Indo European Sodalities In Ancient India

Author(s): W B Bollee
Publisher: W B Bollee
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269732/1

Page #1

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
By WILLEM B. BOLLÉE, Heidelberg
for Paul Thieme
Brotherhoods occupy an important place in the social structure of many peoples. Our knowledge of them as far as the Indo-Europeans are concerned has been deepened during the past forty years particularly by the publications of HÖFLER, WIKANDER1 and WIDENGREN”. These authors bring to light tribal, age-group, brotherhoods: serving social and military functions and devoted to worship of the fallen as well as of warrior gods honoured in orgiastic rites.
In Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen, HÖFLER rejected the simple allegory-of-nature view traditional to 19th-century writers on the Germanic and Indologist science of religion and tried to bring out an heroic-ecstatic bond between the living and their venerated dead (p. viii). In his opinion, the acts of worship of the dead in this cult entailed a mimed "enhancement of existence" (Daseinssteigerung) in which the masked participants identified themselves with the dead and, being possessed, often ended up behaving like demons themselves. As the level of culture rose, the more savage impulses receded or changed. In ancient India this development, which is accompanied by a geographical (west-east) shift as well as one in time, manifests itself, as I shall try to show below, in the brotherhood of Indra -- the host of the Maruts - from the Vrātyas to the Mallas and eventually the Buddhist Order. Although they played an important part in the development (as did their neighbours), the Mallas have not attracted much attention hitherto and I therefore intend to examine them more closely in the light of our much fuller knowledge of the Iranian sodalities.
IS. WIKANDER: Der arische Männerbunul. Lund 1938.
2 G. WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube im alten Iran. Uppsala 1938, Ch. VI; Der Feudalismus im alten Iran. Köln 1969, Ch. I; Religionsphänomenologie. Berlin 1969, p. 599ff.
3 See e.g. H. SCHURTZ: Altersklassen und Männerbünde. Berlin 1902, esp. Ch. II.
4 Vide O. HÖFLER: Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen. Frankfurt am Main 1934, p. 107.

Page #2

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
173
According to WIDENGREN, the designation for a brotherhood is called haēnā in Late Avestan (senā in Old Indian) within its own tribal community, or dahyu by its enemies; the individual member is called LAV. mairya, Vedic márya. In Iran members of brotherhoods dressed in black, blackened their arms, and wore long hair and a belt (the latter item especially signifying allegiance to the king) all emblems characteristic of "Männerbündler" in other countries.
In accordance with their naturally tempestuous youth, the groups under discussion often show a propensity to a violence reflected in their religious attitude of heroes and dragon killers (Oraëtaona, Keresāspa; Vǝrǝorayna; Indra) as well as in the darker attributes ascribed to certain deities (Aēšma: Mira)10 held up as ideals to their worshippers. Vedic literature, in which Indra fulfils many of the functions of the Iranian Mitra, supplies parallels to this phenomenon. Indra is a divine hero and dragon killer, a friend of men, the leader of the host of the Marutsthe celestial counterpart of the brotherhoods on earth as their name indicates which is related to márya, peιрάxιov (a young man in his twenties) and to the war god Mars. Indra challenges the secret societies in their negative aspect of terror gangs such as the Dasyus of the Rgveda and probably some of the Nordic berserkers and Indian tigermen mentioned in the SB.12
The Vrätyas, known since AV 15, show similar wild characteristics when they set out on their raids with war chariots and in clothes with
5 WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 323.
WIKANDER, op. cit., p. 82ff.
7 WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 35; Hochgottglaube, p. 335, 342f., 349; Die Religionen Irans. Stuttgart 1965, p. 25. Cf. note 140 below.
8 WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 53 and 60.
• HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 45, 71f. (n. 256), 198; WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 56ff.
10 See WIDENGREN, op. cit., p. 350 and for the two aspects of Mithra, ibidem, p. 100f.
11 Menander: Georgos 18D defines uɛtpάxtov as "young man between ἔφηβος and ἀνήρ".
12 Narkṣikaḥ, puruṣavyāghrāḥ parimoṣiņa āvyādhinyas taskarā aranyesv ājāyeran (SB 13,2,4,2). On the berserkers see e. g. HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 67, esp. 170 note 10 (our reference is perhaps of relevance for the etymology of "berserker") and the same, Verwandlungskulte, pp. 54, 109, 161 and 171; further WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 54.
The tigermen are perhaps the Indian counterpart of the African leopardmen for whom see e.g. WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 336 and Religionsphänomenologie, p. 605; P.-E. JOSET: Les sociétés secrètes des hommes-léopards en Afrique noire. Paris 1955.

Page #3

174
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
black fringes.13 Formerly they were thought possibly to be non-aryan, 14 non-brahmanised tribes of cattle-raiding nomads; their Vrātyastomas (one-day sacrifices performed by more than one sacrificer), according to this view, emphasized their conversion to Brahmanism. However, the sacrifices take place before the start and after the completion of a raid - a fact which seems rather to characterize them as a solemn vow and magical invigoration on the one hand, as a purification or a confirmation of loyalty afterwards on the other. 15
These and other factors not relevant here have recently given rise to the opinion that the Vrātyas may have been a survival from a social order that had passed away and in which clans kept up the memory of a system of exchange of services with each other. The social and religious centre for male members belonging to different clans was the sabhā; among their gods the initiation daemon Rudra was prominent.16 The relation between the Vrātyas and the sodalities is evidenced by their wearing long hair (JB 2,225) and by the fact that the Vrātyastoma was celebrated for the first time by the Maruts.17
Furthermore, hymn 14 of AV 15 mentions Indra, Varuņa, Soma, Vişņu, Rudra, Yama, Bșhaspati, Išāna and Prajāpati: the Vrātya seems to move out to the "worlds" of these gods in order to be reborn an "eater of food" i.e. in a better way.18 It may be noticed that nearly the same list of deities occurs in two passages in the Pali canon; they may, therefore, be assumed to have been worshipped in ancient Magadha,19 a region known to AV (5,22,14), yet of ill fame, because its inhabitants were condemned to takmán ('fever'?).20
13 This way the Maruts, too, were figured to look like (TS 2,4,9,1). Indras black clothes are mentioned in the Mbh (cr. ed.) 1,3,152, his black banner Vaijayanta 3,43,8 (cf. further e.g. WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 342f.).
14 E.g. by M. WINTERNITZ: Die Vrātyas. In: Zeitschrift für Buddhismus 6 (1924/25), p. 56. W. D. O'FLAHERTY: The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology. In: History of Religions 10 (1971), p. 282 calls them "ministers of non-Vedic cults".
15 Cf. W. BURKERT: Homo Necans. Berlin 1972, p. 59.
16 For further information see G. J. HELD: The Mahābhārata. Amsterdam 1935, p. 240ff.
17 References in J. C. HEESTERMAN: Vrātya and Sacrifice. In: IIJ 6 (1962), p. 17.
18 I refer e.g. to J. W. HAUER: Der Vrātya. 1. Stuttgart 1927, p. 286f. The latest discussion I know of is found in H. W. BODEWITZ: Jaiminiya Brāhmana I, 1–65. Leiden 1973, p. 243 ff.
19 Samyutta-Nikāya I 218f.: Sakka, Pajāpati, Varuņa, Isāna (Rudra); Dĩgha-Nikaga I 244,25ff.: Inda, Soma, Varuna, Isẵna, Pajāpati, Mahiddhi (in Buddhist literature a Garuda Prince), Yama:
20 Kāty SS 22,4,22 and Laty SS 8,6,8 speak disparagingly especially of the Magadha Brahmins.

