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Остовки, 1993.] FROG WORSHIP AMONGST THE NEWARS.
and the Tibetans Pal; and the original name of this section of the Pal country, which contained the home of the Nêwars, seems to have been Ne, while the people were hence called by the Hindus Nowar, or "Inhabitants of No." Eastern Népal, ne well as Sikkim, ia still called No by the Lepcha autochthones, and the Lepchas interpret the word as meaning the place of Caves for shelter or residence. Ne in most of the cognate tribal dialects of the Indo-Chinese -to whom, 1 find, both Nêwars and Lepelas belong means residence; the same root also appears with similar meaning in the Tibeto-Burman group; and in famaism it is usually restricted to sacred caves and other sacred spots and shrines. It was very probably used in a similar sense by the pre-Lamaist Newars, who were the originators of the so-called Nepalese form of Buddhism, and early gave up the greater portion of their original language for a Sanskritized speech. Some of the Newars are still Buddhists under the title of Baudhamârgis or followers of the Buddhist path, but the vast majority, as is well-known, have lately followed the fashion set by their Gorkha rulers of adopting the externals of Hinduism and call themselves 'Saivamärgis or followers of the 'Siva path," Now the chief Buddhist nês or shrines in the Cis-Himalayas of any antiquity viz., the Kashare and Sambhunath stupas, are all situated in the valley (Nepal Proper) of the Pal country. Thus the word Nepal' seems to mean the Nê (i. e., the residence, or head-quarters,' or 'the shrine) of the Pal country, and is so distinguished from the adjoining Nê country of the Lepchas.
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The frog is worshipped by the Newàrs, not as a tribal totem, but in its supposed capacity of an amphibious (water and earth) divinity subordinate to the Naga demi-gods, and associated with the latter in the production and control of rain and water-supply, on the sufficiency of which the welfare of the crops depends. This elevation of so insignificant an animal as the frog to the dignity of an assistant to the Nagas, is all the more curious in view of the fact that frogs form the chief prey of the hooded cobra-the prototype of the Naga. But the Newars justify their worship of the frog by pointing to the sympathetic and intimate relation of the frog with water, and saying that frogs, although terrestrial animals, are only found in moist localities, and herald by their appearance and croaking? the onset of the rains. They are also found especially at springs, and also on digging deep down into the bowels of the earth, where lies, according to the Newârs, the primary store of water. It is interesting to note here that frogs are also worshipped by the Japanese in the Kiûshiû marshes as metempsychosed heroes,
Frog-worship is performed by the Newars at a different season and place from that required for the Nagas.. The Nigas, of whom the Newârs consider Karköta the greatest, are worshipped on the fifth day (Nagpañchami) of the month of Sawan (July) at the commencement of the rainy season, when the Nagas (water-dragons) are thundering in the sky. The site for the worship is selected by preference at a place where four or five streams meet. A Newâr priest is needed for this ceremony. On the morning of the eventful day, the priest ceremonially washes his face and hands and collects the following offerings, namely:whole rice, vermillion for making the fiká mark of beauty on the forehead, milk mixed with an equal bulk of water, rice-flour and water, flowers, ghi and butter, jaiphal spice, sandalwood
* Which in Tibetan means wool.' It is doubtful, however, whether the name was really intended to mean the wool-country,' for sheep are equally plentiful across the Himalayas.
The leading results of these observations I hope shortly to publish.
Spelt in Tibetan gnas,-but pronounced né.
[See Sir R. Temple's and R. C. Temple's Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim and Nepal, Vol. II. p. 234.-ED.]
6 Vide an account of this stúpa by the present writer in the Proceedings of the Bengal Asiatic Society for December 1802.
Bheng, the vernacular word for frog, is an onomatopoetic attempt at reproducing the frog's call.
s Satow in Murray's Handbook to Central and Northern Japan, 1881.
The pre-eminence thus given to Karkota is evidently due to his being considered the tutelary Naga of the lacustrine valley of Khatmandu, which traditionally was formerly a vast lake reclaimed for the use of man by the saint Maujusri cutting the southern bank, and the escaping water was thus named the Bhagmatt or the fleeing one' -the present name of the river.
