Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 61

FEBRUARY, 1878.]
ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES.
afflicted often perform costly ceremonies to remove the curse, which are superintended by the Madhava Brâ h m ans, originally fishermen, and not acknowledged as Brahmans out of Kânara. There are two ceremonies in ordinary use. The first, generally performed by a childless. man, is Sarpa Sampośkara, or the serpent's funeral. The fifth, sixth, fifteenth, or thirtieth of the month is chosen, and the family priest called to preside. The childless or afflicted penitent bathes and dresses himself in silk or linen attire, a spot in the house is chosen and the priest sprinkles some consecrated rice about it, to drive away any lurking devil, and then he and the penitent sit side by side on two wooden stools, kneading rice or wheat flour into dough. He then makes the figure of a serpent, and with many muttered holy mantrams is believed to animate the figure, and transform it for the time into a live serpent. Milk and sugar are then offered to it, and it is worshipped as a deity. After this other mantrams are said, undoing the spell previously wrought, and taking away the life that was given. The serpent being dead, the penitent assumes the garb of mourning, and shaves off his beard and moustaches. He then carries the figure on his head to the bank of a river, where he reverentially places it upon a pile. The figure is then fenced round with chips of sandalwood and camphor, and melted butter poured over all. The pile is then lit with fire brought by the penitent from his own house with a vow that it shall be used only for burning the serpent-god. When burnt the ashes are thrown into the river. The penitent is considered unholy and must not be touched for three days. On the fourth day the funeral of the serpent-god ends with an entertainment to eight unmarried youths below the age of twenty; they are held to represent eight serpents, and are treated with the utmost respect. This curious symbolical ceremony evidently denotes penitence and amends for the supposed killing of one of the sacred creatures in a former life, and the temporary ascription of serpent-nature to the young men seems a trace of the very ancient and wide
3 Other accounts of snake-worship in India will be found in the Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 6, and vol. IV. pp. 83, 196-7, where it will be seen that in Kathiâvâd the idea of serpent transformation is still in full force. See, too, vol. II. p. 124, and vol. IV. pp. 5-6. To these must especially be added the very full and learned account of "Serpent-worship in Western India" given by Rao Saheb Viśvanatha Narayana Mandlik at pp. 169 et seqq. of vol. IX. of the Jour. Bo. Br.
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spread idea of the transformation of men into serpents, and serpents into men, which appears almost extinct in Lower India.
The second ceremony, called Nagamandala, is resorted to when that first described has failed in producing the hoped-for results. The penitent gives a great feast to his castemen and unmarried youths, who are again supposed to personate serpents. In the evening-bruised rice is scattered over a spot previously selected, and the figure of a great serpent traced out in it. The figure is then worshipped, and a band of musicians summoned and well primed with toddy to sustain them in their work. They dress themselves in women's clothes and put on jewels, drumming and piping go on furiously, and the leader imitates the deity, reeling and writhing about frantically, and at times uttering words, which are devoutly attended to as though spoken by the deity; yet the musicians are low-caste people. The wild discordant music is often prolonged throughout the night. In the Government Annals of Indian Administration in 1867-68 there is the following notice :"The Manipuris are nominally Hindus, and their only priests are women called Naibis, who are treated as oracles. The Raja's peculiar god is a species of snake called Pakung ha, from which the royal family claims descent. When it appears, it is coaxed on to a cushion by the priestess in attendance, who then performs certain ceremonies to please it."
Snake-worship does not appear to be distinctively an Aryan cult; the Brahmans, who doubtless found it flourishing, allowed and adopted it to a certain extent, but grudgingly. Indications of this may be perceived in the facts that Brahmans avoid the sight of a snake, and hold meeting one to be the worst of omens, sufficient immediately to stop any undertaking. No Brahman acts as a priest in any serpent rites, and there are no temples where the walls and pillars are so crowded with snake sculptures as the temples of the Jains in Southern India, ever the deadly foes of the Brahmans. It is within and around Jaina temples, too, that the snake
R. As. Soc.; the ceremonies detailed above are recounted by him so minutely as to render my notice superfluous but for some local variations and particulars. See, too, Tree and Serpent Worship, 2nd ed. Appendix D.
Even when depicted in connection with Brahmanical gods as overshadowing or guarding Siva, Narayana, &c., it is in a subordinate capacity.