song.[[24]] Thou art the chief of the human race; the destroyer of unclean spirits; the remover of fevers, whether daily or tertian. Thy bard sounds thy praise; let my work be accomplished!”
Thus Ganesa is the chief of the Di minores of the Hindu pantheon, as the etymology of the word indicates,[[25]] and like Janus, was entrusted with the gates of heaven [591]; while of his right to preside over peace and war, the fable related affords abundant testimony. Ganesa is the first invoked and propitiated[[26]] on every undertaking, whether warlike or pacific. The warrior implores his counsel; the banker indites his name at the commencement of every letter; the architect places his image in the foundation of every edifice; and the figure of Ganesa is either sculptured or painted at the door of every house as a protection against evil. Our Hindu Janus is represented as four-armed, and holding the disk (chakra), the war-shell, the club, and the lotos. Ganesa is not, however, bifrons, like the Roman guardian of portals. In every transaction he is adi, or the first, though the Hindu does not, like the Roman, open the year with his name. I shall conclude with remarking that one of the portes of every Hindu city is named the Ganesa Pol, as well as some conspicuous entrance to the palace: thus Udaipur has its Ganesa dwara, who also gives a name to the hall, the Ganesa deori; and his shrine will be found on the ascent of every sacred mount, as at Abu, where it is placed close to a fountain on the abrupt face about twelve hundred feet from the base. There is likewise a hill sacred to him in Mewar called Ganesa Gir, tantamount to the Mons Janiculum of the eternal city. The companion of this divinity is a rat, who indirectly receives a portion of homage, and with full as much right as the bird emblematic of Minerva.[[27]]
We have abandoned the temple of the warlike divinity (Devi), the sword of Mars, and the triumphal toran, to invoke Ganesa. It will have been remarked that the Rana aids himself to dismount by placing his hand on one of the columns of the toran, an act which is pregnant with a martial allusion, as are indeed the entire ceremonials of the “worship of the sword.”
Analogies to Western Customs. Oaths by the Sword.
In the Runic “incantation of Hervor,” daughter of Angantýr, at the tomb of her father, she invokes the dead to deliver the enchanted brand Tyrfing, or “Hjalmr’s bane,” which, according to Getic custom, was buried in his tomb; she adjures him and his brothers “by all their arms, their shields, etc.” It is depicted with great force, and, translated, would deeply interest a Rajput, who might deem it the spell by which the Khanda of Hamira, which he annually worships, was obtained.
Incantation
Hervor—“Awake, Angantýr! Hervor, the only daughter of thee and Suafu, doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tomb the tempered sword which the dwarfs made for Suafurlama.
“Can none of Eyvors’[[31]] sons speak with me out of the habitations of the dead? Hervardur,[[31]] Hurvardur?”[[31]]
The tomb at length opens, the inside of which appears on fire, and a reply is sung within:
Angantýr—“Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why dost thou call so? I was not buried either by father or friends; two who lived after me got Tyrfing, one of whom is now in possession thereof [593].”
Hervor—“The dead shall never enjoy rest unless Angantýr deliver me Tyrfing, that cleaveth shields, and killed Hjalmr.”[[32]]
Angantýr—“Young maid, thou art of manlike courage, who dost rove by night to tombs, with spear engraven with magic spells,[[33]] with helm and coat of mail, before the door of our hall.”
Hervor—“It is not good for thee to hide it.”
Angantýr—“The death of Hjalmr[[34]] lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapt up in fire: I know no maid that dares to take this sword in hand.”
Hervor—“I shall take in hand the sharp sword, if I may obtain it. I do not think that fire will burn which plays about the site of deceased men.”[[35]]
Angantýr—“Take and keep Hjalmr’s bane: touch but the edges of it, there is poison in them both;[[36]] it is a most cruel devourer of men.”[[37]]
The Magic Sword of Mewār.
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude,
the intrepid Maldeo paused not until he had penetrated to the very bounds of the abyss, where in a recess he beheld the snaky sorceress and her sister crew seated round a cauldron, in which the materials of their incantation were solving before a fire that served to illume this abode of horror. As he paused, the reverberation of his footsteps caused the infernal crew to look athwart the palpable obscure of their abode, and beholding the audacious mortal, they demanded his intent. The valiant Sonigira replied that he did not come as a spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of their realm,
but in search of the enchanted brand of the founder of the Guhilots. Soon they made proof of Maldeo’s hardihood. Uncovering the cauldron, he beheld a sight most appalling: amidst divers fragments of animals was the arm of an infant. A dish of this horrid repast was placed before him, and a silent signal made for him to eat. He obeyed, and returned the empty platter: it was proof sufficient of his worth to wear the enchanted blade, which, drawn forth from its secret abode, was put into the hand of Maldeo, who bowing, retired with the trophy [595].
