Acta Orientalia

Home , Dabral (surname), Elena Bashir, Handel (crater)

ACTA ORIENTALIA

EDIDERUNT

SOCIETATES ORIENTALES DANICA FENNICA NORVEGIA SVECIA

CURANTIBUS LEIF LITTRUP, HAVNIÆ HEIKKI PALVA, HELSINGIÆ ASKO PARPOLA, HELSINGIÆ TORBJÖRN LODÉN, HOLMIÆ SIEGFRIED LIENHARD, HOLMIÆ SAPHINAZ AMAL NAGUIB, OSLO PER KVÆRNE, OSLO WOLFGANG-E. SCHARLIPP, HAVNIÆ

REDIGENDA CURAVIT CLAUS PETER ZOLLER

LXXV

Contents

ARTICLES ILIJA ČAŠULE: Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection ...... 3 JEFF EDEN: The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah: New Evidence from the Lund University Archives ...... 31 STEFAN BOJOWALD: Eine philologische Note zum Wort „Hmk.t“ in pChester Beatty VII, vso I, 5 ...... 47 ALOÏS VAN TONGERLOO UND MICHAEL KNÜPPEL: Einige Briefe von Georg Jacob (1862-1937) an Willi Bang Kaup (1869-1934) ... 59 STEFAN BOJOWALD: Zu einigen mit ägyptisch „hbi“ „Ibis“ gebildeten Wortspielen ...... 73 RAM PRASAD BHATT, HEINZ WERNER WESSLER & CLAUS PETER ZOLLER: Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia and the hymn of the Garhwali fairy ‘Daughter of the Hills’...... 79

BOOK REVIEWS CACOPARDO, AUGUSTO S. Natale pagano. Feste d’inverno nello Hindu Kush, reviewed by Simone Cristoforetti ...... 1677

Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection

Ilija Čašule Macquarie University

Abstract

Based on previous research on the very strong correlations between the Burushaski and Phrygian languages, expanded in this article, we discuss in detail the direct mythological correspondence between Burushaski hargín ‘dragon’ and Phrygian argwitas ‘dragon’. We also contemplate a possible etymology for Indo-European *silVbVr- ‘silver’. The proposition of a historical link between Burushaski and Phrygian is reconsidered, as well as the gene evidence that locates the Burusho within North-Western Indo-European.

Keywords: Burushaski, Phrygian, genetic classification, Indo- European, mythology, names for ‘dragon’ and ‘silver’.

1. Introduction

1.1 Burushaski studies and Indo-European Burushaski is a language-isolate spoken by around 90,000 people (Berger 1990: 567) in the Karakoram area in North-West Pakistan. Its dialectal differentiation is minor. There are three very closely related 4 Ilija Čašule dialects: Hunza and Nager with minimal differences, and the Yasin dialect, which exhibits some differential traits. The earliest, mostly sketchy, material for Burushaski is from the mid to late 19th century (e.g. Cunningham 1854, Hayward 1871, Biddulph 1880, Leitner 1889). The principal sources for Nagar and Hunza Burushaski are Lorimer (1935-1938) and Berger (1998), and for Yasin Burushaski, Zarubin (1927), Berger (1974) and Tiffou-Morin (1989) and Tiffou- Pesot (1989). Edel’man-Klimov’s (1970) analysis, revised and summarised in Edel’man (1997) is valuable in the quality of the grammatical description. Berger’s (2008) synthesis is very important for the historical phonology and morphology of Burushaski and its internal reconstruction. We have provided a full correlation of Burushaski with Indo- European, outside of Indic and Iranian. In our etymological analyses we have found consistent and systematic lexical, phonological and most importantly, extensive and fundamental grammatical correspondences (the latter are outlined in Čašule (2003b: 69–79) and significantly expanded in the Addendum (8.) to Čašule [2012b]). The Burushaski numeral system is correlated with Indo-European in Čašule (2009b). In an extensive analysis and comparison of the Burushaski shepherd vocabulary with Indo-European Čašule (2009a) identifies some 30 pastoral terms that are of Indo-European (non-Indo-Iranian) origin in Burushaski, one third of which show direct and specific correspondences with the ancient Balkan substratal layer of shepherd terms in Albanian, Romanian and Aromanian. The correspondences (over 70 of them) in the core vocabulary of names of body parts and functions can be found in Čašule (2003a). Čašule (2010) focuses on the original Burushaski Indo- European vocabulary (over 150 stems with many derivatives) that contains the reflexes of the Indo-European gutturals and correlations are established with various Indo-European branches. The correspondence of the Burushaski kinship terms (32 terms) with Indo- European is ana-lysed in Čašule (2013). On the basis of the analysis of over 500 etymologies (with well over 1000 derivatives) and the highly significant correspon-dences in the grammatical and derivational system (noun stems, all nominal case endings and plural endings, the verbal system and prefixes, suffixes and endings, the complete non-finite verbal system, all of the Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 5 adjectival suffixes, the entire system of demonstratives, personal pronouns, postpositions, adverbs, etc.), in Čašule (2012b) we conclude that Burushaski is genetically related to Indo-European, more specifically with the North-Western Indo-European branch, and a language transformed typologically through contact with an agglutinative and ergative language (also Čašule 2010: 70). Eric P. Hamp (R), in the review of Čašule (2012a), based on the full body of evidence, and in support of our work, states: “Burushaski is at bottom Indo-European [italics EH] – more correctly in relation to IE or IH, maybe (needs more proof) IB[uru]” and further conjectures: “I have wondered if Burushaski is a creolized derivative; now I ask (Čašule 2009a) is it a shepherd creole ? (as in ancient Britain)”. In Hamp (2013: 8–9) he proposes an assured sister relationship between Burushaski and Indo-Hittite.

1.2 The Phrygian language Phrygian is an ancient Balkan language of the people who settled around 1300 BCE in Asia Minor, west of modern Ankara in an area long dominated by the Hitto-Luwian languages. They became a major power in Anatolia and developed a remarkable civilization. According to ancient sources [(Herodotus VIII: 73) (Strabo VIII: 295, q. in Georgiev (1981: 143)], the Phrygians originally came from the Balkan Peninsula, i.e. Macedonia where they lived in the neighbourhood of Thracians and Macedonians. As stated by Georgiev (Ibid): “Long ago the Phrygians occupied a position in the Balkan Peninsula which was central between the Greeks and Macedonians, Mysians and Thracians, Thracians and Pelasgians.” Phrygian is preserved in inscriptions (some 240) dating from the VIII to the III centuries BCE (Old Phrygian) and some 100 inscriptions from the 1st century CE to the IV century CE. Some scholars believe that the language was extinct by the VII century CE (Mallory-Adams 1997: 418). There are some 50 Phrygian glosses registered by the ancient lexicographers, especially by Hesychius (but also Neoptolemus, Clemens Alexandrinus). The major sources for Phrygian are Haas (1966), Neroznak (1978: 66–156), Brixhe and Lejeune (1984), Diakonoff and Neroznak (1985) and Orel (1997). Phrygian is an Indo-European language, which according to some Indo-Europeanists (Hamp 1990) belongs to its North-Western branch. Orel (1997) decisively states that Phrygian is a kentum 6 Ilija Čašule language. Diakonoff and Neroznak (1985: 42) indicate that inside the Indo-European linguistic family Phrygian “was decidedly a ‘central’ language (…) The Phrygian words show the most numerous semantic isoglosses with Greek and Balto-Slavic; if more could be known of Thracian and Pelasgian, and more had been preserved of the original vocabulary of Armenian and Albanian, these languages, no doubt, would also occupy very important places among the nearest relatives of Phrygian.” For further details refer to the extensive study on the numerous and significant Burushaski lexical correspondences in ritual, myth and onomastics with the Phrygian language (Čašule 2004: 50–104), and earlier in Čašule (1998: 21–30). The Phrygian expert Neroznak (1998: x) has stated that “the lexical parallels proposed by the author [Čašule] between Burushaski and Phrygian (the most documented of the Paleobalkanic languages) are highly convincing.” In this paper we reconsider and expand what we believe is the strongest evidence for a close correlation between the Burushaski and Phrygian languages.

2. Etymological analysis of Burushaski hargín and Phrygian argwitas

2.1 Preliminaries We reproduce for easier reference Berger’s (1998 I: 13) table of the phonological system of Hz Ng Burushaski, which is valid for the Yasin dialect as well (Ys Bur does not have the phoneme ċh – see also Tiffou-Pesot (1989: 7-9):

a ṣ ś s e o qh kh ṭh th cḥ ćh ċh ph i u q k ṭ t c ̣ ć ċ p ḍ d j ̣ j z b ṅ n m ỵ h l r

Notes: 1. All five vowels can be long. 2. Retroflex consonants are marked with an underdot. 3. w and y are allophones of u and i. 4. ċ = ts in Lorimer and c in Tiffou- Pesot (1989). 5. ġ = γ is a voiced fricative velar /ɣ/. See Čašule (2010) on the Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 7 extensive variation of ġ and g. 6. ṅ = [ŋ] or [ng] [nk]. 7. ỵ is a retroflex. 8. A hyphen before a word indicates that it is used only with the pron. prefixes. For the internal variation and alternations see Čašule (2010: 5–19) (2003b: 24–29).

We also reproduce the summary of phonological correspondences between Indo-European and Burushaski (Čašule 2010: 11-12):

IE a > Bur a; IE e > Bur e : Hz, Ng i; IE e (unstr.) > Bur a; IE ē> Bur ée; IE o > Bur ó IE o (unstr.) > Bur a, u; IE ō >Bur oó, óo; IE i > Bur I; IE u > Bur u IE ai, ei, oi; eu > Bur a; IE au, ou > Bur u

PIE h1- > Bur h-; PIE h1e- > Bur he-; PIE h1u̯ er- > Bur har- : -war- : her- PIE h2- > Bur h-; PIE h2e- > Bur ha-; PIE h2u̯ e- > Bur -we- : -wa- PIE ha- > Bur h-; PIE hae- > haa- > Bur ha-; PIE h4- > Bur h-; PIE h4e- > h4a- > Bur ha- PIE h3- > Bur h-; PIE h3e- > h3o- > Bur ho-; PIE hx- > Bur h-; PIE h1/2i > Bur i-

IE l, m, n, r > Bur l, m, n, r; IE u̯ > Bur -w/-u; IE u̯ - > Bur b-, also m-; IE i̯ > Bur y/i IE m̥ > Bur –um, -am; IE n̥ > Bur -un, -an; IE r̥ > Bur -ur, -ar; IE l̥ > Bur –ul, -al

IE p > Bur p, ph, also b-; IE b > Bur b, also m (rare); IE bh > Bur b, also m (rare) IE t > Bur t : th (rare) : ṭ , and d-; IE d > Bur d; IE dh- > Bur d-; IE VdhV > Bur -t-, -ṭ- IE k > Bur k : kh, k : q1; IE kw > Bur k; IE k̂ > Bur k : kh, k : q IE g > Bur ġ; IE gh > Bur g; IE gw > Bur ġ; IE gwh > Bur ġ; IE ĝ> Bur g, ġ; IE ĝh- > Bur g, ġ IE s > Bur s or s : ċ , ċh; IE ks > Bur ś

Berger (1998) gives a very careful account of words that may be of Indo-Aryan (including “Sanskritisms”) or Iranian origin in Burushaski. His methodology in this respect, apart from his own fieldwork and of others, like Lorimer, Morgenstierne etc, is to look up and check very carefully against the index to Turner’s (1966) A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. Wherever there is a match, regardless whether the word is found in Shina, Khowar or anywhere in Indo-Aryan, Berger indicates the lemma number in Turner. Interestingly, 45 Indo-Aryan stems indicated by Berger are not found in Shina or Khowar, but appear in Burushaski and could be in some cases an overlap. They are not taken into account in our Indo-European comparisons. Thus almost all words marked as T in Berger are excluded from the comparisons with Burushaski, as well as all Urdu matches. Any possible Iranian loanwords have been checked by Berger against Steblin-Kamenskij’s (1999, possibly an earlier version) Wakhi etymological dictionary,

1 For a detailed analysis of the alternations k:kh, k:q, k:qh, kh:q, q:qh and g:ġ, see Čašule (2010: 14-18). 8 Ilija Čašule earlier also by the eminent Iranist, Edel’man. 2 Thus, Berger’s indications as to which words and forms are indigenous in Burushaski are accurate and exhaustive. Furthermore, the Burushaski material has already been sifted carefully for Persian, Urdu and Indo-Aryan loanwords by Berger, Lorimer, Morgenstierne, Zarubin, Edel'man, Klimov, Varma, Tiffou, Buddruss, Tikkanen and other scholars who have studied the language – their findings are conveniently mostly incorporated in Berger (1998). The main source I have used for further comparison with Indo-Aryan is Turner (1966) and with Persian, Steingass (1999) [1892]. To be even more certain, in addition, the Kalasha, Khowar, Dardic, Burushaski and Urdu specialist Elena Bashir of the University of Chicago has looked carefully at all of our material in order to sift again the etymologies for any Indo-Aryan loanwords.

2.2 Burushaski hargín and Phrygian argwitas Burushaski has the word hargín ‘dragon, ogre, which comes into being from an ordinary snake, when it becomes big and old’ (B 193), in neighbouring Shina ‘female snake’ (L 196). The word is not found in precisely the same form anywhere else in Indo-Aryan. Jettmar (1975: 285, q. in Zoller 2010: 55) mentions in the Hindukush, but without specific details, Hargin as the name for a constrictor “with a golden mane” (he could well have been referring to the Burushaski word itself). Lorimer (L 196) glosses the Burushaski word with Panj magər maččh. Berger provides the Nager idiomatic expression: in hargín talénu bái ‘he listens to no exhortations’ (~“he wouldn’t heed a hargín”). There is a possibly related mythological creature under the name of H̯ agrin in Roma mythology which is “a demonic being in the shape of a porcupine with a length of ½ m and a breadth of 1 span. Hagrin afflicts sleeping animals, especially those which have been just delivered, by sitting on their back and by having its urine running down over them through which purulent abscesses develop” (Berger 1985: 793, tr. by Zoller 2010: 55, who considers it a loanword into

2 I note here with gratitude the early support for my work by Dž. Edel’man and G.A. Klimov. Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 9

Roma). The semantics is however significantly different to the Buru- shaski meaning and involves metathesis of the liquid. No one has been able to put forward an Indo-Aryan, Dravidian or Tibetan etymology for these words. In Čašule (2004: 74) we argued for a strong and direct correspondence of the Burushaski hargín ‘dragon’ with the Phrygian gloss in Hesychius argwitas (α̇ργυι̃τας. τὴν λάμιαν. Φρύγες ‘dragon, Lamia’ (Neroznak 1978: 136). The existing etymology for the Phrygian word is: argwitas < *h2erĝ-(n̥ t-om) ‘white (metal), silver’ : OIr argat, MWels aryan(t), Lat argentum, Arma arcat’, Luw harkan[za], Av ərəzatəm, OPers ardata, all: ‘silver’ (M-A 518) (< ‘bright, shiny’) + *u̯ ed- (*u̯ eid-ā-) ‘know’ or ‘see’, i.e. ‘silver- knowing’ (Diakonoff, Neroznak 1985: 93).3 To explain the semantics, Neroznak (Ibid) indicates that a Lamia in antiquity was a mythological woman-snake and points out that in folkore snake-like monsters often guard a treasure. 4 The example given above by Jettmar actually brings to the fore the meaning of ‘metal’ and a slightly different and more general and vague signification. Even though his reference is to a golden and not a silver mane, the same underlying semantics is of ‘metal (shiny, bright)’. These in-terpretations make the semantic match between Burushaski and Phrygian exact.

3 There is a tentative indication that Phrygian might have had an initial laryngeal, in a single Phrygian gloss (h)arman ‘battle’, which Neroznak (1978: 136) relates to OInd árma-ā-ḥ- ‘destruction, ruins’, from PIE *h2erhx- ‘destroy, fall apart; lose’ : OInd árdha ‘half, part’ — in IA without -r-, e.g. Pali, Pkrt aḍḍha-, addha-; Lat rārus ‘rare’, Lith ìrti ‘fall apart, dissolve’, PSl *oriti, ‘destroy’ (G 520), Hitt harra- ‘destroy’ and with ur- in Mcd urne (se) ‘fall down (cliff, stones, building), knock over; pull down; throw to the ground’ (RMJ III) (M-A 158). Compare with Bur: Ys do-hór-, Hz Ng do-ór- ‘fall down (cliff, stones, house)’, also d-̇ur- ‘pull down, knock down, hit the ground’, Ng also ‘ruin, wreck’ (Ys d-̇hor-) (B 308). The Bur verbal prefix d- is used to form secondary intransitives (B 108) or action directed towards the speaker (e.g. in verbs like ‘come’, ‘bring’ etc.) (analogous to the semantics of the Slavic pref. and prep. do- ‘up to, towards the speaker’) < IE *do- (dem. stem). Also Sl da ‘and; in order to, yes’ and Bur dáa ‘again, and, also, moreover; another, other’ (B 108), and further dakhíl ‘like this, thus’, an alternative form of akhíl ‘same’ (B 110). For comprehensive analyses of the Burushaski d-prefix, see Tiffou (1993), and esp. Tikkanen (1999), and Bashir (2004). 4 In Bulgarian folkore, the treasure guarded by the Lamia consists of gold, silver and gems (Radenković 2001: 330). 10 Ilija Čašule

Note also in Burushaski the plant name 1hargál ‘Convolvulus arvensis Linn. Ackerwinde’ (B 195), Eng “field bindweed, with trumpet-shaped white or pale pink flowers and light brown fruit.” It is most likely that it also contains the same Indo-European stem *h2erĝ- ‘white’ + a suffix *a-lo. Phonologically in Burushaski we could have: *hargwitas > *harguitas > *hargit and by association with the form *hargint- > hargín. Another derivational possibility for the Burushaski word is simply from an adjectival form in -en, IE *h2erĝ-h1en- ‘bright, shiny’ [cp. with the IE -en- suffix forming nouns and adjectives (with many variants) (Wat 23) > Bur nom. and adj. suffix -(e)n: Bur meén ‘old’ (B 285) < IE *meh1(i)- ‘grow’, Bur ġḗn ‘thief’ < ġḗ- Ys ‘steal’ (B 175)]. If we take as a starting point the meaning of ‘silver-knowing’, then Burushaski hargín can be analysed perhaps as a compound word: *harg- ‘silver’ + ġen- > hen- ‘know’. The second component could be derived from IE *ĝen-, *ĝenh3-, *ĝneh3- ‘know, be(come) acquainted with, perceive’ (M-A 336–337)5, preserved in Burushaski ġan-́ ‘to appear, seem, be visible’ (B 168) (with semantics as in TochB and Bret ), Yasin also -ġán- ‘see, viewʼ (with semantics closer to Greek) and the negated aqhén ‘nothing to look at, insignificant, unimpressive, inconspicuous’, in Ys also ġên ‘visible’ (B 20). There is also the neg. akhén- ‘not to know, not to understand’ which is derived internally from Bur hénas ‘to know, understand’, adj. ‘intelligent, wise’ (B 196), also adj. akhénas ‘ungrateful’. It appears that in these examples we are dealing with minor phonetic variation within one and the same stem. It could be that in hén-, the initial h- is from an older *hn < *ġn. For wider mythological connections we refer to Čausidis (2005) who dedicates an entire chapter on the woman-snake. He finds it among the Paeonians (an Ancient Balkan people inhabiting Macedonia, who are considered a population related to the Thracians

5 In Indo-European: OIr ad-gnin- ‘recognises’, Bret neus ‘appearance’, OHG kunnan ‘know, be able to’, Lett zināt ‘know’, OSl znati ‘to know’, Arm caneay ‘knew’, Av zānāiti ‘knows’, OInd jāná̄ ti ‘knows, recognises, perceives, understands’, Lat (g)nōsco ‘know’, Gk gignó̄ scō ‘learn, know, perceive, observe’, Alb njoh ‘know’, Hitt ganēszi ‘recognises’ and especially relevant to the Burushaski semantic development, TochB nānā ‘appear’ < (‘come to be known’), TochA knānā ‘know’ (M-A 336-7). Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 11 or the Bryges / Phrygians6), the Scythians and the Slavs. From these Pontic mythologemes he derives the Swiss and Low Saxon legends of a ‘half-woman, half-serpent’ who guards the treasures hidden in the caves, called Schlangenjungfrau and weiße Jungfrau. The semantics of ‘white’ is perhaps relevant to our analysis. Čausidis, notes moreover the legend of Meluzina in the Middle Ages (14th century) considered to be of Celtic provenience. The latter is semantically most interesting for our discussion and semantically very similar to the Burushaski term, because Meluzina periodically gets transformed into a half-woman half-snake and in the end into a flying dragon (Čausidis 2005: 183). Čausidis (2008: 168-169)7 finds in this regard further Paleobalkanic archaeological evidence from Macedonia, especially the find in Korešnica where thin silver-plated scales have been unearthed, possibly part of an armour, which he considers symbolically related to the zoomorphed women, i.e. to their snake traits. Under all three interpretations this unique connection between Phrygian argwitas ‘dragon’ and Burushaski hargín ‘dragon’ is semantically direct and specific and phonologically precise.

