Indo European Sodalities In Ancient India

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

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The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India By WILLEM B. BOLLEE, 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 HOFLER, 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 Geheimbunde der Germanen, HOFLER 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 Vratyas 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 Mannerbunul. Lund 1938. 2 G. WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube im alten Iran. Uppsala 1938, Ch. VI; Der Feudalismus im alten Iran. Koln 1969, Ch. I; Religionsphanomenologie. Berlin 1969, p. 599ff. 3 See e.g. H. SCHURTZ: Altersklassen und Mannerbunde. Berlin 1902, esp. Ch. II. 4 Vide O. HOFLER: Kultische Geheimbunde der Germanen. Frankfurt am Main 1934, p. 107.

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The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India 173 According to WIDENGREN, the designation for a brotherhood is called haena in Late Avestan (sena in Old Indian) within its own tribal community, or dahyu by its enemies; the individual member is called LAV. mairya, Vedic marya. 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 "Mannerbundler" 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 (Oraetaona, Keresaspa; V@r@orayna; Indra) as well as in the darker attributes ascribed to certain deities (Aesma: 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 marya, peiraxiov (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 Vratyas, 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. * HOFLER: 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 uetpaxtov as "young man between ephebos and aner". 12 Narksikah, purusavyaghrah parimosina avyadhinyas taskara aranyesv ajayeran (SB 13,2,4,2). On the berserkers see e. g. HOFLER: 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 Religionsphanomenologie, p. 605; P.-E. JOSET: Les societes secretes des hommes-leopards en Afrique noire. Paris 1955.

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174 WILLEM B. BOLLEE black fringes.13 Formerly they were thought possibly to be non-aryan, 14 non-brahmanised tribes of cattle-raiding nomads; their Vratyastomas (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 Vratyas 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 sabha; among their gods the initiation daemon Rudra was prominent.16 The relation between the Vratyas and the sodalities is evidenced by their wearing long hair (JB 2,225) and by the fact that the Vratyastoma was celebrated for the first time by the Maruts.17 Furthermore, hymn 14 of AV 15 mentions Indra, Varuna, Soma, Visnu, Rudra, Yama, Bshaspati, Isana and Prajapati: the Vratya 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 takman ('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 Vratyas. In: Zeitschrift fur 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 Mahabharata. Amsterdam 1935, p. 240ff. 17 References in J. C. HEESTERMAN: Vratya and Sacrifice. In: IIJ 6 (1962), p. 17. 18 I refer e.g. to J. W. HAUER: Der Vratya. 1. Stuttgart 1927, p. 286f. The latest discussion I know of is found in H. W. BODEWITZ: Jaiminiya Brahmana I, 1-65. Leiden 1973, p. 243 ff. 19 Samyutta-Nikaya I 218f.: Sakka, Pajapati, Varuna, Isana (Rudra); Digha-Nikaga I 244,25ff.: Inda, Soma, Varuna, Isana, Pajapati, Mahiddhi (in Buddhist literature a Garuda Prince), Yama: 20 Katy SS 22,4,22 and Laty SS 8,6,8 speak disparagingly especially of the Magadha Brahmins.

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175 The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India In this context it is not surprising that, during the Mahavrata 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 mahavedi 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 (mahas) and impetuosity (tvisi). Of the two relevant meanings of magadha in the Petrograd Dictionary, 'schimpfliche Bezeichnung des Sohnes einer Ksatriya und eines Vaisya' and 'Lobsanger eines Fursten', 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 Vratyas 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 HoFLER, 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-Brahmana in Auswahl. Amsterdam 1919, SS 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 'gegurtet, gerustet, 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 suta, charioteer and herald. The suta is a halfbreed of the two upper classes or the son of a Sudra and a Ksatriya. 26 HOFLER: Kultische Geheimbunde, p. 80 et passim. 27 HOFLER, op. cit., p. 5 etc. 28 On the relation between Vratyas and Buddhists see already A. WEBER: Akademische Vorlesungen uber die Literaturgeschichte des alten Indiens. 2Berlin 1876, p. 76. 29 WIDENGREN: Religionsphanomenologie, p. 396f. Cf. K. MEULI: Bettelumzuge im Totenkultus, Opferritual und Volksbrauch. In: Schweizerisches Archiv fur 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.

