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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92
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
slaughter-houses and fish markets to be The soul is not said to have finally closed and give alms to the poor.1
perished unless it merges into the divine A century ago there lived at Nalkanthà self and attains moksha or salvation. The a sage named Bhansàb. He met a holy passions and desires of a dying man do not death by deep meditations, and a few days permit his soul ascending beyond a certain after rose up from his grave in his original stage, where he or she remains as a ghost form. This led him to be classed in the until the soul is purged of all his or her category of great men and to command desires and sins by the performance of divine worship.
funeral ceremonies, For relieving ancestral Vithal, a sage of the Kathi tribe, is spirits from the low order of bhuts and revered in Pâliàd. Sàvo, a devotee at pishachas, shraddhas are performed by their Zanzarka, is worshipped by Dheds. Fehald surviving relatives in such holy places as a Rajput and Tolat his wife, are enshrined Prabhàs, Gayà and Pindtárak. These at Anjar, a village in Cutch. Lalo, a Bania ceremonies are known as Narayanbali, devotee of Sindhàvàr, received divine Nilotsarga and saptaha-parayan (recitation honours in his life-time and his image inof a Sacred book for seven consecutive days).7 Sàyalà is held in great reverence to this day.
Those persons who die with wicked The samadh of Madhvagar, an atit of thoughts still present and their desires not Vastadi, situated in Unchadi a village in the fulfilled, enter the order of evil spirits, from Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmedabad, is an which they are liberated after their desires object of worship. Harikrishna Maharaja, have been satisfied and their wicked thoughts a Brahman saint of Chudà, received divine eliminated. honours at Chudà and the Charotar. 3
BNuts and pishachas-ghosts, male and If the souls of the departed ones are female can be prevented from doing harm condemned to become ghosts, shraddha by recourse to certain processes. For ceremonies performed by their descendants instance, the wife of a Nagar of Gadhadà are said to be efficacious in freeing them became a witch after her death and began from their ghostly existence and relegating to torment the second wife of her husband them to some other form of life.
by throwing her out of bed whenever she The lives of bhuts and pishachas, male was 'asleep. To prevent this, the husband and female ghosts, are said to extend over a took a vow to perform a shraddha at Sidhpur thousand years. Shraddhas, such as the in the name of the deceased wife, after the samachari i. e., the death anniversary and performance of which the ghostly presence Narayanbali i. e., a shraddha performed in a stopped harassing the new wife of her holy place, emancipate the ghostly spirits husband. from their wretched existence and make them Bluts and piskachas are believed by some eligible for birth in a better form. Some people to be inmortal, because they are believe that at the end of their ghostly supposed to belong to the order of demi-gods. existence (a thousand years) they take birth in | In the Amorkosha—the well-known Sanskrit the animal kingdom in the mortal world. lexicon--they are classed with divinities, such
1 The School Master of Jodia. 3 The School Master of Sàok à. 5 The School Master of Kotda Sangani. 7 The School Master of Ganod.
The Deputy Educational Inspector, Got ilvad,
2 The School Mascer of Lalapur.
The School Masters of Kotda Sangani and Dady $ The School Master of Dadvi. & The School Master of Motà Devalià.