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Willem B. Bollée, Remarks on the Cultural History of the Ear in India
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6.3.3 Ear-splitting takes place with the Kānphat yogins.219 6.3.4 Abscission of the ears may originally be a punishment for severe larceny, then also for treason, defamation and adultery, which can be seen as a kind of theft. Thus Merutunga has king Prthvīrāja cut off the ears of his minister Somêśvara because he suspects him of favouring the enemy.220 The wicked yogini Sulasă is similarly punished for slander and severe misbehaviour.221 The punishment for adultery varies according to race and caste. A woman's ears may be cut off for adultery, as occurred to Rāvana's sister Sūrpanakhā when courting Rāma.222 Among the Pārdhi in Central India in either sex a piece of the left ear is sliced off with a razor.223 Jain recluses should not say of a person that his ears were cut off as it implies an offence.224 A Buddhist whose ears were cut into at the ear-piercing can be ordained, if they can be healed.225 Cropping the ears of dogs is pure human sadism in pseudo-aesthetic disguise.226 A strange rite is the removal of the placenta after birth by means of the right ear of a living male donkey cut off and dipped in a decoction of plants.227 To dream of one's ear being cut off is interpreted ambiguously: according to AVPar 68,2,10f. one will obtain external embellishment and knowledge, but in Jagaddeva 2,7 it means loss of wealth.228 6.4 Minor religious rites include a king's rubbing his ears with earth from a termitarium in order to hear of evil deeds planned against him.229 A case of calculated sadism is to pour hot oil into a dog's ear in order to induce Indra to stop torrential rain out of pity for the poor animal.230 In order to examine the ears of a doll one puts a thread into them.231 Though not a rite proper the juggler may be mentioned who puts iron balls in his mouth and takes them out through his ear or nose.232 The ear also
219 Briggs 1938. 220 Prabandhacintāmaņi 117,22 (nigrhīta-karņa). In German: Ehrverlust macht Ohrverlust ("loss of honour causes loss of ears"). 221 Kathākośa ed. Hofmann 277,24. See also the story of Dhanaśrī in Bollée 2010: [53]. 222 Rāmāyana (NSP. Bombay, 1930) 3,18,21, see also Kane 1973: III 395 (adultery with a lower-caste man who then was sentenced to death). Schubring 1932: 108 wrongly translates Dasaveyāliya 8,55 ("a monk should avoid contact with a man whose ear or nose have undergone a (pathological change"). It is still practised, e.g. in Afghanistan where the horrible custom is pilloried in Time 176 (August 9.2010). 223 Russell 1916: IV 364. 224 Āyāranga 2,4,2,1. 225 Samantapāsādikā 1026, 19 yassa pana kannâviddhe (kannā) chijjanti sakkā ca hoti samghāñetum, so kannam samghāñetvā pabbājetabbo. 226 E.g. Pāņini 6,1,115; Petavatthu 24:10 kanna-mundo sunakho. See further Bollée 2006b: 19 et passim (subject index). 227 Jolly 1977, 8 42. An explanation for the donkey ear is not given. 228 Näsā-śruti-karttanam ca bhavati yasya, ... tasya vasu-näśah. 229 König 1984: 115. 230 Bollée 2006b: 24 and 100. As against Śiva, we do not hear of a particular relationship of Indra with dogs. He only knows Saramā (RV 10,108,10). 231 Hemavijaya, Kath. 245,20. 232 VavBh I, p. 116 < Jain 1984: 264 note 5 (the place could not be found in my edition).
