Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 428

80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
consequent wrath of the gods, who are only propitiated by the people again reverting to righteous ways and by the performance of sacrifices in their honour.1
There is also a belief that the sixty-four Joganis, when they are desirous of victims, cause baneful epidemics among mankind, the remedies in such a case being such as offering a goat or a he-buffalo to them, or the observation of an ujàni in their honour.
The following tale is related regarding an occurrence said to have taken place not long ago in the village of Verad. The headman of the village who was a Rajput by birth but who had lost his caste owing to irregular conduct with a woman, died of fever, and as he was an outcaste his body was buried instead of being cremated. Soon after, a number of persons in the same village happened to die of the same fever and the people conjectured that the late patel's corpse must be lying in its grave with its face downwards chewing the khahan (? perhaps kaphan, i, e. the cloth in which a corpse is wrapped). Many thought that the health of the village would not be restored until the corpse was replaced in the correct position with its face upwards and unless the khapan was taken out of its mouth. But none ventured to do so, being dissuaded by the fear of meeting with a worse fate,
But although they did not open the grave yet they arranged for certain vows to be taken in honour of the dead man, and that put a stop to the disease,2
Another story from the same place is that when small-pox once raged furiously in that village, the people of the place celebrated a magnificent feast of dainties prepared of wheat-flour, ghi, molasses, rice and pulse, and afterwards the Dheds of the village lopped off the head of a dead he-buffalo, burying it at the spot where the feast was held.
1 The School Master of Kotda-Sangani.
3 The School Master of Devalia.
The School Master of Ganod,
The remedies adopted for the abatement of epidemic diseases have already been mentioned above, the most common being the winding of a cotton-thread, the pouring out of dhàràvàdi, i.e., milk, in the village, and the taking of the rath of the Màtà in a procession beyond the village boundary, the epidemic being supposed to be expelled in the rath. In the last case, after the rath has been taken to the neighbouring village, a charmed peg is sometimes driven into the ground near the village boundary to prevent the epidemic from crossing back again.
Mention has already been made of the deities which protect the cattle and to whose displeasure diseases among cattle are attributed. It is said that such diseases are very common during the vishi of Shiva. A cycle of twenty years is called a vishi, three such cycles making a complete samvatsar of sixty years. Each of such vishis is presided over and named after each of the three gods of the Trinity, Brahmà, Vishnu and Shiva. The vishi of Brahmà is characterized by protection and creation, that of Vishnu by growth and that of Shiva by destruction, the last often bringing on such calamities as plague, famine and diseases among cattle."
The following are some of the remedies practised by the village people in the case of certain cattle-diseases.
In the case of such diseases as movà kharavà or the like, there is a practice of burying a plough near one's gates, which is afterwards covered with dust gathered from three streets and is worshiped with a branch of a tree, a plate of iron and red lead. This ceremony has to be performed either on a Sunday or a Tuesday, and the man who performs it has to remain naked at the time.
For the cure of valo (a disease in which the throat is inflamed), pieces of the stalk of kukad-vel (a kind of creeper) are tied
The School Master of Devalia. 4 The School Master of Sanka.
6 The School Master of Dhànk.