Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 267

DECEMBER, 1931)
THE GAYDANR FESTIVAL AND ITS PARALLELS
237
village are driven over the unhappy pig." He quotes Thurston, Ethnographical Notes in Southern India (p. 507):
"In former times the Lambadis, -before setting out on a journey, used to procure a little child and bury it in the ground up to its shoulders, and then drive their loaded bullocks over the unfortunate victim. In proportion to the bullocks thoroughly trampling the child to death, so their belief in a successful journey increased.''
It will have been noticed that the only difference in this charm to secure the success of the journey, or yatra, is that a child was sacrificed instead of a pig. Evidently originally human sacrifice was offered, subsequently pigs, lambs, fowls, etc., being substituted.
The Bishop very cogently remarks: "It is possible that this custom of driving the cattle over the head of a buriod pig may be connected with the worship of an agricultural goddess, since in ancient Greece the pig was sacred to agricultural deities, e.g., Aphrodite, Adonis and Demeter ; but it may also be a survival of some former custom of infanticide or human sacrifice such as prevailed among the Lambadis." 10 Dr. Elmore says that "it is a common custom of the Lambadis to bury a pig leaving the head above ground when they are about to start on a journey. The cattle are then driven over it and trample the pig to death. This appears to be a survival of the practice of human sacrifice. The same custom of burying pigs alive was notiood above in connexion with the worship of Nadividhi Sakti. The similarity in the two rites points to a common origin. It may be that, as the Lambadis have adopted many gods from the Dravidians, they have adopted this custom, too, because of the difficulty of obtaining human sacrifices. ...Another informant, one of their own number, admits human sacrifice, but says that it has ceased within the past ten or twelve years because of the vigilance of the government. He says that the cattle do not trample the victim, but rush by on either side, while the victim is left to die of starvation unless some passer-by rescues him."!!
The following account of ceremonies observed when founding a new village in the Telugu country is interesting :
“An auspicious site is selected and an auspicious day, and then in the centre of the site is dug a large hole in which are placed different kinds of grain, small pieces of five metals, gold, silver, copper, iron and lead, and a large stone called boddurayes, i.e., navel-stone, standing about three and a half feet above the ground, very like the ordinary boundary stone seen in the fields. And then, at the entrance of the village in the centre of the main street, where most of the cattle pass in and out on their way to and from the fields, they dig another hole and bury a pig alive. This ceremony would be quite consistent with either of the explana. tions suggested as to the origin of pig burying. The pig may be buried at the entrance to the village, as the emblem of fertility and strength, to secure the prosperity of the agricultural community, the fertility of the fields, and the health and fecundity of the catlle. Or it may equally be a substitute for an original human sacrifice."13
The Bishop further refers to the custom at one time practised by the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills" to place female children, whom it was not desired to rear, on the ground at the entrance of the mund, i.e., & group of huts, and drive buffaloes over them " and to "the Mala. gasy custom of placing a new-born child at the entrance of a cattle pen, and then driving the cattle over it, to see whether they would trample on it or not."13
Enthoven in his Folklore of Bombay connects the wild boar with the prevention against and remedy for cattle disease." In Hubli and Karnatak a practice prevails of killing a wild boar and burying it feet upwards beyond the village boundary."14 9 Ibid., p. 69.
10 Ibid., p. 19. 11 W. T. Elmore-Dravidian Goda in Modern Hinduism, 1925, pp. 43-45. 13 Whitehead, op. cit., p. 60. (Italics are mine.) 13 Ibid., p. 61. 14 R. E. Enthoven-The Folklore of Bombay, 1924, p. 316, and Intro., p. 22.