Rana Hamira recovered this heirloom of his house, and with it the throne of Chitor, by his marriage with the daughter of the Sonigira, as related in the annals.[[43]] Another version says it was Hamira himself who obtained the enchanted sword, by his incantations to Charani Devi, or the goddess of the bards, whom he worshipped.
The Birth of Kumāra.
This is a very curious relic of ancient mythology, in which we may trace the most material circumstances of the birth of the Roman divinity of war. Kumara (Mars) was the son of Jahnavi (Juno), and born, like the Romans, without sexual intercourse, but by the agency of Vulcan (regent of fire). Kumara has the peacock (sacred to Juno likewise) as his companion; and as the Grecian goddess is feigned to have her car drawn by peacocks, so Kumara (the evil-striker)[[48]] has a peacock for his steed [596]. Ganga, ‘the river goddess,’ has some of the attributes of Pallas, being like the Athenian maid (Ganga never married) born from the head of Jove. The bard of the silver age makes her fall from a glacier of Kailasa (Olympus) on the head of the father of the gods, and remain many years within the folds of his tiara (jata), until at length being liberated, she was precipitated into the plains of Aryavarta. It was in this escape that she burst her rocky barrier (the Himalaya), and on the birth of Kumara exposed those veins of gold called jambunadi, in colour like the jambu fruit, probably alluding to the veins of gold discovered in the rocks of the Ganges in those distant ages.
The Winter Season.
Pale and common drudge
’Tween man and man.
This year there was an entire intercalary month: such are called Laund. There is a procession of all the chiefs to the Chaugan; and on their return, a full court is held in the great hall, which breaks up with ‘obeisance to the lamp’ (jot ka mujra), whose light each reverences; when the candles are lit at home, every Rajput, from the prince to the owner of a “skin (charsa) of land,” seated on a white linen cloth, should worship his tutelary divinity, and feed the priests with sugar and milk.
Karttika.
The Diwāli, or Festival of Lamps.
Lakshmi, though on this festival depicted under the type of riches, is evidently the beneficent Annapurna in another garb, for the agricultural community place a corn-measure filled with grain and adorned with flowers as her representative; or, if they adorn her effigies, they are those of Padma, the water-nymph, with a lotos in one hand, and the pasa (or fillet for the head) in the other. As Lakshmi was produced at “the Churning of the Ocean,” and hence called one of the “fourteen gems,” she is confounded with Rambha, chief of the Apsaras, the Venus of the Hindus. Though both were created from the froth (sara) of the waters (ap),[[50]] they are as distinct as the representations of riches and beauty can be. Lakshmi became the wife of Vishnu, or Kanhaiya, and is placed at the feet of his marine couch when he is floating on the chaotic waters. As his consort, she merges into the character of Sarasvati, the goddess of eloquence, and here we have the combination of Minerva and Apollo. As of Minerva, the owl [598] is the attendant of Lakshmi;[[51]] and when we reflect that the Egyptians, who furnished the Grecian pantheon, held these solemn festivals, also called “the feast of lamps,” in honour of Minerva at Sais, we may deduce the origin of this grand Oriental festival from that common mother-country in Central Asia, whence the Diwali radiated to remote China, the Nile, the Ganges, and the shores of the Tigris; for the Shab-i-barat of Islam is but “the feast of lamps” of the Rajputs. In all these there is a mixture of the attributes of Ceres and Proserpine, of Plutus and Pluto. Lakshmi partakes of the attributes of both the first, while Kuvera,[[52]] who is conjoined with her, is Plutus: as Yama is Pluto, the infernal judge. The consecrated lamps and the libations of oil are all dedicated to him; and “torches and flaming brands are likewise kindled and consecrated, to burn the bodies of kinsmen who may be dead in battle in a foreign land, and light them through the shades of death to the mansion of Yama.”[[53]]
Festival of Yama.
The Annakūta Festival.
The Jaljātra Festival.
The Makara Sankrānti Festival.
Mitra Saptami, Bhāskara Saptami Festivals.
“The head of Is[[58]] is in the skies; on his crown falls the ever-flowing stream (Ganga); but on his statue below, does not his votary pour the fluid from his patra?”
