Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 490

woman, the wife of the chief priest, sits in the middle of the 'holy circle.' She represents Durg[=a], the divine female principle. The Bacchic orgy begins with hard drinking. Çiva as Bh[=a]irava, 'the dreadful,' has his human counterpart also, who must then and there pair with the impersonated Durg(=a]. The worship proper consists in the repetition of meaningless mantrasyllables and yells; the worship improper, in indulgence in 'wine and women' (particularly enjoined in the rite-books called Tantras). Human sacrifice at these rites is said to be extinct at the present day.[49]
But blood-lust is appeased by the hacking of their own bodies. Garments are cast in a heap. Lots are drawn for the women's garments[50] by the men. With her whose clothes he gets each man continues the debauch, inviting incest in addition to all other excess.[51]
The older Vishnuite sects (P[ra] (=n]car[ra]tras, etc.) may have had some of this filth in their make-up; but mass for mass the practices are characteristic of Civaism and not of Vishnuism.[52] Especially Çivaite, however, is the 'mother worship,' to which reference was made in the chapter on epic Hinduism. These 'mothers' are guardian goddesses, or fiends of disease, etc. One may not claim that all Ç[ra]ktas are Çivaites, but how small a part of Vishnuism is occupied with Çakti-worship can be estimated only by surveying the whole body of worshippers of that name.
We cannot leave the lust and murder of modern Çivaism without speaking of still another sect which hangs upon the heels of K[=a]I[=i], that of the Thugs. It may, indeed, be questioned whether Çiva should be responsible for the doings of his spouse, K[=a]I[=i). But like seeks like, and there is every historical justification in making out Çiva to be as bad as the company he keeps. Durg[=a) and K[=a]I[=i] are not vainly looked upon as Çiva's female side. So that a sect like the Thugs,[53] which worshipped Kf=alli, may, it is true, be taken out of the Civate sects, but only if one will split Çivaism in two and reproduce the original condition, wherein Çiva was one monster and K[=a]li was another, which is scarcely possible after the two have for centuries been looked upon as identical. With this in mind it may be granted that the Thugs payed reverence to K[=alli,