Page #4

175
The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
In this context it is not surprising that, during the Mahāvrata ritual (which is associated with the customs of the Vratyas) "a native of Magadha" (CALAND)22 had sexual intercourse on the southern end of the mahāvedi with a pumscala; the ritual also included a struggle for a hegoat or bull representing the sun, as well as a race of armed men (samnaddha) contending in glory (máhas) and impetuosity (tvisi). Of the two relevant meanings of magadha in the Petrograd Dictionary, 'schimpfliche Bezeichnung des Sohnes einer Kṣatriya und eines Vaisya' and 'Lobsänger eines Fürsten', the former may be the appropriate one here24 or perhaps bards used to be sons of certain mixed marriages.26
The Vratyas' wild and predatory expeditions link them with European sodalities like Wodan's Furious Host 26 whose now harmless remnants survive in our Carnival processions. 27 In the eastern provinces of India, their probable habitation when we hear of them, a number of Vrätyas founded a state; moreover, they exercised influence on Buddhism.28
In early times natural death was not understood, and every decease was thought to have been caused by some malevolent or magical/supernatural power.29 The inference that the dead were able to take revenge was therefore a logical one to draw. Those murderers unwilling to redeem themselves by atonement 30 were haunted by the dead in the shape of the brotherhoods, as HöFLER, MEULI and others have shown. Usually twice in winter the brotherhoods went round wearing masks in Upper
21 See HAUER, op. cit., p. 246ff.
22 W. CALAND: Das Jaiminiya-Brāhmaṇa in Auswahl. Amsterdam 1919, § 165.
23 I see no reason here to follow CALAND in his translation 'Gepanzerte' ('mail-clad'). The relevant meanings given by the Petrograd Dictionary are 'gegürtet, gerüstet, schlagfertig; in Bereitschaft stehend' ('girt; equipped; alert, on call').
24 CALAND, loc. cit., does not explain his rendering. The poor opinion of the Magadhas reflects a greater difference in way of living and in the religious
domain.
25 E.g. a kind of lower rank sūta, charioteer and herald. The sūta is a halfbreed of the two upper classes or the son of a Śūdra and a Kṣatriyā.
26 HÖFLER: Kultische Geheimbünde, p. 80 et passim.
27 HÖFLER, op. cit., p. 5 etc.
28 On the relation between Vratyas and Buddhists see already A. WEBER: Akademische Vorlesungen über die Literaturgeschichte des alten Indiens. 2Berlin 1876, p. 76.
29 WIDENGREN: Religionsphänomenologie, p. 396f. Cf. K. MEULI: Bettelumzüge im Totenkultus, Opferritual und Volksbrauch. In: Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde 28 (1928), p. 22.
30 MEULI, op. cit., p. 11. One may also think of the grass etc. laid out for St. Nicholas's horse.

Page #5

WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
Austria even carrying skulls and so patently identifying themselves with the dead and took "revenge" by exacting, amidst imprecations, food and drink 33 from everyone they happened to meet."
176
Similar behaviour is recorded of the Vratyas and even the children of European countries at St. Martin's or at hogmanay. Those showing themselves liberal to the Furious Host are rewarded with riches, and their lands will be fertile.35 I would also connect with such practices the insistent appeals of the vagrant Vedic hymnologist to the liberality of sacrificers and his cursing niggards,37 since the kavi can in a way be considered a counterpart of the vratinass the pre-brahmanic magicianpriest. Both kinds of holy man belong to the domain of the brotherhoods, and, even if the connection is not so evident in the case of the kaví in India, it is at any rate in Iran, where the kavi is mentioned in the same context with satar (see below, p. 185) and karapan another kind
of priest
in Yast 1,10f.
In our Middle Ages, and for long afterwards, a hoary old giant with a club used to stride ahead of the Furious Host. He is occasionally called "der treue Eckhart" ('the trustworthy guardian')40 and ordered people out of the road. According to HöFLER this figure, whose function in the present-day Carnival may have been taken over by the drum-major, no doubt originates in the cult system of ecstatic processions; he is a kindly, monitory figure, quite different from the mostly mounted leader of the Furious Host.41 The example of other benign, white-haired, old men like St. Nicholas, who in the darkest part of the year rides about with one or more black servants handing out rewards and punishments, indicates it would seem to me, that we are faced here with a substitute of the leader of the Host of the Dead and the daemons. A description in the works of Praetorius (1668) hints at a confusion between the two personages.42
31 See J. DE VRIES: Keltische Religion. Stuttgart 1961, p. 254f.
32 Cf. e.g. O. HÖFLER: Verwandlungskulte, Volkssagen und Mythen. Wien 1973. (Österreich. AdW. Phil.-hist. Kl. Sitzungsber. Bd. 279, Abh. 2.), p. 119.
33 On drinking in the brotherhoods see HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 130 ff.; ders., Verwandlungskulte, p. 86 und 112.
34 See MEULI, op. cit., Ch. 2 (p. 10ff.); HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 120.
35 HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 126ff.
36 RV 1,125,4ff. et passim.
37 E.g. RV 1,147,4.
38 See HAUER: Der Vratya, p. 194ff.
39 WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 324.
40 HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 38f.
41 HÖFLER, op. cit., p. 75.
42 HÖFLER, op. cit., p. 18f.