Phallicism.
Phalisa is the ‘fructifier,’ from phala, ‘fruit,’ and Isa, ‘the god.’[[59]] Thus the type of Osiris can have a definite interpretation, still wanting to the lingam of Iswara [600]. Both deities presided over the streams which fertilized the countries in which they received divine honours: Osiris over the Nile, from ‘the mountains of the moon,’ in Ethiopia,[[60]] Iswara over the Indus[[61]] (also called the Nil), and the Ganges from Chandragiri, ‘the mountains of the moon,’ on a peak of whose glaciers he has his throne.
Siva and the Sun.
The emblem of Vishnu is Garuda, or the eagle,[[63]] and the Sun-god both of the Egyptians and Hindus is typified with the bird’s head. Aruna (the dawn), brother of Garuda, is classically styled the charioteer of Vishnu, whose two sons, Sampati and Jatayu, attempting in imitation of their father to reach the sun, the wings of the former were burnt and he fell to the earth: of this the Greeks may have made their fable of Icarus.[[64]]
Festivals in Honour of Vishnu.
The 4th is also dedicated to Vishnu under his infantine appellation Hari (Ἥλιος), because when a child “he hid himself in the moon.” We must not derogate from Sir W. Jones the merit of drawing attention to the analogy between these Hindu festivals on the equinoxes, and the Egyptian, called the entrance of Osiris into the moon, and his confinement in an ark. But that distinguished writer merely gives the hint, which the learned Bryant aids us to pursue, by bringing modern travellers to corroborate the ancient authorities: the drawings of Pocock from the sun temple of Luxor to illustrate Plutarch, Curtius, and Diodorus. Bryant comes to the same conclusion with regard to Osiris enclosed in the ark, which we adopt regarding Vishnu’s repose during the four months of inundation, the period of fertilization. I have already, in the rites of Annapurna, the Isis of the Egyptians, noticed the crescent form of the ark of Osiris, as well as the ram’s-head ornaments indicative of the vernal equinox, which the Egyptians called Phamenoth, being the birthday of Osiris, or the sun; the Phag, or Phalgun month of the Hindus; the Phagesia of the Greeks, sacred to Dionysus.[[67]]
The Argonauts.
Egyptian Influence on Hindu Mythology.
“Est-ce l’Inde, la Phénicie, l’Éthiopie, la Chaldée, ou l’Égypte, qui a vu naître ce culte? ou bien le type en a-t-il été fourni aux habitans de ces contrées, par une nation plus ancienne encore?” asks an ingenious but anonymous French author, on the origin of the Phallic worship.[[70]] Ramesa, chief of the Suryas, or sun-born race, was king of the city designated from his mother, Kausalya, of which Ayodhya was the capital. His sons were Lava and Kusa, who originated the races we may term the Lavites and Kushites, or Kushwas of India.[[71]] Was then Kausalya [603] the mother of Ramesa, a native of Aethiopia,[[72]] or Kusadwipa, ‘the land of Cush’? Rama and Krishna are both painted blue (nila), holding the lotus, emblematic of the Nile. Their names are often identified. Ram-Krishna, the bird-headed divinity, is painted as the messenger of each, and the historians of both were contemporaries. That both were real princes there is no doubt, though Krishna assumed to be an incarnation of Vishnu, as Rama was of the sun. Of Rama’s family was Trisankha,[[73]] mother of the great apostle of Buddha, whose symbol was the serpent; and the followers of Buddha assert that Krishna and this apostle, whose statues are facsimiles of those of Memnon, were cousins. Were the Hermetic creed and Phallic rites therefore received from the Ethiopic Cush? Could emblematic relics be discovered in the caves of the Troglodytes, who inhabited the range of mountains on the Cushite shore of the Arabian straits, akin to those of Ellora and Elephanta,[[74]] whose style discloses physical, mythological, as well as architectural affinity to the Egyptian, the question would at once be set at rest.
I have derived the Phallus from Phalisa, the chief fruit. The Greeks, who either borrowed it from the Egyptians or had it from the same source, typified the Fructifier by a pineapple, the form of which resembles the Sitaphala,[[75]] or fruit of Sita, whose rape by Ravana carried Rama from the Ganges over many countries ere he recovered her.[[76]] In like manner Gauri, the Rajput Ceres, is typified under the coco-nut, or sriphala,[[77]] the chief of fruit, or fruit sacred to Sri, or Isa (Isis), whose other elegant emblem of abundance, the kamakumbha, is drawn with branches of the palmyra,[[78]] or coco-tree, gracefully pendent from the vase (kumbha).
