Book Title: Handbook of History of Religions
Author(s): Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune

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Page 550
________________ the god-stone in many cases; but it is difficult to say in monolith-worship whether the stone itself be not a god; not a fetish, for (as has been said by others) a fetish is a god only so long as he is regarded as being useful, and when shown to be useless he is flung away; but a god-stone is always divine, whether it grants prayers or not.] [Footnote 27: Wilson's note to Stevenson's description, JRAS. 1838, p. 197. The epic disease-gods are not unique. The only god known to the Andaman Islanders (Bay of Bengal) was a disease-devil, and this is found as a subordinate deity in many of the wild tribes.] [Footnote 28: In the current Indian Antiquary there is an exceedingly interesting series of papers by the late Judge Burnell on Devil-worship, with illustrations that show well the character of these lower objects of worship.] [Footnote 29: The standard work on this subject is Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, which abounds in interesting facts and dangerously captivating fancies.] [Footnote 30: JRAS. 1846, p. 407. The ensign here may be totemistic. In Hinduism the epic shows that the standards of battle were often surmounted with signa and effigies of various animals, as was the case, for example, in ancient Germany. We have collected the material on this point in a paper in JAOS. XIII. 244. It appears that on top of the flag-staff images were placed. One of these is the Ape-standard; another, the Bull standard; another, the Hoar-standard. Arjuna's sign was the Ape (with a lion's tail); other heroes had peacocks, elephants, and fabulous monsters like the çarabha. The Ape is of course the god Hanuman; the Boar, Vishnu; the Bull, Çiva; so that they have a religious bearing for the most part, and are not totemistic. Some are purely fanciful, a bow, a swan with bells, a lily; or, again, they are significant of the heroe's origin (Drona's

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