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WILLEM B. BOLLEE 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 kavi 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 HoFLER 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. HOFLER: Verwandlungskulte, Volkssagen und Mythen. Wien 1973. (Osterreich. AdW. Phil.-hist. Kl. Sitzungsber. Bd. 279, Abh. 2.), p. 119. 33 On drinking in the brotherhoods see HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 130 ff.; ders., Verwandlungskulte, p. 86 und 112. 34 See MEULI, op. cit., Ch. 2 (p. 10ff.); HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 120. 35 HOFLER: 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 HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 38f. 41 HOFLER, op. cit., p. 75. 42 HOFLER, op. cit., p. 18f.

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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. Pitapaksa or Sorah Sraddha, Dipavali and Balacaturdasi, with which -- as, for example, in the case of Divali, the festival of light on the 15th day of the dark half of Karttika (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, Divali lasts five days: on the 13th day, "Kag Bali", people start worshipping the crows (kag), the messengers of the god of death, and thereafter the entire celebration is called Pancak Yama. During the night of Divali 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 Divali was introduced, according to tradition, by the Malla king Jayadeva.45 In the Kappasutta of the Jain canon (SS 128), the night of Divali is said to have been the time when Mahavira entered Nirvana; 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 Divali festival came into being from that event.47 Divali -- 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 Machte und Feste der Vegetation. 1. Zurich 1937, p. 82 and 203; P. K. GODE: Studies in Indian Cultural History. 2. Poona 1960, pp. 187--260; P. V. KANE: History of Dharmasastra. 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 [...] amavasae parabhoyam posahovavasam patthavaimsu: "gae se bhav'-ujjoe, davv'-ujjoyam karissumo". 47 Sri-Vira-nirvana-samaye deva Meru-parvatad ratna-pradipan latva dgatah. Tasmal loke dipotsava-parva-dinam samjatam (Laksmivallabha's commentary [Surat 2004) 104 a 7f. on Kappasutta & 128). As for the origin of Divali, 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

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178 WILLEM B. BOLLEE and Rajasthan. Whatever the truth about the ultimate origin of Divali 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 Gai-jatra 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 Hanuman Dhoka 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 Vratyas (Manu 10,22),50 and their existence in Vedic times is testified to as early as the Jaiminiya Brahmana. 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 usnisa 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 samgha.58 They formed two political communities, each with a capital of its own: Kusinara, 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-Nikaya I 231,10f.; Kautalya: Arthasastra, 11.1.5 (ed. R. P. KANGLE. I [Bombay 1960), p. 244; cf. III [1965], p. 125ff.); Pinda-Nijjutti 441; Suyagada-cunni 452,6; Abhayadeva 516 a 3 on Thananga 10,3,760.

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The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India 179 the Buddha went into parinibbana, and Pava, where Mahavira died; both Buddha and Mahavira had followers among the Mallas. With great pomp, the Mallas cremated Buddha's mortal remains and raised stupas over the ashes. Jinadasa'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. Jinadasa 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 Mahanama 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 sena pati of the Kosala king in the Bhaddasala-jataka, was a champion. 54 Curni 28,3 on Suyagadanga-nijjutti 29. 55 On Vavahara 7,19; cf. W. SCHUBRING: Drei Chedasutras des JainaKanons. Hamburg 1966, p. 79. 56 The Lecchais were the vassals of Cetaka -- the Vaisali king and Mahavira's uncle. 67 W. CALAND: Altindische Todten- und Bestattungsgebrauche. Amsterdam 1896, p. 82; J. J. MEYER, op.cit., II p. 104. 58 For a discussion see the present author's Studien zum Suyagada 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 Viyahapannatti 7,9,299 (Fol. 319 a), the 9 Mallas belong to Benares, the 9 Licchavis to Vaisali. Each of these nine chiefs may have borne the title of raja, as can be inferred from Buddhaghosa: Samantapasadika 576,4 (Dabbo) Malla-putto ti Malla-rajassa putto. 61 Anguttara-Nikaya III 76,12 ff. As a matter of fact the term canda 'quick-tempered' is also used by the Sakyan Upali with regard to his fellow tribesmen. 62 Sutrakrtanga-curni. Ratlam 1950, Fol. 442,6. 19