The Sriphala[[79]] is accordingly presented to all the votaries of Iswara and Isa on the conclusion of the spring-festival of Phalguna, the Phagesia of the Greeks, the [604] Phamenoth of the Egyptian, and the Saturnalia of antiquity; a rejoicing at the renovation of the powers of nature; the empire of heat over cold—of light over darkness.[[80]]
The analogy between the goddess of the spring Saturnalia, Phalguni, and the Phagesia of the Greeks, will excite surprise; the word is not derived from (φαγεῖν) eating, with the Rajput votaries of Holika, as with those of the Dionysia of the Greeks; but from phalguni, compounded of guna, ‘quality, virtue, or characteristic,’ and phala, ‘fruit’; in short, the fructifier. From φαλλός,[[81]] to which there is no definite meaning, the Egyptian had the festival Phallica, the Holika of the Hindus. Phula and phala, flower and fruit, are the roots of all, Floralia and Phalaria, the Phallus of Osiris, the Thyrsus of Bacchus, or Lingam of Iswara, symbolized by the Sriphala, or Ananas, the ‘food of the gods,’[[82]] or the Sitaphala of the Helen of Ayodhya.
From the existence of this worship in Congo at this day, the author already quoted asks if it may not have originated in Ethiopia, “qui, comme le témoignent plusieurs écrivains de l’antiquité, a fourni ses dieux à l’Égypte.“ On the first of the five complementary days called ”ἠπαγόμεναι ἡμέραι” preceding New Year’s Day, the Egyptians celebrated the birth of the sun-god Osiris, in a similar manner as the Hindus do their solstitial festival, “the morning of the gods,” the Hiul of Scandinavia; on which occasion, “on promenait en procession une figure d’Osiris, dont le Phallus était triple”; a number, he adds, expressing “la pluralité indéfinie.” The number three is sacred to Iswara, chief of the Trimurti or Triad, whose statue adorns the junction (sangam) of all triple streams; hence called Triveni, who is [605] Trinetra, or ‘three-eyed,’ and Tridanta, or ‘god of the trident’; Triloka, ‘god of the triple abode, heaven, earth, and hell’; Tripura, of the triple city, to whom the Tripoli or triple gates are sacred, and of which he has made Ganesa the Janitor, or guardian. The grotesque figure placed by the Hindus during the Saturnalia in the highways, and called Nathurama (the god Rama), is the counterpart of the figure described by Plutarch as representing Osiris, “ce soleil printanier,” in the Egyptian Saturnalia or Phamenoth. Even Ramisa and Ravana may, like Osiris and Typhon, be merely the ideal representatives of light and darkness; and the chaste Sita, spouse of the Surya prince, the astronomical Virgo, only a zodiacal sign.[[83]]
Wide Extension of Hindu Mythology.
The time may be approaching when this worship in the East, like the Egyptian, shall be only matter of tradition; although this is not likely to be effected by such summary means as were adopted by Cambyses, who slew the sacred Apis and whipped his priests, while their Greek and Roman conquerors adopted and embellished the Pantheon of the Nile.[[91]] But when Christianity reared her severe yet simple form, the divinities of the Nile, the Pantheon of Rome, and the Acropolis of Athens, could not abide her awful majesty. The temples of the Alexandrian Serapis were levelled by Theophilus,[[92]] while that of Osiris at Memphis became a church of Christ. “Muni de ses pouvoirs, et escorté d’une foule de moines, il mit en fuite les prêtres, brisa les idoles, démolit les temples, ou y établit des monastères.”[[93]] The period for thus subverting idolatry is passed: the religion of Christ is not of the sword, but one enjoining peace and goodwill on earth. But as from him “to whom much is given,” much will be required, the good and benevolent of the Hindu nations may have ulterior advantages over those Pharisees who would make a monopoly even of the virtues; who “see the mote in their neighbour’s eye, but cannot discern the beam in their own.” While, therefore, we strive to impart a purer taste and better faith, let us not imagine that the minds of those we would reform are the seats of impurity, because, in accordance with an idolatry coeval with the flood, they continue to worship mysteries opposed to our own modes of thinking [607].
[1]. Nauratri may be interpreted the nine days’ festival, or the ‘new night’ [?].