3. Etymological analysis of Burushaski burí ‘silver’ and IE *silVbVr- ‘silver’

The Burushaski word for ‘silver’: burí derives by an identical semantic development as IE *h2erĝ-n̥ t-om ‘silver’ from *h2erĝ- ‘white’, i.e. from Bur burúm ‘white’ (B 64) which we correlate with IE *bher- ‘bright, shining; brown’, e.g. the suffixed variant form *bhrū-no-, OEng brūn ‘brown’, OFr brun ‘shining, brown’ (Wat 10), which Pokorny correlates with *bherəĝ- ‘to shine; bright, white’ (IEW 139) (Wat 11). Under one interpretation (Berneker, Vasmer

6 “[The Paeonians] were people that since oldest times settled on the Axius river. Strabo (q. in KatIčić 1976: 117) describes the Paeonians as Thracians, but in another passage links them to the Phrygians. The evidence is so scarce and contradictory that opinions are divided, and some believe they belong to the “Illyrian” complex, others that they are descendants of the Phrygians of Asia Minor or of Hellenic stock. Katičić (Ibid: 116–120) outlines the different views. 7 Čausidis (p.c.) has alerted me to another possibility, that of the myth of Kadmos searching for gold or silver and Harmonia, who is half-serpent, being the one guarding the treasure, thus ‘silver-knowing’. 12 Ilija Čašule apud ESSJ III: 42) OChSl bronŭ ‘white, variegated’, Russ bronyj ‘white, variegated’ and TochA parno, TochB perne ‘shining’ are included in this set. Yasin also has burúl ‘pale, gray, gray beige colour’ (T-M 1989: 14). Note Zarubin's (1927: 339) example with final -n: šilan-ce-bərún ‘white-tailed’, which could point to an older form *burunum. There is an interesting euphemistic use of burúm as a noun, in the meaning of ‘shroud’, according to Lorimer (LYs 50) to avoid misfortune or bad luck. For the possibility that Bur burúm may be ultimately related to IE *bherəĝ- ‘white’, the Yasin Burushaski form burúxt, berúxt ‘secondary colour, for some brown, for others light blue, beige’ (Tiffou ms. : 52) is very indicative, as it is directly derivable from IE *bherəĝ-to (bh > b, e > e, ĝ > x (< ġ); cp. with OEng beorht, OHG beraht ‘bright’ (Wat 11)). Trubačev (1999: 76) in a chapter devoted to the etymology of the Indo-European words for ‘silver’ links together the sememes of ‘water’ – ‘silver’ – ‘mirror’. He argues that the hidden etymology behind the Proto-Slavic, Proto-Baltic and Proto-Germanic names for ‘silver’ and North Caucasian is that of an Indo-Aryan or Old Indian toponym *śub(h)ri apa ‘bright water’, semantically paralleling the Armenian, Greek, Latin etc. developments (Trubačev Ibid: 81–82). It may be that Burushaski can contribute to the long and ongoing discussion of both reconstructed terms for ‘silver’ in Indo-Euro- pean. Burushaski burí could actually continue what would be the second component of the Indo-European word for ‘silver’: *silVbVr- : Ibero-Celt śilaPur (/śilabur/) ‘silver’, ON silfr ‘silver’, OEng seolfor ‘silver, Goth silubr ‘silver’, Lith sidābras ‘silver’, OChSl sĭrebro ‘silver’ [Hamp (1973: 58) gives as the Proto-Slavic form *serbro < *sirəbr-] (M-A 518). The first component *sil- could be correlated with Bur ċhil Hz Ng, (possibly with the alternation u:i/_r,l) Lei. gives Ng tsil and pl. siliming and silmitshang. Ys: ċel ‘water; juice, sap’ (B 76). [For the alternation ċ : ċh : s, see Čašule (2003b: 28–29)]. Berger relates it to -íl- ‘to soak, immerse’, d-̇sil-, d-̇sili- [NH also d-̇chil- ‘make wet (by rain, water), water intensively’], (Ys: di-híl-, pl. x du-húlja-, y di- hílja-) (B 212). Note further Bur hánċhil also áṅċhil ‘water that flows from a wound’, as adj. ‘watery’ (ċhil ‘water’) (B 19), the first component from IE *h2en- ‘to draw liquids, draw water’ (M-A 169) Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 13

(Wat 4 *an-). We can add to this set du-súlġu- ‘become fluid, watery’, d-ċhúlġu-, d-̇ċhilġu- ‘make watery’ (B 384) and ċhilġúum ‘watery (of soup, etc)’ (B 77). There is also di-ċhí- NH ‘rain clouds to appear, to gather’ (B 76) and Bur saí NH ‘a small spring’ (B 372) which could be related and may provide evidence that ċhil is an extended stem, as in Indo- European below (possibly with a velar extension: Bur ċak ‘sluice, sluice-board’) (B 68). There is a very likely correlation with IE *su̯ el-, *sul- ‘to wet, to moisten; to flow; (as a noun) liquid, moisture’ (in IEW 912–3: *seu-, *seu̯ ə- : sū- ‘juice’, seu-d- in OSax be-sūtian ‘make dirty’, OIcl sut ‘a worry’, sȳta ‘to mourn’, also with a guttural formant: *seuk-, *sŭk- and *sūk, *seug-) : Mann 1984-1987: 1334 *su ́̄ l ‘liquor, issue, sludge’, 1334–1335 *sulu̯ - ‘fluid; (to flow)ʼ, (BK U191) e.g. Lith sulà ‘sap’, OPrus sulo ‘curdled milk’, OHG sol ‘mud, puddle’, OIcl sulla ‘to swill’, OE swillan, swilian ‘to flood with water so as to wash or rinse, to drink in large quantities’, sol ‘mud, wet sand’, syl ‘wallowing place, miry place’, sylian ‘to make muddy or dirty, to pollute’, Skt súrā ‘spiritous liquor, wine’, Av hurā ‘drink’ etc. Most etymologists consider that Alb shi ‘rain’ also belongs here (see the discussion in Huld 1984:113 and Hamp, apud Huld, who includes here OPruss soye and TochA swase, TochB swese, all: ‘rain’). M-A (477) propose a stem *suhhx- ‘rain’, which they believe need not be connected with *seu- ‘to press, juice’. This stem is considered also within the Nostratic comparisons, although apart from Indo-European it is only registered in the Kartvelian languages, where it is found only as an adjectival and verbal form (i.e. ‘wet, moist’, ‘to wet, to moisten’) and not as a noun. Perhaps Thracian zelas, zilas ‘wine’ (Neroznak 1978: 47) also belongs here. This etymological analysis could possibly explain the reason why we have different formants (-d in Baltic, -r in Slavic and -l in Germanic) in the reflexes of IE *silVbVr-. We can suggest very tentatively that Burushaski perhaps provides evidence that IE *silVbVr-‘silver’ may be a compound noun, consisting of *sul- : *sil- ‘water’ + *bhru- ‘white’, i.e with a semantics as ‘white [shining] as water’. Similar compounds with ċhil as the first component are very productive in Burushaski. Note ċhílbupur ‘pea-sized balls of dough cooked in water, “Spätzle” (B 77), or ċhilphú ‘water and fire’ (‘climate’) (phú ‘fire’, also of IE 14 Ilija Čašule origin8) or ċhilpéeṣ NH ‘small spring on the hillside’ (B 77) and esp. Ys ċel-haralt ‘fine cloud’ (lit. ‘water-rain’) (BYS 136). There is also a verbal form Ys ċéltikin- (L ċertikin-) ‘to mourn (cry after) the deceased, before putting him in the ground’ (B 137), i.e. ċél-tik-in- (tik ‘ground’), literally ‘water-ground-put’. Perhaps most relevant to our analysis is Ys ċélċer ‘dirty water’ (BYs 136) (lit. ‘water-dirty’) which would have been opposed to *ċe/il-bur ‘water-white/bright’ > ‘silver’. Trubačev (1999: 78) states that in Homer we learn that the “birthplace of silver” was the Pontic town of ’Αλύβη, which Schrader (1901: 764) derives from *Σαλύβη, which appears to give support to our reconstruction. Bearing in mind the strong Phrygian connection with Burushaski, this analysis might possibly shed more light on the origin of silver among the Indo-Europeans – possibly Central and Eastern Anatolia?

4. Note on other Phrygian-Burushaski correspondences

An objection could be raised that the connection between Burushaski hargín ‘dragon’ and Phrygian argwitas ‘dragon’ even if direct, semantically precise and strong is an isolated one. This is not at all the case. As noted, other related correspondences have been discussed in Čašule (2004). It is highly significant that in Burushaski there are three terms correlatable with the Phrygian Great Mother. We reiterate here the rather close, precise and important link in the Burushaski kinship term zizí (pl. zizíċaro) ‘Mother! Form of address used only in the families of the Rajas and (in Nagir) Saiyids. Foster mothers, being of lower rank, are called “mama”. The corresponding term to zizí for father is babá (B 27). This term is used properly only in Royal Families (L 63). Berger points to U bābā. These terms are said to have come down from the time of Alexander the Great (Lorimer 1935: II 30.15; 238.6). They are in use in Shina

8 Bur phu ‘fire’ (B 334), phu ét- ‘make a fire’ (B 335), Ys phuréś -̇t- ‘cook; slander’ (BYs 171) from IE *peu̯ ōr, *pú̄ r ‘fire’, (gen. sg.) *pu-n-és < older *peHu̯ - (M-A 201). Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 15 and Khowar and in Balti zizi (B also zi) and bawa (L 391), yet no one has been able to provide an Indo-Aryan, Dravidian or Tibetan etymological explanation for zizí. We have compared Bur zizí with Phrg Zizimene – “The epithet of Zizimene is frequently used to designate the Great Mother in various centres of Asia Minor.” (Gasparro 35, also Calder 1912: 72– 74). “In an altar from Sizma, a village of Lycaonia situated near Iconium and Laodicea, whose four faces bear reliefs representing deities and inscriptions on side D, we read the dedication Mētri Zizimmēnē. Ramsay believed it is a dialectal form of Dindymene, in at least one case the Mother of the Gods is explicitly called Zizimene.” (For further discussion, see Čašule (2004: 86, ex. 24). Considering the close correspondence between Phrygian and Burushaski in the fields of ritual, myth, burial and onomastics and the use of Burushaski zizí by the Royal Families, this is a correlation with some merit. If the Burushaski word preserves an ancient “cultic” term for the Great Mother it could have easily been the ultimate source for Shina, Khowar and Balti. The Phrygian epithet for the Great Mother Apa-, dat. sg. Apai and Appas also Appē indigenous Phrygian names of Late Anatolian type (Orel 1997: 414) (Zgusta 1964: 73–74) is preserved in the Burushaski epithet Ápiin Ápi Dadií‘name of a fairy’ (B 487). A very important indication that Burushaski ultimately may belong to the Balkan-Pontic-Asia Minor complex is the preservation of Phrg kubela ‘horse’, matar kubeleya ‘mother of horses’, also the name of Cybele 9 , the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother, related to Indo-European *kab-, *kabula- ‘horse’, Thrac *kabūla > Gk kabállēs ‘working horse’, from Thrac > OSl kobyla ‘mare’, and > Lat caballus ‘gelding, work horse, horse’ and late Lat cabō in glosses “caballus, caballus magnus, equus castratus”, Gk Hesychius kábēlos ‘castrated’. Buck (1949: 16) considers the Indo-European words to be certainly loanwords of “ethnic origin” (Anatolian or Balkan), probably with an original meaning of ‘gelding’.

9 There is a curious, most likely coincidental Burushaski formulaic expression which may contain the name: qubili manas (only in L 300) ‘to swing’, as explained by Lorimer “women and children swing during the Nauroz celebration” and qubili gaša “said by the person on the ground as he pushes the other up on the swing” (? go up to qubili). 16 Ilija Čašule

Significantly in Burushaski (Ys) we find kabút ‘white horse’ (Tiffou-Morin: 1989: 33) and Hz Ng kabulék ‘roof-posts’ (B 239, q. K 120), with almost identical development (from *kabuliko), as in PSl *kobylica (< *kabūlĭko) ‘a pole for carrying loads on the shoulder’, ‘beam of scales’, ‘trestle’, ‘horse-tree’, ‘saw-horse’, ‘wisp’, and esp. ‘scaffolding, supporting beams’ (ESSJ X: 98) and PSl *koby-lŭka ‘pole for carrying loads’ (ESSJ X:100). In this example, the Burushaski form correlates more closely phonologically with Thracian and Slavic. We reconsider briefly some of the other correspondences in myth, ritual and burial between Burushaski and Phrygian. For example: Phrg itimbos ‘Bacchic dance’ (Haas 165) : Bur ṭimġúr, ṭimzál -man ‘to dance well, to show off’ (and ṭimbáao -̇t- ‘to discharge a gun, let off’ (B 445); Phrg iman ‘cultic substitute, imitation, image, model’ (Orel 1997: 432) : Bur imán ‘duplicate, counterpart, equal’ (B 213) < PIE *h2im-, zero-grade of PIE *h2eim- ‘copy’ (Wat 2) (Orel 432); Phrg bat(an) ‘(part of) religious monument, (part of tombstone)’ (Orel 419) : Bur bat pl. batéṅ ‘flat stone (for putting over a water channel, or over a grave’ (B 43) (Will 21), Lorimer (L 73) indicates that 3 or 4 flat thin stones are normally put over the grave cavity; Phrg goutārion ‘sarcophagus’ (Haas 137, 163) : Bur gúṭas ‘corpse’; Phrg manka ‘gravestone, memorial’ (Orel 443) : Bur man ‘earth platform, sleeping and sitting platforms in house, (stone) dais; mound over grave’ (B 278) (in Will 85 also: ‘a cement slab or dirt mound placed over a grave’); Phrg thalámai ‘places consecrated for the cultic practice of the Galli’ [the castrated priests of Cybele] (Gasparro 1985: 53) : Bur Tálmuśi Bat ‘stone where the witches cut up their sacrifices’, Tálmuśi Dadií ‘name of a fairy’ (B 509) etc. (for the complete etymological analysis, see Čašule 2004: 73–86). Consider from the Phrygian inscriptions dumas, for which Haas (142) suggests a meaning of ‘(funerary) mound’, whereas Diakonoff and Neroznak (104) propose ‘village, municipality’. The Phrygian word is also used in Greek inscriptions in Asia Minor with the meaning of ‘cult union’. It has been derived from IE *dhō-mo- ‘pile’, the o-grade suffixed form of IE *dhē- ‘to set, to put’ (Wat 17): Gk thomós ‘pile’, OIr dam ‘troop’ and with semantic changes in Goth dōm-s ‘objection, decision’ and OInd dhāman ‘a multitude (of servants)’ (Neroznak 128) (Orel 425) (IEW 238). Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 17

The Phrygian word can be phonetically and semantically correlated with Burushaski dúuman ‘pile, heap’ (B 127) (< *dhō- men- ? or *dhōm-an). The Old Indian form dhāman (in Turner 6785: ‘dwelling place’, ‘sucking’) is semantically too removed to have been the source of the Burushaski word, which keeps the core meaning. It is important that the IE stem *dhē- is well represented in Burushaski: note also -̇t- ‘do, make, build’ (B 413) and doók man-́ ‘put, set down, build’ (B 121) (< IE *dhō-k- ‘do, make, put’) (IEW 235). The Burushaski verb -̇t- is, as in Phrygian, most significantly also found with an e- augment as ét-, stable in verbal compounds (B I:19.36) (L 39) (the augment does not occur with other verbs). Note also the very close correspondences between Burushaski and Phrygian names:

Phrg Arkiaewais (Orel 415) : Bur Argumaáq (B 486) Phrg Bakio- (Orel 419) : Bur Bákuċ (B 488) Phrg Ballion (Arkwright 50) : Bur Balíṣa(Berger segments ? Bali- + U šāh) (B 488). Phrg Basa, Basos, Bastos (Petrova 182) : Bur Basúu (B 489) Phrg Beudos (Orel 420) : Bur Bádi (B 488) (B 492) Phrg Boras, Boros, Boriskos (Arkwright 51) : Bur Boroṣ (B 490) Phrg Botíeion(< *Botios) (Arkwright 59) : Bur Bóṭi(B 490) Phrg /AncMcd Brygos, AncMcd Byrginos (Petrova 182) : Bur Birgáo, Birgán(B 490) Phrg Dado, Dadés (Orel 421) : Bur Dadóko, Dadií (B 493) Phrg Dudes (Petrova 185) : Bur Dúdo (B 494) Phrg/Gk Ekatēas (Orel 427) : Bur Katis Malčučo (L 430) Phrg Gaiteas (Drew-Bear 383) : Bur Ġatósiṅ (B 496) Phrg Kuliyas (Orel 439) : Bur Kulió, Kulí (B 501) Phrg Lile, Lillia (Hitt Lilli) (Orel 441) : Bur Lilí (B 501) Phrg Mamas (Zgusta 282–282) : Bur Mamú, Mamúro (B 502) Phrg Mane, Mani (Orel 443): Bur Máni, Máno (B 502) Phrg Nana (Orel 447) : Bur Nané Munúno(B 504) Phrg/Gk Nikōn (Drew-Bear 388) : Bur Níko (B 504) Phrg Pukros (Orel 455) : Bur Phuġóri (B 32-33) Gk/Phrg Sīlēnṓs (Liddell-Scott 1598, Chantraine 1003) : Bur Silúm (B 507) Phrg Tuti (Hitt Tuttu) (Orel 465) : Bur Túto (B 510) Phrg Tolos (Orel 464) : Bur Thol (B 510)

For the full and detailed discussion, see Čašule (2004: 88–92). 18 Ilija Čašule

Outside the semantic field of myth and ritual there are many correspondences between Burushaski and Phrygian. Almost 80% of the attested Phrygian glosses find correlation with Burushaski and every third word in the inscriptions is also preserved in Burushaski. Consider, for example the direct connection between Bur úrunas ‘morning star, Venus’ (BYs 184) which we derive from IE

*u̯ er-2 ‘raise, high place, top, high’ (IEW 1150), and NPhrg oruenos (from the inscriptions) interpreted as ‘high, elevated’ (Neroznak 1978: 152) Phrg uranios ‘celestial’ (D-N 140), also Gk uránios ‘in the sky, as high as the sky’ (Diakonoff-Neroznak 1985: 140). From the same Indo-European stem we have the correspondence between Bur -úri, Hay uru ‘summit, top, peak, crest, ridge’ (B 66) and the Phrygian gloss orū‘upwards, on top’ (Neroznak 1978: 151). There is also the precise and direct correspondence between the Phrygian gloss mā ‘Phrygian call to cattle’ (Neroznak 1978: 150) interpreted as an interjection (prominent and specific to be recorded by the ancient lexicographers) and the Burushaski interjection máha ‘come! – a call to a horse’ (B 275). Interjections of this type are generally culture-specific, even if they have an expressive component (Bashir p.c.). It is remarkable that both Burushaski and Phrygian being “kentum” languages should share one “satem” word belonging to the basic vocabulary. Consider Burushaski -sán ‘chin’ (B 373–374), if from IE *ĝenu- ‘jaw, chin, cheek’, e.g. Gk geneiás ‘beard, chin, cheek’, Lat gena ‘cheek’, OInd hánu-s ‘jaw’, Av zānu ‘jaw’, Cymr gen ‘cheek, chin’, OEng cin(n) ‘chin’ (IEW 381) which corresponds with Phrygian: azen(wa) ‘jaws’, azenu ‘beard’ (D-N 96). It may be that this word is a borrowing in both languages. A rather important identical grammatical element shared with Phrygian is the Burushaski conjunction ke ‘also, too, and; it also seems to serve as an emphasising particle’ (...) “ke frequently follows immediately after indefinite pronouns and indefinite adverbs of time and place” (i.e. enclitic, same as in Indo-European) (L 231–232) (B 244) from IE *kwe ‘and (enclitic)’ - Phrygian ke ‘and, also, but’, Gk te, Myc Gk -qe, Goth -h, Arm -k', Hitt -ki ‘and’, Lat que ‘and; ge- neralising particle’, OInd ca, Av ča ‘and’ (IEW 519) (see Čašule 1998: 26). Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 19

In grammar we find an indicative shared development from IE *mn̥ -, *men- ‘remain, stay’ (> ‘be, become’) (IEW 729) : Bur man- 10 ‘be, become, turn into; become (absolute) > come into existence, occur, take place; belong to; proceed to, be about to; be necessary to do s-thing or for s-thing to be done’ (B 278). For the relevance of the Indo-European middle passive for the understanding of the development of the Burushaski verbal system note further the very productive use of Bur verb man- , also used in forming periphrastic verbal constructions (B 278) in compound verbs, in the sense ‘become’, ‘be’ (or sometimes semantically empty) + another stem, e.g. hop -mán- ‘be puffed up, (of body parts) swell up suddenly’, lam, lálam man- ‘shine, burn, light up; to beam’ (B 261), háak man-́ ‘help s-one in their work’ (B 184). While this is a widespread pattern and structure in the languages surrounding Burushaski (Bashir p.c.), it seems to point also materially to the functions of the IE suffix -meno- or -mno- in the passive middle, e.g. Gk epómenos ‘following’ (Phrg gegrimenos ‘written’ (Diakonoff-Neroznak 1985: 111), which has also been derived from the same IE *men- ‘remain’ (Szemerényi 1996: 320–321) and is a shared innovation in Greek and Phrygian. Further examples where the two languages correspond closely and match up directly within Indo-European include: –Phrg gloss dáos ‘wolf’ (D-N 101) < IE *dhóhaus ‘+/- wolf’ (M-A 647) and Bur diuċón, L: diusón pl. diuċóyu ‘hound-like wild animal’ and diú ‘lynx’ (BYs 142). In the Burushaski form there appears to be a contamination between the expression di ét- ‘to set a hound loose on s-one’ (B 118) and a nominal form *du(s); –Phrg gloss bambalon ‘penis’ < IE *bhal-bhal < *bhol- ‘swell (spec. of genitalia)’ (N 139) (M-A 71) and Bur bambulá ‘male’ (B 35); Phrg gloss attagos ‘goat’ (D-N 95) : Bur thugár ‘he-goat’ (B 442), ḍágar ‘wether’ (B 128); Phrg gloss bedu ‘well(?), spring, jug (?)’ (D-N 98) ‘vessel, spring(?)’