Page #6

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
177
Occidental festivals in the dark period of the year like All Souls, St. Martin's day, St. Nicholas' day, Christmas and Carnival originally were — and sometimes still are — commemorations of the dead. They have counterparts in India between the end of September and the beginning of December, viz. Pitặpakşa or Sorah Srāddha, Dipávali and Balacaturdaśī, with which — as, for example, in the case of Divāli, the festival of light on the 15th day of the dark half of Kārttika (Oct.-Nov.) — celebrations taken over' from other rites have been merged. 43
In Nepal, which as a cultural borderland of India and a refuge may have preserved traditions that were lost elsewhere, Divālī lasts five days: on the 13th day, “Kāg Bali”, people start worshipping the crows (kāg), the messengers of the god of death, and thereafter the entire celebration is called Pañcak Yama. During the night of Divāli proper, the 15th, women and girls knock at doors - like children in Germany at St. Martin's. The action is repeated by men and boys during the following night, which ushers in the new year.44 As a matter of fact, the habit of dating the new year from Divālī was introduced, according to tradition, by the Malla king Jayadeva.45
In the Kappasutta of the Jain canon (§ 128), the night of Divālī is said to have been the time when Mahāvira entered Nirvāņa; the Mallas, to whom I shall return presently, lit lamps in his honour. 46 Commentators on this passage remark that the gods then descended from Mt. Meru with jewel lamps and that the Divāli festival came into being from that event.47 Divāli — writes N. N. BHATTACHARYYA 48 — has a special meaning in Jain religion, and the pomp with which it is celebrated in the north of India owes its main characteristics to the Jains of Gujarat
43 See also J. J. MEYER: Trilogie altindischer Mächte und Feste der Vegetation. 1. Zürich 1937, p. 82 and 203; P. K. GODE: Studies in Indian Cultural History. 2. Poona 1960, pp. 187--260; P. V. KANE: History of Dharmaśāstra. Poona 1974, pp. 194—210.
14 M. M. ANDERSON: The Festivals of Nepal. London 1971, Ch. 19. 45 ANDERSON, op. cit., p. 171.
46 Jam rayanim ca nam samane Bhagavam Mahavire [...] savva-dukkhappahine, tam rayanim ca nam nava Mallai nava Lecchai [...] amāvasäe pārābhoyam posahovavāsam patthavaimsu: "gae se bhāv'-ujjoe, davv'-ujjoyam karissümo".
47 Sri-Vira-nirvāna-samaye devā Meru-parvatad ratna-pradipän latvä dgatah. Tasmal loke dipôtsava-parva-dinam samjatam (Lakşmivallabha's commentary [Surat 2004) 104 a 7f. on Kappasutta & 128). As for the origin of Divāli, the festival at which lamps are lit for the souls of the deceased, see J. J. MEYER, op.cit. II, p. 56f.
48 N. N. BHATTACHARYYA: Ancient Indian rituals and their social contents. London 1975, p. 126f. 12 ZDMG 181/1

Page #7

178
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
and Rajasthan. Whatever the truth about the ultimate origin of Divāli and about the purpose of lighting lamps for the dead, it can be asserted that we definitely have to do here with an ancient custom which has been preserved by the Indo-European brotherhoods of India in its purest form.
Another relation between the Malla kings and the dead is believed to exist in the Gāi-jātrā in Kathmandu, the festive procession of cows at the end of August and the beginning of September. At that time every family which has lost a member in the course of the year provides a cow to be led past the temples and the royal palace Hanumān Dhokā by the priest of its household accompanied by a little boy dressed up as a yogin, one behind the other. By counting the groups, the ancient kings would have been able to take an annual census of the dead.49
It is now time to say more about the Mallas. They were ksatriya Vrātyas (Manu 10,22),50 and their existence in Vedic times is testified to as early as the Jaiminiya Brāhmaṇa. Indra, it is said there, 51 made his charioteer Kutsa, who was born from his thigh and took after him, bald as a punishment after he had found him with Saci, Indra's wife. Thereupon Kutsa became the first man of his profession to tie an uşnişa round his head. He had intercourse with Saci a second time, only to be caught again. The third time Indra snapped at him: "Be a malla (or: Malla?)!" and chased him off.52 This extraordinary passage may preserve the memory of an old relationship between the mallas and Indra. We must now look into the question whether the connections with the brotherhoods demonstrated above find support from Buddhist and Jain literature and whether a satisfactory etymology can be found for the word “malla”.
As a neighbouring tribe of the Sakyas inhabiting the region northwest of Magadha, we hear of the Mallas from the epic and Middle Indian period onwards. Like the Licchavis and other ethnic groups, they were ruled by an oligarchy of noblemen. As was the case with the Vajjis, their state organization is called gana or saṁgha.58 They formed two political communities, each with a capital of its own: Kusinārā, where
40 ANDERSON, op.cit., p. 100.
50 R. SCHAFER, Ethnography of Ancient India. Wiesbaden 1954, p. 143 opines that they therefore are "white people who did not follow the IndoAryan religion, i.e. Iranians". See also J. W. HAUER, op.cit., p. 223f.
51 JB III 199f.; CALAND: Das Jaiminiya-Brahmana [...], 198.
53 One would rather expect Indra to tell Kutsa: “be a jhalla” i.e. a ksatriya outcast.
58 Majjhima-Nikāya I 231,10f.; Kautalya: Arthasästra, 11.1.5 (ed. R. P. KANGLE. I [Bombay 1960), p. 244; cf. III [1965], p. 125ff.); Pinda-Nijjutti 441; Süyagada-cunni 452,6; Abhayadeva 516 a 3 on Thānanga 10,3,760.

Page #8

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
179
the Buddha went into parinibbāņa, and Pāvā, where Mahāvīra died; both Buddha and Mahāvīra had followers among the Mallas. With great pomp, the Mallas cremated Buddha's mortal remains and raised stūpas over the ashes. Jinadāsa's observation, 54 that the Mallas used to burn the corpses of solitary members of the tribe, had some bearing on history, and centuries later Mallas are mentioned by Malayagiri as the highest-ranking bearers.55 Earlier in this paper (see note 46) I mentioned the nine Mallas who, together with the nine Lecchais,56 paid a last tribute to the Tirthakara by lighting lamps. The custom of placing lights near a corpse, however, in itself goes back to Vedic times.57 It should be remembered that it was especially the Iranian brotherhoods that practised the cult of the dead.
Jinadāsa further seems to record in the ambiguous expression patitam uddharanti that the Mallas had the custom of picking up those of their number who fell in combat.58 At any rate a kind of obsequies for the fellow member of the tribe seems intended, like the one described by Buddhaghosa concerning the Vajjis.59 However, the young men of the Licchavis,60 who are related to the Vajjis, behaved less sociably, for the Licchavi Mahānāma tells the Buddha that they roamed about in large groups accompanied by packs of dogs, and with bows levelled; they were quick-tempered, rugged and rude, and molested respectable women. 61
Other accidental and disconnected pieces of information about the Mallas reveal their habit of treating slave girls as common property, 62 and their ardour for sport, e.g. archery, in which Bandhula, the senā pati of the Kosala king in the Bhaddasāla-jātaka, was a champion.
54 Cūrņi 28,3 on Sūyagadanga-nijjutti 29.
55 On Vavahāra 7,19; cf. W. SCHUBRING: Drei Chedasūtras des JainaKanons. Hamburg 1966, p. 79.
56 The Lecchais were the vassals of Cetaka — the Vaiśāli king and Mahāvira's uncle.
67 W. CALAND: Altindische Todten- und Bestattungsgebräuche. Amsterdam 1896, p. 82; J. J. MEYER, op.cit., II p. 104.
58 For a discussion see the present author's Studien zum Sūyagada I. Wiesbaden 1977, p. 50 note 98, where to the parallels given Walhall(a) "abode (hall) of those fallen (wal.) in battle' can be added.
69 Sumangalavilasini 518,18f., where among other things it reads about assisting the sick.
80 According to Viyāhapannatti 7,9,299 (Fol. 319 a), the 9 Mallas belong to Benares, the 9 Licchavis to Vaiśāli. Each of these nine chiefs may have borne the title of räjä, as can be inferred from Buddhaghosa: Samantapäsädikā 576,4 (Dabbo) Malla-putto ti Malla-rājassa putto.
61 Anguttara-Nikāya III 76,12 ff. As a matter of fact the term canda 'quick-tempered' is also used by the Sākyan Upāli with regard to his fellow tribesmen.
62 Sūtrakrtânga-cūrni. Ratlam 1950, Fol. 442,6. 19