[2]. “It was natural enough,” says Gibbon, “that the Scythians should adore with peculiar devotion the god of war; but as they were incapable of forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron cimeter. If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn occasion,[[A]] a lofty altar, or rather pile of faggots, three hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious plain; and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive” (Gibbon’s Roman Empire, ed. W. Smith, iv. 194 f.).
[A]. Attila dictating the terms of peace with the envoys of Constantinople, at the city of Margus, in Upper Moesia.
[3]. St. Palaye, Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry, p. 305.
[4]. Raj Jogi is the chief of the ascetic warriors; the Mahants are commanders [the term being usually applied to the abbot of a monastery]. More will be said of this singular society when we discuss the religious institutions of Mewar.
[5]. The god Krishna is called Kishan in the dialects.
[6]. This is the sthapana of the sword, literally its inauguration or induction, for the purposes of adoration.
[7]. Tripolia, or triple portal.
[8]. [The chief centres of worship of Harsiddh Māta are Gāndhari and Ujjain. It is said that her image stood on the sea-shore, and that she used to swallow all the vessels that passed by (R. E. Enthoven, Folklore Notes Gujarāt, 5; BG, ix. Part i. 226).]
[9]. [Formerly an important personage, but his authority has now much decreased (BG, ix. Part i. 96).]
[10]. On this day sons visit and pay adoration to their fathers. The diet is chiefly of vegetables and fruits. Brahmans with their unmarried daughters are feasted, and receive garments called chunri from their chiefs. [This is a kind of cloth dyed by partly tying it in knots, which escape the action of the dye.]
[11]. The Jogi’s patra is not so revolting as that of their divinity Hara (the god of war), which is the human cranium; this is a hollow gourd.
[12]. From das, the numeral ten; the tenth. [It means ‘the feast that removes ten sins.’]
[13]. In this ancient story we are made acquainted with the distant maritime wars which the princes of India carried on. Even supposing Ravana’s abode to be the insular Ceylon, he must have been a very powerful prince to equip an armament sufficiently numerous to carry off from the remote kingdom of Kosala the wife of the great king of the Suryas. It is most improbable that a petty king of Ceylon could wage equal war with a potentate who held the chief dominion of India; whose father, Dasaratha, drove his victorious car (ratha) over every region (desa), and whose intercourse with the countries beyond the Brahmaputra is distinctly to be traced in the Ramayana. [Dasaratha has no connexion with desa: the name means ‘he who possesses ten (dasa) chariots (ratha).’]
[14]. [Prosopis spicigera.]
[15]. “A la première lune de chaque année, tous ces officiers, grands et petits, tenoient une assemblée générale à la cour du Tanjou, et y faisoient un sacrifice solennel: à la cinquième lune, ils s’assembloient à Lumtching, où ils sacrifioient au ciel, à la terre, aux esprits, et aux ancêtres. Il se tenoit encore une grande assemblée à Tai-lin dans l’automne, parce qu’alors les chevaux étoient plus gras, et on y faisoit en même-tems le dénombrement des hommes et des troupeaux; mais tous les jours le Tanjou sortoit de son camp, le matin pour adorer le soleil, et le soir la lune. Sa tente étoit placée à gauche, comme le côté le plus honorable chez ces peuples, et regardoit le couchant” (Avant J.-C. 209; L’Histoire Générale des Huns, vol. i. p. 24).
[16]. [There is no Skt. word pola, ‘gate’; the Hindi pol, paul is Skt. pura dvāra, ‘city entrance.’]
[17]. [The words pol and pāl are not connected.]
[18]. Hence may be found a good etymology of janizary, the guardian of the serai, a title left by the lords of Eastern Rome for the Porte. [Turkish yeni-tsheri, ‘new soldiery.’]
[19]. In Sanskrit gana (pronounced as gun), the jinn of the Persians, transmuted to genii; here is another instance in point of the alternation of the initial, and softened by being transplanted from Indo-Scythia to Persia, as Ganes was Janus at Rome. [Gana and Jinn, Ganesa and Janus, have no connexion.
[20]. The Casius Mons of Ptolemy. [The derivation of the word Caucasus is unknown.]
[21]. Parvati, ‘the mountain goddess,’ was called Sati, or ‘the faithful,’ in her former birth. She became the mother of Jahnavi, the river (Ganga) goddess.
[22]. Karttikeya, the son of Siva and Parvati, the Jupiter and Juno of the Hindu theogony, has the leading of the armies of the gods, delegated by his father; and his mother has presented to him her peacock, which is the steed of this warlike divinity. He is called Karttikeya from being nursed by six females called Krittika, who inhabit six of the seven stars composing the constellation of the Wain, or Ursa Major. Thus the Hindu Mars, born of Jupiter and Juno, and nursed by Ursa Major, is, like all other theogonies, an astronomical allegory. There is another legend of the birth of Mars, which I shall give in the text.
