Indian Antiquary Vol 28

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 90

76
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MARCH, 1899.
day the Hindus look upon rivers as divine beings or as the abode of spirits. And we may credit even the ancient Hindus with a certain knowledge of medicinal springe. Nor is it surprising that in & tropical climate the rain waters were hailed as “divine physicians." Hence we read in a charm of the Atharva-Vêda : "The waters verily are healing, the waters chase away disease, the waters cure all disease: may they prepare a remedy for thee!” But spring-water is considered as a particularly effective remedy against diarrhea or other excessive discharges. It is a curious belief that the ants - which are also mentioned as instrumental in the core of poison - bring healing-water from the sea. Thus it is said: "The ants bring the l'emedy from the sca: that is the cure for discharges, and that hath quieted disease."
Dropsy or "water-disease" (Wassersucht in German) - the disease, sent by Varana, the god of the sea and water - is naturally cured best by the use of water. A very simple eure of dropsy consists in sprinkling water over the patient's Lead by means of twenty-one (three times seven) tufts of Darbha or sacred grass (Poa cynosuroides), together with reeds taken from the thateh of a houso. The water sprinkled on the body is supposed to cure the water in the body. It is against dropsy, with which disease of the heart is frequently n.880ciated, that the following charm is pronounced : “From the Himalaya mountains they flow forth, in the Indus, forsooth, is their assembling-place: may the waters, indeed, grant me that Cutre for heart-ache ! The pain that hurts me in the eyes, and that which hurts in the heels and the fore-feet, the waters, the most skilled of physicians, shall pat all that to rights! Ye rivers all, whose mistress is the Indus, whose queen is the Indus, grant as the remedy for that: through this remedy may we derive benefit from you!"
Varuna is not only the god of water, but also the god of justice and truth. Hence dropsy is more particularly considered as a punishment of falsehood and sin. Varuņa enspares with his futtere, i. e., his disease, every liar and traitor. Thus we read in a charm against treacherous clesigns: "With a hundred snares, O Varuņa, surround him, let the liar not go free from thee,
thou that observest men! The rogue shall sit, his belly hanging loose, like a cask without hoops, bursting all about!"
Another great god of the ancient Hinda pantheon who is frequently connected with disease and witchcraft is Rudra, the father of the storm-gods. He is at the same time worshipped as A divine physician and feared ns a causer of discase. He is the lord of cattle, but his missiles cause danger to cattle as well as to men. Especially all sharp internal pain, such as colic, is caused by the arrow of the gol Rudra. It may be that lightning was conceived as a weapon of Rudra, and we have seen above that diseases were supposed to be caused by lightning.
As a rule, however, diseases are supposed to be caused by godlings rather than by gods. More especially, all such disonses as inania, fits, epilepsy and convulsions are ascribed to prossession by Rakshas (devils) and Piśâchas (goblins). There is a special class of charms, the socalled "driving-out charms," which are considered as most effective remedies against possession. But the most powerful enemy and destroyer of all devils is Agui, the Fire. "Slayer of tiends" is one of the most common epithets of this god. In a delightful story by " Frank Popu Humphrey" (Pseudonym Library), a young lady who is frightened by a glost is made to say: “I sprang out of bed and piled the branches of pine upon the conls until they roared in a vaxt flame up the chimney and lighted erery corner of the room like noonday. For I have ever Jurned that light scaltors quickly the phantoms that people the darkness." This is exactly the Faine sentiment which made the South American Indians carry brands or torches for fear of evil demons when they ventured into the dark. And for the very same reason the ancient Norse colonists in Iceland used to carry fire round the lands they intended to occupy to espel the evil spirits. (Tylor, I'rimitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 194.) At the great animal sacrifices in ancient India, the priest had to carry a firebrand round the victim. "Why he carries the fire round," says an ancient treatise on sacrifices, " is that lie encircles the victim by means of the fire with an unbroken fence, lost the evil spirits should scize upon it; for Agni is the repeller of the Rukshas (devils)." No wonder, therefore, that Agni or Fire is invoked in a charm