There are many places in India where fish are protected, such as those at Kota and in the Mahânadî river, the Betwa at Bhilsa, Hardwâr, Mathura, Mirzapur, Benares, Nepâl, and in Afghanistân.[152] In the Sâraswata pool in the Himâlaya lived the sacred fish called Mrikunda; they are fed on the fourteenth of the light half of each month, and oblations are offered for the repose of the Manes of deceased relations.[153] It is a common custom among pious Hindus to feed fish at sacred places with a lâkh or more of little balls of flour wrapped up in Bhojpatra or birch bark or paper with the name of Râma written upon it. Their eating the name of the deity ensures their salvation, and thus confers religious merit on the giver. The fish is the vehicle of Khwâja Khizr, the water god, and hence has become a sort of totem of the Shiah Musalmâns and the crest of the late royal family of Oudh. Pictures of fish are constantly drawn on the walls of houses as a charm against demoniacal influence.
The Fish in Folk-lore.
The fish constantly appears in the folk-tales. We have in Somadeva the fish that laughed when it was dead; the fish that swallows the hero or heroine or a boat.[154] In one of the Kashmîr tales we have the fish swallowing the ring, which is like the tale which Herodotus tells of Polycrates. In another we have the Oriental version of the story of Jonah, where the merchant is found by the potter in the belly of the fish.[155] So, Pradyumna, son of Krishna and Rukminî, was thrown into the ocean by the demon Sambara, and recovered from the belly of a fish by his wife Mâyâ Devî. In many of the modern tales the fish takes the form of the Life Index. The king Bhartari, the brother of the celebrated Râja Vikramaditya, who is now a godling and spends part of the day at Benares and part at the Chunâr Fort, had a fish, “the digestion of which gave him knowledge of all that occurred in the three worlds.” By a divine curse the nymph Adrikâ was transformed into a fish which lived in the Jumnâ. Here she conceived by the king Uparichara, was caught by a fisherman, taken to the king and opened, when she regained her heavenly form, and from her were produced Matsya, the male, and Matsyâ, the female fish, the progenitors of the finny race. The fish often plays a part in the miraculous conception myths, as in the Mahâbhârata we read of a fish which devours the seed, and a girl having eaten it brings forth a child. The fish incarnation of Vishnu possibly represents the adoption of a fish totem into Brâhmanism. It is needless to say that the legendary fish has been identified with the sun by the school of comparative mythologists.[156]
The Eel.
The eel is a totem of the Mundâri Kols of Bengal and of the Orâons, neither of whom will eat it. In Northern England an eel skin tied round the leg is a cure for cramp. Eel fat, in the European tales, is used as a magic ointment, and gives the power of seeing the fairies.[157]
The Tortoise.
The tortoise, again, is sacred. Vishnu appeared as a tortoise in the Satya Yuga or first age to recover some things of value which had been lost in the deluge. In the form of a tortoise he placed himself at the bottom of the sea of milk, and made his back the basis on which the gods and demons, using the serpent Vâsuki as a rope, churned the ocean by means of the mount Mandara. The Ganrâr, a tribe of Bengal fishermen, make sacrifices of the river tortoise to the goddess Kolokumârî, the daughter of the deep; this is the only sacrifice she will accept, and she brings sickness on those who fail to make this offering.[158] The tortoise is a totem of the Mundâri Kols, and the Kharwârs and Mânjhis of Mirzapur worship clay images of it, which they keep in their house, because on one occasion it conveyed their first ancestor across a river in flood.