[23]. This elephant-headed divinity has but one tusk.
[24]. The bard thus modestly designates himself.
[25]. Chief (isa) of the gana (genii) or attendants on Siva.
[26]. So he was at Rome, and his statue held the keys of heaven in his right hand, and, like Ganesa, a rod (the ankus) in his left.
[27]. [The rat is the emblem of Ganesa probably because, like Apollo Smintheus, he protects the crops from vermin (Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. Part v. vol. ii. 282 f.).]
[28]. [Persian āhanak, ‘a sword of steel.’]
[29]. [Anabasis, vii. 2.]
[30]. The Gothic invaders of Italy inaugurated their monarch by placing him upon a shield, and elevating him on their shoulders in the midst of his army.
[31]. All these proper names might have Oriental etymologies assigned to them; Eyvor-sail is the name of a celebrated Rajput hero of the Bhatti tribe, who were driven at an early period from the very heart of Scythia, and are of Yadu race.
[32]. This word can have a Sanskrit derivation from haya, ‘a horse’; marna, ‘to strike or kill’; Hjalmr, ‘the horse-slayer.’ [These theories are of no value.]
[33]. The custom of engraving incantations on weapons is also from the East, and thence adopted by the Muhammadan, as well as the use of phylacteries. The name of the goddess guarding the tribe is often inscribed, and I have had an entire copy of the Bhagavadgita taken from the turban of a Rajput killed in action: in like manner the Muhammadans place therein the Koran.
[34]. The metaphorical name of the sword Tyrfing.
[35]. I have already mentioned these fires (see p. [89]), which the northern nations believed to issue from the tombs of their heroes, and which seemed to guard their ashes; them they called Hauga Elldr, or ‘the sepulchral fires,’ and they were supposed more especially to surround tombs which contained hidden treasures. These supernatural fires are termed Shihaba by the Rajputs. When the intrepid Scandinavian maiden observes that she is not afraid of the flame burning her, she is bolder than one of the boldest Rajputs, for Sri-kishan, who was shocked at the bare idea of going near these sepulchral lights, was one of the three non-commissioned officers who afterwards led thirty-two firelocks to the attack and defeat of 1500 Pindaris.
[36]. Like the Rajput Khanda, Tyrfing was double-edged; the poison of these edges is a truly Oriental idea.
[37]. This poem is from the Hervarer Saga, an ancient Icelandic history. See Edda, vol. ii. p. 192.
[38]. The Vulcan of the Hindus.
[39]. For an account of the initiation to arms of Bappa, the founder of the Guhilots, see p. [264] [Vol. I.].
[41]. The Mori prince, from whom Bappa took Chitor, was of the Tak or Takshak race [?], of whom Nagnaicha or Nagini Mata was the mother, represented as half woman and half serpent; the sister of the mother of the Scythic race, according to their legends; so that the deeper we dive into these traditions, the stronger reason we shall find to assign a Scythic origin to all these tribes. As Bappa, the founder of the Guhilots, retired into Scythia and left his heirs to rule in India, I shall find fault with no antiquary who will throw overboard all the connexion between Kanaksen, the founder of the Valabhi empire, and Sumitra, the last of Rama’s line. Many rites of the Rama’s house are decidedly Scythic.
[42]. [Lovely maidens.]
[44]. [“The kernel of the Rāmāyana was composed before 500 B.C., while the more recent portions was probably not added till the second century B.C., and later” (Macdonell, Hist. Sanskrit Literature, 309).]
[45]. One of the names of the divinity of war, whose images are covered with vermilion in imitation of blood. (Qy. the German roodur, ‘red’)[596]. [Rudra, ‘the roarer,’ originally “god of storms.”]
[46]. The Pleiades.
[47]. The festival of the birth of this son of Ganga, or Jahnavi, is on the 10th of Jeth. Sir W. Jones gives the following couplet from the Sancha: “On the 10th of Jyaishtha, on the bright half of the month, on the day of Mangala,[[A]] son of the earth, when the moon was in Hasta, this daughter of Jahnu brought from the rocks, and ploughed over the land inhabited by mortals.”