Page #9

180
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
Above all, however, the Mallas excelled in wrestling, and their name lives on down to the present in Hindi in the sense of 'wrestler' or 'boxer'; but what does the name mean primarily? According to MAYRHOFER, it cannot be separated from the mixed caste in Manu; on the other hand, it is impossible to exclude the Dravidian word-family mallan 'wrestler' from consideration. The caste designation could originally have been 'boxer', yet the question whether also the ethnic name Mallaḥ (m.pl.) belongs to the same word-family presents greater difficulty, in MAYR. HOFER's view. Eventually he does not rule out the ethnic name altogether and believes that the meaning 'wrestler etc.' may be a secondary development in Dravidian as well."
In my opinion, doubts about the relation between the tribal name and the caste or profession can be removed, if one sets out from Old Indian márya (well attested in the Samhitas, but extinguished in the course of the Vedic period). Márya, according to GRASSMANN, means 'junger Mann in der Blüte seiner Kraft' and is used in the Rigveda especially of the Maruta, Indra and Agni, as well as of men assembled for a sacrificial session, whereas in some passages as was argued plausibly by WIKANDER an older meaning, concrete and technical, comes through: 'member of a brotherhood'; this sense of the word malla subsequently weakens and becomes generalized, 64a
Morphologically, this appears quite possible: OI -ry can correspond to MI. -, for instance in pallanka 'divan, couch, sofa' (PED). The OI. equivalent paryanka 'bed, couch, sofa, litter, palanquin' (MW) is attested from the time of the Kauçitaki Upanisad onwards and also occurs in epic and in classical Sanskrit; a variant, palyańka, is recorded by Panini (8,2,22). Other examples are vipallasa (beside viparyäsa and, in the Abhidhammapitaka, viparyesas) 'reversal, change (esp. in a bad sense), corruption etc.' (PED) and postcanonically alla 'mother' (CPD) OI. äryä. See also H. LUDERS: Beobachtungen über die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons. Berlin 1954, § 71. The word mahallaka, however, does not belong to this group, pace RHYS DAVIDS and STEDE.67
63 Kurzes Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen. Heidelberg 1963-. 64 Der arische Männerbund, p. 82f.
64 Also Bengali joyän/jowan developed the meaning of 'wrestler. 65 According to PED viparyesa is a contamination of viparyaya and vipallása.
66 Cf. Prakrit olla 'pati, svāmi' (PSM) corresponding to arya and canonical Pāli ayyakā to āryakā. For vallabha varya+bha see MAYRHOFER, op. cit. and for pellai preryate: LOUISE SCHWARZSCHILD: Notes on some Middle Indo-Aryan Words in -11-. In: JAOS 77 (1957), p. 205.
67 EDGERTON, BHSD s.v. mahalla.

Page #10

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
181
As to the semantic side of the question I postulate the following development: in the case of the ancestors of the Mallas, as in that of the Harii in Tacitus' Germania (if the name Harii really means 'soldiers par excellence') 68 we have to do with a general designation of a single group becoming its proper name without loss of the general sense.69 I hesitate to decide whether the development from 'brotherhood member' into the ethnic name Malla took place at the same time as that into 'wrestler, boxer', or whether the name of the profession originated in the ethnic name. Examples of the latter semantic filiation can be found in ''Swiss" (Schweizer): 'mercenaries' and 'specialists in dairy farming and cattle breeding';70 “Scythians" : 'archers on horseback' in Ancient Greece, and : members of the city police' at Athens (LIDDELL & SCOTT); "Slav": 'being one of a people spread over most of Eastern Europe [...]' > ‘slave, person who is the legal property of another [...]' (COD), because in the mediaeval Orient it was mostly the Slavs who were victims of slavery. As Indian examples I would mention Kirāta 'Name of a degraded mountain-tribe' > 'groom, horseman' (MW), Nişāda "Name of a wild non-Aryan tribe in India described as hunters, fishermen, robbers etc.' > 'ferry-man'.71, Tīvará "jāti-višeşa' and 'hunter', Bhilla 'Name of a tribe' > 'one of the 18 guilds' (sānticandra 194a 2 on JambuP 43 ed. Bombay 1920).72 The converse occurs too, e.g. in Dutch boer 'farmer' > the Boors in South Africa.
It is not surprising that we have to do here particularly with boxers or wrestlers, because theirs is a sport which probably played a part in military training: the Spartans were called palpets 'Boxers' in Roman times.73 In the central Aryan region of Iran wrestling is a very ancient
68 See R. MUCH in Joh. Hoops (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2. Aufl. Vol. 2. Berlin 1976, p. 450; the same, Die Germania des Tacitus. Heidelberg 1967, p. 485; HÖFLER: Verwandlungskulte, p. 106 ff.; 207 ff.
69 HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 166. 70 E.g, in the article Das Streiflicht in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Jan. 4th, 1979: "Der Tag der Milch lenkt unseren Blick zur armen Kuh, die heutzutage nie mehr einen Schweizer kennenlernen kann". Further, the word in question occurs in the compound Kirchenschweizer 'a church helper in Roman Catholic churches' vulgo called "der rote Mann" after his red uniform (for this information I am indebted to Professor HEGGELBACHER in Bamberg).
71 Brhatkathāślokasamgraha VIII 22f. and XI 79 (I owe these two references to Professor HAEBLER in Münster).
72 An interesting fact in this connection is the transformation, in ancient Albania, of age groups into guilds and companies with strong social bonds; the members of these unions had their meals in common and were under obligation to help each other in life. See J. G. VON HAHN: Albanische Studien 1. Jena 1854, p. 168.
73 See K. M. T. CHRIMES: Ancient Sparta. A re-examination of the evidence. Manchester 1949, p. 132. In view of the general purpose of the physical

