Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 268

238
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[DECEMBER, 1931
The following points call for consideration, viz. :
(1) there is an indisputable connexion between the cattle and the pig;
(2) the pig is sacrificed for the benefit of the cattle;
(3) the pig is either tethered by means of ropes or buried up to its neck in the earth, in which state it is gored or trampled to death by the cattle;
(4) in Bihar in some places it is only cows which have calved recently that are set on the pig and kill it ;
(5) the idea of the pig-sacrifice is to avert disease from cattle; and also from men, e.g., by warding off epidemic, as in the case of worship to Pallalamma in which a young pig is impaled;
(6) in Madras the ceremony is performed at the village boundary, e.g., in the case of worship offered to Peddamma (or else the cart of Pallalamma is dragged to the village boundary, where both cart and ropes are left);
(7) the underlying idea is probably one of sin-transferring which is the same as diseasetransferring, or the scape-goat in some of its phases;
(8) originally the practice was human sacrifice, for which pig sacrifice has been substituted;
(9) the sacrifice dates as far back as the pastoral state of society and still continues to be characteristic of people now leading a nomadic or pastoral life;
(10) as subsequently cattle came to be used for agricultural purposes it came to be connected with agriculture, or else
(11) human sacrifice was originally connected with agriculture, i.e., the growing of corn, and therefore with the worship of the Corn Mother, Earth Mother, Mother Goddess, etc., and, as a result of the increasing difficulty of providing a human sacrifice, other animals were substituted, or even vegetables, etc.; and this sacrifice was handed down to contemporary pastoral society;
(12) the pig, though an abomination, was eaten by Bihar Goâlâs, suggesting that it was a sacramental feast; the pouring of wine by opening the mouth of the carcase being another noticeable feature;
(13) the Rajpût idea of the identification of the pig with the Mother Goddess, and the relation between the sacrificer, the sacrificed and the object of sacrifice;
(14) the pig represented evil, the demon, the killing of which must chase away evil and bring luck;
(15) the annual character of the ceremony, either on the last day of the year or the first day of the year; the different years and ceremonies attending on them;
(16) the offerer of sacrifice is in some parts a woman, or in her stead a man disguised as a woman or a man with feminine tendencies or a hermaphrodite or man masquerading as such-of some low caste, suggesting non-Aryan origin;
(17) the general idea is to secure prosperity to the community, whether pastoral or agricultural, by magic or religion, chasing away evil spirits by diverse means, e.g., by worshipping some goddess in her wrathful or benign aspects by some sacrifice originally human and then animal and vegetable.