10 Bur man-́ is a very productive verb. Within developments from IE *men- ‘remain, stay’ (a widespread and old IE stem), semantically the correspondence is direct with TochAB mäsk- (< *mn̥ -sk̂ e/o-) ‘be, become’, and further Gk ménō ‘stand fast, remain; await’, Lat maneō ‘remain’, Arm mnam ‘remain, expect’ and with other semantic developments OIr ainmne ‘duty’, Wels amynedd ‘duty’ (note above the Burushaski meaning ‘to be necessary to do s-thing’), also OInd man- ‘delay, stand still’ and Hitt mimma ‘refuse’, which is a widespread and old stem in IE (M-A 482). Note here also the earliest Hittite names (XVIII century BC) of the type Harsumn- uman ‘of Harsumna’, considered to have the same IE element - in this sense the possessive meaning in Burushaski (‘belong to’) corresponds very well. 20 Ilija Čašule

(N 139), and Bur baḍalík (also in Sh baḍulík) ‘a small metal bowl (for drinking from)’ (B 29, who gives for Nager the meaning ‘big vessel for water’) < *bad-al-ik (both -al and -ik are suffixal elements); Phrg gloss bagaios ‘crazy, also Phrygian Zeus’ (N 137– 138) : Bur baġálta- ‘to be mad, to go mad’ (B 30) (-lta- is a suffix as in harált ‘rainʼ from hará- ‘flow, urinate’ (B 192), both possibly from IE *bhēɡh- : *bhōɡh- ‘to quarrel, dispute’ (> ‘wicked, warlike, awkward, mischievous’) etc. There is a remarkable semantic and phonological match between the Phrygian gloss kimeros “νου̃ς” ‘reason; sense, thought, desire, intention, will’ (N 147) and Burushaski Ys xumár, xumór, Hz Ng qhimóor ‘desire, longing, lust, appetite’ (B 356) – in both cases a word of unknown origin. On a concluding note, we believe it is not insignificant that we have a close and precise correspondence between Phrygian and Burushaski in the word for “writing” in a form of great antiquity: We have Bur girmín- ‘to write’, girmínum ‘inscription, i.e. certificate’ (pp. nikírmin Hz Ng, Ganesh nukírmin) (B 155) (with the Bur b >/: m change, see Berger 2008: 3.21); for the full discussion, see Čašule (2004: 71–72). Note the alternation k : g11. Morgenstierne (L, I:XXXI) noted the similarity between the Burushaski verb and the Armenian gri ‘writing’, but dismissed it on the grounds of the improbability of it being an old borrowing. The Burushaski verb can be derived from IE *g(w)hrēi- : *g(w)hrī- ‘smear, scratch’, and thus cognate with Phrg gegrimenos, gegrimena ‘written, inscribed’, Arm gream ‘write’, Gk khríō ‘I write’ (D-N 1985: 111) (Haas 237) or IE *gerbh- ‘to scratch’ : e.g. Gk graphein ‘to scratch, draw, write’ (Wat 27) (IEW 392: *gerebh-). Especially interesting is Arom zgîrma, zgrîma, sgrîma ‘to scratch, to scrape’ believed to originate from the Balkan substratum (Illyes 1988: 237).

11 In both Phrygian and Burushaski there is evidence that points to a Lautverschiebung in their historical phonology, but this is a topic that cannot be discussed properly here. In Burushaski, in many cases, voiceless stops are voiced in the anlaut or have both voiced and voiceless allophones – p- > b-, k- > g-, t- > d-. See the examples and discussion of this alternation/change in Berger (2008: 3.11), who treats them as internal variation, and on the historical plane Čašule (2010: 8–10). Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 21

5. Extralinguistic considerations

An objection could be levelled that it would be impossible for the Phrygians to turn up in North Western Pakistan, so far away from Asia Minor. If they had been evidenced in the vicinity of today’s Burushaski speaking areas, the correspondences found would be accepted more easily. Yet, there is evidence of an eastward migration of the Phrygians. Most recently, the eminent Russian archaeologist L. S. Klein (2007, 2010) has published two major studies on Indo-European ancient migrations. He devotes an entire chapter (Klein 2007: 108– 120) specifically to the migrations of the Phrygians / Bryges from the Balkans. On the basis of archaeological evidence, historical sources, some linguistic aspects and mythical and religious comparisons he traces their movement from Macedonia and its north via Asia Minor, Central Asia and most importantly all the way to Swat in North- Western Pakistan, very close to the Burushaski speaking areas. He argues for an early contact between Phrygian and Sanskrit. He notes that Indian scholars (Kosambi: 1968: 89–90, q. in Klein 116) have long ago linked Bhrigu, the carrier of fire and the son of the Indian god Varuna, with the Phrygians. In light of new evidence, Klein believes these claims should be taken very seriously. Sidky (1999) suggests a possible later intrusion of the Phrygians into the Burushaski speaking areas of NW Pakistan. He provides extralinguistic evidence for the possibility of Phrygian presence and interaction in the area during the Bactrian kingdom, esp. in the face of Euthydemus, the king of Bactria, who came from Asia Minor. As Sidky (1999: 246) points out “men from Thrace, Phrygia (and elsewhere in Asia Minor) as well as Mesopotamia, were certainly among those who came to Bactria as colonists during the Hellenistic period (…) It is conceivable that some of these colonists, or their descendants, may have found their way to the Hunza valley.” Genetic studies appear to confirm our findings. In a major genetic study (Oefner et al. 2013: 841) the authors conclude that all Burushaski samples (20) in the Y-chromosome microsatellites clusters group distinctly and consistently with Italian and Russian Y chromosomes, and not with the Pakistani samples. They cite in some detail our work on Burushaski and Phrygian indicating that the genetic make up they have investigated supports directly our 22 Ilija Čašule conclusions, i.e. that genetically Burushaski fits within North-Western Indo-European, just as Phrygian. They also cite Mansoor et al. (2004) which is a previous study of 113 autosomal microsatellite in extant Pakistani and Greek populations who concluded “that there was evidence for a southeastern European contribution to the gene pool of the Burusho and the Pathan that probably predated the invasion of the Indian subcontinent in 327-323 BC by Alexander the Great,” (Ibid 839).

6. Conclusions

The unique correspondence within Indo-European between Burushaski hargín ‘dragon, ogre, which comes into being from an ordinary snake, when it becomes big and old’, (Sh ‘female snake’) and Phrygian argwitas ‘dragon, Lamia [mythological woman-snake]’ (from IE *h2erĝ-n̥ t-om ‘silver’), is a solid and precise one. The fact that it is a longer phonological and very specific semantic correlation rules out chance. It may also be the case that the Burushaski material provides us with a possible solution for the etymology of the Indo-European term for ‘silver’: *silVbVr- may be a compound noun, consisting of IE *sul- : *sil- ‘water, liquid’ + *bhru- ‘white’, i.e with a semantics as ‘white [shining] as water’, or rather ‘water-white’. All the numerous correspondences in myth, cult and ritual, in onomastics (22 personal names) and in basic vocabulary between Burushaski and Phrygian, many of them unique within Indo- European, argue very convincingly for a strong relationship between the two languages. Not least, Burushaski preserves three terms associated with the Phrygian supreme goddess, the Great Mother Kubela. As noted, almost 80% of the attested Phrygian glosses find correlation with Burushaski and the latter preserves every third word from the inscriptions. Whatever the depth of this connection, our comparative analysis with Phrygian strengthens significantly the position that the Burushaski language belongs to the North-Western branch of Indo- European. Further comparison of the Phrygian texts with Burushaski will shed more light on the close relationship between the two languages. Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection 23

Abbreviations of languages and dialects

Alb – Albanian, Arm – Armenian, Arom – Aromanian, Av – Avestan, Balt – Baltic, Bret – Breton, Bur – Burushaski, Celt – Celtic, Celt-Iber – Ibero-Celtic, Cymr – Cymric, Eng – English, Gk – Greek, Goth – Gothic, Grm – German, Grmc – Germanic, H – Hindi, Hitt – Hittite, Hz – Hunza dialect of Burushaski, IA – Indo- Aryan, IE – Indo-European, IH – Indo-Hittite, Ind – Indian, Ir – Irish, Irn – Iranian, Itl – Italic, Khw – Khowar, Kshm – Kashmiri, Lat – Latin, Lett – Lettish, Lith – Lithuanian, Mcd – Macedonian, Myc Gk – Mycenean Greek, Ng – Nager dialect of Burushaski, NH – Nasiruddin Hunzai, Berger’s Burushaski informant, NPers – New Persian, NPhrg – New Phrygian, NWels – New Welsh, OChSl – Old Church Slavonic, OEng – Old English, OHG – Old High German, OInd – Old Indian, ON – Old Norse , Panj – Panjābī, Pers – Persian, Phrg – Phrygian, PSl – Proto-Slavic, Russ – Russian, Sh – Shina, Skt – Sanskrit, Sl – Slavic, Soghd – Soghdian, Thrac – Thracian, Toch A, Toch B – Tocharian A, Tocharian B, U – Urdu, Wels – Welsh, Ys – Yasin dialect of Burushaski.

Abbreviations of sources cited

B = Berger, H. 1998; BYs = Berger, H. 1974; Cunn = Cunningham, A. 1854; DC = Tiffou, E. and Y.C. Morin. 1989; E-K = Edel’man, D. I. and G. A. Klimov 1970; G = Gluhak 1993; Hay = Hayward 1871; IEW = Pokorny, Julius. 1959; Lei = Leitner, 1889; L = Lorimer, D. L.R. 1938; LYs = Lorimer, D. L.R. 1962; M-A = Mallory, J.P. and D.Q. Adams (eds.). 1997; RMJ = Rečnik (1961-1966), T = Turner, R. L. 1966; T-M = Tiffou, E. and Y. C. Morin 1989; T-P = Tiffou, E. and J. Pesot. 1989; Wat = Watkins, C. 2000; Will = Willson, S. R. 1999; W-I-S = Wodko, D. S., B. Islinger and C. Schneider. 2008.

24 Ilija Čašule

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The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah: New Evidence from the Lund University Archives

Jeff Eden Harvard University

Abstract

The Bakhtiyarnamah is a truly global tale, found in multiple versions and in multiple languages throughout the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caucasus, and beyond. Several copies of the tale exist in Chaghatay Turkic as well, but these copies have gone mostly unnoticed. This paper introduces two such copies held in the Lund University archives, both of which were made in East Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang, China), and argues for the benefit of studying cosmopolitan influences on East Turkistani literatures.

Keywords: East Turkistan, Chaghatay, Bakhtiyarnamah.

While the “global turn” in the discipline of history has involved a rededication among scholars to studying the interconnectedness and mutual influences of world civilizations long before the “modern” era, historical studies of literature and culture often remain fixated on articulating the “ethnic” and “national” dimensions of their subjects. It is therefore the perfect time to renew discussions of those tales and epics which are undeniably “global” in their dispersal, developing as 32 Jeff Eden part of a shared literary heritage across many cultures, over many centuries, and the Bakhtiyārnāmah is a fine example of such a “global” tale. Appearing in various versions across the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, this frame- tale has also been well-known to scholars in the West for more than two centuries, and it has become a fixture in translations of the Thousand and One Nights. The story is best known in its Persian and Arabic versions, and much of our scholarship on the subject seeks to compare recensions in these two languages. There are also, in manuscript collections throughout the world, a number of copies of this tale in Chaghatay, and thus far these versions—with only one exception—have gone unnoticed. 1 I have found, for example, two previously-unstudied Chagatay copies of the tale in the Lund University archives which contain an unusual divergence from all other known recensions in any language: namely, the relatively seamless insertion of an “extra” tale, famous in its own right, which is not found in any other version. I hope that the discovery of this novel recension will open up a new line of inquiry into the history of the much-discussed Bakhtiyār narrative. Moreover, because these Lund manuscripts were copied in Kashghar, we may now extend the geographic range of this widely-traveled tale to include East Turkistan (now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China). Lastly, I hope that calling attention to this discovery will likewise call attention to the broader topic of the cosmopolitan nature of East Turkistani literature, a subject of great potential which has thus far been largely neglected in favor of “ethno-nationalist” interpretations of cultural history. I will begin with an overview of the various versions and translations of the tale which are known to us. The earliest known copy of the Bakhtiyārnāmah is a version in Arabic, dated to 390/1000, which has been published by Ẕabīḥ Allah Ṣafā (1347/1968), and there are several other Arabic versions of the narrative extant in manuscript collections as well. An Arabic text was the basis for Dom Chavis and

1 The only Turkic version to have been the subject of formal study is a copy in Uyghur script held by the Bodleian library, which dates to 838/1435. This version has been described and partially translated into French by M.A. Jaubert (1827). An excerpt and partial translation of the same manuscript have been published in Arthur Lumley David’s Grammar of the Turkish Language (1832, 169–78) and in Vambery’s Uigurische Sprachmonumente und das Kudatku bilik (1870, 174–77). The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 33

Jacques Cazotte’s French translation of 1789, titled “Histoire de Bohetzad et de ses dix visirs” (240-259), in which the young protagonist is named Aladdin. In Sweden, an Arabic edition was published by Gustav Knös in 1807, followed several years later by his Latin and Swedish translations. This same Arabic text was the source for Basset’s French translation, published in 1883. Another Arabic text was included in Habicht’s famous Tausend und Eine Nacht, issued at Breslau between 1825-38 (the final three volumes were issued, after Habicht’s death, in 1842-43). This “Breslau” text was translated by Gustav Weil (German, 1838-41), John Payne (English, 1882), Richard Burton (English, 1885), and Max Henning (German, 1895-97) for their respective editions of the Thousand and One Nights (and, in Burton’s case, his Supplemental Nights). A different Arabic recension, in which the king is named Naaman and the action takes place in Khurasan, was published in Latin transcription and French translation by M.A. Barthélemy (1887). The earliest known Persian version, attributed to Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Daqāyiqī Marvazī, is a particularly impressive piece of literature, and it too has received a fair amount of attention from scholars. It is this version, moreover, which seems to be the source for the widely-traveled recensions and “abridgements” which have been dispersed over an area extending from the Caucasus to the South Pacific. Three manuscript copies of the original work by Daqāyiqī survive, the oldest of which is dated to 663/1265. This version was published by Ẕabīḥ Allah Ṣafā (1345/1966), and it has been translated into Russian by M.-N.O. Osmanov (1977); a Tajik edition was published in 2008 (M. Dilovarov). A second manuscript copy, assessed and partially translated by Nöldeke (1891), dates to 695/1296, and a third is undated but bears the same dedication and largely the same content as the first two (Bruijn, 1993). These latter two copies were the basis of an edition published by Muḥammad Rawshan (1349/1970; rpt. 1382/2003), which was translated into Turkish by Abdüsselam and Betül Bilgen (1994). The first English translation of this text, by Sir William Ouseley, appeared in 1801, and a reprint of this translation was edited and introduced by W.A. Clouston (1883). A French translation by Daniel Lescallier appeared in 1805 and, as Chauvin hints (Chauvin, 16), this version seems quite similar to an English translation published anonymously by Charles Caldwell in 1813 (Caldwell is 34 Jeff Eden credited on the title-page only as “a citizen of Philadelphia”). A lithograph of another Persian recension was published by Albert de Biberstein-Kazimirski in 1839, though I have been unable to find an extant copy of this item. A more concise prose recension was published, in Persian, by E.E. Bertels (1926), who regarded it as a “popular” (narodnyi) rather than “literary” (literaturnyi) version (Bertels, I). An apparently identical version was published in Iran a few years later (Tabrīzī, 1932), and other “abridged” prose versions were noted by J.A. Decourdemanche (1904) and N.N. Tumanovich (1970). The “abridged” version published by Bertels (et al) was apparently also the source for a Malay copy which was translated into Russian and discussed by Goriaeva (1989). The Bakhtiyār narrative has indeed been very popular in Malay literature, where it often appears under the title Hikayat Bakhtiar and has been discovered in a number of recensions with varying degrees of proximity to the Persian “abridgement” in terms of content (Braginsky, 2004, 423–431). Less well-known is a verse adaptation in Persian by Fadai (?), apparently published in Iran in 1932, which was translated into Azeri in 2004. Fadai’s version was reportedly the basis for at least two translations into Georgian, the earliest of which has been dated to the 18th century (Mämädli, 4–5).2 To these we must also add the several texts found in manuscript collections which have yet to be formally studied, as well as the copies I have examined in the Lund University archives.3 There are at least two partial copies of the Bakhtiyārnāmah in Lund: one copy, dated to 1882, is written in an untrained hand on very coarse Khotan paper (MS Jarring Prov. 74), and the other, undated, is a nearly word- for-word copy of the former, in more legible script and on more refined paper (which Jarring’s handwritten catalog describes as being similar to Khotan paper; MS Jarring Prov. 34). The latter manuscript

2 I have been unable to obtain a copy (or otherwise uncover evidence) of a verse recension published in 1932. Mämädli, translator of the 2004 Azeri text, reports that it was published by Ḥasan Vaḥīd Dastgirdī, with Bertels’ assistance (Mämädli, 5). Judging from Mämädli’s description, this is apparently a different text from the 1932 Tehran publication noted above which, as mentioned, bears a great resemblance to the text published by Bertels in 1927. 3 Other unstudied Turkic copies have been noted in catalogues: see Hartmann, 6; Muginov, 99–100; Blochet, 623. The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 35 has been amended with a title-page and a few brief prefatory lines which declare it to be part of the Jāmī’ al-Ḥikāyah (“Compendium of Tales”—a generic title). The most substantial differences separating the Lund texts from the many others which have been published or translated are: 1) the addition, in the Lund texts, of a tale which is entirely novel in the context of the Bakhtiyārnāmah (see below); and 2) the exclusion of the story of the vizier-turned-rebel and his beautiful daughter, an episode which typically begins the narrative. Instead of the usual beginning, the Lund manuscripts begin with an unnamed enemy from elsewhere (presumably the rebel vizier) attacking the pādishāh’s city and forcing him to take refuge with the Shāh of Kirmān. In all other respects the Lund texts show a high degree of correspondence to the Persian prose version published by Bertels. Because of their unusual origins and context, however, and because of the great interest the narrative and its relatives have aroused among scholars over the last two centuries and the ongoing research related to its global dissemination, I will epitomize the Lund text here in detail. The tale begins by relating that, in “bygone days” (ötgan zamānda) there was a wealthy and powerful pādishāh named Azādahbakht (sic) who had ten viziers. He was scarcely ever apart from them. One day an army came from another city (bir bulak shahr- idin) and laid siege to Azādahbakht's kingdom. Azādahbakht fled to the hinterlands along with his pregnant wife, and she gave birth to a son in the wilderness. Unable to take this child with them, they left him in the desert, festooned with jewels. They then rode onward to Kirmān, whose Shāh welcomed them warmly with a lavish party, complete with “jessamine-thighed and fleet-footed cupbearers” (sāqīān-i saman-sāq va bād-pāy). But instead of taking part in the festivities, Azādahbakht wept. The Shāh of Kirmān asked him why he was so unhappy, and Azādahbakht related to him all of the misfortunes which had befallen him. The Shāh urged him to drink wine, reassuring him that his own troops would rectify the matter the very next morning. When the next morning came the Shāh gathered his troops and marched to Azādahbakht’s city. The army which had occupied it fled upon seeing the troops from Kirmān, and Azādahbakht took command of the city once more. Despite his good fortune, he still wept for his child who had been left in the desert, not realizing that the child had 36 Jeff Eden been in good hands: it had been discovered by a wayfarer who, seeing that the child was decorated with gold and gems, ascertained that it must be a prince. He took the boy in and saw to his education, eventually training him in the arts of combat (sipāhgarchilīk). The boy, named Khudāvār, grew strong and courageous, and he remained always at the side of his adoptive father, whose name was Farrukhzād. One day Farrukhzād ventured out to plunder a caravan, and he allowed Khudāvār to accompany him. But the assault was not successful, and Khudāvār was taken prisoner and brought before Azādah-bakht. Upon seeing the boy, Azādahbakht had a premonition about him and became quite disconcerted. He asked the boy his name, and the boy replied that his name was Khudāvār and that he would like nothing better than to enter the pādishāh’s service in any way possible. Azādahbakht granted this request and re-named the boy Bakhtiyār. He gave Bakhtiyār over to be educated as a scribe (bakhshī), and Azādahbakht came to love him dearly. Bakhtiyār was also charged with caring for the stables, and he excelled so thoroughly in this work that Azādahbakht ordered for him to be trained for the position of treasurer (khazīnadārlik ishlari). Bakhtiyār excelled in this position too, and every day the country grew wealthier. Azāhdahbakht grew so close to Bakhtiyār that he used to work out his policies of state in consultation with him. But his ten viziers became jealous of the young man, and they began to speculate about ways to put distance between him and their pādishāh. One day Bakhtiyār indulged in too much wine. He stumbled into Azādahbakht’s harem and fell asleep, with a sword in his hand, right on the pādishāh’s throne. Azādahbakht entered the room and, finding the young man in this position, he became enraged. But Bakhtiyār, in his drunkenness, shoved the pādishāh away with his fist and fell back asleep. The exasperated pādishāh ordered that Bakhtiyār be bound and taken away, and then he asked his queen (malīkah) to report on Bakhtiyār’s behavior. But the queen insisted that she was utterly unaware of the events that had taken place, and asked that the pādishāh look into the matter further. Azādahbakht brooded on these events, and he met with his ten viziers the very next day. One of them painted Bakhtiyār’s misadventure in sinister terms, citing the boy’s dubious pedigree (khūn-i nā-ḥaq) and implying that he was undeserving of the favors thus far shown to him. Azādahbakht then ordered that Bakhtiyār be The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 37 brought before him. When Bakhtiyār was brought forth, the pādishāh recounted the favors and affections with which the young man had been received into his care, and he accused Bakhtiyār of plotting his assassination, suggesting that this was the reason he was found on the throne with his sword at the ready. Bakhtiyār pleaded ignorance of the entire episode, explaining that many such things happen to people in their drunkenness (“Ay pādishāh-i 'ālam mast kishilarga shundagh vāq'alar köb boladur”). The chief vizier (katta vazīr) then requested permission to seek the queen’s recollections of the matter, and the pādishāh assented. The vizier reported to the queen that her husband the pādishāh was ill at ease because of what had come to pass, and that the only acceptable resolution would be that the queen, if questioned further on the matter by Azādahbakht, express her outrage over his having brought Bakhtiyār into their presence and having made him treasurer; further, she must explain that this bastard (ḥarām-zāda) had entered his harem and threatened both the pādishāh’s life and her own. After this, the vizier explained, Azādahbakht would kill the young man. The queen became enraged, accusing the vizier of deception and slander. She insisted that she had no knowledge of the events in question and asked him why, therefore, she would impugn herself (“nima üchun özümgä özüm tuhmat qiladur?”). The vizier replied that the young man could lawfully be killed because he had once been a thief and had spilled blood. The queen then reluctantly agreed to support the vizier’s false version of events, but she warned the vizier that he himself knew of Bakhtiyār’s innocence, and that justice would be done on the Day of Judgment (qīyāmat küni). Delighted, the vizier returned to Azādahbakht and related to him the version of the story to which the queen had just agreed. The pādishāh was outraged and asked that the queen be brought forth. When she was before him, he questioned her and she replied in the manner in which the vizier had instructed her. The enraged Azādah- bakht ordered that Bakhtiyār be imprisoned, adding that he would make an example of the young man for all to see. Most of the viziers were delighted, and returned to their homes expecting that the young man would be executed the next morning. But the chief vizier approached the pādishāh yet again and explained that Bakhtiyār’s misdeeds should not be made known to the people at large (khalq), nor to other pādishāhs, for fear of what they might say. Thus urged to 38 Jeff Eden ponder his own humiliation, Azādahbakht ordered that Bakhtiyār be brought before him once again. When Bakhtiyār was present, he told the young man that he was to be executed as an example to all the people of the world. It is at this point that the Lund manuscripts depart from all other known copies of the Bakhtiyārnāmah. Objecting that he is blameless, Bakhtiyār tells Azādahbakht that his mistake resembles that of the king who, blinded by thirst, struck down the bird of wisdom. His curiosity piqued, the pādishāh asks the young man to relate the episode he has in mind, and here we find interpolated in the manuscript a tale of kingship which is well-known in its own right but which has hitherto had no direct connection to the Bakhtiyārnāmah. The tale in question, with its origins in the Sinbadnāmah, can likewise be found in Burton’s Arabian Nights,4 and it has since enjoyed some popularity in the West, where it has been retold as the tale of “The King and His Hawk” by James Baldwin (1894) and, quite recently, as “Genghis Khan and the Falcon” by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho (2011).5 Because the appearance of this brief sequence in the narrative renders the Lund manuscripts unique, I will translate it in full: In the Chronicles of the Companions it is reported that there was once a pādishāh—grand was he, and great his esteem! One day the pādishāh resolved to go out hunting in the evening. He ordered that [his soldiers] go out with him on a forty day hunt. All of his soldiers accompanied him. They hunted for twenty days, and on the twenty- first day they mounted their horses for a deer hunt, and they surrounded the deer in the desert. The pādishāh ordered, “Whosoever lets a deer get away, I’ll strip him of his rank!” All of the soldiers surrounded and trapped the deer, but suddenly one deer leapt up and