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180 WILLEM B. BOLLEE 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 Mallah (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 marya (well attested in the Samhitas, but extinguished in the course of the Vedic period). Marya, according to GRASSMANN, means 'junger Mann in der Blute 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 Kaucitaki Upanisad onwards and also occurs in epic and in classical Sanskrit; a variant, palyanka, is recorded by Panini (8,2,22). Other examples are vipallasa (beside viparyasa and, in the Abhidhammapitaka, viparyesas) 'reversal, change (esp. in a bad sense), corruption etc.' (PED) and postcanonically alla 'mother' (CPD) OI. arya. See also H. LUDERS: Beobachtungen uber die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons. Berlin 1954, SS 71. The word mahallaka, however, does not belong to this group, pace RHYS DAVIDS and STEDE.67 63 Kurzes Etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindischen. Heidelberg 1963-. 64 Der arische Mannerbund, p. 82f. 64 Also Bengali joyan/jowan developed the meaning of 'wrestler. 65 According to PED viparyesa is a contamination of viparyaya and vipallasa. 66 Cf. Prakrit olla 'pati, svami' (PSM) corresponding to arya and canonical Pali ayyaka to aryaka. 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.

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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 Kirata 'Name of a degraded mountain-tribe' > 'groom, horseman' (MW), Nisada "Name of a wild non-Aryan tribe in India described as hunters, fishermen, robbers etc.' > 'ferry-man'.71, Tivara "jati-visesa' and 'hunter', Bhilla 'Name of a tribe' > 'one of the 18 guilds' (santicandra 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; HOFLER: Verwandlungskulte, p. 106 ff.; 207 ff. 69 HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 166. 70 E.g, in the article Das Streiflicht in the Suddeutsche 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 Brhatkathaslokasamgraha VIII 22f. and XI 79 (I owe these two references to Professor HAEBLER in Munster). 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

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182 WILLEM B. BOLLEE 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 pahlwan 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: Milindapanha 278,15f.; both take place in the report of the contest between Canura (Canura) and Mustika in the Harivamsa (Poona 1936) 2,30,50 and Jataka IV 82,7 and 12 (there, however, it no longer concerns sport). 79 In the OhaNBhasya 314 = Pavayanasaroddhara. Bombay 1922--26, stanza 533 the oggahana-pattaga of the Jain nuns is compared to the tightly bound loin cloth (gadha-baddha-kaksah as Abhayadeva says in his Viyahapannatti-ika. Bombay 1919, 482b 7 on Sutra 9,33, 385) of the mallas: patto vi hoi ekko deha-pamanena so u bhaiyavvo chayant' oggahan'-antam kadi-bandho malla-kaccha va Ratnachandra in his Ardhamagadhi-English Dictionary renders mallakaccha by 'a kind of short knicker worn by an athlete'. Cf. W.SCHUBRING: Die Lehre der Jainas. Berlin 1935, p. 164. 80 Malla-sadaga (Angavijja 9,144 in PUNYAVIJAYA's ed. Benares 1957). 81 See the Mallapurana. 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 Mallapurana (see also ibidem, p. 30); vajra-musti occurs already in the Harivamsa (MONIER-WILLIAMS without reference).

