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MAY, 1926 1
BUDDERMOKAN
BUDDERMOKAN. BY SIR RICHARD O. TEMPLE, BT, (Continued from page 65.)
VII.
Water and river worship in India. Commencing with the Punjab, Maclagan, Census Report, 1891, vol. I, p. 105, tells us : * The veneration of rivers--of the various rivers venerated in the Punjab the Ganges is the most famous. It is very often worshipped under the title of Bhagirathî, after the name of the Puranic hero Bhagiratha, who is said to have brought the Ganges down from heaven. A large number of those who worship the river under this name are of the Od caste, which is said to be descended from Bhagiratha. The Ods of the south-west are a wandering caste of workers in earth, who say they are Hindus, but none the less they bury their dead, and hence are not associated with by ordinary Hindus. They are often found wearing a black blanket, the origin of which custom is explained in two different ways. According to ono story the Ganges, which was brought from heaven by the austerities of Bhagiratha, has not flowed to the place where the bones of the ancestors repose, and until it does the Ods must continue to wear mourning. Another account is that the ancestor of the Ods, the father of Bhagiratha, swore to himself that he would never drink twice of the same well and that he used to dig a new well for himself each day ; but one day he had to dig very deep and the earth fell over him, and he was seen no more. This story is also given to explain why the Ods do not burn their dead."
Passing down the West Coast, in the Bombay Gazetteer, vol. V, (Cutch), p. 55, we read that the Lohånås in Cutch "are devout worshippers of the Spirit of the Indus, Darya Pir, who is said to have saved them when they fled from Multán. Every Lohânâ village has a place built in honour of this spirit, where a lamp, fed with clarified butter, is kept burning day and night, and where in the month of Chaitra (March-April) a festival is celebrated." See also Burton, Hist. of Sindh, p. 315.
In Baroda. J. A. Dalal, Census Report, 1901, vol. I, p. 157, it is stated that: "There are special deities for particular tribes ... the Magar Dev, the Alligator God of the Dublås, Chodhåras, Vas Avâs and Kukanâs. It is worshipped once a year to avoid injury from alligators to men and animals, and also as a preventive against illness. This deity is found only in isolated places under a roof and is merely a piece of wood, somewhat resembling an alligator and propped up on two posts." And in regard to the alligator and crocodile, Campbell Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom, pp. 275-276, has as usual some pregnant re. marks to make : "The alligator is held sacred and worshipped by the Hindus. To be eaten by an alligator of Gangasagar is considered happiest of deaths (Ward's View of Hindus, I, Ixvi). It is a lucky sign if a man drowning himself is seized by an alligator (op. cit. II, 117).
"One of the meritorious suicides in the 'Ain Akbari is to go into the sea at the Ganges' mouth, and be eaten by an alligator (Maurice's Indian Antiquities, II, 164). Alligator cano. pies aro favourite Buddhist ornaments. Crocodiles eat the bodies of men and frequent the banks of rivers, one of the great spirit haunts, and so the crocodiles are worshipped and tamed at the well-known crocodile pond near Karachi in Sind. The crocodile is eaten by Upper Egyptians and Nubians (Burkhardt's Nubia, 36). Food for the crocodile is a Nubian phrase for one thrown into a river (op. cit. 146). In Melanesia they are believed to contain the spirit of a friend, and are tamed (Jour. Anthropological Institute, X, 306). Crocodiles are prayed to in Madagascar. The people are much afraid of them, and so they offer them prayers that they may not be troubled (Sibree's Madagascar, 270). Many persons in Madagascar won't kill them, except in revenge, and many wear the tooth as a charm. A golden crocodile's