[A]. Mangala is one of the names (and perhaps one of the oldest) of the Hindu Mars (Kumara), to whom the Wodens-dag of the Northmen, the Mardi of the French, the Dies Martis of the Romans, are alike sacred. Mangala also means ‘happy,’ the reverse of the origin of Mongol, said to mean ‘sad’ [‘brave’]. The juxtaposition of the Rajput and Scandinavian days of the week will show that they have the same origin:
| Rajput | Scandinavian and Saxon. |
| Suryavar | Sun-day. |
| Som, or Induvar | Moon-day. |
| Budhvar | Tuis-day. |
| Mangalvar | Wodens-day. |
| Brihaspativar[a] | Thors-day. |
| Sukravar | Frey-day. |
| Sani, or } -var | Satur-day[c] |
| Sanichara } |
(a) Brihaspati, ‘he who rides on the bull’; the steed of the Rajput god of war [probably ‘lord of prayer,’ or ‘of increase,’ confounded in the original note with Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ a title of Siva.]
(b) Sukra is a Cyclop, regent of the planet Venus.]
(c) [See Max Müller, Selected Essays, 1881, ii. 460 ff.]
[48]. [Kumāra probably means ‘easily dying.’]
[49]. It will be recollected that the moon with the Rajputs as with the Scandinavians is a male divinity. The Tatars, who also consider him a male divinity, pay him especial adoration in this autumnal month.
[50]. [Apsaras means ‘going in the waters, or in the waters of the clouds.’]
[51]. [The owl is a bird of ill omen, and does not seem to be associated with Lakshmi except in Bengal.]
[52]. The Hindu god of riches.
[53]. Yamala is the great god of the Finlanders (Clarke).
[54]. From go, ‘a cow’ [dhūli, ‘the dust raised by them as they return to the stall’].F
[55]. See anecdote in Chap. 21, which elucidates this practice of princes becoming herdsmen.
[56]. Matsya Purana. [Vishnu is generally said to wake on the Deothān, 11th light half of Kārttik.]
[57]. [Makara, a kind of shark or sea-monster, marks the 10th sign of the Zodiac, Capricorn.]
[58]. Iswara, Isa, or as pronounced, Is.
[59]. [Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit Dict. records no such form as phalīsa. φαλλός = Lat. palus, English pole, pale. The Author follows Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 135 f.).]
[60]. ‘The land of the sun’ (aditya). [This is impossible. The true derivation is unknown; to the Greeks the word meant ‘swarthy-faced.’]
[61]. Ferishta calls the Indus the Nilab, or ‘blue waters’; it is also called Abusin, the ‘father of streams.’
[62]. According to Diodorus Siculus. [Rudra-Siva has a benign side to his character, and may be associated with the Sun (R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems, 105). But the Author, in his constant references to “Bāl”-Siva, has pressed this conception to an excessive length.]
[63]. The vulture and crane, which soar high in the heavens, are also called garuda, and vulgarly gidh. The ibis is of the crane or heron kind.
[64]. Phaeton was the son of Cephalus and Aurora. The former answers to the Hindu bird-headed messenger of the sun. Aruna is the Aurora of the Greeks, who with more taste have given the dawn a female character.
[65]. Also called Dolayatra.
[66]. Bhagavat and Matsya Puranas. See Sir W. Jones on the lunar year of the Hindus, Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 286.
[67]. [Mr. F. Ll. Griffith tells me that this comes from a French translation of Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, cap. xii. (birth of Osiris on the first of the epagomenal days). This entry of Osiris into the moon seems to mean his conception rather than his birth. Φαμενώθ is the name of the seventh month, about 25th February.]
[68]. Arka, ‘the sun,’ in Sanskrit. [This is due to Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 134) and is, of course, impossible.]
[69]. Pha-ra is but a title, ‘the king.’ [Egyptian Pro, ‘the great house.’]
[70]. Des divinités génératives: ou du culte du Phallus chez les anciens et les modernes (Paris).
[71]. Of the former race the Ranas of Mewar, of the latter the princes of Narwar and Amber, are the representatives.
[72]. Aethiopia, ‘the country of the sun’; from Ait, contraction of Aditya. Aegypt may have the same etymology, Aitia [see p. [699] above].
[73]. [The Author may refer to Pārsvanātha, 23rd Jain Tīrthakara, whose symbol was his serpent; but his mother was Vāmadevi. Trisala was mother of the 24th Tīrthakara, Mahāvira or Vardhamāna, but his cognizance was a lion.]