Page #11

182
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
sport still popular at the present day.74 Since pre-Islamic times, it has been pursued in traditional form, with the participants wearing a leather belt and leather shorts. They hold on to each other by the belt and each tries to floor his adversary.75 In Homer, too, at the funeral games in honour of Patroclus, 76 before the contest started the wrestlers were handed a belt and leather thongs to be wound round their knuckles.77 The aim was the same in Malla and Persian wrestling, although sometimes a succesful contestant lifted his adversary off the ground.78 No belts are recorded, but a loin cloth 79 and a kind of shorts were worn.80
The modern Mallas --- at any rate in the West of India — apparently diverge from this dress 81 and form of fighting82 in that they wear textile
education of the young Spartans which was to train soldiers, he thinks opapa to mean 'boxing glove' rather than 'ball', for — he points out Plato in his Laws VIII 830 B makes his Athenian advocate boxing contests with the opaipai, instead of with ordinary boxing straps which were worn for less serious boxing. H. MICHELL: Sparta. Cambridge 1964, p. 338 mentions CHRIMES' book, but rejects his view as improbable because of the ban on pugilism. The meaning 'boxing gloves', however, appears already in the 1940 edition of LIDDELL & SCOTT.
74 Here the entry pulwaun in YULE & BURNELL's Hobson-Jobson may be mentioned. This word deriving from Persian-Hindustani pahlwān which properly means 'a native of ancient Persia' — it reads there — is used in the sense of 'a champion; a professed wrestler or man of strength'.
75 WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, Anhang 3 and compare T. TALBOT RICE: Ancient Arts of Central Asia. London 1965, p. 41 plate 32 showing a bronze plaquette from Ordos with men wearing trousers and who try to floor each other. 76 See also BURKERT, op.cit., p. 65.
77 Iliad XXIII 653 ff., 683. 78 Flooring: KSS 25,124; lifting: Milindapañha 278,15f.; both take place in the report of the contest between Cāņūra (Cānūra) and Mustika in the Harivamsa (Poona 1936) 2,30,50 and Jātaka IV 82,7 and 12 (there, however, it no longer concerns sport).
79 In the OhaNBhāşya 314 = Pavayanasārôddhāra. Bombay 1922—26, stanza 533 the oggahana-pattaga of the Jain nuns is compared to the tightly bound loin cloth (gādha-baddha-kakşah as Abhayadeva says in his Viyahapannatti-ikā. Bombay 1919, 482b 7 on Sūtra 9,33, 385) of the mallas:
patto vi hoi ekko deha-pamänena so u bhaiyavvo
chāyant' oggahan'-antam kadi-bandho malla-kacchā vā Ratnachandra in his Ardhamāgadhi-English Dictionary renders mallakacchā by 'a kind of short knicker worn by an athlete'. Cf. W.SCHUBRING: Die Lehre der Jainas. Berlin 1935, p. 164.
80 Malla-sādaga (Angavijja 9,144 in PUNYAVIJAYA's ed. Benares 1957).
81 See the Mallapurāņa. Baroda 1964, Introduction, p. 27, text 6,39 and 8,55 as well as the plates between p. 24 and p. 25.
82 Like gladiators they box and fight with knuckle-dusters (vajra-musti) as is shown by illustrations in the Mallapurāna (see also ibidem, p. 30); vajra-musti occurs already in the Harivamsa (MONIER-WILLIAMS without reference).

Page #12

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
183
shorts and box instead of wrestling.83 The Modha brahmins84 are worshippers of Krşņa to whom, according to the Mallapurāņa (the history of their caste composed about A.D. 1500), they owe the knowledge of their sport.85 In the Harivamsa, Krşņa, together with his brother Baladeva, defeated and killed the wrestlers Cāņura and Musţika,86 and thereafter took the name Mallâri “enemy of the Mallas (or: mallas)'87 notwithstanding that or because he was good at wrestling himself.88 This is not surprising in connection with our present topic, for if we analyze his names and read his deeds as these are attributed to him by the Kuru bards in the badly revised parts of the Mahābhārata, we discover another Kțşņa than the one found in the Bhagavadgitā — one who is anything but chivalrous. The followers of this Kļşņa were, however, even as late as Sankara (8the century A.D.), not deemed orthodox - perhaps because the recollection of the rugged Yādava leader, the Vrātya (whose personality fits in well with the names Krşņa 'the black one' and Keśava 'the long-haired one'89) was still strong in the Epic.
If my hypothesis of a connection between the Mallas as a people and the prize-fighters of that name is accepted, I should like also to mention here the malla-kara — a tax we hear about in mediaeval inscriptions. The central government applied the revenue from it, like that from the Turuşka-danda, to buy off marauding tribes.90 For both Mallas and
83 Malla contests take place e.g. in the west of India during Daharā (at the beginning of Oct.); see G. HELD: The Mahābhārata. Amsterdam 1935, p. 192; W. FILCHNER and D. SHRIDHAR MARĀTHE: Hindustan im Festgewand. Celle 1953, p. 143. Wrestling bouts at Divāli as late as the 16th cent. A.D. are mentioned by P. K. GODE: Studies in Indian Cultural History. 2. Poona 1960, p. 225. Another custom recorded in mediaeval Jain commentaries is described by J.C. JAIN: "The wrestlers were asked to visit cemeteries on dark nights and offer food to a Bhūta. If they returned victorious they were appointed as king's wrestlers" (Life in Ancient India as depicted in the Jain Canons. Bombay 1947, p. 224). The editions referred to not being at my disposal I could not check JAIN's information.
84 Mallapurāna, Introduction, p. 2. Dvija-malla is mentioned by MONIER WILLIAMS as a proper name.
85 Op.cit., Ch. 2.
86 Harivamsa 2,30 (the match takes place without arms, but the strong limbs of the opponents are compared to arms: stanza 32 ff. As against in war time Krsna condemns killing in the ring).
87 Harivamsa 10407 = 2,121,119 in the ed. Poona 1936; this stanza is not found in the crit. ed. See also G. D. SONTHEIMER; Biroba, Mhaskoba und Khandoba [...]. Wiesbaden 1976, p. 78; 92.
88 He is even called mahāmalla (Harivaméa, loc. cit.). Perhaps also Krşņa's appellation "Dāmôdara' points to his activity as a boxer. 89 See HAUER: The Vrātya, p. 227 and WIDERGREN: Feudalismus, p. 19.
90 H. N. JHA: The Licchavis (of Vaisāli). Benares 1970, p. 204f. R. C. MAJUMDAR and others: An advanced History of India. London 1948, p. 194.