4 A number of scholars over the years have suggested that the Bakhtiyār tale as a whole is a direct “descendent” of the Sinbadnāmah, but before now there has been no solid evidence to connect the two works besides their shared structure as “frame- tales”—a weak connection indeed. The new evidence provided here might strike some as proof of the two tales’ shared “ancestry,” but I would urge caution here: because the Lund manuscripts were copied only in the nineteenth century, and because they are thus far the only known copies of the Bakhtiyār narrative to contain this tale, we cannot rule out the likelihood that we are observing the relatively recent dovetailing of two tales rather than a “relic” of their common, ancient lineage. 5 Coelho’s version appears to be based on Baldwin’s, in which the “King” is likewise identified as Genghis Khan. The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 39

escaped before the pādishāh’s eyes. With his deer-hawk on his hand, the pādishāh set out after it into the desert. When he had traveled six farsangs, his mouth was drying up from thirst. But try as he might, he could not catch up with the deer. Thirst drove him half-way up a mountainside, where he saw a drop of rainwater. The pādishāh held out his golden goblet [beneath the rivulet] and in a short time it was filled. He was about to drink the water when the bird on his hand beat its wings. It hit the goblet with its wing and spilled out the water. Three times the pādishāh held out his goblet [to be filled], and three times the bird struck it [and spilled the water out]. The pādishāh cursed and became enraged. He smashed the bird on the ground, where it immediately died. After that, the pādishāh climbed on foot to the top of the mountain, and he saw a serpent lying stretched out there. A mountain goat seemed likewise to be stretched out resting beside it. The snake had died trying to fit the goat’s horns in its mouth. The dripping water, it seems, was the serpent’s venom. As soon as the pādishāh realized this he saddened and repented, but it was no use. Finally, he returned to his soldiers. He told them all that had happened. He grieved for the hawk until his dying day. In just this way, if my innocence should be revealed, then repenting after [punishing me] will be no use.6

6 “Aning ḥikāyasini itiqāli bashladi Tavārīkh-i aṣḥābida andagh keltürüpdurlar kim bir pādishāh bar érdi ‘aẓīm ul-shāh wa rafī’al-qadr bir kün pādishāhning khāṭirigha keldi kim bügün shikārgha chiqay farmān qildi kim qirq künlük shikārgha chiqsünlār be tamām-i lashkar shikārgha bārdilar yigirma kün shikār qildilar yigirma birinchi küni keyik shikāargha āṭlandilar ul biyābānda keyiklarni aragha āldilar pādishāh umr qildilar kim keyik kimning bashidin va yā aldidin chiqip zūrriyatini qürüturman dedi lashkarlar hammasi keyiklarni qorshap aldilar be-nāgāh bir keyik pādishāhning aldin [sic] chiqip ketgach pādishāhning qolida keyik qushi tütüghliq be ṭaraf-i biyābān ravān boldilar miqdāri alti farsang yerga bardilar tishnalikdin āghzi qürudi anchunān qildilar keyikni alalmay tishnalikdin bir tāgh kamariga chiqip kordilar kim bir qaṭar su tāmidur pādishāh zarrīn jāmni ul sugha tuttilar āz fursatda toldi khwahladikim suni ichgay darḥāl qolidagi qush qanāti birlan urdi su tökaldilar pādishāh uchmarātaba [sic] jāmni tuttilar uchmarātaba qush qanāti birlan urup tökdilar pādishāh nihāyati su sābb erdi dar ghazab bolup qushni yerga urdi darḥāl qush öldi andin keyin pādishāh tāgh üstigha piyāda bolup chiqip kordilar kim bir azhdar öz alip yātidur bir tāgh takkasini damiga tārtqan ekan aning münggüzlari āghzigha sighmasdin azhdar ölüpdur tāmghan su azhdarning zahari ekan müni bilgach pādishāh andagh ghamgin boldilar kim nihāyati kop nadāmatlar qildi faydā [sic] bermadi akhir lashkarigha yānib keldilar ötgan vāqi’ātlarni bir biridin taqrīr qildilar tā ölgüncha ul qushningḥasratini yar [sic] erdilar müninggha okhshash mening begunāhliqim ma’lūm bolsa keyin nadāmat fā’ida bermas.” 40 Jeff Eden

As soon as Bakhtiyār finished relating this tale, Azādahbakht ordered that he be taken to prison, where he would wait until dawn while the pādishāh considered his fate. But a second vizier objected, asking that Bakhtiyār’s punishment be carried out immediately. Azādahbakht relented, and once again called for Bakhtiyār to be brought before him. He told Bakhtiyār once more that he was to be executed, and Bakhtiyār again pleaded his innocence, adding that in his fickle fortunes he resembled a certain merchant. This piqued the pādishāh’s interest, providing a segue for the young man to begin a tale about a wealthy merchant who goes on a journey after losing his wealth. (It should be noted that this tale of the merchant appears in all other known copies of the Bakhtyārnāmah as Bakhtiyār’s first “entertainment” for the pādishāh, whereas in this case, as we see, it is his second line of “defense” after the tale of the heroic hawk.) Bakhtiyār relates that there was a great merchant in the city of Basra who once had much property and land, but whose fortune took a turn for the worse. One year food was in short supply, so the merchant sold whatever he had left in order to stockpile foodstuffs, thinking that food prices would be high by the end of the coming year. But as fate would have it, food prices were low at the end of that year and no one bought a single scrap of his inventory, which began to spoil and reek. The stench offended the people of his neighborhood, who insisted that his rotting stock could not stay there among them. Having nothing left of his goods and property, the merchant packed his few articles of clothing and set off, eventually arriving at the seaside. He boarded a ship, but it was wrecked and sunk by a crosswind, killing nearly all on board. Only the merchant and four others remained, and they floated for ten days before reaching the shore. The fellow-travelers parted ways, and eventually the merchant arrived at a town. He happened upon a house with a courtyard, and he climbed the gate in order to see if its owner might be amenable to aiding wayfarers and travelers. The owner of the house, a wealthy landholder (dehqān), came out and asked the merchant where he had come from and where he was going. The merchant narrated everything that had happened to him down to the last detail, and was invited into the house. After having a meal together, the dehqān told the merchant that he would give him some farming tools and allow him to keep something of his harvest, and he turned over to the merchant the key to his storehouse. The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 41

The merchant farmed with great enthusiasm. Seeing his gains at harvest time, he buried a portion of the harvest in case the dehqān proved to be unwilling to give it to him. That night, however, unbeknownst to the merchant, thieves made off with the food he had stored away. The next morning, the dehqān gave the merchant his portion of the total harvest, offering him even more than the agreed- upon amount out of mercy and compassion. The merchant then told the dehqān that he had buried several sacks of food and offered to turn these over as well. The dehqān sent several people to find the buried food, but they were unable to find it. The dehqān was greatly displeased, and the merchant was sent away in disgrace. The merchant walked several farsangs and came to the seaside, where he met some pearl-divers (ghavāṣlār). He greeted them and they asked where he came from. The merchant narrated all that had happened to him, and then the pearl-divers consulted with one another and decided that they would swim out into the sea and give to the unfortunate merchant whatever treasures they brought back. Thus they swam out into the sea and each found some pearls. When they returned they gave the merchant such pearls as had never fallen into the hands of any king (bu qism marvārīd hich fādshāhlar [sic] qoligha tüshgan émas). The merchant took the pearls and went on his way. As fate would have it, he saw some thieves ahead of him on the road. The merchant considered his predicament and resolved to put three pearls in his mouth and to sew another three into the lining of his coat (tön). When he came upon the thieves, they started chatting with him. As the merchant was talking, however, the pearls suddenly dropped out of his mouth. The thieves grabbed the merchant and beat him. Taking the three pearls, they left. But the remaining pearls were still hidden in his coat. The merchant kept walking until sunset. He finally arrived at a city, where he stopped for the night. The next morning he went looking for the jewelers’ market (javāhar-farūsh rastasi). When he found it, he showed off his pearls. The jewelers tied him up, realizing that even the Shāh’s own treasury did not have such pearls as those. They discussed the matter with one-another and asked the merchant where he had stolen these pearls, and at this point the Lund manuscript abruptly ends. Despite the fact that the story has clearly been interrupted, the manuscript is concluded with a traditional 42 Jeff Eden closing formula (“...it is completed with the aid of the king,” etc.) as if it had reached its natural completion.7 Here, then, we have a novel recension of the widely-traveled Bakhtiyārnāmah in two Chaghatay manuscripts from what is now Western China. As mentioned, there are other Eastern Turkic copies of the tale in manuscript collections around the world which have likewise escaped notice, and I hope that the information provided here will offer a basis for further comparisons. The reason these Chaghay copies have remained “hidden in plain sight” for so long may well relate to the nature of our expectations when it comes to the world of Eastern Turkic literature more generally: although a number of the chronicles and other classical works detailing East Turkistan’s history were written in Persian, and although there is copious evidence which suggests that—for example—classical Persian and Middle Eastern literature and poetry were widely circulated throughout the region, scholarship on East Turkistani and modern Uyghur culture has tended to focus on purported “ethno-national” traits rather than cosmopolitan valences and global connections. It is my hope, then, that this paper, along with offering a new channel by which to trace the Bakhtiyārnāmah, will also inspire further inquiries into the cosmopolitan heritage of East Turkistani literature.

7 It is possible, then, that the copyist had simply run out of paper! If the merchant’s tale were to proceed in the traditional fashion, we would expect that he would then be taken by the jewelers before the king, who, likewise suspecting him of theft, would have him thrown in prison. He would then be saved by the intercession of the pearl- divers themselves, who had come to the city in order to observe the prisoners and distribute alms to them. The king would free him, transfer his accuser’s wealth to him, and appoint him to the post of treasurer, where he would arouse the jealousy of one of the king’s viziers. This vizier would falsely accuse the merchant of conspiring to tunnel into the princess’ chambers, and the king would have the merchant blinded and exiled. The king would only later discover the vizier’s treachery, at which point it would be too late to make amends for the injustice done to the merchant—thus bringing the Lund manuscripts’ novel addition of the tale of the “heroic hawk” directly into dialogue with the tale of the merchant by way of analogy. The Global Journey of the Bakhtiyārnāmah 43

References

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Eine philologische Note zum Wort „Hmk.t“ in pChester Beatty VII, vso I, 5

Stefan Bojowald Universität Bonn

Abstract

In this article, the word from pChester Beatty VII, vso I, 5 is examined again. The determinative has indicated only the denotation of a water body, and previous attempts of interpretation could not convince. Here, a connection with “HmAg” “surround” is assumed. The word is determined as the name of a waterscape surrounded by trees and shrubs.

Keywords: Egyptian philology; new interpretation for pChester Beatty VII, vso I, 5; new explanation for .

Im Zentrum dieses Beitrags wird eine Passage aus dem ägyptischen pChester Beatty VII, vso I, 5 stehen, der nach paläographischen Kriterien in die Zeit von Ramses II. datiert werden kann. Der Papyrusabschnitt setzt mit einer Ritualanweisung ein, auf die eine längere Lücke folgt. Die heute erhaltenen Textreste erlauben aber die Rekonstruktion einer mythologischen Episode aus dem Leben der Götter Seth und Anat, in welcher der Same/das Gift in Gestalt einer schönen Frau ein kühles Bad genommen hat. Die Anekdote ist in den 48 Stefan Bojowald

Worten „Sn.t n. t si … c m pA xApw Hr wab=c m pA“ 1 erzählt worden, die in der Erstübersetzung von Gardiner mit „Incantation for a man … [The goddess Anat was disporting ?] herself in the (stream of) Khap2 and bathing in the (stream of) Hemket“3 ins Englische übertragen worden sind. Die Geschichte ist anschließend noch weitergegangen, was hier aber vorerst nicht zu interessieren braucht. Die jüngeren Übersetzungen haben eine andere Aufteilung gewählt und nach der Lücke einen neuen Satz beginnen lassen. Im Ergebnis hat dieser Schritt zu Übersetzungen wie „She was at the shore, bathing in the Hmkt“4 und „She was on the x. bathing herself in the Hamakata“ 5 geführt. In der Zwischenzeit waren aber für den Anfang Parallelen 6 bekannt geworden, welche die Ergänzung „tA mtw.t Hr wab m pA xpw“ „Der Same/ das Gift badete sich in xpw“ wahrscheinlich machen. Der hier vorgelegte Beitrag wird sich intensiver mit dem Wort beschäftigen, das trotz mehrfacher Anläufe noch nicht zufriedenstellend bestimmt ist. Die Lage wird dadurch noch zusätzlich erschwert, dass das Wort offenbar nur an dieser einen Stelle belegt ist. Das Determinativ der „Liegenden Wasserlinien“ kommt hierbei zunächst nicht zur Hilfe, da es lediglich auf die Bezeichnung für ein stehendes oder fließendes Gewässer hindeutet. Die Wörter 7 aus p. Med.

1 Gardiner 1935 (Plates), Pl. 36 vso 1, 5. 2 Die Bedeutung des Wortes „xApw“ kann im Licht der neueren Forschung exakter eingegrenzt werden: zur Bedeutung „Ufer“ vgl. Helck 1971, 518; van Dijk 1986, 34; Schneider 2003, 620; zu einem Zusammenhang des Wortes mit luwisch „xäpa/ï-“ „Fluß“ vgl. Schneider 2004, 24; Breyer 2004, 267; dagegen Simon 2010, 81, der wieder der Bedeutung „Ufer“ zuneigt. 3 Gardiner 1935 (Text), 62. 4 Hoch 1994, 227. 5 Simon 2010, 81. 6 van Dijk 1986, 32–33. 7 Wreszinski 1912, 150 (10, 6). Die ägyptische „Hmk.t“ – Krankheit ist von Ebbell 1924, 149, mit der arabischen Krankheitsbezeichnung Þ DÖb in Verbindung gebracht worden. In der medizinischen Frage dieser Krankheit hat er eventuell an Scharlach gedacht. In dieser Hinsicht sind von Deines/Westendorf 1962, 603, allerdings zu keiner evidenten Lösung gelangt. Die Krankheit ist von Steiner 1992, 198, mit ugaritisch „ʾilt xnqt” “strangling goddess” und „Hnq.t“ “strangulation – demon” aus Arslan Tasch gleichgesetzt worden. Die Position ist auch von Schneider 1996, 176, befürwortet worden, der den von ihm selbst aufgestellten Zusammenhang mit hethitisch „xenkan/xinkan“ „Seuche/Pest“ für problematischer hält. Der Vorschlag von Steiner ist auch bei Simon 2010, 83, ausdrücklich gebilligt worden. Die Vorgaben Eine philologische Note zum Wort „Hmk.t“ 49

London 10, 6 und 8 aus p. Med. London 11, 7 weisen zwar in der Lautstruktur zunächst keine größeren Unterschiede auf, stellen sich aber bei näherer Betrachtung als Schreibungen für die „Hmk.t – Krankheit heraus. Das Determinativ des sitzenden Mannes könnte im letzten Fall ein Indiz für die Vorstellung der Krankheit als Dämon bilden9. Das gleiche Wort ist in p. Brit. Mus. 10083, vso. 42 – 43; p. Turin Museum 1984, rto. 106 und in p. Turin Museum 1983, vso 30/31 geschrieben worden10. In oDeM 1640 recto x + 3 11 ist außerdem ein Wort in alphabetischer Schreibung attestiert, das von Mathieu12 mit derselben Krankheit in Zusammenhang gebracht worden ist. Die folgenden Zeilen versuchen auf möglichst innovative Weise hinter die Bedeutung von zu schauen. Der hier gemachte Vorschlag zeichnet sich gegenüber allen bisherigen Versuchen dadurch aus, dass er von außen durch eine Parallele gestützt werden kann. Die eigenen Argumente sollen nach dem obligatorischen Forschungsüberblick präsentiert werden. In der Editio princeps des Textes hatte Gardiner 13 noch von einer Übersetzung des Wortes abgesehen und sich mit der reinen Wiedergabe in englischer Transkription, scil. „Hemket“, begnügt (s. o.). Das Wort war danach von Albright 14 mit dem ugaritischen Begriff „Smk“ aus KTU 1. 10, II, 9. 12 in Verbindung gebracht worden, der eine sumpfige Gegend bezeichnet, in der sich Baal und Anat ein Stelldichein gegeben haben. Der Vorschlag hat jedoch bei van Dijk15 Kritik geerntet, der auf linguistische Ungereimtheiten und

von Steiner sind bei Fischer – Elfert 2005, 35, zur Bestimmung der Krankheit als „Scharlachfieber“ genutzt worden. Die Identifikation der ägyptischen „Hmk.t“ – Krankheit mit proto-semitisch „*xanqatu“ „strangulation“ ist hingegen von Leitz 1999, 61 n. 96, aus lautlichen Gründen abgelehnt worden. 8 Wreszinski 1912, 152 (11, 7). 9 Steiner 1992, 198. 10 Edwards 1960, 11 n. 28/58 n. 31/66 n. 63. 11 Posener 1980, 90/Pl. 66–66a. 12 Mathieu 2008, 65b. 13 Gardiner 1935 (Text), 62 n. 6. 14 Albright 1946, 197 n. 39. 15 van Dijk 1986, 34. 50 Stefan Bojowald fehlende Gemeinsamkeiten der ägyptischen Geschichte mit dem ugaritischen Mythos verwiesen hat. In späterer Zeit hat Helck16 das Wort in seine Liste semitischer Fremdwörter aufgenommen, wo es die Bedeutung „Bach“ erhalten hat. Das Wort kennt er nur aus Chester Beatty VII vso 1, 5, ohne es etymologisch erklären zu können. In der Neuauflage17 seiner Arbeit sind diese Koordinaten unverändert übernommen worden. Der nächste Kommentar zu diesem Wort ist von Hoch 18 geschrieben worden, der probeweise die Bedeutung „body of water“ vorschlägt. Das Wort hat er als Bildung mit „m“ – Präfix identifiziert, was zusätzlich die Annahme einer Metathese erforderlich macht. In Bezug auf die Etymologie des Wortes tritt er vorsichtig für einen “tiefes Wasser„ עמקים Zusammenhang mit den hebräischen Wurzeln tiefe Dinge“ ein. Die Gleichung bereitet auf lautlicher„ עמקות oder Ebene keine Schwierigkeiten, da alle nötigen Regeln eingehalten werden. Die Ausführungen von Hoch lassen jedoch erkennen, dass er nicht mit letzter Überzeugung hinter seinem eigenen Vorschlag gestanden hat. Das maskuline Demonstrativpronomen „pA“ vor schließt nach seiner Meinung ein Femininum aus, weshalb die Gruppe Wurzelkonsonanten bezeichnen müsse. Im unteren Teil wird die Sprache noch einmal auf dieses Thema kommen, wo auch eigene Ursachenforschung zu dieser Frage betrieben wird. Die Reihe der bisherigen Interpreten ist von Schneider 19 fortgesetzt worden, der das Wort in „idb mkt“ „Ufer/Gestade von Megiddo (?)“ emendieren wollte. Die These hatte er mit dem Hinweis auf die große Ähnlichkeit von und im Hieratischen erläutert. Die Zeichen wären demnach als logographische Schreibung für „idb“ aufzufassen. In der Ähnlichkeit der beiden hieratischen Zeichengruppen muss Schneider zwar zweifellos Recht gegeben werden. Der Vorschlag stimmt aber dennoch bedenklich, weil keine weiteren Belege für die Wortverbindung aus „idb“ „Ufer/Gestade“ und „mkt“ „Megiddo“ genannt worden sind. In der Tat dürften sie schwer zu finden sein. Die Schreibung für Megiddo scheint auch nicht ganz dem herkömmlichen Standard zu entsprechen. Die Verlegung

