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MAY, 1895.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
"Now, Deyi, you had better take your food with ghi and wash your hands with milk!" said the Ballal, and ordered his servants to give Kântanna and Sâyina water, and to make Deyi sit in the middle! And then Deyi and the others took their food with ghi and washed their hands with milk, and chewed betelnut; and then the Ballal told her to go back to Erajha. The right of sallanéga, which the Billavars cannot have, and a koranaseji, like a mallika Bower and a jewel with the figure of a parrot, were presented to her by the Balla!.
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
BY J. M. CAMPBELL, C.I.E., I.C.S.
(Continued from p. 65.)
Bells. Spirits fear bells, because spirits fear music, and because they fear metal. In Hindu temples bells are generally tied in front of the shrine, and the worshipper rings them before he goes inside. That among Hindus the original object of ringing a bell before their gods was to drive away spirits, is shewn by the prayer repeated by Western India Brahmans in ringing a bell during the worship of their household gods:- "Q! bell, raise a mighty sound near the shrine that the demons may be dispelled and the gods welcomed."88 The members of one Lingayat priesthood bind a ring of bells on the leg; and at a Poona Lingayat's funeral a jangam walks in front of the procession, ringing a bell and blowing a conch shell.88 Among the wild Vaidus of Poona, on the eleventh day after a death, a jangam comes and blows a conch and rings a bell in the house of mourning, aud the mourning ends, that is, the dead is driven off. In the Dekhan on the Pôlá-day, necklaces of bells are tied round bullocks' necks. Among the Dekhan Râmôgis, men wear a girdle of silver bells round their loins. Some low class begging devotees in Poona wear a girdle of bells." Bells are the emblems of Kedarling and Jotiba, two favourite Southern Maratha gods. Belgaum Lingayats have a story that the wedding of Nandi, or Basavésvar, could not go on till the heaven became a bell and the earth a bar of metal to strike the bell at the lucky moment. They have a class of converted Mhârs, called Chêlvâdis, who head Lingayat processions carrying a bell and bar. A bell is rung at a Mhâr's marriage in Belgaum." After a death the Gôls, or Gopals, of Belgaum remain impure for five days, when a janyam or Lingayat priest, comes and purifies them by ringing a bell and blowing a shell.94 Budbudkis, a class of Dharwâr beggars, wear clothes, to whose skirts bells and shells are tied. The Madhava Brålman women of Dhârwâr wear small gold bells hung from their hair close above the ear.96 The Pâtradavarus, or high-class prostitutes of Dharwar, wear bells, or géjjis, on their legs. The Lavânâ women of Dharwâr wear a bell-shaped tube at the end of their small braids of hair.98 In Bijapur, the Lingayat beadle sits in front of the dead and rings a bell. A division of jangam beggars in Bijapur sit on trees and ring bells all day long. Another begs from door to door, ringing a bell. The Gonds have a bell god, Ghagarâ Pen, a string of tinkling bells. The Mânâ Ojhyâls, a class of Gond bell and ring makers, are held in special sanctity.100 The Gond priest, at the great worship of Phârsi Pen, wears bells on his fore and third fingers.100 Two bells, one of bell-metal and one of copper, were found in a cairn at Haidarabad in the Dekhan. Certain Vaishnava beggars of South India wear bells,❜ and in Chittagong an image of Buddha has a stand of bells before it. When a Wadar or Telugu
• I. e., putting the end of the cloth on the left side. Which they may not have, i. e., a jewel for the ears. Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. The Sanskrit text is:-Agamanarthamtu devânim, gamandrtham tu rakshasam, kuru ghanté mahd nadam, devat archana sannidhau. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 167. 1
Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 477. Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 167. 97 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 119.
"Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 478.
Op. cit, Vol. XVIII p. 190.
Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 200.
Op. cit. Vol. XXIL pp. 121, 122. "Hislop's Aboriginal Tribes of the Central 100 Op. cit. Ap. I. p. iii.
a Dubois, Vol. I. p. 149.
121
Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 413. 93 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 193. Op, cit. Vol. XXII. p. 66.
100 Op. cit. p. 6.
Provinces, p. 47.
1 Jour, Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 170. Balfour's Hindus, Vol. V. p. 531.
