Folk Lore Notes. Vol. I—Gujarat

by A. M. T. Jackson

It is a belief among Hindus that to give alms in secret confers a great merit on the donor. Some of the orthodox people, therefore, throw pice into wells, considering it to be a kind of secret charity.

The belief in the practices adopted for transferring disease from one person to another obtains mostly among women, who have recourse to such practices for curing their children.

One of such practices is to lay a suffering child in the cradle of a healthy child. This act is believed to result in transferring the disease of the ailing child to the healthy child. Another practice is that the mother of the sickly child should touch the mother of a healthy child with the object of transferring the disease of her child to the child of the latter. Some believe that the mere contact of an ailing child with a healthy child is sufficient to transfer the malady of the former to the person of the latter. Others maintain that this can be brought about by a mother either by touching the cradle of another child or by touching the person of another woman. There are others, who hold that the disease of a sickly child can be transferred to another child by feeding the latter with the leavings of the former. There is a further belief that a mother can transfer the disease of her suffering child to the child of another woman by applying the end of her robe to the end of the robe of the latter. In some places, when a child begins to weaken, its mother makes an idol of cow or buffalo dung, and keeps it fixed to a wall of the house, in the belief that the child will be cured slowly as the idol dries. It is stated that instances are actually known of the recovery of children by this process. These methods of transferring disease are called tuchakās i.e. mystic methods. As a rule superstitious women practise them on Sundays or Tuesdays, as it is believed, that to be efficacious, they must be practised on these days.

In addition to the tuchakās above stated the utārs, dorās, etc., already described, are used for curing diseases.

Some diseases are attributed to vir possession. Virs are male spirits fifty two in number. The bhuvās or exorcists are believed to have control over them, and are supposed to be able to detect an illness caused by possession by a vir. In such cases, the bhuvās drive away the evil spirits from the patients by magic incantations, or transfer them to others by waving a certain number of grain seeds round the head of the patient. By another process the bhuvās can confine the evil spirit in a glass bottle, which is buried underground.

In order to eradicate a dangerous disease, an utār is frequently offered to a dog, in the belief that by eating the utār the disease is transferred to the dog.

In some places, diseases of long standing due to spirit possession are cured by employing a bhuvā, (exorcist), who, accompanied by others of his order, goes to the patient’s house, makes a bamboo bier, waves an utār round the patient’s head, and lays himself on the bier with the utār by his side. The bier is carried to the burning ground by four persons to the accompaniment of the beatings of drums, followed by the exorcists, who throw bāklāns (round flat cakes of juvāri flour) into the air as the procession moves on. When the party reach the burning ground, the bier is put down, and the bhuvā, shaking violently, offers the utār to a spirit of the place. He then prostrates himself four times with his face turned towards the four directions and drives a nail into the ground at each turn. Next, the bhuvā lets loose a goat or a ram, to which the vir in the body of the patient is supposed to be transferred. It is said that the performance of this rite relieves the patient’s mind of anxiety regarding the cause of his disease, and he thereafter shows signs of improvement.[93]

When a man is suffering from ānjani (a sore or mole on the eye-lid) he goes to another person’s house and strikes earthen vessels against his door saying “I have shaken the vessels. May the ānjani be with me to-day and with you tomorrow”. It is also stated that such a patient goes to the house of a man who has two wives while the latter are asleep, and taps his door uttering the words “Anjani ghar bhāngani āj mane ane kal tane” i.e., “May ānjani, the breaker of the house, be to-day with me and tomorrow with thee.” This process is believed to transfer the disease from the person of the patient to that of the husband of the two wives.

A common method for transferring disease is to wave water round a sick person and give it to another to drink. Similarly, a goblet filled with water is passed round a patient’s head and offered to a bhuvā, who drinks off the contents.

A belief prevails all over Gujarāt that a disease can be passed from one species of animals to another, and various practices are adopted to effect this. Generally a bhuvā or exorcist arranges the transfer. The bhuvā, accompanied by a troupe of dancers and drummers, visits the house of the sick person and, after examining corn seeds dānās which have been waved round the patient’s head on a night preceding a Sunday or Tuesday, declares that the evil spirit possessing the patient requires a living victim. A cock, goat or a male buffalo is then brought as a substitute for the patient, is waved round him, the tip of its right ear is cut off, and it is offered to the mātā or goddess, that is, it is released to stray as it pleases. These goats, etc., are called mātā’s goats, mātā’s cocks, or mātā’s male buffaloes, and are seen wandering about in many villages. Sometimes the goat, etc., is killed before the image of the mātā and the bhuvā dipping the palms of his hands into its blood, presses them against the doors of every house in the village. In the case of an outbreak of epidemic, the victim is set at liberty beyond the limits of the village affected. It is believed by some people that the animal to which a disease is conveyed in the above manner, dies of its effects.[94]