Indian Antiquary Vol 56

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

Page 157

JULY, 1927]
THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF PUJA
135
instance seems to me a very characteristic one: in the Simla Hills--as well as elsewhere-it sometimes occurs that a Brahman or a Sadhu prohibits a man from taking possession of his own house ; but this interdict can be raised if the owner of the house sprinkles it with it few drops of his blood.87 The curse cf the holy man has brought the house under the influence of evil spirits, but they are sated and driven away by the red blood. In the Panjab, when there is an outbreak of cholera in a village, the plague may be cured by painting a young buffalo red and driving it into the next village88 ; it seems a bit doubtful whether it is only intended to drive away the plague demon or the animal is also looked upon as a sacrifice (scape-goat)-for, with red paste and red garlands one adorns the sacrifices to the god of Death, the condemned criminals89.
When amongst low-castes in Northern India the parting of the bride's hair is daubed with red paint, this, according to my opinion, does not mean "a survival of the old blood covenant,"90 but that there is a desire to protect her from evil influences at a very critical moment of her life. It is tempting to suggest, in view of this, that the tilakas which are: in use all over India and are daubed on the forehead with red sandal, gopicandana, etc., were originally meant to avert demons and the evil eye., I had long conceived this hypothesis, when, to my great pleasure, I found it suggested also by the late Dr. Crooke, Popular Religion, vol. II, p. 29.
Averting of evil influences no doubt is the idea underlying the mutual daubing with red powder and sprinkling with red-coloured water at the Holio; on this occasion the face is painted red 92, or red handprints are imprinted on one's own body and that of others 93—all apparently with the same intention.
Extremely wide-spread amongst Aryan and non-Aryan peoples inside and outside India is the sacrifice connected with the erecting of buildings and bridges, the digging of tanks, etc. It formerly generally took the form of a human sacrifice, sometimes of horrible pro. portions. It is well-known that the Sultan Alau'd-din Khilji of Delhi (A.D. 1316) at the found. ation of his new capital, Sirî, had its walls sprinkled with the blood of thousands of Mongolian captives94 Dr. Crooke" and Mr. Enthoven tell us about a curious habit : at the foundation of a house a red-painted wooden peg is driven into the ground and afterwards worshipped with lac, sandal paste and rice. It is called the peg of Shesh Nâg", and the idea is said to be that Seșa, who carries the earth and, like other snakes, has a tendency to turn towards the right and thus cause earthquakes, should be made to keep steady. But this explanation is a late and artificial one. There is scarcely a doubt that the fixing of the red-painted peg was originally a sacrifice to the evil spirits of the earth who had been disturbed by the new foundation.
87 Rose, l.c., vol. I, p. 204 n. The author expressively states (I, p. 208) that in the Himalayas any demon can be scared away by some red paint or red ochre deposited under a pipal tree, at a cross rond, at a tank or on a cremation ground.
89 Rose, L.c., vol. I, pp. 140, 356.
• Zachariæ, 1.c., p. 212. Scapegoats are still adorned with red flowers. Enthoven, I.c., p. 260, tells how in Konkan and the Deccan at the outbreak of an epidemic a cock or a goat adorned with red garlands is led outside the village. Hanging with garlands is generally looked upon as an initiation to sacrificial death; cf. Rohde Psyche, vol. I, p. 220 ; Samter, Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod, p. 184 n.
90 Crooke, Popular Religion, vol. II, p. 173 (cf. also what is said, ibid. p. 257).
1 Crooke. Popular Religion, vol. II, p. 173; Folk-lore, vol. XXV, pp. 68,72, etc. 93 Folk-lore, vol. XXV, p. 64. 93 Stevenson, &.c., p. 286 27. Cf. also Vogel, Verslagen en Mededeelingen, Afd. Letterkunde 5: IV, p. 219 ff. # cj. Smith, Oxford History of India, p. 934. 95 Folk-lore, vol. XXIX, p. 130.
* Cf., c., p. 302.