Some have professed to find indications of totemism in the Vâhanas and Avatâras, the “Vehicles” and the “Incarnations” of the mythology; but this is far from certain. It has been suggested that these may represent tribal deities imported into Hinduism. Brahma rides on the Hansa or goose; Vishnu on Garuda, half eagle and half man, which is the crest of the Chandravansi Râjputs; Siva on his bull Nandi; Yama on a buffalo; Kârttikeya on a peacock; Kâmadeva on the marine monster Makara, or on a parrot; Agni on a ram; Varuna on a fish. Ganesa is accompanied by his rat, whence his name Akhuratha, “rat-borne.” This an ingenious comparative mythologist makes out to represent “the pagan Sun god crushing under his feet the mouse of night.”[31] Vâyu rides on an antelope, Sani or Saturn on a vulture, and Durgâ on a tiger.
The same is the case with the Avatâras or incarnations of the deities. Vishnu appears in the form of Vârâha, the boar; Kurma, the tortoise; Matsya, the fish; Nara Sinha, the man-lion; Kalki, the white horse. Rudra and Indra are also represented in the form of the boar.
The Boar as a Totem.
How the boar came to be associated with Vishnu has been much disputed. One and not a very plausible explanation which has been suggested is that it is because the boar is a destroyer of snakes.[32] We know that in Râjputâna there was a regular spring festival at which the boar was killed because he was regarded as the special enemy of Gaurî, the Râjput tribal goddess.[33]
The comparative mythologists account for the spring boar festival by connecting it with the ceremonial eating of the boar’s head at Christmas in Europe, as a symbol of the gloomy monster of winter, killed at the winter solstice, after which the days get longer and brighter.[34] Mr. Frazer explains it by the killing of the Corn Spirit in the form of the boar.[35]
But it is, perhaps, simpler to believe with Sir A. Lyall[36] that “when the Brâhmans convert a tribe of pig-worshipping aborigines, they tell their proselytes that the pig was an Avatâr of Vishnu. The Mînas in one part of Râjputâna used to worship the pig. When they took a turn towards Islâm they changed their pig into a saint called Father Adam, and worshipped him as such.” Mr. Frazer has pointed out that the “customs of the Egyptians touching the pig are to be explained as based upon an opinion of the extreme sanctity rather than of the extreme uncleanness of the animal; or rather to put it more correctly, they imply that the animal was looked on not simply as a filthy and a disgusting creature, but as a being endowed with high supernatural powers, and that as such it was regarded with that primitive sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the feelings of reverence are almost equally blended.”
There are indications of the same belief in India. Thus, in Baghera “the boar is a sacred animal, and the natives there say that if any man were to kill a wild boar in the neighbourhood, he would be sure to die immediately afterwards, while no such fatal result would follow if the same man killed a boar anywhere else.”[37] In the same way the Prabhus of Bombay eat wild pork once a year as a religious duty. The Vaddars of the Dakkhin say that they are not troubled with ghosts, because the pork they eat and hang in their houses scares ghosts. We know that among the Drâvidian races and many of the menial tribes of Hindustân the pig is the favourite offering to the local godlings and to the deities of disease. Swine’s teeth are often worn by Hindu ascetics, and among the Kolarian races the women are forbidden to eat the flesh. In Northern India the chief place where the worship of Vishnu in his Vârâha or boar incarnation is localized is at Soron on the banks of the Bûrhî Gangâ, or old Ganges, in the Etah District. The name of the place has been derived from Sukarakshetra, “the place of the good deed,” because here Vishnu slew the demon Hiranyakesu. It is certainly Sukarakshetra, “the plain of the hog.”[38]
Garuda, another of these vehicles, is the wonder-working bird common to many mythologies—the Rukh of the Arabian Nights, the Eorosh of the Zend, the Simurgh of the Persians, the Anka of the Arabs, the Kargas of the Turks, the Kirni of the Japanese, the Dragon of China, the Norka of Russia, the Phœnix of classical fable, the Griffin of chivalry and of Temple Bar.
From totemism we get a clue to many curious usages, especially in the matter of food. From this idea probably arose the unclean beasts of the Hebrew ritual. Many Hindu tribes will not eat the onion or the turnip. Brâhmans and Bachgoti Râjputs object to potatoes. The Râjputs place a special value on the wood of the Nîm tree; one clan alone, the Raikwârs, are forbidden to use it as a tooth-stick. Some Kolarian tribes, as we have already seen, refuse to use the flesh or wool of the sheep. The Murmu, or Santâls of the blue bull sept, will not eat the flesh of that animal. The system of the Orâons is more elaborate still, for no sub-tribe can eat the plant or animal after which it is named. So, the Bansetti Binjhiyas, who take their name from the bamboo, do not touch the tree at a wedding; the Harbans Chamârs, who are said to be in some way connected with a bone (hadda), cannot wear bones in any shape; the Rikhiâsan Chiks do not eat beef or pork; the Sanuâni Dhenuârs cannot wear gold; the Dhanuâr Khariyas cannot eat rice gruel. Numerous instances of this kind are given by Mr. Risley.[39] The transition from such observances and restrictions to the elaborate food regulations of the modern castes is not difficult.