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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1895.
stool is covered with a black cloth. On the cloth thirty-six pinches of rice are dropped in a heap, and turmeric and red powder is mixed with the heap.30 On the coloured rice-heap a copper vessel, filled with milk and water, is set, that the goddess may come and take her abode in it. In the mouth of the pot betel leaves are laid, and on the betel leaves a cocoanut is set.31 Five torches are lighted and given to five men of the house, who walk round the stool five times, shouting Ambî Bhavani,32 Then the music plays, and the dancer dances and sings in front of the goddess.33 It ends with a waving of torches round the goddess' face. The object is to win the goddess' favour by driving away spirits from her. If she is pleased, she can control the bands of spirits.
Among the Madhavas and other Désastha Brahmaņs the gôndhal is performed at their thread ceremonies, marriages and pregnancies. Other castes perform the gôndhal at marriages only. At the marriage of Gôvardhan Brahmaņs in Poona the boy and girl are seated on the shoulders either of their maternal uncles or of servants, and their carriers perform a frantic dance.34 The RÂvals, or Náth, beggars in Ahmednagar have a jhénda, or war-dance, at their weddings.35 A gôndhál dance in honour of Tulja Bhavani is performed by Belgaum Salis at weddings.36 Among the Patvêgars of Belgaum no wedding is complete without its gôndhál dance.37 In Belgaum, every Thursday, dancing girls dance before Asad Khan's tomb.38 The Namdev Sbimpis of Nagar, during the wedding ceremony, perform the jhénda dance when their maternal uncles lift the boy and girl on their shoulders and dance, beating each other with wheat cakes.39 In the Konkan, on Gokulashthami day in August, cowherds cover themselves with dust, and catching one another's hands dance and shout the name of the god Govind.co The Asadarus, & class of Dharwar Madigars, dance before and abuse the goddess Dayâmavå during her fair. Though the higher class Hindus of Western Indis seldom dance, Gujarat Vånis and Bhatias, occasionally dance in honour of Krishna. Similarly, pious and staunch worshippers of the god Siva, at the end of their worship, dance before the god, who is specially fond of dancing and singing. At Pandharpur on the ranga bila, or pleasure stone, devout pilgrims dance, singing Vithôbâ's praises. Among the Kirântis of the Nepal frontier exorcists dance. The Santâls have a dance much like Krishna's rás. The Khônds, married and unmarried, are great dancers.45 The Haius, Hayas, or Vayas of Bengal celebrate curious arm-locked dances.46 In Bengal, on the bright fourteenth of Phálgun (March) people dance, sing and revel. On the fifth of Mâgh (February), at Sarasvati's festival in Bengal. students dance naked and commit indecencies. The festival of Jagad Mátru, the mother of the world, is a scene of much merry-making and indecency. People dance naked, and say that dancing is the way to heaven.co In Bengal, during the Durga festival, dancing girls are called to dance in houses where the goddess is worshipped.co In Coorg, at a yearly festival a Brahman dances before the idol shrine with a brass image of Isvara on his head.51 The Coorgs are fond of dancing. They perform the devarakahe, or stick-dance, in honour of BhA. cavati.69.Barbosa (A.D. 1514) was much strack with the dancing girls of Vijayanagar. They were great dancers, like enchantresses playing and singing. Some thousands of them were in the
* The black cloth, the rice, the turmeric and the red powder - all scare spirite.
The objoot of the loaves and the nut in the mouth, like the heap of coloured rion below the pot, is to keep spirits from worrying the goddess.
39 The lighted torches and the five circles are to keep off evil spirits. 38 Music, dancing, singing the god's praises all scare spirits. * Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 162.
36 Op.cit. Vol. XVII. p. 211. * Op. cit. Vol. XXI. p. 146.
31 Op. cit. Vol. XXI. p. 145. * Op. cit. Vol. XXL p. 532.
» Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 126. ** Information from the peon BAbaji.
41 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXII, p. 219. + Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
45 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 104. 4 Op. cit. p. 215.
• Macpherson's Khonde, p. 58. +6 Dalton's Ducriptive Xhnology of Bengal, p. 105. 47 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. II. p. 20. *Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 72.
45 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 134, Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 115. - Rice's Mysore and Coorg, Vol. II. p. 267.
62-85 Op. cit. Vol. III. p. 250.
