________________
NOVEMBER, 1894.] SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
Translation.
The Cause.
[Sahitya-dar pana, 712. Where, however, only the second variety mentioned in the Bhashabhúshana is found.]
The ornament of the Cause is of two kinds : (a) In the first, the cause and its effect are represented as together. (b) In the second, when the cause of any thing is represented in identity with the effect; as for example: -
(a)
Proud Lady, hear my words. The moon is arisen and straightway dissipateth
pride,"
333
[Here the cause of the disappearance of pride, the moon, and the effect, the disappearance, are represented as coincident. Or we may translate:Proud Lady, hear my words, thy pride (is arisen, and with it) the moon which dissipateth it.' Here the occurrence of pride is represented as causing the moon which dissipates it to arise. The pride is the cause, the rising of and the moon is the effect.]
(5) This, my success, my affluence, I declare to be thy favour.'
[Here the cause, the master's favor, is represented as in identity with its effect, the success, etc., of the servant.]
End of the Fourth Lecture, entitled Ornaments of Sense || 4 || (To be continued.)
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM. BY J. M. CAMPBELL, C.LE., LC.S.
PART I. RELIGION. CHAPTER I.
A. SPIRIT-WORSHIP.
1. Ancestor-worship.
Ancestor-worship, says Mr. Herbert Spencer, is the rudimentary form of religion. The first idea of a spirit was the soul of the dead, and it seems to have been with the souls of the dead that the early man peopled the air, the earth, the water, the underground, and many plants and animals. Among high class Hindus ancestor-worship is one of the most universal faiths. Every orthodox Brâhman daily, after performing his sandhya (adoration) and dévapûjá (worship of household gods) and before taking his meals, offers tarpan (oblations of water) to his ancestors. Again, among the high and middle class Hindus, whenever any auspicious ceremony is performed, it is one of the essential parts of the ceremony that the ancestors should be invited and worshipped along with the gods, and generally a day or two before a wedding, or some other important ceremony, some Brahmans and Brahman women are fed in the name of the ancestors and kuldévatás, or family deities, in order that no evil may befall the family during the ceremony. Among the lower classes and ruder tribes of Hindus the family dead hold the place of the house, or village, god, if not of the chief god. The Dhôr Kathkaris of Thâna worship the spirits of dead relations, which have become bhûts, capable of entering the bodies of men. The Vaitis of Thâna worship a cocoanut in their houses as a representative of their ancestors, and the Konkani Kunbis of Kinara worship an unhusked cocoanut as their ancestor. The Kânara Attê Kunbis worship an unhusked cocoanut on a platform in the Op. cit. Vol. XIII. p. 182. 3 Op. cit. Vol. XV. p. 217.
1 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XIII. p. 165.