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The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India 183 shorts and box instead of wrestling.83 The Modha brahmins84 are worshippers of Krsna to whom, according to the Mallapurana (the history of their caste composed about A.D. 1500), they owe the knowledge of their sport.85 In the Harivamsa, Krsna, together with his brother Baladeva, defeated and killed the wrestlers Canura and Mustika,86 and thereafter took the name Mallari "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 Mahabharata, we discover another Ktsna than the one found in the Bhagavadgita -- one who is anything but chivalrous. The followers of this Klsna were, however, even as late as Sankara (8the century A.D.), not deemed orthodox - perhaps because the recollection of the rugged Yadava leader, the Vratya (whose personality fits in well with the names Krsna 'the black one' and Kesava '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 Turuska-danda, to buy off marauding tribes.90 For both Mallas and 83 Malla contests take place e.g. in the west of India during Dahara (at the beginning of Oct.); see G. HELD: The Mahabharata. Amsterdam 1935, p. 192; W. FILCHNER and D. SHRIDHAR MARATHE: Hindustan im Festgewand. Celle 1953, p. 143. Wrestling bouts at Divali 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 Bhuta. 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 Mallapurana, 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 mahamalla (Harivamea, loc. cit.). Perhaps also Krsna's appellation "Damodara' points to his activity as a boxer. 89 See HAUER: The Vratya, p. 227 and WIDERGREN: Feudalismus, p. 19. 90 H. N. JHA: The Licchavis (of Vaisali). Benares 1970, p. 204f. R. C. MAJUMDAR and others: An advanced History of India. London 1948, p. 194.

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184 WILLEM B. BOLLEE Licchavis, whose destiny in India after the destruction of the latters' state by Ajatasattu 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 Semjadeg1 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 Semja 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 Semja 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 Katyayana of the Vratyas.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 Vievesvarananda's Vaidika padanukramakosa 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 nhanamalla '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-tika 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 Vratya, p. 98f.

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The Indo-European Sodalities in Ancient India 185 since the time of the Svetasvatara-upanisad, the Bhagavadgita and the Atharvaveda-parisista, and at the beginning in Panini. 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 "Sattha" - 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 sa(s)tar,99 and the Vedic equivalent sastr 'lord' of men is used of a yajamana in Taittiriya-samhita 5,7,4,4, whereas in the Epic it means 'teacher'. In the latter sense also Amg. sattha occurs.100 Finally, Pali ganassa sattha 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 samsara, 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 Ayaranga 1,6,4,1. 101 Samyutta-Nikaya 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 nordostlichen Indien zu Buddhas Zeit. Kiel 1897 (repr. Graz 1974), p. 126; 135. 102 Cf. e.g. HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 220 and Verwandlungskulte, p. 206. 108 Vinaya pali I 306. The dye originally used dung or pandu-mattika -- 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.).

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186 WILLEM B. BOLLEE 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-vasasa 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 Pacittiya - an offence requiring expiation -- in the Pali Canon; in the Vinaya of the Sarvastivadins, he is guilty of a Patayantika - 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-gahapatika abuse bhikkhu silavante saying "ime pana mundaka samanaka ibbha kinha bandhupadapacca" (MajjhimaNikaya I 334,16); see also my Studien zum Suyagada. 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 Suyagada, 1, p. 151. Yellow orpiment (haritala) and red arsenic (manosila) are used as mortar (mattika) 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 HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 224. 108 Vinaya IV 14,30f. Cf. SCHLINGLOFF, op. cit. II, p. 14. 109 Vinaya I 86,31 f. Cf. HOFLER: Kult. G., p. 251. 110 HOFLER, op. cit., 252. Differently D. SCHLINGLOFF: Die Religion des Buddhismus. 1: Der Heilsweg des Monchstums. 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 Theravada 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 HOFLER: 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.

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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 (ayelat): (1) sons of privileged families from whom the leaders, Bo(u)ayol were elected; (2) a middle class, and (3) an elite from unprivileged ramilies. This elite was called xaoev, a collective which Hesychius describes as 'brothers or cousins belonging to the same ayel' and defines elikiotai 'equals in age ac. in the agelai'. The kasen 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 Oi ek tes autes ageles adelphoi te kai anepsioi. 118 CHRIMES, op. cit., p. 110. Beside the xaoev there are found ouveonSsot, whose "patrons" were the Bo(u)ayol and who, therefore, were a much smaller group than the kasen. 119 Der Feudalismus im alten Iran, Ch. II (esp. p. 53ff.) and III. 120 Sakam jatah (RV 5,55,3). 121 Savayasah (RV 1,165,1). 122 Samukeitah (RV 5,56,5). 123 RV 5,59,6. 14 TS 3,5,3 Agnina devena prtana jayami [...] purvajan bhratrvyan [...] Indrena devena prtana jayami [...] sahajan Viavebhir Devebhih priana jayami [...] aparajan [...]. 125 According to Ramayana 3,5,17 Indra and all other gods are 25 years of age.

