Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 155

JULY, 1927]
THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF PUJA
133
Dravidians,89 are painted with saffron and turmeric, and that snake stones are daubed with oil and red ochre.70 A gramadevatá called Usaramma is often washed and smeared with saffron; and this is also the case with other godlings. 71 The blood of the sacrificial animals is smeared on the stones or the rough idols, or these and the animals themselves are sprinkled with water and red paint.73
We might also remember that the castes in general seem to worship their various tools on certain occasions. Tod73 tells us how the Râjpûts painted their guns with the blood of sacrificed goats before the battle. The ill-famed Thugs at certain times performed a regular půjd to the pick-axe, which was not only one of their most important tools but also one of their deities; they washed it with plain and sugared water, curds and liquor and then daubed it in seven places with red ochre. 74 In the Deccan agricultural tools are sometimes worshipped; they are then washed and smeared with red ochre.76 From other regions is reported the painting of cart-wheels with red or white colours. 76 Also the weapons of the soldiers are daubed with red powder on certain occasions 7; and at Jeypore in Vizagapatam a sword is smeared with red sandal and worshipped at the Dasahra, and the weapons are sprinkled with the blood of the sacrificial animals. T*
Already the material quoted above which has been collected at .random from various works is quite sufficient to show us that all over India a wide-spread form of worship consists in daubing or painting the sacred objects with oily and red-coloured stuffs. Nor can it be doubted that this rite has its origin in very primitive conditions as it is still mostly practised by low-caste people, who worship as their gods rough stones and uncarved logs of wood. We should also notice that this rite is frequently used in the worship of those gods of advanced Hinduism, who, like Ganesa and Hanumân, still betray their low origin, though they have long dwelt within the pantheon of Brahmanism. The present pû já has long been at home in Brahmanism and has become very complicated, as have most of the rituals of the Brahmans; but, notwithstanding that, one of its main elements is the daubing and smearing of the idols with sandal, etc. and washing them with honey, sugar, ghi etc. Consequently, I can see no obstacle to the suggestion that this rite originated long ago with the primitive and still very wide-spread daubing and painting of the stones, logs or idols with oil and red dyestuffs. From this it follows that the only etymology of the word půjd which can possibly be correct is the one which derives it from the Dravidian púgu-, pusu. "to paint, to daub. to smear." The rite and the name of it alike must, however, have been introduced into Hinduism at a very early date; this is proved by the fact that already Yâska and Panini use' půj. and půjd in a sense which is no longer the original one.
V.
I have now only to say a few words concerning the religious or magic ideas that may possibly underlie this smearing and daubing with red and yellow colours.
The explanation nearest at hand would undoubtedly be that the red colour is used instead of blood which, during an older and more brutal age, was only and alone used for smearing the idols. Such an explanation seems quite obvious and has probably been propounded more than once. And it is quite true that the daubing of idols and other cult 60 CJ. Elmore, 1.c., p. 24, etc.
70 Thurston, l.c., pp. 170, 176, 178 71 Elmore, 1.c., pp. 35, 4.
73 Elmore, 1.c., pp. 56, 60. 73 Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthuin (ed. Crooke), vol. II, p. 1041 sq. 74 Cf. c.9., Crooke, Popular Religion, vol. I, p. 184 sq. 75 Enthoven, l.c., p. 304.
76 Thurston, L.e., p. 175. 77 Stevenson, l..., p. 332.
78 Crooke, Folk-lore, vol. XXVI, p. 34. Herodotus, V, 62, tells us that the chief god of the Scythians was a sword which they worshipped with human sacrifices; cf. what Ammianus Marcellinus, XXXI : 2, 23, tells about the Alans.