16 Helck 1962, 566. 17 Helck 1971, 518. 18 Hoch 1994, 227. 19 Schneider 2003, 620. Eine philologische Note zum Wort „Hmk.t“ 51 des Schauplatzes der Ereignisse ausgerechnet nach Megiddo stellt ohnehin eine reine Vermutung dar. Das in Klammern gesetzte Fragezeichen nach Megiddo deutet denn auch auf die eigene Skepsis von Schneider hin. Der Ansatz hat obendrein gegen die goldene Regel verstoßen, dass Textein-griffe – egal in welcher Form – immer nur äußerstes Mittel sein sollten. In diesem Beitrag wird daher eine etwas andere Herangehensweise gewählt. Die Emendation von Schneider wird sich dabei als unnötig herausstellen. Die Notwendigkeit zur Ansetzung eines semitischen Fremdwortes wird ebenfalls entfallen. Die semitische Wurzelfrage hatte Hoch ohnehin vor eine ernste Herausforderung gestellt. Das Resultat der folgenden Überlegungen wird hoffentlich zeigen, dass das Problem viel einfacher zu bewältigen ist. In diesem Kontext braucht nur das Stichwort genannt werden, dass auch ägyptische Wörter in Syllabischer Schrift geschrieben werden konnten. In der Vergangenheit ist bereits auf mehrere Fälle dieser Art aufmerksam gemacht worden20. Das Wort kann jetzt diesem Corpus hinzugefügt werden. Der genuin ägyptische Charakter von fordert zur Suche nach einer geeigneten Wurzel heraus. Das Wort soll dementsprechend von der Wurzel „HmAg“ abgeleitet werden, die in den Wörterbüchern mit der Bedeutung „umschließen“21 zu finden ist. In besonderem Maße kommt es hierbei auf den bildlichen Gebrauch von „HmAg“ an, der „schützend umgeben“22 gelautet hat. Die näheren Einzelheiten werden im nächsten Abschnitt stärker akzentuiert. Das Wort ist nach dieser Logik als feminine Nominalbildung von der verbalen Wurzel „HmAg“ zu betrachten. Die hierfür notwendigen phonetischen Voraussetzungen sind leicht einzuhalten, da lediglich der Lautwandel zwischen „g“ und „k“23 sowie der Ausfall

20 Smither 1941, 131; Fecht 1960, 85; Quack 1994, 55; Fischer-Elfert 1986 (Satirische Streitschrift), 161/168; Fischer-Elfert 1986 (Ostraka), 76; Fischer-Elfert 1997, 22/49. 21 WB III, 94, 8; Takács 1999, 153. 22 WB III, 94, 9. 23 Westendorf 1962, 43. Der Lautwandel ist zwar von Westendorf als unsicher markiert worden, in der Spätzeit kommt er jedoch öfter vor, vgl. z. B. Jasnow/Zauzich 2005, 89. In der Schreibung „bg“ für den „bik“ – Falken bei Osing 1998, 245c, ist er überdies eindeutig nachgewiesen. Die Synkope von „i“ soll an anderer Stelle abgehandelt werden. 52 Stefan Bojowald von „A“24 zu erfolgen hat. In diesem speziellen Fall kann sogar darauf verwiesen werden, dass in der Spätzeit für „HmAg“ die Schreibung „Hmk“25 belegt ist. Das späte Datum der Schreibung braucht keine Zweifel an der Vertretbarkeit der gesamten These hervorzurufen. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Deutung lässt sich vielmehr dadurch noch um einige Prozente erhöhen, dass in der Schreibung 26 für den „HmAg.t“27 – Stein eine fast identische Erscheinung aus dem Neuen Reich zu beobachten ist. Die Nähe zwischen und dem „HmAg.t“ – Stein ist auch von Caminos 28 behauptet worden. Die Schreibung stellt eine höchst willkommene Parallele aus der gleichen Zeitstufe wie die Ableitung des Wortes von der Wurzel „HmAg“ „umschließen“ dar. Die unterschiedliche Wiedergabe des Gutturals sollte nicht überbewertet werden, da die Grenzen zwischen „k“ und „q“ durchlässig waren 29 . Das Wort ist sinniger Weise ebenfalls syllabisch geschrieben worden. Das Wort „HmAg“ „umschließen“ ist mit der Angabe „spät/griechisch“ ins Wörterbuch gesetzt worden. Wenn die hier vorgelegten Bemerkungen aber stimmen sollten, ist das Wort mindestens ein halbes Jahrtausend älter gewesen. Was die inhaltliche Seite betrifft, so ergibt sich die Schlussfolgerung, dass das Wort einen Teich oder Wasserlauf bezeichnet hat, deren Uferränder vielleicht mit Bäumen oder Sträu- chern bewachsen waren30. Die wörtliche Bedeutung von kann demnach mit „die Umgebene (scil. Wasserfläche)“ umschrieben werden. Die dichte Vegetation hat dabei einen Sichtschutz geboten, welcher die weibliche Personifikation des Samens/Giftes vor den Blicken neugieriger Zuschauer abgeschirmt hat. Der durch die Sonderbedeutung von „HmAg“ intendierte Schutzaspekt kann vor

24 Westendorf 1962, 9. 25 Leitz 2010, 328. 26 WB III, 99, 10. 27 Harris 1961, 118; Lesko 1984, 113; Meeks 1980, 247; Meeks 1981, 249–250; Aufrère 1991 (Vol. I), 180/ 217/250/285/339; Aufrère 1991 (Vol. II), 375/557– 558/757/783/819; Hannig 2006, 1685 28 Caminos 1954, 442. Der „Hmq” – Edelstein ist hingegen von Burchardt 1910, II 35, unter Verweis auf den „Hqm“ – Edelstein als eigenes Wort analysiert worden. 29 Westendorf 1962, 43. 30 Zur Vorstellung von Bäumen als Umrandung von Wasserflächen vgl. Youotte 1982–1983, 130–132; Guermuer 2005, 132–133; Leitz 2011, 369. Eine philologische Note zum Wort „Hmk.t“ 53 diesem Hintergrund als erfüllt gelten. Die Dame hat auf diese Weise für die Körperpflege einen intimen Ort gefunden, an dem sie sich ganz der Reinigung hingeben konnte. Der weitere Verlauf der Handlung zeigt zwar, dass die Badende dennoch von Seth erspäht wird, woraufhin es zum sexuellen Kontakt kommt. Die Tatsache würde aber an der hiesigen Interpretation erst einmal nichts ändern, da die Dinge immer eine überraschende Wende nehmen können. Der Geschlechtsverkehr scheint ohnehin nicht in gegenseitigem Einverständnis stattgefunden zu haben31. Im Schlussteil soll noch einmal zum Verhältnis zwischen dem maskulinen Artikel „pA“ und zurückgekehrt werden. Die oben geschilderte Idee von Hoch war nicht so zwingend, dass sie keine andere Erklärung neben sich duldet. Die Stimme soll hier daher zu einer Gegenmeinung erhoben werden. In diesem Sinn lässt sich sagen, dass die Annahme eines simplen Versehens des ägyptischen Schreibers den Kern der Sache wesentlich besser treffen dürfte. Der Irrtum könnte sehr leicht damit entschuldigt werden, dass der Schreiber oder Kopist nicht mehr/noch nicht richtig über das Genus des syllabisch geschriebenen Wortes informiert war.

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Einige Briefe von Georg Jacob (1862-1937) an Willi Bang Kaup (1869-1934)

Aloïs van Tongerloo und Michael Knüppel Geel/Kassel

Abstract

In the article the authors give an introduced and commented edition of five letters written by the Turcologist Georg Jacob (1862-1937) to his colleague the Turcologist, Altaist, Iranist and Anglicist Willi Bang Kaup (1869-1934) in the years 1899-1912. In some of the letters Jacob deals with his own works (especially his Turkic dialectological studies and the publication of his works on Karagöz-shadow-play) in some others on the works and scientific activities of another colleague: Karl Foy (1856-1907).

Keywords: Georg Jacob, Willi Bang Kaup, correspondencies, edition of letters, history of oriental studies.

Als der Mitbegründer der Turkologie, der Anglist, Iranist und Altaist Willi Bang Kaup (1869-1934) 1914 im Zuge des Ausbruchs des Ersten Weltkrieges Belgien, wo er an der Katholischen Universität Louvain lehrte, verlassen mußte, ließ er aus nicht geklärten Gründen nahezu seine gesamten privaten Korrespondenzen zurück. Diese Materialien haben später, nachdem sie von H. de Vocht (1878-1962), 60 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel einem Schüler und Freund Bangs, geordnet wurden,1 als „Nachlaß Bang” ihren Weg in das Archiv der Katholieke Universiteit Leuven gefunden. Dort werden sie heute unter der Signatur PU/ Bang geführt. Die Materialien, die dieser Nachlaß umfaßt, sind für die Geschichte der orientalistischen Sprachwissenschaften ganz allgemein ebenso wie für jene der Orientalistik an der Katholischen Universität Louvain von großem Interesse, erlauben sie doch Einblick in den Wissenschafts- betrieb des ausgehenden 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts – stand Bang in dieser Zeit doch in Kontakt mit den meisten Vertretern der orientalistischen Disziplinen. Mit einigen bestand dabei eine nur lose Verbindung, mit anderen hingegen ein eher enger Kontakt, von manchen Beziehungen zeugen nur vereinzelte Schreiben, von anderen wiederum Briefwechsel die sich über Jahrzehnte hinzogen und sich in Korrespondenzresten niederschlugen, welche bis zu einhundert Briefe eines einzelnen Korrespondenzpartners, die bei Bang eingingen, umfassen.2 Unter den Briefen im Nachlaß Bang finden sich auch fünf Schreiben (oder genauer: vier Briefe und eine Postkarte) eines anderen Mitbegründers der modernen Turkologie: Georg Jacob. 3 Diese Dokumente werden heute im Nachlaß unter den Nrr. 707-711 (PU/Bang [früher P 56], Karton 39) geführt und stellen den Rest eines einstmals umfangreicheren Briefwechsels zwischen den beiden Gelehrten dar. Die Materialien, die uns einen flüchtigen Blick in die Beziehungen der Korrespondenzpartner erlauben, sollen nachstehend bekannt gemacht resp. erstmals publiziert werden. Während zu Leben und Werk W. Bang-Kaups inzwischen zahllose Beiträge vorliegen 4 und an dieser Stelle auf die umfangreicheren biographischen und bio-bibliographischen Arbeiten

1 De Vocht war auch der Herausgeber des Schriftenverzeichnisses von W. Bang Kaup (De Vocht [1929]). 2 Zu den Resten dieser sehr umfangreichen Briefwechsel sind die Briefe des Turkologen, Archäologen und Ethnologe A. v. Le Coq (1860-1930), des Iranisten F. C. Andreas (1846-1930) und des Altorientalisten F. H. Weissbach (1865-1944) zu zählen. Die Korrespondenz mit Andreas wurde inzwischen von den Vff.n dieser Zeilen publiziert (Knüppel/van Tongerloo [2012]), eine Edition der Briefe A. v. Le Coqs an W. Bang Kaup wird gerade für die Publikation aufbereitet. 3 E. Littmann bezeichnete Jacob sogar als „eigentlichen Begründer der Turkologie in Deutschland“ (Littmann [1937], p. 492). 4 Cf. hierzu die Zusammenstellung in Knüppel/van Tongerloo (2012), bes. den Nachruf von A. v. Gabain (1934) sowie das Schriftenverzeichnis von de Vocht (1929). Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 61 verwiesen werden kann, wurde G. Jacob vergleichsweise weniger Aufmerksamkeit zuteil,5 sodaß hier zumindest die Eckdaten zu seiner Vita gegeben werden sollen: Georg Jacob wurde am 26.5.1862 im preußischen Königsberg geboren. Er studierte zunächst Theologie und orientalische Sprachen, schließlich Orientalistik, Germanistik und Ethnologie in Leipzig, Straßburg, Breslau und Berlin. 1887 wurde Jacob mit seiner Arbeit „Der nordisch-baltische Handel der Araber im Mittelalter” an der Universität Leipzig promoviert. Die Arbeit, der bereits ein Aufsatz zum selben Gegenstand vorausgegangen war, 6 erschien im gleichen Jahr. Vom 2.1.1888-1.7.1888 arbeitete Jacob als wissenschaftlicher Hilfsarbeiter, seit dem 31.12.1890 als Assistent an der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin. Mit Wirkung vom 12.2.1892 habilitierte er sich in Greifswald und am 14.11.1896 in Halle a.S. Am 20.2.1901 wurde er zum außerordentlichen Professor in Erlangen und am 7.8.1911 (ab 1.10.1911) zum ordentlichen Professor der Islamischen und Semitischen Philologie, wo er den Lehrstuhl von Georg Hoffmann (1845-1933) übernahm, berufen. Zudem wirkte er von dieser Zeit an als Direktor des Orientalischen Seminars in Kiel. Am 17.12.1916 wurde Jacob zum Geheimen Regierungsrat ernannt und Ende September 1929 entpflichtet. Er starb am 4.7.1937. Die fünf an Bang gerichteten Schreiben sind insofern von Interesse, als hier eine sehr persönlich eingefärbte Sicht Jacobs auf einen anderen Orientalisten jener Tage, Karl Foy (1856-1907), zur Sprache kommt, und auf diese offenbar eine Reaktion Bangs, die leider nicht mehr vorliegt, erfolgte. Der Vorgang gibt geradezu ein Paradebeispiel für die „akademischen Befindlichkeiten”, wie sie einem ja auch unserer Tage noch begegnen, ab: Jacob selbst war von den „Verfehlungen” Foys nicht betroffen, und hat unzusammen- hängende Vorgänge, von denen er lediglich aus zweiter Hand erfahren hat, zu einer recht unvorteilhaften Charakterisierung des inzwischen verstorbenen Kollegen ausgerechnet einem persönlichen Freund desselben mitgeteilt – ein interessanter Fauxpas und ein aufschluß- reiches Lehrstück zugleich!

5 Becker (1932); v. Brockdorff (1937); Dammann (1987); Degener (1935); Kürschner’s deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender. Jg. 5 1935, p. 377; Kukula (1928); Littmann (1937); Paret/ Schall (1955); Volbehr/ Weyl (1956). 6 Jacob (1886). 62 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel

Dokument 1 (PU/Bang Nr 707)

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1 Blatt = 1 p. Gesamtmaß des Blattes: 11,2 cm (br) x 18 cm (h).

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Halle a/S 12/5 99

Hochverehrter Herr Professor,

Besten Dank für Ihre beiden Karten. Ich beabsichtige mich noch längere Zeit auf das osmanische Türkisch zu concentriren. In den letzten Monaten habe ich einzig an einem Ŧ vulgärtürkischen Glossar gesammelt. In 8 Tagen etwa hoffe ich Ihnen Heft II meiner Karagöz-Komödien7 senden zu können, das einen viel interessanteren Text mit verschiedenen Dialektproben enthält, einige Versehen, welche mir in Heft I8 noch passirt sind, habe ich daselbst berichtigt. Heft III9 denke ich mit beigefügter Übersetzung zu geben. Ich würde gerne jetzt Heft auf Heft folgen lassen – 6 Stücke habe ich in deutscher Übersetzung im Schreibtisch liegen – weiss aber nicht ob mein Verleger noch weiter geneigt sein wird die Herstellungskosten zu tragen. Hochachtungsvoll Ihr ergebenster Georg Jacob

7 Jacob (1899a). 8 Jacob (1899b). 9 Jacob (1899c). Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 63

Dokument 2 (PU/Bang Nr 708)

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1 Blatt = 2 pp. Gesamtmaß des Blattes: 11,2 cm (br) x 18 cm (h).

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Halle 1/5 1900

Hochverehrter Herr Professor,

Schuchardt’s Slawo-Deutsches 10 besitzt die Bibliothek der DMG nicht, ich benutzte das Exemplar unserer Universitäts-Bibliothek; dieselbe würde Ihnen dasselbe wol auf direkte Eingabe senden, doch dürfte die Sendung eingeschrieben mit Verpackungskosten hin und zurück vielleicht nicht viel billiger werden als das Buch. Unsere türkische Litteratur ist in letzter Zeit durch stetige kleine Ankäufe sehr vermehrt, früher war der Bestand nach dieser Richtung recht dürftig. Der Katalog wird in 14 Tagen erscheinen und trotz seiner 45 Bogen für Mitglieder billig (6-10 Mark) zu haben sein. Wenn Sie die Güte haben wollten mein Karagözbuch in einer Zeitschrift zu besprechen,11 so würde mir das sehr angenehm sein. Wir haben so wenig Turkologen in Deutschland, dass die Besprechungs- frage, von welches doch das Schicksal eines Buches zum grossen Teile abhängt, sehr schwierig ist. Meine Verlags-Buchhandlung ist türkischen Unternehmungen gegenüber sehr ängstlich und so lange sie keinen kleinen Absatz-Erfolg

10 Schuchardt (1884). 11 Bang scheint den Beitrag zu den Karagöz-Komödien G. Jacob’s nicht besprochen zu haben. Er hatte lediglich dessen Beitrag „Zur Grammatik des Vulgär-Türkischen” (Georg [1898]) besprochen − eine Rezension, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt aber wohl schon erschienen war (Bang [1899]). 64 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel

[Seite 1 verso] sieht, wird sie mir nicht das 2. Heft kostenfrei drucken, jedes Honorar ist selbstverständlich ausgeschlossen. Das 2. Heft soll die Meddâḥ’s behandeln; ich habe einige sehr charakteristische Proben aufgetrieben; neue Aufzeichnungen sind mir aus Stambul versprochen. Die Ver- mehrung des Materials wäre allerdings wünschenswert; immerhin lässt sich schon sehr viel mehr über diese Stoffe mit Sicherheit sagen als über das Orta ojunu. Unsere Arabisten sind teilweise entrüstet, dass ich Türkisch treibe! Daher das Vorwort. Mit hochachtungsvollem Gruss Ihr ergebenster Georg Jacob Halle a/S. Kronprinzenstr. 99

Dokument 3 (PU/Bang Nr 709)

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1 Blatt (gefaltet) = 4 pp. Gesamtmaß des Blattes: 22,7 cm (br) x 18 cm (h).

