Following the Diwâlî comes what is known as the Govardhan, or Godhan, which is a purely rural feast. In parts of the North-Western Provinces, the women, on a platform outside the house, make a little hut of mud and images of Gaurî and Ganesa; there they place the parched grain which the girls offered on the night of the Diwâlî; near it they lay some thorny grass, wave a rice pounder round the hut, and invoke blessings on their relations and friends. This is also a cattle feast, and cowherds come round half drunk and collect presents from their employers. They sing, “May this house grow as the sugar-cane grows, as Ganga increases at the sacred confluence of Prayâg!”
In the Panjâb “the women make a Govardhan of cowdung, which consists of Krishna lying on his back surrounded with little cottage loaves of dung to represent mountains, in which are stuck stems of grass with tufts of cotton or rag on the top for trees, and by little dung balls for cattle, watched by dung men dressed in little bits of rag. Another opinion is that the cottage loaves are cattle, and the dung balls calves. On this they put the churn-staff, five white sugar-canes, some parched rice, and a lamp in the middle. The cowherds are then called in, and they salute the whole, and are fed with rice and sweets. The Brâhman then takes the sugar-cane and eats a bit, and till then no one must eat, cut, or press cane. Rice-milk is then given to the Brâhmans, and the bullocks have their horns dyed and are extra well fed.”[19]
The Emperor Akbar, we are told, used to join in this festival.[20]
The custom in Cawnpur, known as the Dâng, or “Club,” Diwâlî is very similar. The cowherds worship Govardhan in the form of a little heap of cowdung decorated with cotton, and go round to the houses of the persons whose cattle they graze, dance to the music of two sticks beaten together and a drum played by a Hindu weaver, and get presents of grain, cloth, or money.[21]
Cattle Festivals.
There are a number of similar usages in various parts of the country solemnized with the object of protecting the herds. Thus in Hoshangâbâd they have the rite of frightening the cattle. “Everyone keeps awake all night, and the herdsmen go out begging in a body, singing, and keeping the cattle from sleeping. In the morning they are all stamped with the hand dipped in yellow paint for the white ones, and white paint for the red ones, and strings of cowries or peacocks’ feathers are tied to their horns. Then they are driven out with wild whoops or yells, and the herdsman standing at the doorway smashes an earthen water jar on the last. The neck of this is placed on the gateway leading to the cattle sheds, and preserves them from the Evil Eye. In the afternoon the cattle are all collected together, and the Parihâr priest sprinkles them with water, after which they are secure from all possible evil.”[22]
This reminds us of the custom of Manx cattle dealers, who drive their herd through fire on May Day, so as to singe them a little, and preserve them from harm.[23] The same was probably the origin of the bull-running in the town of Stamford of which Brand gives an account. So the Chinese make an effigy of an ox in clay, which after being beaten by the governor, is stoned by the people till they break it in pieces, from which they expect an abundant year.
We have already met with instances where the scape animal merges in a sacrifice. In Garhwâl, at the sacrifice in honour of Devî, the Brâhmans make a circle of flour filled with various sorts of colours. Inside this they sit and repeat sacred verses. Then a male buffalo is made to move round the circle seven times, and everyone throws some holy rice and oats over it. After this the headman of the village strikes it lightly on the back with a sword and makes it run, on which the people follow and hack it to pieces with their swords.[24]
So in Bengal, on the last day of the month Kârttik (October-November) a pig is turned loose among a herd of buffaloes, who are encouraged to gore it to death. The carcase is given to the Dusâdh village menials to eat. The Ahîrs, who practise this strange rite, aver that it has no religious significance, and is merely a sort of popular amusement. They do not themselves partake of any part of the pig.[25] It is plainly a survival of a regular sacrifice, probably intended to promote the fertility of the herds and crops.