Jain Journal 2006 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 11

JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLI, NO. I JULY 2006
Daro peoples. Whether as one of the eight forms of Siva, the Fish was one of the eight constellations of the Mahenjo-Daro zodiac. Indeed one of the most popular forins of God with the Mahenjo-Daro peoples was certainly the Fish. One of the inscriptions excavated out of Mahenjo-Daro (110. 42 of Marshall in his Mahenjo-Daro) has a representation of a large sized ram with the head of a fish bearing horns of both sides. An, the Mahenjo-Darian god, is called' Fisheyed'. The connection of the 'Fish-eyed An of Mahenjo-Daro with the paurāṇic Siva has already been established and the Fish forms one of the connecting links, between them. The later texts like Kālikā-Purrāna states that the cupid (kūma) became devoted to Siva after being restored to life so much so that he installed the image of Siva in his fish-form . Studied in the light of the allied pauranic conception of the Fish-form of Lord Vişnu, in which he appeared in one of his ten Avatāras, the fish ideology seems to have inspired the pauranic seers with a sense of reverance for the symbol as embodying the idea of beauty and creation. With the idea of creation and abundance in view, the fish is also associated with the inother-goddess. Indeed, souch a figure has been actually excavated out of the ruins at Rairh in Jaipore State. The modern practice in Hindu homes, specially in Bengal and some other places is to put a fish in the hands of a newly wedded bride on her first arrival at the place of her husband perhaps symbolising the idea of fertility and abundance of the
53. Cf. Marshall: Mahenjo-daro : Ins. no. 214- "The Supreme Being of the Fish
God (is) in front”. 54. A.P. Karmarkar: The Fish in Indian Folk Lore (Annals of the Bhandarkar Or.
Res. Institute, Vol. XXIV, p. 191f. 55. Kalikāpurāna, ch.82, vv. 50-52. 56. Excavations at Rairh, Archl. Department, Jaipore, pp. 28-29. 57. The custom prevails also among some Southern People, e.g., the Holeyaras
of Canara, that the newly wedded couple is taken to a river and are made to catch some fish with the wedding mat woven by birds, signifying the fertility of the couple. A.P. Karmarkar : The Fish in Indian Folk Lore (Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. XXIV. p. 196.