Page #13

184
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
Licchavis, whose destiny in India after the destruction of the latters' state by Ajātasattu in the fifth century B.C. largely eludes our knowl. edge, are found again in Nepal from early mediaeval times. The Mallas first appear as royal dynasties of the Khasa or Khasiya people in Semjā°1 and Dotio2 in the West from about A.D. 1000 and continue right into and beyond the 17th century; they rule the Newaris in the Kathmandu valley from circa 1200 to 1768.93 The two feudal families immigrated from India and were Buddhist, but the explanation of the names is still a problem. In the case of the Semjā kings, TUCCI assumes that "Malla" was a kind of title they added to their names in the same way as their predecessors had done with "IDe" or "calla”.94 He also holds the Mallas of Semjā and Doti to be related, possibly originating95 from Garhwalo6 near Doti. Between the Nepali Malla and the Malla rulers of Baglung (which lies about 100 miles as the crow flies to the north of Gorakhpur), there is, in TUCCI's opinion, no connection.
We shall now leave the Mallaso7 and turn to the name of the religious corporations and of their leader, and to the characteristics of their members. For the Jain and Buddhist Churches as a whole, or for parts of them, we know of two designations: samgha and gana. Though the Indo-European origin of the latter word is not certain, it is the older o the two and will therefore be treated first. Gana is used in the Rgveda mainly for the host of the Maruts, in Kātyāyana of the Vrātyas.98 In the Pali Vinaya it is the technical term for a body or chapter of monks, and with the Jains for a single group of monks.
Sanskrit samgha is clearly younger. According to Viévèśvarânanda's Vaidika padânukramakoşa it mainly occurs in compounds — at the end
U. N. GHOSAL: Contributions to the History of the Hindu Revenue System. Calcutta 21972, p. 309 ff. and The agrarian system in Ancient India. Calcutta 21973, p. 65"tax which was raised for defence against the Mallas".
91 G. TUCCI: Nepal. The Discovery of the Mallas. London 1962, p. 68f.
02 G. Tucci: Preliminary report on two scientific expeditions in Nepal. Roma 1956, p. 116f.
93 TUCCI: Nepal, p. 83f. 94 TUCCI: Preliminary report, p. 49; 69f.; 121. 95 TUCCI, ibidem, p. 117. 96 The Indian district of Garhwal 170 km to the west of Doti?
97 Probably the last semantic development of malla is the word nhānamalla 'bath attendant, masseur' I found on a slip belonging to the material of the Critical Pali Dictionary in Copenhagen; I was unable to check the reference given, Mahavamsa-ţikā Ce 374,29. See also P. K. GODE: Studies [...] 2, p. 224.
98 K S 22,4,3; this reference is exhaustively discussed by HAUER: Der Vrätya, p. 98f.

Page #14

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
185
since the time of the Svetāśvatara-upanişad, the Bhagavadgitā and the Atharvaveda-parisista, and at the beginning in Pāṇini. In the former two texts, samgha is used of seers (SvetUp 6,21; Bhg 11,21), siddhas etc., whereas in both Pali and Ardhamagadhi literature the word relates to the entire Buddhist or Jain monastic community the Jain samgha including also lay members. Among the Buddhists, however, it was originally restricted to the enlightened monks (arhats) of the Founder's own tribe.
As to the first head of their Church, the Buddhists by calling Gotama “Satthā" - usually translated as the Master' - continued an old tradition that goes back to Aryan times, fcr, in ancient Iran, the leader of a sodality was given the title sā(s)tar,99 and the Vedic equivalent sastr 'lord' of men is used of a yajamāna in Taittirīya-samhitā 5,7,4,4, whereas in the Epic it means 'teacher'. In the latter sense also Amg. satthā occurs.100 Finally, Pali ganassa satthā denotes the teacher of a group of heretics. 101
The religious mendicants show their links with the brotherhoods of old in the fact that, as true representatives of the hungry spirits of the dead, they accept gifts for the latter from their descendants. Here an ancient Aryan belief in the dead continuing their life on earth as ghosts could not only perpetuate itself in competition with the later belief in samsāra, but even won itself a place in the new religious picture when ghosts came to play a part in the process of rebirth. Monks thus took over a function which among orthodox Hindus was discharged by priests when they ate the sacrificial focd in lieu of the dead. Thus they became the only mediators through whom the needs of the deceased could be satisfied. However, though in another way than the dead, 102 they themselves did not belong to this world either, for they retreated from it after giving up their possessions and leaving their relatives, having themselves shaved, and putting on special garments. The Buddha strictly forbade his monks to wear black clothes as worn by the brotherhoods or any coloured ones other than yellow, 103 but his instructions
99 WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 323f.; 346. 100 E.g. used of a Jain teacher in Ayāranga 1,6,4,1.
101 Samyutta-Nikāya I 66,24*, 30*. Postcanonically used of the Bodhisatta as a brahmin in Jataka II 85,20 et passim. See also R. FICK: Die sociale Gliederung im nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddhas Zeit. Kiel 1897 (repr. Graz 1974), p. 126; 135.
102 Cf. e.g. HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 220 and Verwandlungskulte, p. 206.
108 Vinaya pāli I 306. The dye originally used dung or pandu-mattikā -- not being satisfactory the Buddha allowed other materials viz. roots etc. which are specified by Buddhaghosa (Sp 1126,8 ff. ad Vin I 285,36 ff.).

Page #15

186
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
were perhaps not followed everywhere. 104 Yellowish (pisanga) clothes were already worn by the munis in RV 10,136; the original colour was perhaps ochre which has been in use for the disposal of the dead in various parts of the world since the Middle Stone Age period.105 In India red, yellow and black were the colours of the dead 106 and their god Yama, who is called pita-vāsasa in Mbh cr. ed. 3,281,8.
The brotherhoods were exclusive groups 107 and the Buddhist order similarly was exclusive to the extent that it condemns any monk who repeats the actual words of the Buddha to a layman as guilty of a Pācittiya - an offence requiring expiation — in the Pali Canon; in the Vinaya of the Sarvâstivādins, he is guilty of a Pātayantika – an offence plunging the trespasser into Hell.108 Moreover, unauthorized entry into the Samgha is punished by expulsion 109 Strict rules of admission closely resembling those of secret societies are observed in the full and new moon celebrations already very important in Vedic India. Ordination is preceded by an entrance examination. 110 Thus, in the Kammavacana only able-bodied and sanelli men 112 are admitted and, on practical grounds, 113 a minimum age of twenty114 years is laid down,
104 E.g. where brahmana-gahapatikā abuse bhikkhū silavante saying "ime pana mundakā samanaka ibbhā kinha bandhupādāpaccā" (MajjhimaNikāya I 334,16); see also my Studien zum Sūyagada. 1. Wiesbaden 1977, p. 149 note 56.
105 See L. WATSON: Lifetide. A biology of the unconscious. London 1979, p. 56 ff. Wanderers with ochre or bloodstone coloured garments probably were the Geruyas or, in Sanskrit, Gairikas whom I mentioned in my Studien zum Sūyagada, 1, p. 151. Yellow orpiment (haritala) and red arsenic (manosila) are used as mortar (mattikā) for a relic shrine (cetiya) of the Buddha Kassapa (Dhp-a III 29,3f.). See also S. P. GUPTA: Disposal of the Dead and Physical Types in Ancient India. Delhi 1972, Introduction, p. 10; 84-91.,
106 See e.g. J. J. MEYER: Trilogie. I, p. 83. 107 See HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 224. 108 Vinaya IV 14,30f. Cf. SCHLINGLOFF, op. cit. II, p. 14. 109 Vinaya I 86,31 f. Cf. HÖFLER: Kult. G., p. 251.
110 HÖFLER, op. cit., 252. Differently D. SCHLINGLOFF: Die Religion des Buddhismus. 1: Der Heilsweg des Mönchstums. Berlin 1962, p. 40.
111 Vinaya pali I 86,7f. (against homosexuals); 89,19f. (against hermaphrodites); 91,18 ff. (against persons deformed or affected by serious cliseases).
112 Under the pressure of a hunger strike the Buddha finally yielded and consented to an Order of nuns which, however, was hardly able to last out, at least in the Theravāda region. As to fruitless revival attempts in Burma in recent times see my review of M. H. BODE: The Pali Literature of Burma. In: IIJ 11 (1969), p. 315 ff. Further compare HÖFLER: Kult. C., p. 250.
113 Vinaya pali I 78,20 ff.; IV 130.
114 Vinaya pali I 78,30; 93,23. The novitiate commences at the age of fifteen: op.cit. 79,5 f.

