Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 77

APRIL, 1923)
COLOUR SYMBOLISM
65
The cardinal points have constantly been given colours, and "the habit of colouring these and the winds that blow from them obtained in the Old and New Worlds. It had undoubtedly a doctrinal signiicance” (p. 14), possibly as the result in the Old World of efforts of the early Oriental mind to grasp ideas so exclusively abstract, combined with an already familiar symbolism. "The colours of the cardinal points have similarly & deep significance in the Chinese Fung-Shui doctrine. De Groot shows in his great work, The Religious System of China, that colours are connected with the elements, the seasons, certain heavenly bodies and even with the internal organs. In Central America and Ancient Egypt the internal organs were similarly connected with the coloured cardinal points."
I need hardly point out to Indian scholars that this last consideration opens up a large and intensely interesting question in relation to the universally recognised philosophy that has led to the practice of Yoga—the doctrine of restraint of the body and its desires as a means of salvation for the soul. Fundamentally the human body is there regarded as a microcosm, of which the Universe is the Macrocosm, and any study which tends to show that this idea is also at the back of the religious conceptions of mankind outside India cannot but be of the greatest interest. Let Mr. Mackenzie speak for himself here once more (pp. 148 149); “The Maya (Central American) system yields the following arbitrary connections :18 Cardinal Point.
Bacab. 19
Days. Colours. Elements. South .. Hobnil (the Belly) .. Kan .. Yellow .. Air. East .. Canzicnal (Serpent Being). Muluc .. Red .. Fire. North . Zaczini (White Being) ... Ix .. White .. Water. West
.. Hozan ek (the Disem
bowelled Black one) .. Cauac .. Black Earth. The Chinese system yields : East, the Blue Dragon ; Spring; wood; planet Jupiter ; liver and gall. South, the Red Bird ; Summer; fire; the sun ; planet Mars; hoart and large
intestines. West, the White Tiger ; Autumn; wind; metal; planet Venus; lungs and small
intestine. North, the Black Tortoise ; Winter; cold; water; planet Mercury; kidneys and
bladder."20 “The point of special interest is [according to Eliot Smith 21] that the Egyptian custom of connecting the internal organs with the coloured cardinal points, which had a doctrinal significance connected with mummification, spread Eastward and reached China and America. The Maya custom, it will be noted, bears a clouer resemblance to the Egyptian than does the Chinese. Black is in both cases the colour for the intestines and yellow for the stomach, while white is apparently the liver colour in America as in Egypt. The Canopio jars, which went out of fashion in Egypt, were continued in use by the Maya and placed under the protection of the Bacabs, their gods of the four coloured cardinal points." (p. 149.)
The rest of Mr. Mackenzie's article is devoted to the development of his subject in Egypt and in those parts of the world which the ancient civilisation of that country has chiefly affected, but I hope I have abstracted enough from it to show that it is well worth taking up solely from the Indian point of view. 18 Brinton, Mayan Hieroglyphics, p. 41-D.A.M.
19 God of a Cardinal Point. 30 De Groot, op. oit., book I, vola. III, p. 983 and IV, 16-D.A.M. 21 The Migration of Eastern Owlture, 1905.