[74]. It is absurd to talk of these being modern; decipher the characters thereon, and then pronounce their antiquity. [Ellora, 5th to 9th or 10th centuries A.D.; Elephanta, 8th to 10th (IGI, xii. 22, 4).]
[75]. Vulg. Sharifa.
[76]. Rama subjected her to the fiery ordeal, to discover whether her virtue had suffered while thus forcibly separated.
[77]. Vulg. Nariyal.
[78]. Palmyra is Sanskrit corrupted, and affords the etymology of Solomon’s city of the desert, Tadmor. The ﺙ[ﺙ] p, by the retrenchment of a single diacritical point, becomes ت t; and the ل (l) and د (d) being permutable, Pal becomes Tad, or Tal—the Palmyra, which is the Mor, or chief of trees; hence Tadmor, from its date-trees [?].
[79]. The Jayaphala, ‘the fruit of victory,’ is the nutmeg; or, as a native of Java, Javuphala, ‘fruit of Java,’ is most probably derived from Jayadiva, ‘the victorious isle.’ [The nutmeg is Jātiphala: Java is yavadwīpa, ‘island of barley.’]
[80]. The Kamari of the Saura tribes, or sun-worshippers of Saurashtra, claims descent from the bird-god of Vishnu (who aided Rama[[A]] to the discovery of Sita), and the Makara[[B]] or crocodile, and date the monstrous conception from that event, and their original abode from Sankodra Bet, or island of Sankodra. Whether to the Dioscorides at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf this name was given, evidently corrupted from Sankhadwara to Socotra, we shall not stop to inquire. Like the isle in the entrance of the Gulf of Cutch, it is the dwara or portal to the Sinus Arabicus, and the pearl-shell (sankha) there abounds. This tribe deduce their origin from Rama’s expedition, and allege that their Icthyiopic mother landed them where they still reside. Wild as is this fable, it adds support to this hypothesis. [The Sanskrit name of Bet Island (“Bate” in the text) is Sankhuddhāra, from the conch fishery. Socotra is Dwīpa Sukhadāra, ‘island of pleasure’ (not Sakhādāra, as in EB, xxv. 355) (Yule, Marco Polo, 1st ed. ii. 342).]
[A]. Rama and Vishnu interchange characters.
[B]. It is curious that the designation of the tribe Kamar is a transposition of Makar, for the final letter of each is mute.
[81]. See Lempriere, arts. Phagesia and Phallica. “L’Abbé Mignot pense que le Phallus est originaire de l’Assyrie et de la Chaldée, et que c’est de ce pays que l’usage de consacrer ce symbole de la génération a passé en Égypte. Il croit, d’après le savant Le Clerc, que le nom de ce symbole est phénicien: qu’il dérive de Phalou qui, dans cette langue, signifie une chose secrète et cachée, et du verbe phala, qui veut dire être tenu secret.”[[A]]
[A]. Des divinités génératives.
[82]. Anna, ‘food,’ and asa or isa, ‘the god.’ [Ananas comes from Brazilian Nana or Nanas (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 25).]
[83]. [It is unnecessary to discuss these theories, which are based on incorrect assumptions and obsolete etymologies.]
[84]. The Hindus divide the month into two portions called pakh or fortnights. The first is termed badi, reckoning from the 1st to the 15th, which day of partition is called amavas, answering to the Ides of the Romans, and held by the Hindus as it was by the Jews in great sanctity. The last division is termed sudi, and they recommence with the initial numeral, thence to the 30th or completion, called punim; thus instead of the 16th, 17th, etc., of the month, they say Sudi ekam (1st), Sudi duj (3rd).
[85]. Sogdiana and Transoxiana.
[86]. Hence the word Saka [?].
[87]. See Genealogical Table No. 2 for these names. The sons of the three Midas, pronounced Mede, founded kingdoms at the precise point of time, according to calculation from the number of kings, that Assyria was founded.
[88]. The former were more pastoral, and hence the origin of their name, corrupted to Keltoi. The Getae or Jats pursued the hunter’s occupation, living more by the chase, though these occupations are generally conjoined in the early stages of civilization.
[89]. Rubruquis and other travellers.
[90]. Colonel Mackenzie’s invaluable and gigantic collection.
[91]. Isis and Osiris, Serapis and Canopus, Apis and Ibis, adopted by the Romans, whose temples and images, yet preserved, will allow full scope to the Hindu antiquary for analysis of both systems. The temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli is quite Hindu in its ground plan.
[92]. In the reign of Theodosius.
[93]. Du Culte, etc., etc., p. 47.