Page #16

187
The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
whereas elsewhere in Buddhist literature majority is attained at sixteen.115
The age of twenty as a landmark, when adolescents become active soldiers, occurs also among the Spartans who possessed a well-developed bfotherhood system with several specially designated age groups. CHRIMES116 established three social levels in the classes of youthful bands (ayéλat): (1) sons of privileged families from whom the leaders, Bo(u)ayol were elected; (2) a middle class, and (3) an élite from unprivileged ramilies. This élite was called xáoɛv, a collective which Hesychius describes as 'brothers or cousins belonging to the same άyéλ' and defines ἡλικιώται ‘equals in age ac. in the ἀγέλαι'. The κάσεν apparently were clients of the boys of the first families, adoptive brothers but not in the legal sense , as against the xaolyvnto: which means 'bodily or blood brothers'.
A similar system has been inferred by WIDENGREN in Iran11o and may have existed in India, too, since the Rgveda says of the Maruts that they were 'born at the same time, 120 of the same age',121 'grown up together'122 and that 'none of them is the eldest, the youngest or the middle one'.12 Subsequently, in a victory charm in TS, men are referred to: 'By Agni [...] I trample under foot my foes born before me [...]. By Indra [...] (I trample under foot my foes) born along (with me) etc. By the All-gods [...] (I trample...) born after (me) etc.'14 (Keith). Indra, the leader of the Maruts, is implicitly made a celestial equal in age. 125 The reference to birth at the same time, the significance of which for the persons or things in question is never definitely stated but must have had a meaning, expresses a particularly close bond implicit in common education,
115 See PED s.v. vayoppatta and solasavassa (references are from secondary Pali only).
116 Op. cit. (n. 73), p. 116.
117 Οἱ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀγέλης ἀδελφοί τε καὶ ἀνεψιοί.
118 CHRIMES, op. cit., p. 110. Beside the xάoev there are found ouvéonẞot, whose "patrons" were the Bo(u)ayol and who, therefore, were a much smaller group than the κάσεν.
119 Der Feudalismus im alten Iran, Ch. II (esp. p. 53ff.) and III.
120 Sākam jātāḥ (RV 5,55,3). 121 Savayasah (RV 1,165,1).
122 Samukeitäh (RV 5,56,5). 123 RV 5,59,6.
14 TS 3,5,3 Agnina devena pṛtana jayāmi [...] pūrvajän bhrätrvyān [...] Indrena devena prtana jayami [...] sahajan Viavebhir Devebhiḥ priană jayāmi [...] aparajān [...].
125 According to Ramayana 3,5,17 Indra and all other gods are 25 years of age.

Page #17

188
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
mutual affection, reciprocal assistance etc.126 Here we are probably dealing, I think, with “congenites” of a higher-ranked person, and with a relationship in which either side has to rely on services of the other. Thus also the utterance of Prince Gotama's saddle-horse, before its owner set out to become a Buddha, acquires its proper meaning. It is found in a Vimānavatthu stanza that reads: "I, Kanthaka, was born at the same time as Suddhodana's son in Kapilavatthu, the most excellent town of the Sākiyans" 127
Outside the Pali canonical scriptures we find more examples of "congenites": in the Theragāthā commentary the Bodhi tree, the Bodhisatta's consort, the state elephant, Kanthaka, the equerry Channa and finally Kāludāyi (a minister's son and subsequently the most important counsellor of king Suddhodana) are enumerated one after another; according to tradition, they were all born together with the Bodhisatta on the same day and make up a heptad. 128 Perhaps there is a pun here on two meanings of satta, viz. 'seven' and 'being'.129 Further we read in the Jātaka prose of the cook's son and the purohita's son being
126 References from Jain sources are Näyädhammakahão 3,49 Jinadattaputte ya Sāgaradatta-putte ya saha-jāyayā saha-vaddhiyaya saha-pamsu. kaliyaya saha-dara-darise annam-annam anuratta; similarly Vivāyasutta 5 (in VAID YA's ed. Poona 1935, $ 109) and Viyahapannatti 18,10,758 (Suttagame I 780,13).
Maybe one has to think of the kalyānamitra, too, in this connection, cf. WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 54. 127 Vimānavatthu 81:15
Aham Kapilavatthusmim Sākiyānam pur'-utlame
Suddhodanassa puttassa Kanthako saha-jo ahum The average age of a horse is 20—25 years and according to tradition the Bodhisatta was 29 when he left his father's realm to seek enlightenment.
128 Th-a II 221,14 Bodhisattena hi saddhim bodhi-rukkho Rahula-mātā cattāro nidhi: arohaniya-hatthi, Kanthako, Channo, Kaļudāyi ti ime sattā e ka divase jätattā saha-jātā nāma ahesum.
In addition it may be remarked that according to the brahmanical domestic rites' manuals a bride must always be the junior of her bridegroom; a compilation of the sources is found in P. V. KANE: A History of Dharmaśāstra. 2. Poona 1941, p. 434f.
129 Cf. my paper Buddhists and Buddhism in the earlier literature of the Svetambara Jains. In: Buddhist Studies in Honour of I. B. Horner. Ed. L. COUSINS. Dordrecht (Netherlands) 1974, p. 36 note 27.
130 Jātaka VI 471,12 (cook's son); III 238,8 and 391,20; 30,27f.; further V 437,29 (47,8 in my ed. of the Kunalajātaka. London 1970) and Mvu III 183,17 (purohita's son); Ja VI 2,18 (500 sons of nobles); IV 38,26 (sheth's son) etc. From Jain literature I quote Nāyādhammakahāo 1,8 where king Mahabbala is reported to have entered the Order together with six loyal "congenites": cha-ppiya-vāla-vayamsagā rāyāno (p. 90 line 21 in VAIDYA's ed. Poona 1940) and VIYĀHAPANNATTI 7,9,303 Fol. 320b tells us of Varuna