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188 WILLEM B. BOLLEE 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 Vimanavatthu stanza that reads: "I, Kanthaka, was born at the same time as Suddhodana's son in Kapilavatthu, the most excellent town of the Sakiyans" 127 Outside the Pali canonical scriptures we find more examples of "congenites": in the Theragatha commentary the Bodhi tree, the Bodhisatta's consort, the state elephant, Kanthaka, the equerry Channa and finally Kaludayi (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 Jataka prose of the cook's son and the purohita's son being 126 References from Jain sources are Nayadhammakahao 3,49 Jinadattaputte ya Sagaradatta-putte ya saha-jayaya saha-vaddhiyaya saha-pamsu. kaliyaya saha-dara-darise annam-annam anuratta; similarly Vivayasutta 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 kalyanamitra, too, in this connection, cf. WIDENGREN: Feudalismus, p. 54. 127 Vimanavatthu 81:15 Aham Kapilavatthusmim Sakiyanam 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-mata cattaro nidhi: arohaniya-hatthi, Kanthako, Channo, Kaludayi ti ime satta e ka divase jatatta saha-jata nama 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 Dharmasastra. 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 Jataka 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 Kunalajataka. 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 Nayadhammakahao 1,8 where king Mahabbala is reported to have entered the Order together with six loyal "congenites": cha-ppiya-vala-vayamsaga rayano (p. 90 line 21 in VAIDYA's ed. Poona 1940) and VIYAHAPANNATTI 7,9,303 Fol. 320b tells us of Varuna

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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 amatya, 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 Sariputta and Moggallana in Dhammapadatthakatha 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 etaipos, is d'ev vuxti yevovto and similarly Vergil (Aeneid 10,703) writes Nec non Euanthen Phrygium Paradisque Mimanta a equalem comitem que, una 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 pratimoksa 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 asrams) -- 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 Naganattuya 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. ALFOLDI: Konigsweihe und Mannerbund bei den Achameniden. In: Schweiz. Archiv fur Volkskunde 47 (1951), p. 15. 194 Vinaya pali II 197.

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190 WILLEM B. BOLLEE virama was thought to have originated in the men's hall ("Manner. haus'')186, that is the concrete expression of the brotherhood ("der sichtbare Ausdruck des Mannerbundes").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, Prajapati -- or, in the Mahabharata, Brahma -- 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 "Mannerbundler",140 e.g. those mentioned in the canonical prose of the Kunalajataka. 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: Religionsphanomenologie, 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 Vratyas. In: Zs. f. Buddhismus 6 (1924/25), p. 49 note 2; WIDENGREN: Hochgottglaube, p. 335; G. PFIRRMANN: Religioser Charakter und Organisation der 'Thag-Bruderschaften. Thesis Tubingen 1970 and, finally, W. BURKERT: Homo Necans, p. 93 where the Mannerbund 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 Suyagada. 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. Ksemendra mentions bards with hair in disorder (Kalavilasa Ch. 7). 141 KunJ 23,18** cora viya veni-kata which the commentator explains by molim bandhitva afaviyam thita-cora (35,23). In Jataka IV 182,2f. Sakka enters the forest paccha-mukhe kese bandhitva [...] vana-caraka-vesam gahetva. Here we are reminded of Yama who came baddha-mauli and pasahasta, like a Thug, to fetch Satyavant in the forest (Mbh cr. ed. 3,281,8). -- A wrestler's knot is mentioned in the Supasanahacariya 1,7,69 parihet aimasinam niyamsanam nivida-vira-ganthie bandhei malla-ganthie kesa-pasam sa-khaggo 80

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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.