Indian Antiquary Vol 56

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

Page 158

136
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1927
Though infinitely more could be added, this may be sufficient for the present purpose..7 Everywhere we meet with the same idea : the red colour is a devil-scaring one-often, but not generally, a substitute for blood-and serves the purpose of averting the influence of the evil spirits present everywhere. Thus the painting and daubing of the idols and of one's own person with red colour-stuffs originate in the same idea; and from these rites which belong to a very primitive stage of religious development the central elements of the půjá, which has for long been of so great importance within Hinduism, draw their origin.
VEDIC STUDIES. BY A. VENKATASUBBIAH, M.A., Ph.D. (Continued from page 116.)
4. Phaliga. This is a rare word which occurs but in four passages of the Rgveda (1, 62, 4; 1, 121, 10; 4,50,5; 8, 32, 25) and except in a repetition of one of these passages (4, 50,5) in the TS., MS., KS, and AV., does not occur elsewhere. The meanings assigned by the commentators to this word are various. The Vedic Nighantu 1, 10, 17, includes this word among the meghandmani; and it is divided in the RV. Padapatha (but not in the TS. Padapatha) into phalis-ga. Sayana explains the word, RV., 1, 62, 4, as phalam pratiphalam pratibimbam tad asminn astiti phali svaccham udakam tad gacchaty adhâratveneti phaligo meghah || 19 This etymology is repeated in his comment on TS. 2, 3, 14, 4 (p. 1663 of the Anandabrama ed.); but phaliga is here made out to be equivalent to pratibandha, obstacle, thus : phaligam phalam asyastiti phali yajamánah tam gacchati prápnotiti phaligah tådréam .. prati. bandham. In RV., 4, 50, 5 he explains the word as niphald visarare | phalir bhedah tena gacchatîti phaligam | valam valanámánam asuram.20 Bhattabh Askara too, on the above passage of the TS. explains (p. 102) the word as phaligam | svacchodakapůrnam balavadudakam và ravena babdena upalakshitam valam ravena na phaligam giriguhadishu pratiphalavantam.
Böhtlingk and Roth in their dictionary say that the word means a cask, bag, or similar receptacle of a liquid. So also does Grassmann in his Wörterbuch where he however gives & second meaning, cloud'. In his Translation he has further interpreted the word as *cave '(1, 62, 4; 4,50,5?). Ludwig has translated it variously as 'flaming' (1, 62, 4), 'dark' (4,50,5), 'water-cloud '(8,32, 25), and as a proper name in 1, 121, 10). In this last respect he is followed by Geldner (Ved. St., 2, p. 173) who, however, in his RV. Glossar suggests the meaning
97 As Professor Zacharia, 1.c., p. 153 n. 2, has also said something about the devil-scaring power of the yellow colour, a few additions to this may be given here. The Raja of Bastar in the Central Provinces, who at the Dasahra functions as a priont, is thus smeared with sandal and dressed in yellow clothes, Crooke, Folk-lore, vol. XXVI, p. 33; a man who on his death-bed becomes a Sannyåsi dons & saffron-coloured robo, Stevenson, 1.c., p. 139. The clearest instance is perhaps furnished by the Rajputs by their well-known habit of donning saffron-coloured robes when going to battle and especially when trying their last out break from & besieged fort, cf. Tod, Annals ed. Crooke, vol. I, p. 226 and passim; at the same time their woman folk committed the horrible holocaust called jauhar (cf. on this word the remark of Sir G. Grierson in Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, p. 72 n.), and all became satis. In this connection it seems possible to suggest that the yellow or orange-coloured robe (kodishaya) of the Buddhist monk was originally meant to be a means of scaring the evil spirits ; like several other implements, etc., it may have its origin in pre. Buddhist monkhood. As demon-scaring colours are at the same time often considered to be ominous, this may account for the circumstance often alluded to in literature, that the meeting with a Buddhist friar was considered unlucky. Saffron, just as well as turmeric, is looked upon as demon-scaring, cf. Folklore, vol. XXXVI, p. 42. According to Tod, Lc., vol. II, p. 1050, mon condemned to death were smeared with saffron ; in the South, walls are at times daubed with saffron or yellow clay in order to drive off the evil spirits, cf. Elmore, 1.c., p 66; and the Matangi, the curious priestess of cortain Dravidian castes, daubs the foreheads of her worshippers with saffron and turmerie, cf. ibid., p. 44 n.
19 This is the oxplanation given by Devaraja in his commentary on the Nighantu. 20 This is the explanation of Madhava as citod by Devaraja, loc. cit,