Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

Author(s): Bansidhar Bhatt
Publisher: B J Institute

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worship of the goddess Durga or Kali, the wife of the god Siva has been traced in the Indus Civilisation. It is well-known that many goats and buffalows have been sacrificed and slaughtered on the Kalighat for the Durga-paja festivals in Calcutta every year. Earlier, and perhaps even today (?) human beings were sacrificed at the Durga festivals in Nepal, which is noted by Filchner-Marathe in a published book: "Hindustan im Festgewand" (pp.132-137). Also, Bhavabhati (ca. 7th cent. AD) describes in his Malatimadhava drama an instance of a human-sacrifice, the description would be poetic, but such events would certainly have taken place somewhere in India. R. v. Nebesky-Wojkowitx ("Wo Berge Gotter sind", pp.180184) describes such an offer to the goddess Kali in Darjiling in the year 1951. It is certain that such bloody sacrifices have no origins whatsoever in the Vedic or Indo - Aryan culture, the deities like Durga, Kali can never be considered as Aryan ones, they can be more connected with the Tantrism.
The old sacrifices of the Vedic religion have been later replaced by the paja ceremonials of the type as described above, where animals are sacrificed to gods and goddesses. These sacrifices are no longer Vedic in character, but belong to the non-Aryan culture, or the Tantrism in general. It is worthwhile at this stage also to mention about a ritual killing in a Saivite Tantrism in the name of Yoginis. The offer of a living creature is motivated by a desire of liberating the creature from the sins, etc. ... of worldly existence (cf. Netratantra Ch.20). The Saivites have adopted and extrapolated the Vedic pattern of ritualism, their ritual himsa in similarly apologetic (cf. Jayaratha's commentary on Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka Ch.26; sources from Halbfass. p.12). Similarly the origin of the late developed form of the god Siva, and the phallus-worship (linga-puja) in India seem to be nonAryan in character, and the blood-shed in offer to the goddess Durga or Kali, the wife of the god Siva can be connected with the type of religious sects of India, which subsequently merged in Hinduism. The ideal of a hiņsa was, in fact, quite unknown to the non-Aryan cultures in India.