Indian Antiquary Vol 28

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

Page 91

MARCH, 1899.)
WITCHCRAFT IN ANCIENT INDIA.
77
against mania to free from madness him who has been robbed of sense by the Raksbas :" "Release for me, O Agni, this person here, who, bound and well-secured, loudly jabbers! Then shall he have due regard for thy share of the offering, when he shall be freed from madness! Agni sball quiet down thy mind, if it bas been disturbed ! Cunningly do I prepare a remedy, that thou shalt be freed from madness."
Sacrifices to the god of fire, barning of fragrant substances and fumigation are among the principal rites against possession by demons. The following is a very complicated ceremony against mania : “ Pulverized fragrant substances, mixed with ghi, are sacrificed, and the patient is anointed with what remains. The patient is next placed upon a cross-roads, a wicker-work of dartha grass, containing a coal-pan, upon his head; and upon the coal the previously mentioned fragrant substances are again offered. The patient going into & river against the current throws the same snbstances into a sieve, while another person from behind washes him off. Pouring more of the fragrant substances into an unburned vessel, moistening the substances with ghee, placing the vessel in a three-footed wicker basket made of munjagrass (Sacharum munju), he ties it to a tree in which there are birds' nests" (Bloomfield, p. 519). Here we have the idea of driving ont demons with the help of fire, combined with the well-known devices of making a disease run away with flowing water, and of transmitting it to trees and animals. The ceremony is performed on a cross-roads, this being the favourite haunt of all demons, and therefore the most fitting place for all kinds of witchcraft practices.
As fire was considered to be the best of demon-scarers, it was naturally supposed to be most powerful in driving away the demons of disease also; that is, in curing all kinds of
liseases. Hence the custom of passing 9 sick child throngh fire, which was witnessed in Scotland only a few years ago. The ancient Tentonic custom of kindling a need-fire for the cure of cattle diseases was still practiced in Scotland in 1788. A fire was " kindled from this need tire ... and the cattle brought to feel the smoke of this new and sacred fire, which preserved them from the murrain." In ancient Rome a sacrifice was offered on the twenty-first of April, and the flocks were driven through the burning fire. In ancient India, also, there was an anpual festival when a bull was sacrificed to Rudra (the god of cattle) and the flocks were placed around the fire so that the smuke should reach them. At other times also, when cows and horses were attacked by a disease, the ancient Hindus sacrificed gruel with ghee to Rudra, and the animals were expected to be cured by smelling the smoke. Professor Max Müller suggests that these customs had "a purely utilitarian foundation," that purification by fire is in fact the foreranner of our modern quarantine, which many medical authorities now look upon as equally superstitious." But I doubt whether it can be proved that the ancient Hindus or other ancient nations had any actual knowledge of, or belief in, fumigation as a means for removing infection. What we know is that they believed that diseases both of men and cattle were caused by demons or gods, - such as Rudra, - and that they also believed that fire was a repeller of all demons. These two ideas seem to account sufficiently for the origin of such customs as those mentioned above. Customs and beliefs must be founded on reason, but what is perfectly reasonable from the point of view of ancient people, need not be "utilitarian" according to modern ideas.
Besides the Rakshas and Piśâchas, the devils and goblins, whose special province it is to cause all kinds of mischief, we find in ancient India also the world-wide belief in incubi and succubi who pay nocturnal visits to mortal men and women. These are the Apsaras and Gandharvas of Hindu mythology, who correspond in every respect to the elves and nightmares of Teutonic belief. They are really godlings of Nature. Rivers and trees are their natural nbodes, which they only leave in order to allure mortals and injure them by uunatural intercourse. To drive these spirits away the fragrant plant ajasțingi, "goat's horn" (odina pinnata), is used, and the following charm pronounced: “ With thee do we scatter the Apsaras
• See F. Max Müller, Physical Religion, pp. 284 f., 288 f., 389 f.