Page #18

The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India
189
a prince's “congenites". 130 In India as well as e.g. with the Hittites181 the cook and the house priest counted as senior palace servants; since professions were hereditary, the same status would one day be shared by their sons as well. The old Indian designation amātya, literally 'fellow resident (of a king)', which later came to mean 'minister', may have arisen in the same way. Finally, when two people belonged intimately together, they were said to have been born and conceived simultaneously, as in the case of Sāriputta and Moggallāna in Dhammapadatthakathā I 88,18 ff.; in line 23ff. the pair are said to have the same naming day.
The attribution of a special social function to "congenites” is by no means limited to Iran and India, but also met with in the western Indogermanic world, for Homer (Iliad 18,251) says of Polydamas that he "Extope hev étaipos, is d'év vuxti yévovto and similarly Vergil (Aeneid 10,703) writes
Nec non Euanthēn Phrygium Paradisque Mimanta a equalem comitem que, unā quem nocte Theano
in lucem genitori Amyco dedit Further reference may be made to a custom practised in the Netherlands as recently as 1938 when bank books were distributed to all Dutch children born on the same day as the new heir to the throne.
Other characteristics of brotherhoods can only be touched on here. Initially mention was made of the strict mutual ethical obligations between members of brotherhoods. These obligations find a counterpart in the prātimokşa code, in which violations of monastic rules are listed according to their seriousness. An analogue is encountered among the Jains, who used to impose a notional curtailment in monastic age as a punishment - undoubtedly an echo from the days of age groups. The first question Buddhist bhikkhus still put to strangers is: "How many years have passed since your ordination?”132
A custom of some antiquity was living in the jungle. 133 This was done for various reasons: temporal (as for initiation) and non-temporal (like āśrams) — peaceful or aggressive. The Buddha refused to adopt as obligatory his cousin Devadatta's proposal for the Order to live a solitary life under a tree. 134 Normally, the monks wandered about, but they stayed in a monastery during the rains. As early as SCHURTZ, the
Nāganattuya who was followed by a friend of the same age into death on the battle-field: ege purise sarisae sarisattae sarisa-vvae.
181 See F. CORNELIUS: Geschichte der Hethiter. Darmstadt 1973, p. 57. 132 Vinaya I 86,24 kati-vasso 'si tvam?
133 A. ALFÖLDI: Königsweihe und Männerbund bei den Achämeniden. In: Schweiz. Archiv für Volkskunde 47 (1951), p. 15.
194 Vinaya päli II 197.

Page #19

190
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
virāma was thought to have originated in the men's hall ("Männer. haus'')186, that is the concrete expression of the brotherhood ("der sichtbare Ausdruck des Männerbundes").136 Other brotherhoods that lived in the woods, or left their villages for the forest at the end of the rainy season, included the berserkers of SB 13,2,4,2 (see above, p. 173) and those whom we later hear of as Thugs, whose gangs definitely bore characteristics of sodalities. 136a Originally, the Thugs were Hindus (even if by the 19th century many Muslims had joined them), and the religious basis for their way of life looks like an adaptation137 of the late Vedic myth of the Supreme Being, Prajāpati — or, in the Mahābhārata, Brahmā — who created (the goddess of) Death in order to relieve the earth of its overpopulation, 138 to the brotherhoods' ancient practice of stealing 139 Some of these dacoits still stuck to the long hair traditionally worn by the "Männerbündler",140 e.g. those mentioned in the canonical prose of the Kunālajātaka. 141
The survivals and further developments of the sodality system discussed above are found in India, when we leave out of account the celestial Maruts, particularly among men in the East, in Magadha. The
135 SCHURTZ, op.cit., p. 277 (with regard to Burma).
136 M. P. NILSSON: Die Grundlagen des spartanischen Lebens. In: Klio 12 (1912), p. 324.
1368 See also WIDENGREN: Religionsphänomenologie, p. 605.
137 See PH. MEADOWS TAYLOR: Confessions of a Thug. London (1840) 1967, p. 26 ff. (Ch. IV); R. C. MAJUMDAR: Corporate life in Ancient India. 2Poona 1922, p. 222f. quoted after WINTERNITZ: Die Vrätyas. In: Zs. f. Buddhismus 6 (1924/25), p. 49 note 2; WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 335; G. PFIRRMANN: Religiöser Charakter und Organisation der 'Thag-Brüderschaften. Thesis Tübingen 1970 and, finally, W. BURKERT: Homo Necans, p. 93 where the Männerbund is discussed as a community of hunters in the service of a goddess. Up to our days the Baghi rebels frequently led by women have been active as dacoits in the Chambal valley (Central India).
188 See my Studien zum Süyagada. 1, p. 110f. 189 WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 52.
140 Cf. above p. 173 and the Assyrian warriors, esp. Enkidu whose hairdo is said to have been like a woman's (Epic of Gilgamesh 1,2,36). Further the pigtail worn by young girls and formerly by soldiers and sailors may be referred to. Kşemendra mentions bards with hair in disorder (Kalāvilāsa Ch. 7).
141 KunJ 23,18** corä viya veni-katā which the commentator explains by molim bandhitvä afaviyam thita-corā (35,23). In Jataka IV 182,2f. Sakka enters the forest paccha-mukhe kese bandhitvä [...] vana-caraka-vesam gahetvā. Here we are reminded of Yama who came baddha-mauli and pāśahasta, like a Thug, to fetch Satyavant in the forest (Mbh cr. ed. 3,281,8). -- A wrestler's knot is mentioned in the Supāsanāhacariya 1,7,69
parihet aimasinam niyamsanam nivida-vīra-ganthie bandhei malla-ganthie kesa-păsam sa-khaggo 80

Page #20
The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India 191 reason is -- as was correctly seen by HAUER142 -- that the older waves of invaders, to whom the Vratyas belonged, had taken possession already of Magadha before the bearers of Vedic civilisation joined them. It is not surprising, therefore, that this region should show unmistakable traces of the once widespread sodalities. The ancestors of the Vratyas probably were a marginal group already in the Aryan period. In the environment and period described by Vedic literature, the brotherhoods were translated into a supernatural existence in heaven, whilst they were still a reality on earth among the "backward" societies in the East.148 According to CHARPENTIER, the rejection of Karna at Draupadi's svayamvara even though he had bent the bow (for this was the feature required of the suitors), was due to the arrogance of "Westerners" looking down on the peoples of the east.144 The institutions of the sodality system survived nevertheless in the religious orders and in the aristocratic republic of the Mallas. Abkurzungen BHSD = F. EDGERTON: Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. Vol. 2: Dictionary. New Haven 1953; COD = Concise Oxford Dictionary. Oxford 1911 u.o.; CPD = A critical Pali Dictionary. Vol. 1 ff. Copenhagen 1924 ff.; LIDDELL & SCOTT = H. G. LIDDELL and R. SCOTT: A Greek-English Dictionary. New Ed. Oxford 1940/61; MW = M. MONIER-WILLIAMS: A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford 1899; PED = T. W. Rhys DAVIDS and WILLIAM STEDE: The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary. London 1921-25; PSM = HARGOVIND DAS T. SHETH: Paiasaddamahannava. A comprehensive Prakrit Hindi Dictionary. Calcutta 1923-28. 142 Der Vratya, p. 23. 148 J. CHARPENTIER: Paccekabuddhageschichten. Uppsala 1908, p. 133. 144 CHARPENTIER, loc. cit.