Indian Antiquary Vol 46

SR No.: 032538
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 508
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[SEPTEMBER, 1917
Two fragments of lore may illustrate the popular attitude to the cult The pulla is never found north of Sukkur. It comes up the river only to do homage at Khwaja Khizr's shrine and, having done so, it returns to the sea, always with its face towards the shrine. It is never found with its head down stream. Again, when the River erodes its banks, it is said that Khwaja Khizr is sending earth (fertility, wealth) to his brother Iliâs (Elijah), who lives in a desert, and that these two with Nabi, Isa (Jesus), who lives in the firmament above the earth, constitute one Trinity. (This is a Baloch distorted version of the cult.)
Two points in connection with the history of the cult must be remembered.. (a) Muhammadanism on two occasions made serious attempts at proselytising Hinduism: one on the occasion of the Arab conquest of Sind (eighth century) and one in the thirteenth century under the influence of the Multani Revival. The two best examples are the modification of the Raja Gopichand cult in the first period and the desecration of the Saiva altar at Sehwan in the second (b) A fragment of pottery discovered by the writer at Mirpur Khas bears paintings of a fish (?) pulla. The place, where it was found, is that of the fourth century Stupa which stood on the bank of an old river (Dhoro Purano).
Now let us turn to the cult of the crocodile, wagho the wild beast. It is not an uncommon thing to find a close connection between a pir and crocodiles, so close in fact that the local Musalmans resent any attempt at shooting the protected beasts-though every effort may be made to extirpate those not protected. The classic case is, of course, that of Mangho Pir-Magar' Pir-just outside Karachi; but there are others. In some places, even where there is now no crocodile, tradition keeps alive the story by dubbing the locality waghodar, the crocodile's door or lair. There is the one near Rerhi, one at Amîrpir, north of Tatta, and one, fourteen miles east of Hyderabad on the Dhoro Phital, an abandoned river bed. It cannot be pretended for one moment that respect for the crocodile is Musalman; such zoolatry finds no place in Islam. One must look for its origin locally. One reads for instance in Burnes (Bokhara, p. 46) that "the Sailors of Sinde are Mahommedans. They are very superstitious; the sight of a crocodile below Hyderabad is an evil omen, which would never be forgotten:" and also that along different lengths of the river propitiatory offerings had to be made to avert malignant influences. Now one finds among the sacrificial symbols in use in the Lar an occasional brass makara head.
Now, when one turns to consider Vegetation cults, one finds a close association in several aspects with femininiy. Midway between Tatta and Mirpur Sakro is a tomb, the central place of the cult of Pir Jhareon-jhareon being in fact a feminine plural word meaning trees. While it is customary at various burial places to hold on fixed days in the month commemorative services at which all present partake of a kind of Agape, to which all have contributed something, the common meal being divided in charity among those present, it is regarded as a ridiculous custom-i. e., by outsiders-that those present at Pir Jhareon's festival should eat such a stupid kind of food as they do Here the Agape consists of a dish made of grain of all kinds-jawari, bajri, barley, rice, pulses,-steeped in milk. Not only do Hindus respect the Pîr, but, regardless of caste, partake of the