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THE FOLKLORE OF GUJARAT
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testify to its virtues and sins, and it is meted this world, again commits suicide, and again out a punishment appropriate to its sins. 1 meets the same fate after death. This is
In order that the departed soul may not repeated seven times, after which he has find its way difficult, his heirs make a gift to pass through 8,400,000 species of animals to a Brahman of a bedstead, bedding, a lamp, before again obtaining the human life. corn, a pair of shoes and other articles, on If the suicide be caused by poisoning the thirteenth day after death. This gift is the person, in his next life, becomes a ser. called seraja.2
pent; if by drowning or strangling, he becomes Onc enters the human orderafter passing a ghost. through 8,400,000 species of living beings. Some believe that the souls of persons It is in the human life that one can accumu
meeting a violent death enter the order of late merit, and wipe out the influence of
such ghosts as Jinni, Màmo, etc. For the r past sins.
emancipation shraddhas are performed by Those who meet a sudden or violent death,
their descendants. At times these ghosts e. g., by being crushed under a falling house,
possess the persons of their nearest relatives, by drowning in a well, by an accidental tall, and through this medium declare their desires. by a snake bite, etc. enter the order of If they express a desire to have a palio or bhuts, pretas, pishachas, etc., and are said to
and to pillar erested in their name, one is erected have gone to durgati or to a bad path.
ath." on the spot where they breathed their last. But those who die on a field of battle are On this pillar is engraved a figure riding a believed to attain heaven,
horse, representing the deceased, which is According to another belief, persons dying besmeared with red lead or ochre. This a violent death have to pass through the representation is worshipped as a deity with same fate, that is, die violently, for the next lofaringe seven lives.5
lamps fed with ghi 10 Their souls are said to be liable to enter The palio is called surdhan, and is worthe asurgati or the order of devils. They are shipped, especially on the death anniversary emancipated from this condition by the per of the deceased. 11 formance by their descendants of the cere- In some castes the surdhans are installed mony called Nil parnavavior of those ..
those in the house of the deceased 12 ceremonies prescribed in the Pal Shastra.
| There are various beliefs current as to It is also believed that such souls after.
the way in which spirits enter and leave entering the order of ghosts oppress and
ess and the body. torment their descendants and relatives.7 In the case of suicides, when the crime is
According to one belief, when a person proved before the god of death the culprit is gets frightened by the apparition of a ghost hurled into a hell called Maharaurava, where the ghost enters his body through one of the he has to pass a thousand years. After the organs, and makes him senseless and expiry of this period he is born again into violent.13
1 The D. E. Inspector, Halår.
· The School Master of Dbank. 3 Mr. K. D. Desai.
4 The School Master of Charàdva. . The School Master of Dbàok.
& The School Master of Kotda Sangaui. 7 The School Master of Kolki.
& The School Mistress, Barton Female Training
College, Rajkot. 9 The School Master of Bhayavadar.
10 The School Master of Todia 11 The School Master of Songadh.
12 The School Master of Dvealia. 13 The School Master of Dhàok.