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Erlangen 22/9 1909

Verehrter Herr College,

Ihre mir neulich freundlichst übersandte Arbeit enthält S. 236 einen Passus, zu dem ich unmöglich schweigen kann ohne mich einer Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 65

Unterlassung anzuklagen. Sie scheinen über Foys12 Persönlichkeit und Lebenswandel nicht genauer unterrichtet zu sein, wenn Sie diesen Mann in solcher Weise zu verherrlichen für angezeigt halten. Ich bin durch Schüler, die aus Berlin kamen und andere über Manches informiert, das mir unmöglich macht mit Hochachtung von diesem Manne zu sprechen. Zur Charakteristik will ich folgende Perfidie mitteilen, die ich selbst erfahren habe. Mein Freund Enno Littmann13 fragte mich einst, als er zu einer Orientreise aufbrach, ob er nicht etwas für mich besorgen könne; ich gab ihm ein Blatt mit, auf dem ich einen azer-beiǧanischen Text transscribiert und übersetzt hatte und bat ihn bei gelegentlichem Zusammentreffen mit einem Azerbeiǧaner die Umschreibung nachzuprüfen. Littmann ging nach dem Orient und ohne dass ich

[Seite 1 verso] ihn inzwischen gesehen hatte, nach Amerika, sandte mir von dort den Text mit der Bemerkung, dass er zwar nicht unterwegs, aber in Berlin Gelegenheit gehabt hätte einen Azerbeiǧaner zu sprechen. Ich erfuhr durch meinen damals in Berlin weilenden Schüler Philipp, dass ein azerbeiǧanischer Buchhändler Hasan,14 den ich vor vielen Jahren in Konstantinopel kennengelernt hatte, in Berlin sei und vermutete, dass er dieser war, den Littmann gesprochen*, da Littmann und Philipp in Berlin zusammengekommen waren. Die Transscription liess ich na- türlich unter Littmanns Namen später drucken. Etwa ein Jahr darauf wurde Hasan Lector am Orientalischen Seminar. Foy entstellte nun den Sachverhalt in der Weise, dass ich mich an den Leiter des Orient{alischen} Seminars gewandt hätte, sodass er Littmanns Namen und die Daten verheimlichte. Wer die Verhältnisse kennt, weiss, dass das eine Niederträchtigkeit war. Wir standen damals noch im Schriftenaustausch. Foy hielt mir diesen Separatabzug vor, obwohl ich

12 Gemeint ist der Orientalist Karl Arthur Philipp Heinrich Foy (1856-1907). Zu Foy cf. Hartmann (1907). 13 Hier der Semitist, Äthiopist und Turkologe Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16.9.1875-4.5.1958). Zu Littmann cf. bes. Biesterfeld (1986). 14 Es könnte sich hierbei um Ḥasan Taufīq (1862-1904) handeln, der von 1887-1893 als Lektor für Ägyptisches Arabisch am Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen in Berlin tätig war. 66 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel von dem Vorfall hörte und ihn zweimal in Abstand von einigen Monaten um ___ *) Littmann bestreitet noch heute irrtümlich, dass sein Gewährsmann mit dem Lektor gewordenen Buchhändler identisch sei.

[Seite 2 recto] denselben bat. Ich bekam inzwischen zuckersüsse schuldbewusste Briefe von ihm. Schliesslich liess ich mir das Elaborat aus München kommen, legte ihm nun ruhig den Sachverhalt dar und verlangte Richtigstellung, obwohl ein unbeabsichtigter Irrtum, da ich Littmann fortwährend zitierte, ausgeschlossen war. Foy hat noch länger als ein halbes Jahr gelebt. Die Berichtigung ist nicht erfolgt! Die Motive dieser und andere Handlungen kenne ich sehr genau*). Mich hat er vor anständigen Menschen nicht geschädigt. Ich habe deshalb keinen Grund ihm zu grollen, wohl aber ihn zu verachten. Die Tugend von Streberseelen braucht wirklich nicht der Verherrlichung! Gutmütig mag es gewesen sein; gutmütig ist Mancher, der sich die schlimmsten Dinge zu Schulden kommen lässt; das beweist also nichts. Sprachtalent und Scharfsinn mag er besessen haben. Aber seine Arbeiten tragen doch unverkennbar den Stempel völliger Zerrüttung. Eine Wissenschaft, in der man in solchen Zustand noch Grosses leisten konnte, müsste ein trauriges Afterprodukt sein! ___ *) Auch in anderen Fällen war sich Foy seiner Schuld wohl bewusst, konnte sogar nicht, wie mir von Zeugen berichtet wurde, die äussere Verwirrung und Scham verbergen, wenn man ihn danach fragte.

[Seite 2 verso]

Die türkische Geschichte trug Foy in der Weise vor, dass es von den ersten osmanischen Herrschern auf die Reformen Mahmud II überging, 15 natürlich nach den trübsten Quellen, die vielleicht in letzter Instanz auf {J. von} Hammer{-Purgstall} 16 zurückgingen,

15 Gemeint ist der osman. Sulṭān-Ḫalīf Maḥmūd II. (1808-1839). 16 Hier der Begründer der Osmanistik und Mitbegründer der Orientalistik Joseph Freiherr v. Hammer-Purgstall (9.6.1774-23.11.1856). Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 67 dabei meist in jede Stunde wieder mit demselben anfangend, da sein Gedächnis nicht mehr bis zur letzten reichte. Sein „Anonymus“ hat eine so willkürlich=freie Umschrift, dass es dieselben Worte, wenn sie zwei- oder dreimal vorkommen, stets so verschieden wie möglich wiedergiebt. Ein ‚vortrefflicher Philologe’ baut auf solches Material keine Kartenhäuser. Bei einer so krassen Unkenntnis der Sachen,*) wie sie Foy besass, ist es mislich mit Lauten zu operieren. Der „Anonymus“ erwähnt die Ḥurûfîs als horife, wenn ich nicht irre; von Ḥurûfîs wusste natürlich Foy nichts, er denkt an cārif, und ein famoses Lautgesetz h = c ist fertig. Foy hatte zudem am Seminar nicht ein [...]17 Prähistorische umgedrehtes türkisches Volapük, von ihm erfunden, zu vertreten, sondern osmanisches Türkisch. Da hätte er sich wohl etwas mit den Elementen des Arabischen auseinandersetzen müssen, in denen er so unsicher war, dass er Studenten bei den bekanntesten zu schreiben ﻙ oder ﻕ Worten [...]lich18 fragen musste, ob sie mit seien. In vorzüglicher Hochachtung Ihr erg{ebener} Georg Jacob

*) In seiner Compassarbeit kennt er die ganze alte Litteratur nicht, die Alles von ihm gesagte gegenstandslos macht.

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1 Blatt (gefaltet) = 2 pp. Gesamtmaß des Blattes: 22,7 cm (br) x 18 cm (h).

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17 Lesung unklar. 18 Lesung unklar. 68 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel

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Erlangen 25/9 1909

Verehrter Herr College,

Es tut mir leid, dass Ihnen mein Brief weh getan hat. Ich wusste weder, dass Sie sich Foy gegenüber zu Dank verpflichtet fühlen, noch dass Sie ihn, wie es scheint, garnicht persönlich kannten. Ihre Auslassung kam mir herausfordernd vor, und riss bei mir alte Wunden auf. Ich will mich jetzt bemühen jede gereizte Stimmung zu unterdrücken. Littmann mochte Foy gern; ich habe ihm daher um mich vor Übereilung zu hüten vor dem definitiven Bruch, als er mich hier einmal besuchte, die ganze Correspondenz ohne weiteren Kommentar vorgelegt; er sagte nach Kenntnisnahme: „Ich habe Foy das nicht zugetraut.“ Foy kam immer mit Entschuldigungen, ich wollte eine Richtigstellung; er hat mir dieselbe nie versprochen, also habe ich keinen Grund anzunehmen, dass eine solche verloren gegangen ist. Das mitgeteilte Beispiel seiner incorrecten Handlungsweise mir gegenüber war allerdings das, was für mich durch die Umstände am meisten ins Gewicht fiel, aber es steht nicht isoliert. Sonst kann ich dem, was Sie schreiben, nur zustimmen und ich bitte nochmals um Entschuldigung, wenn ich Sie irgendwie verletzt haben sollte, was

[Seite 1 verso] nicht meine Absicht war. In aufrichtiger Hochachtung Ihr Georg Jacob

Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 69

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KIEL 8.7.12

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Herrn Professor Bang, Loewen, Rue des Récollets.

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Geschrieben von WBK: {W.} Radl{off} sin, syn

Kiel 8/7 1912 Joh{ann} Georgstr{asse} 13 II

Verehrter Herr College,͜at

Leider habe ich hier keine Hülfsmittel für türkische Dialekte und besitze selbst fast nur Osmanica. Evlija berichtet, dass man in Adrianopel für Kirchhof sinbaz sage; ich kenne sin nur als veraltetes Wort für Grab, baz sagen die Tataren für čukur (Grube); ist Ihnen die Zusammensetzung sonst bekannt. Für lachen sagte man in Adrianopel ak͜ - ͜atlanmak,

/in margine HS WBK:/ aq + at

70 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel für sich amüsieren kyscharlanmak. Wir haben wunderbare Sachen geschaut hier: alata serejân ettik. Steckt darin vielleicht auch altes Material? Mit bestem Gruss Ihr er{gebener} Georg Jacob

Literatur

Bang, Willi (1899): [Bespr. v.]: G. Jacob: Zur Grammatik des Vulgär- Türkischen. In: WZKM XIII, pp. 110–113. Becker, C. H.: Georg Jacob als Orientalist. In: Menzel, Theodor (Hrsg.): Festschrift Georg Jacob zum siebzigsten Geburtstag 26. Mai 1932 gewidmet von Freunden und Schülern. Leipzig 1932, pp. 369–381. Biesterfeld, Hans Hinrich: Enno Littmann: Leben und Arbeit. Ein autobiographisches Fragment (1875-1904). In: Oriens 29. 1986, pp. 1–101. Brockdorff, Cay v. (1937): 1. Wahrheit und Wahrscheinlichkeit bei Hobbes und Condillac. 2. Inward veracity in its religious sense. Kiel (Veröffentlichungen der Hobbes-Gesellschaft 8), pp. 28– 31. Dammann, Ernst (1987): Erinnerungen an Georg Jacob. In: Klaus Kreiser (Hrsg.): Germano-Turcica. Zur Geschichte des Türkischlernens in den deutschsprachigen Ländern: Ausstellung des Lehrstuhls für Türkische Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur der Universität Bamberg in Zusammenarbeit mit der Universitätsbibliothek Bamberg: Universitätsbibliothek, 7.- 31.7. 1987. Bamberg 1987, pp. 113–118. Degener, Hermann A. L. (1935): Degeners Wer ist’s? Eine Sammlung von rund 18.000 Biographien mit Angaben über Herkunft, Familie, Lebenslauf, Veröffentlichungen und Werke, Lieblingsbeschäftigung, Mitgliedschaft bei Gesellschaften, Anschrift und anderen Mitteilungen von allgemeinem Interesse. 10. Ausg., p. 345. Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 71

Gabain, Annemarie von (1934): W. Bang Kaup†. In: UAJb 14, pp. 335–340. Hartmann, Martin (1907): Karl Foy, 1856-1907. In: MSOSW 10, pp. 299–304. Jacob, Georg (1886): Welche Handelsartikel bezogen die Araber des Mittelalters aus den nordisch-baltischen Ländern? Berlin [2. Aufl. Berlin 1891]. Jacob, Georg (1887): Der nordisch-baltische Handel der Araber im Mittelalter. Leipzig. Jacob, Georg (1898): Zur Grammatik des Vulgär-Türkischen. In: ZDMG 52, pp. 695–729. Jacob, Georg (1899a): Kajyk ojunu. Türkischer Text mit Anmerkungen und einer Einleitung versehen. Berlin (Karagöz-Komödien 2). Jacob, Georg (1899b): Schejtan dolaby. Türkischer Text mit Anmerkungen herausgegeben und mit einer Einleitung über das islamische Schattenspiel versehen. Berlin (Karagöz-Komödien 1). Jacob, Georg (1899c): Die Akserai-Schule. Fünf Karagöz-Stücke. Berlin (Karagöz-Komödien 3). Knüppel, Michael/van Tongerloo, Aloïs (2012): Die orientalistische Gelehrtenrepublik am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Willi Bang(-Kaup) und Friedrich Carl Andreas aus den Jahren 1889 bis 1914. Berlin (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen N.F. 20). Kürschner’s deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender. Jg. 5 1935, p. 377. Kukula, Richard (1928): Wer ist’s? 9. 1928. Littmann, Enno (1937): Georg Jacob† (1862-1937). In: ZDMG 91, pp. 496–500. Paret, Rudi/Schall, Anton (1955): Ein Jahrhundert Orientalistik. Lebensbilder aus der Feder von Enno Littmann und Verzeichnis seiner Schriften. Zum 80. Geburtstage am 16.IX.1955, pp. 96– 109. 72 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel

Schuchardt, Hugo (1884): Dem Herrn Franz von Miklosich zum 20. November 1883. Slawo-Deutsches und Slawo-Italienisches. Graz. De Vocht, Henri (1929): Bibliographie der Arbeiten von Professor W. Bang Kaup. In: UJb IX, pp. 188–195. Volbehr, Friedrich/Weyl, Richard (1956): Professoren und Dozenten der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 1665-1954. Mit Angaben über die sonstigen Lehrkräfte und die Universitätsbibliothekare und einem Verzeichnis der Rektoren. 4. Aufl. Kiel, p. 158.

Zu einigen mit ägyptisch „hbi“ „Ibis“ gebildeten Wortspielen

Stefan Bojowald Universität Bonn

Abstract

This contribution continues the author´s investigations of Egyptian plays on words. The concrete case deals with plays on words with “hbi” “ibis”. In total, there are four examples for these plays on words. They are being analyzed with attempts of explanations based on the sound.

Keywords: altägyptische Philologie, ägyptische Wortspiele, Wort- spiele mit „hb(i)“ „Ibis“.

In der altägyptischen Sprache ist es bekanntlich äußerst häufig zur Bildung von Wortspielen gekommen. Die literarischen Zeugnisse haben ein diesbezüglich reiches Erbe hinterlassen, das auch noch auf den heutigen Betrachter einen besonderen Reiz ausübt. Die ägyptische Sprache reiht sich dadurch als würdiges Mitglied unter die übrigen Mundarten der orientalischen Völker ein. Die ägyptischen Wortspiele stellen seit jeher ein beliebtes Studienobjekt der philologischen Forschung dar. Die Anfänge der wissenschaftlichen Beschäftigung mit diesem faszinierenden Gebiet reichen fast bis in die Pionierzeit der Ägyptologie zurück. Die 74 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel früheren Gelehrtengenerationen haben in dieser Beziehung eine beachtliche Ernte eingefahren. Da der Eindruck von Willkür und Beliebigkeit kaum hätte vermieden werden können, soll hier auf eine Auswahl von Einzelbeispielen verzichtet werden. Der Hinweis auf die summarische Zusammenfassung der Grundprinzipien bei der Bildung der Wortspiele durch Guglielmi 1 mag an dieser Stelle vollauf genügen. Im Mittelpunkt der folgenden Betrachtungen werden die Wortspiele mit „hbi“ „Ibis“ stehen. Die Untersuchung soll dadurch begonnen werden, dass zunächst einige einführende Bemerkungen zu diesem Wort vorausgeschickt werden. Das Wort hat im Laufe seiner Geschichte mehrere Entwicklungsphasen durchlebt. Die ursprüngliche Form ist nach Osing als „hbw“ anzusetzen, deren auslautendes „w“ später zu „i“ geworden sei 2 . Das Ergebnis hat die so entstandene Form „hbi“ 3 gebildet. Die demotische Form hat die Gestalt „hb“ angenommen. Das Beispiel „ntk wDa ib hbi mi – qd=k, wHa.tw m {i} cxr.w nb mi irw cDm“4 „Du bist einer, der die Herzen beurteilt, der Ibis ist wie du, indem du verständig bist in allen Angelegenheiten wie Sehen und Hören“ gibt des weiteren darüber Auskunft, dass der „hbi“ – Ibis auch zur Bildung von Vergleichen herangezogen worden ist. Was nun die Wortspiele mit „hbi“ „Ibis“ angeht, so konnten davon vier Stück in Erfahrung gebracht werden. Der Autor wagt keine Voraussagen, ob damit wirklich alle Beispiele erfasst sind. Das Material könnte in Zukunft durch gezielte Suche weiter anwachsen.

1 W. Guglielmi, Zu einigen literarischen Funktionen des Wortspiels, Studien zu Sprache und Religion Ägyptens, Band 1, Festschrift für W. Westendorf (Göttingen, 1984), 491 – 506; W. Guglielmi, LÄ VI, 1287 – 1291, s. v. Wortspiel. 2 J. Osing, Die Nominalbildung des Ägyptischen, Anmerkungen und Indices, SDAIK 3B (Mainz, 1976), 614. 3 C. Peust, Egyptian Phonology, An Introduction to the Phonology of a dead Language (Göttingen, 1999), 71 (Das Digitale Zettelarchiv hat sich ebenfalls in diese Tradition gestellt. Die zugehörige Karteikarte DZA 26. 344. 220 trägt allerdings irrtümlich den Vermerk „hAb“ „tanzen“! Das Wort scheint es in der Form nicht zu geben, möglicherweise liegt Verwechslung mit „Ahb“ „tanzen“ vor). 4 A. H. Gardiner, Late – Egyptian Miscellanies, BibAeg VII (Bruxelles, 1937), 113 (pLansing 13b 10); zu dieser Stelle vgl. auch R. A. Caminos, Late – Egyptian Miscellanies, BES I (London, 1954), 420; N. Tacke, Verspunkte als Gliederungsmittel in ramessidischen Schülerhandschriften, SAGA 22 (Heidelberg, 2001), 116; zum Wortspiel mit der anderen Ibisbezeichnung „gm.t“ vgl. W. Helck, Die „Admonitions“, Pap. Leiden I 344 recto KÄT 11 (Wiesbaden, 1995), 8 (B 8). Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 75

Die Beispiele reichen aber schon jetzt aus, um sich einen allgemeinen Eindruck zu verschaffen. Die Existenz zumindest eines Teils der Wortspiele war bereits in der älteren Literatur erkannt worden, wo aber noch keine Aussagen zu Ursachen und Voraussetzungen getätigt worden waren. Der vorliegende Artikel versucht diese Lücke einen kleinen Spalt zu schließen, wobei lautlichen Kriterien die größte Bedeutung zukommen wird. Das Wortspiel zwischen „hb(i)“ „Ibis“ und „by (=bA)“ „Ba“5 soll als erstes zur Diskussion gestellt werden, für das ein ganzes Bündel von Beispielen folgen wird. Die relevante Textquelle ist pLouvre E. 3452, in dem das Wortspiel gleich mehrfach und auf engstem Raum begegnet. Das Beispiel in: „xa by m Xrb n hb ich Smc DHw.ti m rn=f tc=f“6 (Spätzeit) “The ba appears in the form of an ibis, serving Thot in his own name” lohnt sich als erstes zu betrachten. Das Beispiel in: „wcr by m Xrb n hb ih mne n=f Tc (?) n mAa.t“7 (Spätzeit) “The ba is mighty in the form of an ibis, seeing for himself the veritable lord (?).” kann als nächstes registriert werden. Die Aufzählung kann mit dem Beispiel in: „Hai by m Xrb n hb, iy.ṱ m Htp n pA wr – tyw n mAa.t“8 (Spätzeit) “The ba is jubilant in the form of an ibis, coming in peace to the veritable great of five” fortgesetzt werden. Das Beispiel in: „psṱ by m Xrb n hb, iy n ibe n mAa.t“9 (Spätzeit) “The ba shines in the form of an ibis, coming to the veritable heart” schließt sich hieran direkt an. Das Beispiel in: „mne.w by m Xrb n hb“10 (Spätzeit) “The ba endures in the form of an ibis” kann als nächstes festgehalten werden. Das Beispiel in: „ay.w by n Xrb n hb“11 (Spätzeit) “the ba is great in the form of an ibis” sollte bei dieser Gelegenheit ebenfalls nicht ungenannt bleiben. Die gleiche Berücksichtigung muss das Beispiel in: „spṱ..w by m Xrb n hb“12 (Spätzeit) “The ba is skilled in the form of an ibis” finden. Das Beispiel in: „ntr.w by m Xrb n hb“13 (Spätzeit) “The ba is divine in the

5 Zum Ba – Konzept vgl. L. V. Žabkar, A study of the Ba concept in Ancient Egyptian texts, SAOC 34 (1968), 1–163. 6 M. Smith, The Demotic Mortuary Papyrus Louvre E. 3452 (Chicago, 1979), 87. 7 Smith, a. a. O., 87. 8 Smith, a. a. O., 87. 9 Smith, a. a. O., 87. 10 Smith, a. a. O., 87. 11 Smith, a. a. O., 87. 12 Smith, a. a. O., 88. 13 Smith, a. a. O., 88. 76 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel form of an ibis” kann zum Abschluss präsentiert werden. Die litaneiartige Wiederholung von „by” „ba” und „hb“ “ibis” in diesem einen Textstück deutet durchaus auf ein Wortspiel hin. Der Gedanke liegt auch deshalb nahe, weil „by“ „ba“ und „hb“ “ibis” zu Recht als Schlüsselbegriffe des gesamten Textabschnittes gelten können. Der logische Zusammenhang zwischen den beiden Wörtern wird dadurch auf stilistisch anspruchs-volle Weise herausgestellt. Die entscheidende Voraussetzung für das Wortspiel würde im Lautwandel zwischen „i“ und „h“ liegen. Der Lautwandel scheint für die ägyptische Sprache noch nicht nachgewiesen worden zu sein. Das Wortspiel muss jedoch nicht an dieser Frage scheitern. Dass er theoretisch möglich ist, kann aus dem ägyptisch – semitischen Lautwandel zwischen „i“ und „h“14 gefolgert werden. Da demotisches „by“ „Ba“ außerdem auf altes „bA“ „Ba“ zurückgeht, erscheint auch der Hinweis auf den Lautwandel zwischen „A“ und „h“ nicht verkehrt. Das entsprechende Phänomen ist von Sethe15 und Westendorf16 im Fach bekannt gemacht worden. Der Lautwandel mit dem zweiten schwachen Konsonanten „i“ kann dann als Analogiebildung erklärt werden. Das Wortspiel ist außerdem via Metathese zustande gekommen. Das nächste Interesse zieht das Wortspiel zwischen „hbi“ „Ibis“ und „hAb“ „senden“ auf sich, für das hier zwei Beispiele angeführt werden können. Das erste Beispiel zeigt sich in: „Dd=tw n=k DHw.ti c.ti Ra iw gr.t r rdi hAb=k … xpr hbi pw n DHw.ti“17 (Neues Reich), das mit: „Man soll dich anreden als Thot, der Stellvertreter des Re, und (ich) will dich (Boten ?) aussenden lassen … so entstand jener Ibis des Thot“ wiedergegeben werden kann. Die Grundlage des Wortspiels besteht aus dem Schwund von „A“ in der Mitte des Wortes, der in der Vergangenheit schon öfter behandelt worden ist. Die Namen von Sethe18, Edel19 und Westendorf20 verdienen darunter

14 A. Ember, Semito – Egyptian sound changes, ZÄS 49 (1967/Neudruck der Ausgabe 1911), 89. 15 K. Sethe, Das aegyptische Verbum im Altaegyptischen, Neuaegyptischen und Koptischen, Erster Band, Laut- und Stammeslehre (Leipzig, 1899), 50. 16 W. Westendorf, Grammatik der medizinischen Texte, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter VIII (Berlin, 1962), 35. 17 E. Hornung, Der ägyptische Mythos von der Himmelskuh, Eine Ätiologie des Unvollkommenen, OBO 46 (Freiburg/Göttingen, 1982), 45. 18 K. Sethe, Das aegyptische Verbum im Altaegyptischen, Neuaegyptischen und Koptischen, Erster Band, Laut- und Stammeslehre (Leipzig, 1899), 43. 19 E. Edel, Altägyptische Grammatik, AnOr 34/39 (Rom, 1955/1964), 58. Briefe von Georg Jacob an Willi Bang Kaup 77 besonders hervorgehoben zu werden. Der Fortfall von „i“ kommt als zweite Größe hinzu, über den Westendorf21 gehandelt hat. Das zweite Beispiel für das Wortspiel ist in: „pA hb rx [pA] i-ir hb nA iAw.t pA n.t aA nA“22 (Spätzeit) “the wise ibis is [the one which] send of the elder ones, the one who great are the…” zu finden. Das Verhältnis zwischen „hb“ „senden“ und „hb“ „Ibis“ ist bereits von Boylan 23 ausführlich kommentiert worden. In Bezug auf diesen Zusammenhang hat auch Wessetzky24 einige kurze Bemerkungen fallen gelassen. Die Schreibung „hb“25 für „hAb“ „senden“ geht wohl ebenfalls auf die genannte Voraussetzung zurück. Der schwache Konsonant „A“ ist nach Černý/Groll 26 spätestens seit dem Neuen Reich in der Aus- sprache des Verbs verschliffen worden. Das Wortspiel zwischen „hb“ „Ibis“ und „hbni”27 „Ebenholz“ sollte hier ebenfalls entsprechenden Raum erhalten, das in: „pA hb Hr

20 W. Westendorf, Grammatik der medizinischen Texte, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter VIII (Berlin, 1962), 9. 21 W. Westendorf, Grammatik der medizinischen Texte, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter VIII (Berlin, 1962), 12–13. 22 R. Jasnow/K.-Th. Zauzich, The ancient Egyptian Book of Thot, A Demotic Discourse on Knowledge and Pendant to the Classical Hermetica, Volume 1: Text (Wiesbaden, 2005), 348/349. Zum Wortspiel zwischen „hb“ „senden“ und „hb“ „Ibis“ vgl. auch S. Sauneron, Les fêtes religieuses d’ Esna, Aux dernièrs siècles du paganisme, Esna V, Publications de l’ Institut Français d’ Archéologie Orientale (Le Caire 1962), 35b; M. Smith, On the primaeval ocean, The Carlsberg Papyri 5, CNI Publications 26 (Copenhagen, 2002), 68/71/73. 23 P. Boylan, Thot, the Hermes of Egypt, A study of some aspects of theological thought in Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 1922), 78. 24 W. Wessetzky, Zur Problematik des D – Präfixes und der Name des Thot, ZÄS 82 (1958), 153. 25 KRI I, 51, 11; J. Černý/A. H. Gardiner, Hieratic Ostraca, Volume I (Oxford, 1957), pl. XCII (oTurin 9743 recto, 4. 26 J. Černý /S. I. Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar, Fourth Edition, Studia Pohl, Series Maior 4 (Rom, 1993), 4. 27 Zur Übernahme des Wortes ins Griechische vgl. W. Spiegelberg, Ägyptische Lehnwörter in der älteren griechischen Sprache, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 47 (1907), 131. Zur Übernahme des Wortes ins Hebräische vgl. Th. O. Lambdin, Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament, JAOS 73 (1953), 149; Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North – West Semitic, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta, 1999), 243. Zur Übernahme des Wortes ins Ugaritische vgl. Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North – West Semitic, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta, 1999), 281. 78 Van Tongerloo/Knüppel pA hbiin“ 28 (Spätzeit) “the ibis (was) upon the ebony tree” stattgefunden hat. In der Frage der Ursache des Wortspiels kann zwischen dem Zusatz oder Fortfall von „n“ geschwankt werden. Die Entscheidung hängt vom persönlichen Standpunkt des Betrachters ab. Im Falle beider Phänomene kann auf schon bestehende Unter- suchungen verwiesen werden. In Hinblick auf den Zusatz von „n“ kann alles Wissenswerte aus den Ausführungen von Westendorf 29 gelernt werden. In Bezug auf den Fortfall von „n“ hingegen sind sämtliche Angaben bei Westendorf 30 und Jansen – Winkeln 31 zu finden. Die Fakten dürften daher für sich sprechen. Die Einfügung von „ii“ stellt eine auch sonst bekannte Erscheinung dar32. Die Aufmerksamkeit soll zum Schluss auf das Wortspiel zwischen „hb“ “ibis“ und „hbhb“ “trample“ gerichtet werden, das in: „mtw=y twn tr.ṱ=y n pA wr wr wr a.w.c. Hknw pA hb hbhb (Var. „hbl“) Sty”33 (Spätzeit) “and I shall raise my hand to the great, great, great one,// and jubilate to the ibis who tramples the turtle” anzutreffen ist. Das Wortspiel hat seine besondere Spannung aus dem Vehältnis zwischen Reduplikation bzw Nichtreduplikation zweier homonymer Wurzeln bezogen.

28 H. S. Smith/W. J. Tait, Saqqâra Demotic Papyri I (P.Dem.Saq.I), Texts from Excavations, Seventh Memoir (London, 1983), 199; zu dieser Stelle siehe auch Fr. Kammerzell, Die Entstehung der Alphabetreihe, Zum ägyptischen Ursprung der semitischen und westlichen Schriften, in: Dörte Borchers/Frank Kammerzell/Stefan Weninger (Hrsg.), Hieroglyphen, Alphabete, Schriftreformen, Studien zu Multiliteralismus, Schriftwechsel und Orthographieneuregelungen, LingAeg Stud. Mon. 3 (Göttingen, 2001), 129. 29 W. Westendorf, Grammatik der medizinischen Texte, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter VIII (Berlin, 1962), 29. 30 W. Westendorf, Grammatik der medizinischen Texte, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter VIII (Berlin, 1962), 27–28. 31 K. Jansen – Winkeln, Spätmittelägyptische Grammatik der Texte der 3. Zwischenzeit, ÄAT 34 (Wiesbaden, 1996), 36. 32 D. Kurth, Einführung ins Ptolemäische, Eine Grammatik mit Zeichenliste und Übungsstücken, Teil 1 (Hützel, 2007), 468–469. 33 R. Jasnow/K.-Th. Zauzich, The ancient Egyptian Book of Thot, A Demotic Discourse on Knowledge and Pendant to the Classical Hermetica, Volume 1: Text (Wiesbaden, 2005), 250 (Text)/251 (Übersetzung); R. Jasnow, A Note on the Epithet of Thot, hbhb StA.w, “He-who-traverses-mysteries,” in the Book of Thot, GM 216 (2008), 102.

Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia and the hymn of the Garhwali fairy ‘Daughter of the Hills’1

Ram Prasad Bhatt, Heinz Werner Wessler, Claus Peter Zoller University of Hamburg, University of Uppsala, University of Oslo

Abstract

This essay is divided in two parts. The first part gives an overview on fairy-related traditions in the high mountains of South Asia. It concentrates on Nuristan and Dardistan2 as well as on Garhwal (there especially on Bangan 3 ) and highlights similarities and differences between these two areas. Moreover, it looks at more distant parallels and at relationships between fairy cults and Hindu Tantrism. The second part presents a recently recorded hymn to the fairy ‘Daughter of the hills’ and discusses its functions and background.

Keywords: Himalayan folk religions and oral traditions, fairy lore.

1 Her Garhwali name is ṛi. On the etymology see below at the end of part I. 2 Whereas Nuristan is an official term, the designation Dardistan is used here as an informal cover term for the area where Dardic languages – plus isolate Burushaski – are spoken. 3 Bangan is a hilly area in Uttarakhand between the river valleys of Ṭōns and Pabar close to the state border of Himachal Pradesh. The present essay concentrates on these three areas, i.e. references to Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are only occasional even though it is clear that fairies are worshiped also there. However, scholarly literature on fairies in these areas seems to be hardly available. 80 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Part I: Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia

Claus Peter Zoller

1 Introduction

Martin Litchfield West remarks about Indo-European fairy (“nymph”) traditions in the different branches of the ancient Indo-European world (2007: 303): “With the nymphs we cannot trace any one name across linguistic boundaries. But they show such a remarkable uniformity of conception from India to the Celtic West that the hypothesis of a common Indo-European background seems unavoidable. Neither independent development nor diffusion has any plausibility as an explanation… One thing that does seem clear is that these were not gods to whom one prayed, sang hymns, or made offerings. One might recite spells to ward them off… There are no hymns to the Apsarases in the Rigveda…” This is certainly true; however, it is also true that there do exist in South Asia – and here mainly in the mountains of Himalayas, Karakorum and Hindu Kush – fairy cults with prayers, the singing of hymns and offering of sacrifices. One reason why fairy-related cults are not readily found in the major Indo-European traditions is certainly the odium of fairies not belonging to the highest rank of divinities. Even though also deities can pass through changeful histories, fairies frequently appear more wraithlike and ephemeral not least because their identity is typically hidden in a group of equals. Individual fairies with individual names are, it seems, the exception. In accordance with West’s observation regarding the remarkable uniformity of physical appearance, nature and behavior of fairies and of the realms they inhabit we will come across many striking parallels between Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayas. But, of course, there exists also a big number of differences and different views, in some cases even within one and the same area. Many a differences are due to the impacts of Islam in the north-west (e.g. on the fairy lore in Chitral) and of mainstream Hinduism in the Central Himalayas.4 Other differences are due to regionally limited historical changes: for instance in Bangan one can see that a regional deity Mahāsu, who arrived in the area at some

4 Besides influence through mainstream Hinduism (e.g. making fairies to daughters of God Śiva), also Tantrism in its many varieties influenced the area already quite early over centuries as can be seen, e.g., in the great number of ‘Yoginīs’ with local names found e.g. in Himachal Pradesh (see Handa 2001). Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 81 time in the past – according to tradition from Kashmir – consequently subdued the local fairies5 and made their male leader, called Kɔilāth, become one of his guardian deities (bīr < OIA vīrá- ʻman, hero’ [12056]).6 Paradoxically, Kɔilāth also continues to be leader of the fairies. Regrettably, the general awareness of the presence of fairies has declined in many places and therefore sometimes characteristics of fairies get confused with those of different supernatural beings and groups.7 And conversely, existing ‘deep’ relationships and similarities of fairies with related supernatural beings are not easily observed. For instance, there seem to exist in Bangan structural similarities between divine fairies and earthly ‘female village power centers’ called zāgas or ‘places’ and found in most Bangani villages (see p. 111; more on their characteristics is found in Zoller 2007). The zāgas are regarded as projections of Mother Earth (māṭi) (Banganis call them “daughters of the Earth”). And projections of the zāgas are called giria ‘female house/family power centers’ (Banganis actually call the girias “daughters of the zāga”). The girias are found in many Bangani-Rajput houses: in the center of the stable floor there is a hole covered by a flat stone. Thus girias are the house/family equivalent of zāgas and zāgas are the village equivalent of māṭi.8 Unlike many ‘proper’ deities, both zāgas and fairies lack mythologies (but further east in Garhwal there are fairy hymns, one of which will be presented in the second part of this essay) and anthropomorphic representations, both don’t receive regular worship and sacrifices (but only after long and irregular intervals); zāgas have no names like other deities (they are only called zāga of village xyz which also implies that a zāga from one village is different from the zāga of

5 Two of the four Mahāsu brothers are in fact married to fairies. When one of the two brothers undertakes a yātrā on his palanquin, his fairy wife is carried along with him enclosed in a sack (see p. 105). Note also that at least in the Bangan core area of Mahāsu’s divine kingtom there are no goddesses. 6 Note that figures in parentheses or square brackets refer to the lemmata inTurner’s Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. The transcription and transliteration conventions followed in this essay are the same as those used by most authors for Indo- Aryan, Dard, and Nuristan languages. These conventions do not match completely, but the differences cannot be presented here in detail. One example is č = ć = c which all denote the same unvoiced palatal affricates in different languages. 7 However, it is a remarkable fact that belief in real fairies is still much alive in Pakh- tunkhwa and the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Yet, detailed investigations also show that the life world of the fairies and the range of interactions with humans got severely reduced due to the increasing influence of fundamental forms of Islam. An interesting study documenting this has been written by Maria Marhoffer-Wolff. Elisabeth Schömbucher has written a good and readable review of the book (see bibliography). 8 In the present essay I discuss only zāgas because of their much greater importance vis-à- vis māṭi and giria. 82 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller another village), and only a few fairies have, if at all, epithets rather than names like ‘the angry one’, ‘the mischievous one’ or ‘daughter of the hills’. The zāgas are responsible for the welfare of their village area, that is welfare of humans, animals and plants, and traditionally they drove with their characteristic energy (called mīr) the heroes, who were regarded as their sons, into battle frenzy. Bangani fairies, on the other hand, are especially close to herdsmen and hunters, but not to warriors. It is these two categories of men – together with the shamans – who are especially closely associated with the fairies in the high mountains of South Asia, typically in those parts where pastoralism and transhumance is practiced. Even though fairies are also worshiped in other areas of South Asia (see e.g. Feldhaus 1995), many of the typical features characterizing the fairies between Central Himalayas and Nuristan and Dardistan are limited to these highlands. ‘Fairy lore’ can be differenced into several levels. I suggest here three:  Level 1: Direct experience of, interaction with and worship of fairies  Level 2: Stereotypes and patterns with regard to fairy characteristics and their life worlds9  Level 3: The fairies in oral and written fairy tale traditions

In this essay we will deal with levels 1 and 2 only although there also exists, depending on the region, a copious oral literature on fairies. A main distinction between the two categories of fairies (1, 2 versus 3) is the fact that the former are seen as real living beings while the latter populate entertaining and romantic tales, typically describing the adventures of a prince who captures the heart of the fairy of his dreams. 10 Not surprising, one also comes across intermediate forms like the Garhwali ballad of the shepherd Jītū Bagaḍvāl and the Ācharī fairies11

9 There is for instance the very common motif that they live in crystal palaces near milk lakes. 10 As an example I may mention my own collection of this type of fairy tales from Indus Kohistan which I hope to publish in the not too far future. Also in Indus Kohistan exists this type of distinction between the entertaining stories, which are very popular in the area, and real-life encounters with these fairies whose descriptions were many times reported to me during my travels in the region. However, I have to stress that this distinction does not permit the conclusion that the oral stories are perceived by the Indus Kohistani people as mere fancy and entertaining stuff. They rather insist that the fairy tales are actually inherited from the fairies and the giants, thus they also have a kind of realistic dimension (see Zoller 2010). 11 Derives < OIA apsarás- ʻone of the female divinities connected with water’ (502). Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 83

(Chatak 1958) which contains both ‘realistic’ and romantic elements. In the course of this essay we will get to know quite a number of different appellations for fairies12 – reflecting their different natures – but the extremely common Persian term Pari (Peri)13 is now frequently used for all types of fairies.

2 Some common characteristics of fairies in the high mountains of South Asia14

The following preliminary characteristics have been put together from accounts and reports of other researchers (see bibliography) and from my own field notes. Fairies are beautiful, blonde- or golden-haired, blue-eyed and fair-skinned like European women. They live in the purest regions, i.e. typically on mountain peaks or in high-lying alpine areas.15

3 Fairy-related terms and functions

A typical word associated with them and their life-world is OIA *śucya- ʻto be purified’ (12511) with modern meaning ‘pure’ in languages from Nuristan to Bangan as in Nuristani suči ‘fairy’16 or Bangani śucɔ ‘pure’ (as e.g. honey or the blood of a Himalayan wild goat, both of which are offered to the fairies). In Bangan, the fairies are called m tri which most likely means ‘mother(s)’. OIA apsarás- is usually rendered as ‘nymph; going in the waters or between the waters of the clouds; a class of female divinities: they inhabit the sky, they are fond of the water’ etc. This description is based on folk-etymology. Philological analyses rather suggest basic meanings as either ‘shapeless’ or ‘shameless’ (EWA, KEWA). Later reflexes (see Turner 502) are translated as ‘a celestial nymph, a hourie’ (Pa.), ‘fairy’

12 The English word is itself a borrowing from French which goes back to Latin fata “the Fates,” plural of fatum “that which is ordained; destiny, fate.” 13 From Avestan pairikā- ‘witch’. Note that Irmtraut Müller-Stellrecht (1979: 191) rightly points out that behind the cover term Pari are actually a number of quite different beings. This does not only hold true for the Northern Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also for the other areas in the high mountains of South Asia discussed in this essay. 14 Several of the following features are also found worldwide in many other fairy-knowing cultures. See, e.g., Ditte König 1998. 15 However in Bangan their residence are sometimes also found not far from villages, i.e. at different altitudes. 16 Turner considers also derivation < OIA *suvatsikā- ʻa goddess’ (13514) but that is out of the way. More likely, the Nuristani forms are borrowings from the Iranian parallel form *sūč- ‘shine’ (see EWA). 84 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

(S., Ku.), ‘nymph’ (P., Old Aw.), ‘goddess’ (Si.), etc. Other related terms like the widespread cover term Pari have at least since the 19th Century regularly been translated as ‘fairy’ (cf. e.g. G. W. Leitner 1889: 6 and Karl Jettmar 1975), certainly also because in South Asia such beings are regularly described in similar terms as comparable beings in Western fairy tales. So also Leitner (ibid.) has found out that they are handsome and live in crystal castles, and they are fond of music and dancing. However, the ‘fairies’ found in the high mountains of South Asia must not always be romanticized and infantilized because they are rather perceived – in those areas which appear to look back at old fairy traditions with little influence from outside – as simultaneously attractive and irascible divine beings living in a perfectly pure sphere. They demand from the people of their land sacrifices and observation of all kinds of taboos,17 they interact with humans and gods, they control and influence nature (atmosphere and waters), and they are ever ready to severely punish wrongdoers, especially women. However, also without projecting romanticizing and infantilizing views on them it can be difficult to keep ‘fairies’ apart from similar supernatural beings – or one may rather say that there simply does not exist one ‘type’ of fairies. Thus, the ‘same’ fairies can be addressed with different terms and, conversely, sometimes apparently different beings are labelled with the same terms. Such oppositional trends, however, also reflect the rather elusive ‘cohort’ nature of these spirits, and in my eyes a better cover term than Pari, frequently used by D.D. Shama in UGK, is vāyavīya devaśaktiyāṁ ‘aerial female divine powers’.18 Thus, I will use the term ‘fairy’ in this essay in the sense of ‘aerial female divine powers’. Basically fairies can interact with any person, but there are some professional groups, as stated above, to which they entertain closer and more intensive relationships. In the first place hunters, herdsmen and shamans are close to them.19 Fairies can also entertain relationships with

17 It is important to understand that fairies are not repositories of morality or ethical perfection; instead, they are amoral (that is, beyond morality and immorality). Incidentally, this is also a character trait of many old regional gods and goddesses in the Central and Western Himalayas (Zoller 2014: 171ff.). Consequently, the taboos of these gods and fairies – e.g. prohibition of drinking milk or consuming honey, prohibition of wearing dresses with certain colors – do not concern moral imperatives. Another example are the royal Haru ‘godlings’ of Garhwal who do not tolerate in their presence tobacco, dogs, pumpkins, black blankets or turbans (Oakley 1905: 210). 18 The different classes of these beings can also have male members, but usually they occupy only peripheral roles. 19 But below we will see that the Bangani shamans only act as fairy exorcists and not as their mediums. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 85 human and divine kings. As indicated above, their attitude towards women is characterized by strict control and sometimes rivalry. The special relationship with hunters and herdsmen has to do with the fact that fairies are known in Nuristan, Dardistan and Bangan to tend animals: in Nuristan and Dardistan they tend ibexes (Capra sibirica) and markhor (Capra falconeri), and in Bangan they tend the Himalayan wild goat (Hemitragus jemlaicus). From the human perspective, all three types of goat are, however, wild animals whereas the human herdsmen only tend domesticated animals. Thus one observes a mirror-image system: the same animals are tended by divine herdswomen but hunted by male human hunters.20 In Bangan, when a hunter brings down a game he can be called ‘sacrificer’ (see below p. 110), thus with a term close to that of a priest. Below we will see (p. 88) that, at least in Garhwal and Kumaon, this mirror-image system can be reversed: the fairies can also take on the roles of ‘hunters’, ‘herders’ and ‘sacrificers’ and some (human) men who have been spotted by the divine beings consequently become ‘wild animals’ to be brought down or become ‘cattle’ for the fairies. The Old Indo-European word for ‘herdsman’ is *pʰaH-/*pʰoH(i)- ‘guard (flocks or livestock), herd’ and is e.g. found in OIA avi-pā(lá)- ‘shepherd’. The original basic meaning of the verbal root is ‘protect; preserve, observe’ (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995: 601) and reflexes of it are also found in the high mountains of South Asia in connection with the fairies. But I may start here with the Iranian Sakian term māt vālai-.21 It is not clear to me whether the Sakian māt s were fairies like the Garhwali and Eastern Himachali fairies which are also called mātris (m tris, m ci).22 A designation like ‘mother’ for a fairy or a goddess can and does,

20 In parts of Dardistan (especially in Gilgit and Hunza) it is said that the fairies first have to slaughter and consume one of their animals – which then is revived in some way – before it can be brought down by a hunter (Jettmar 1975: 246f.). This seems as if the fairies first sacrifice the animal before it is actually hunted. Indeed, hunting of wild goats in Bangan is seen as being similar to a sacrifice as I point out in the next sentence of the main text and further below. Still, I have not heard anywhere in Garhwal that fairies first slaughter the goat, but the mythical idea as such is widespread and e.g. also found in the Caucasus (see Kevin Tuite 1998). 21 According to Oskar von Hinüber (in Emmerick and Skærvø 1987: 115f.) the term derives < * -pālaka- deva-pālaka- in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (ibid.). 22 These designations for the Himalayan fairies or nymphs are found at least in the area between Garhwal in the east (see UGK sub ‘fairy, nymph’) and at least Chamba in the west where they are called jal mātrī or jal jōgan ‘the nymph, residing near a water fountain, who is believed to cast spells over women and children and has to be propitiated with sacrifice’ (Tika Ram Joshi 1911: 175). But also in Kumaon one finds similar beings called jyõti or which UGK derives < OIA - (more details are found under this lemma) but which actually may also derive < OIA *jala- -. 86 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller of course, turn up independently in different traditions, but in any case the rendering of the expression māt vālai- as deva-pālaka is remarkable and it suggests a more basic meaning *‘priest as protector of fairies’. There is also Sanskrit devapāla- “god-defender” as name of various persons and places, but it is not used in connection with fairies. However, reflexes of the Sanskrit term, which is not documented in MIA, are found in the large region between Nuristan and Western Garhwal.23 Here just a few examples out of many: Wg. däl ‘shaman’, Ind. dí l ‘a female oracle, shaman’, 24 Khaś. diala ‘oracular priest’, Bng. devāḷ ‘professional musician (drummer and singer) of a low caste’.25 The Bangani meaning has undergone a religio-semantic change because in Bangan and its surroundings the present shamans are the so-called mālis (< OIA mahallaka- ‘old man’ [9935]).26 Whereas the devāḷs are traditionally the musicians of God Mahāsu, the mālis are not mediums for fairies but only perform fairy exorcisms. The mālis have also other religious functions, but they are certainly not ‘priests of the māt kās’. There are no fairy priests or fairy shamans in Bangan (except that, to some extent, this role is now held by the hunters), however, in many other regions of our area of investigation these devapālas are indeed the ritual specialists of the fairies and act as their mediators and mediums27 (on the fairy shamans in the Gilgit, Chitral and Yasin areas see Müller-Stellrecht 1980: 65f., and in Hunza see Müller-Stellrecht 1979: 262ff.); they are rather ‘fairy- caretakers’ than ‘priests’.28 We thus can conclude that the devapālas were

23 This semantics suggests that the Monier-Williams Sanskrit evidence is not the direct origin of the following reflexes in Nuristani and NIA. It is rather one of very many examples testifying a difference between so-called Inner and Outer Indo-Aryan languages (to be discussed in Zoller forthcoming). 24 In Burushaski and Shina they are called ḍayál and ḍãyál ‘shaman’ which seem to derive < OIA *ḍākinipāla- (cf. OIA ḍākínī- ʻfemale attendant on Kālī’), but since there is also Shina dãyál with same meaning but with initial dental stop this derivation is doubtful. 25 The common designation of devāḷs and other professional musicians in Garhwal as being members of a low caste is not correct. These groups are actually neither members of the caste system nor are they outcasts. For more details see Zoller 2014: 186 and for a study under a similar perspective on the related baddī bards see Fiol 2010. 26 This is the correct derivation whereas the occasional claim that the word is ← Pers. mālī ‘gardener’ is wrong. Malis can come from any caste, but devāḷs form one ‘low caste’. Nowadays, the devāḷs are the bards of God Mahāsu and they are not involved in professional dealings with fairies. 27 I ignore here the actually justified distinction between shamans and mediums not because the distinction is hardly made in the extant literature but because it is not a really relevant topic for this essay. 28 The idea that a religious specialist rather controls and protects deities and fairies (and sometimes kicks them off) is still also similarly found in Garhwal where I have been told by Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 87 traditionally understood to be so-to-say herdsmen of fairies, gods and related beings.

3.1 Fairies as daughters of the wind? Besides suči, ācharī and m tri there are more designations for fairies. Jettmar (1975: 61, 65) mentions also wutr (same as wechi, varoti) and dänik (same as jeini).29 According to him, the wutr are rather demonic in nature, bloodthirsty and not really beautiful but rather ugly with long saggy breasts. The word is usually derived < OIA *vātaputrī- ʻdaughter of the wind’ (11495)30 but this is contestable when compared with a possible parallel in Garhwal: bayāḷ either ‘( chariõ kī) julūs31 – procession (of fairies)’ or, according to Benjwal (2010: 185), ‘aśarīrī ātmāoṁ kā samūh – a group of disembodied spirits’. 32 The first component of the word could be compared with OIA vāyú-² ‘hunting’ (11545) with a modern parallel in Kho., or may derive < OIA vyādhá- ʻhunter’ (12199) with a modern parallel in H. Both interpretations are possible and perhaps more plausible than a derivation < OIA vāyú-¹ ʻwind’. However, it is unclear whether the two vāyú- can actually be etymologically separated from each other (see KEWA and EWA) and anyway KEWA suggests comparing Kho. bayú ‘hunting’ rather with Middle Iranian *vāyug ‘hunter’. Note also the following description of bayāḷ in UGK (my summarized translation): bayāḷ is a Garhwali word designating aerial female divine powers. People believe that in the last part of the night of new moon bands of spirits of the dead move around the cremation grounds. If somebody crosses their ways, especially if it is a young boy, he will die immediately. A somehow different perspective on them is offered in a Garhwali hymn praising a Yogi where there is this line:33

he kani holi bāvani bayāḷe h

professional musicians that their drum “is the Guru and the deities are the pupils” (of the drum). 29 The correct forms are Kt. ḍänik and Pr. ǰen’ī; they are not ‘fairies’ but, as correctly noted by Morgenstierne (1949), ‘ogresses’ and both forms derive < OIA ḍākínī- ʻfemale attendant on Kālī’ (5542). 30 Modern reflexes are found in Ash., Wg., Kt. and Kal. 31 According to a Garhwali informant. 32 The -āḷ in bayāḷ is either a vālā suffix or, semantically more likely, derives < OIA dala- ʻparty, band’ (6215). 33 Recorded by Heinz Werner Wessler and me in November 2013 from the bard Mijazilal. 88 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

hey how will-be fifty-two fairy-rambling-groups yes ‘hey how can it be (that you, oh Yogi, are wandering followed by) a rambling group (of) fifty-two (fairies), yes’34

Our Garhwali consultant suggested to translate bayāḷe here as vāyu jhuṇḍ ‘group of aerial beings’ which means that it is indeed not unambiguous whether the term bayāḷ is based on ‘wind’ or ‘hunt’.

3.2 The Central Himalayan ṛi ‘hunters and huntresses’ There is another class of ‘fairies’ rendered as vanadeviyāṁ ‘forest- goddesses’ by Benjwal which in Garhwali are called ṛi (actually usually the alliterating synonym compound ṛi-ācharī is used). The word can designate both an individual male being and a troupe of female spirits and it derives < OIA lex. ākheṭika- ‘hunter’ (cf. ākheṭa- ‘hunting’ [1037]). a) The male ṛi ‘hunter’: A description of his is found in Atkinson (1882: 825) and presented here partly in summary and partly in quotes (added with some details from other sources): The hunter is a hideous forest deity with eyes on the crown of his head (i.e. at the upper back of his skull) and four arms holding a bow, arrow, trident and an iron rod. He rambles around only at night accompanied by the fairies (Pari) that dance and sing with him. “Their feet are turned backwards…” He is accompanied by his litter-bearers Sau and Bhau and a cry of bell-wearing hounds.35 From the hunter’s mouth drops venomous saliva. Those people who hear the barking of the dogs are doomed, and those who see the hunter either die of fear or “are burnt up by a flash of his eye, or are torn to pieces by his dogs, or have their livers extracted and eaten by the fairies who accompany him.”36 But if someone miraculously survives the nightmare he will, as usual, be rewarded with the disclosure of hidden treasures. The hunter’s “temples are found on hills and desolate tracts and are never met with in inhabited places. In the middle of such temples are set up tridents, which represent Airi himself, and the tridents are surrounded by stones representing Sau, Bhau, the fairies, &c. But in some cases the deity and his followers are actually represented by carved images. The villagers worship him during the bright half of [the month of] Chait [for ten nights] … Those possessed with Airi are called Airi’s horses or Airi’s slaves

34 This line reminds one of RV 10,136 ‘the longhaired sage’ and shows the complex layering of fairy traditions in the mountains. 35 According to the Kumaoni dictionary entry by K.D. Ruwali, the dogs guard a flock of sheep. Note also that the fairies in the hymn presented in the second part of this essay are also accompanied by hounds, which clearly demonstrates their huntress nature. 36 The last feature reflects a wide-spread custom in the high mountains of eating the still- warm raw liver of a just sacrificed or brought down animal. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 89

(dungariya)37 … They dye a yard of cloth in red ochre (geru)38 and bind it around their heads … they allow no one to touch them, as they consider other men unclean39 … Kids are sometimes sacrificed, and a piece of red cotton stained in the blood of the sacrifice is set up as a banner near the sacred spot.”40 b) UGK states (p. 62) that in the Ravain District of Garhwal (west of the Upper Yamuna Valley) ṛi is worshiped as a goddess belonging to the Yaksha family of the fairy race.41 That ṛi are deities rather than demons is supported by a line from a Garhwali Pāṇḍava jāgar42 where a series of deities is eulogized, among them also the following: jɛ̄ dhār ke ṛi ko devta ‘Hail, oh Airi deity of the mountain range’. It was explained to us that the ṛi roam through the air. From UGK (p. 59) we get the following additional information: The original home of the male ṛi is at the peak of Byāndhūrā Mountain in Champavat district (Kumaon). There is his temple which does neither have a roof nor a pinnacle. Note: There are also some Yoginī temples in Himachal Pradesh without roofs (O.C. Handa, p.c.), and the so-called zāga ‘female power centers’ (see above) in Bangani villages are also mostly without roofs. It seems that this is a characteristic of temples for supernatural beings related to fairies. But I may add here that, according to Augusto Cacopardo (p.c.), “In the Kalasha area it is indeed the other way around: the male gods have open-air shrines, while the goddesses have roofed temples.” On whom the ṛi’s shadow falls, they turn maimed or lame;43 this is called ṛi’s arrow; if the victims develop ulcers this is called ṛi’s poison

37 The translation ‘slaves’ is certainly not correct since “dungariya” clearly reflects OIA *ḍaṅgara- ʻcattle’ (5524a). 38 In the high mountains, fairies are very frequently associated with this color. 39 Also this feature of fairies’ extreme purity is found in many places all over the high mountains. 40 UGK presents another version (p. 59) of the story of this hunter deity according to which he was originally a human hunter who died, while hunting, through an accident and then became the deity. 41 In the Central Himalayas these Yakshas appear under the name jākh (also jaks) and they are worshiped in a number of temples (see UGK), thus they are deities. The word is also found in place and village names, and it is obvious that the jakh parallel the yuṣ ‘giant’ of Dardistan and Nuristan (see Jettmar 1975, Snoy 1962: 157ff., and Turner yakṣá- ʻa supernatural being’ [10395]). 42 Recorded by Wessler and me in November 2013 from the bard Mijazilal. On the religious genre of jāgar ‘vigil songs’ see UGK. 43 Fairies in Chitral, when irate after someone abused them, may deal such a blow at the culprit that he turns into a cripple for the rest of his life (Jettmar 1975: 430). We deal here probably with an old and widespread South Asian practice. Gavin Flood writes (2000: 42): 90 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

(see below p. 91 the bh(a)rāṛi ‘fairies’ who are also called viṣ m tri ‘venom fairies’). According to Bangani perceptions, the ṛis 44 , who are not worshiped by Banganis, usually rove through the river valleys while they make music with various musical instruments. And they sing, however thereby only producing animal sounds. One hears them coughing, weeping and laughing. This sound making of the ṛis is called gazɔ-bazɔ ‘singing and music’ (H. gājā-bājā). They are naked, ape-like, but their bodies are smeared with ashes, and they carry battle-axes. One can hear them from far when they are coming near having smelled human flesh. They also arrive dancing down the mountain gutters. They live below cremation grounds (tīth < OIA tīrthá- ʻford’ [5846]). As a matter of fact, these ‘battues’ are actually wedding processions of the ṛis and they use to move fast like the wind from one cremation ground to the other where the women of the other group already prepare cakes of cowpats which is their favorite dish.45 They also eat maize corns consisting of iron and drink buffalo urine which gives them a kick. The above information shows quite clearly that the Central Himalayan fairies are not only associated with herding of wild goats but they and their leader ṛi appear also as a troupe of hunters and huntresses (this is also confirmed in part II) whose targets are humans. This can be read as the counter-image of the human hunters, herdsmen and former warriors. Whereas the dominant role of the fairies in Dardistan and Nuristan is that of herders, this is only occasionally mentioned in the Central Himalayas where the belligerent aspect of fairies is frequently stressed. However, also in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, superhuman hunters are known under the name Yamalo. Jettmar (1975: 222) says that in some areas, like the valleys of Bagrot and Haramosh, people also believe in male fairies. However, they are conceptualized as huge, plump and hulky. They are manhunters, and their human victims appear to them in the form of ibex or markhor: also here we have a mirror-image.

“Kautilya is keen to point out the powers of the king to disfigure, maim and execute for the maintenance of the social body, the upkeep of the segmented hierarchy of the medieval Indian kingdom.” 44 There is also Bng. ēṛ, ɔīṛ ‘battue (of demonic beings)’ < OIA ākheṭa- ʻhunting’ (1037). 45 This is also the food in the underworld (narak), the actual home of the ɛ̄ṛis. Incidentally, old men and women become youths when they come to the narak, but when a younger man arrives there after death he turns into a widower. However, the God of the Dead will arrange a new marriage for him with the help of a būtu rɔ bamēn, that is a low-caste demon- brahmin. Here we have yet another example of the Bangani mirror-image view of the cosmos. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 91

3.3 The Shina darniji ‘fairies’ Jettmar says in his 1958 report (p. 89) that the darniji fairies are the smaller images of the fairy named Murkhum. In his book on the religions of the Hindukush (1975: 216, 219, 222), he states that darnijis are either demonic beings or, at least in the Bagrot Valley, beautiful and benevolent fairies, whereas the baráai (on which see next) are evil and dangerous.46 The name darniji basically means ‘the outer or outside ones’ and is also used in the fairy term dernīji mā ‘outside mother’. Conceptually they have a parallel in the Burushaski supernatural beings called bilás who are ugly women with feet turned backwards. They are divided into hólum bilás ‘outer bilás’ and úlum bilás ‘inner bilás’. The ‘outer bilás’ are pure spirit beings whereas the ‘inner bilás’ are human women with supernatural faculties (Berger 1983: 31).47 Shina darniji either derives < OIA *dvara- ʻdoor’ (6651) where Turner quotes Sh. dărīnṷ ʻforeign’, or, more probably, the word is an Iranian borrowing (cf. Ir. dar ‘door-way or gate-way’). To my knowledge, no conceptual (‘inner – outer’) or etymological parallels to the darniji are found in the Central Himalayas.

3.4 Burushaski and Shina baráai ‘fairy’ and Garhwali b(h)arāṛi ‘fairy’ Jettmar (1975: 219) considers Bur. and Sh. baráai ‘pure supernatural being, fairy’ and ráac̣i baráai ‘guardian spirit (of Bitans [sic] [shamans, soothsayers] and hunters)’ to be a variant form of Iranian peri ‘fairy’. This has been rejected by Berger (1983: 29) who instead suggests derivation < OIA mántra- ʻthought, prayer, spell, counsel’ (9834). Yet, although this derivation is phonologically possible, semantically it is very unlikely. Therefore, the word better compares with Garh. bh(a)rāṛi ‘parī, apsarā – fairy’ (also termed viṣ m tri ‘venom fairy’). The ending -āṛi seems to be an agent noun suffix and the same as in the Bangani fairy name Ruśaṛi ‘the angry one’ (see below p. 101). The Burushaski, Shina and Garhwali words probably derive not directly < OIA BHUR (bhuráti) ‘move quickly’ (because of different root vowel) which, according to EWA (II 250), reflects PIE *bʰ H-48 but may rather directly derive < PIE *bʰerH (EWA ibid. BHAR¹) ‘to swiftly agitate, hurry, bustle, convulse’.

46 But note that Jettmar also stresses that even between the relatively small distance from Bagrot to Gilgit the ideas regarding fairies change considerably. And in Baltistan the baráai are seen as rather benevolent. However, they hate cattle, chicken and terrestrial women. 47 The word bilás is an Iranian borrowing, cf. Taj. abulhavas, bulhavas ‘greedy’ (Berger ibid.). 48 According to Mallory and Adams, the root is PIE *bher- ‘seethe, bubble’. 92 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Notes: a) Even though OIA bhuráti ‘moves rapidly, palpilates’ (9535) has several modern reflexes, it cannot be the origin of this ‘fairy’ lemma. Besides the reflexes mentioned by Turner, the OIA word is also reflected in Bng. bùr49 ‘strong and quick floating of water (usually in water mill)’. But relationship with OIA *bhurvati ‘boils’ (9536) is unclear, which itself may or may not have a Vedic precursor. For OIA *bhurvati Turner quotes only a modern reflex in dialectal Paš., but the word may also be found in Garh. bhurceṇ v.i. ‘to burn, scorch’ (said about green vegetable that gets burnt in the pot on the hearth due to too little water). Note also that the ‘fairy’ words baráai and b(h)arāṛi match neatly with Young Av. barəṇti ‘if it storms’ (EWA II 250) which is etymologically related with OIA BHUR. b) In the upper Ṭōns Valley north of Bangan there is an alpine lake called Bharāṛsar Tāl which is a pilgrimage site for people of the region (UGK), but I have no information whether the lake is regarded as a dwelling place for fairies. Moreover, in Buḍā Kedār, a pilgrimage site in District Tehri in Garhwal, there is a dual mountain called Bharāṛ and Bhigun. It is standing to reason that the name of the first mountain is related to the bh(a)rāṛi fairies.

4 More on fairies and their relationship with hunters in Nuristan and Dardistan

The following features and patterns have been collected mainly from Jettmar (1975). Many of them have parallels in Garhwal as will be shown partly in this section and partly further below. Once again: fairies are beautiful, blonde-haired, their face is red and white like that of “English ladies”, i.e. female Europeans (p. 220). The colours red and white are also associated with Bangani fairies and represented through their red and white flags (see pictures below). Some say their toes are turned backward (also Garhwali fairies have sometimes their feet turned backwards, see above p. 88, and so do females in the Bangani underworld). They can also appear as old hags with tusk-like teeth and they can transform into any shape, but fairies are also noble and eternally young. With blue eyes and shimmering clothes (p. 429) they appear before men with whom they fall in love. Fairies emit

49 Accent on the vowel of a Bangani word indicates a high-falling distinctive tone which usually, but not always, is the result of loss of aspiration. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 93 a sweet smell. They fear dirt and black clothes (but are fond of lightish dresses). In Bangan the traditional clothes of the people were/are dark. This has been explained to me that dark clothes are also worn as a protection against fairy attacks. The name of the fairy residing on Mount Devameru (Nanga Parbat) is, according to Lorimer, Mādi.50 In the Gilgit area they are also called mayélgus, mayálgus, meélgus ‘fire-sparking fairy (visible in meteors)’ (cf. Bur. gus- ‘woman’ and Berger 1983: 12) and Leitner (1889) mentions a “méll khatun” ‘a famous beauty among fairies’ which may literally mean ‘mountain lady’.51 The fairies in this area live in village castles on top of the highest mountains like Rakaposhi or Nanga Parbat. There they live under the reign of a queen. It is also said that up there are milk sources that feed ponds in which the fairies like to bathe. This is a pattern belonging to the above level 2 of fairy lore. It is widespread and, more remarkably, also found in a Mahābhārata song from Bangan (Zoller 2014: 47-49). In this song, Kuntī, the mother of the Pāṇḍavas, checks out various lakes (e.g. made out of iron, gold etc.) but finally decides to bathe in a lake of milk because “the Gods then will call me the daughter of a goddess.” The fairies can shape-shift into ibex, markhor or eagle, but sometimes also into crows. According to Peter Snoy (quoted in Jettmar 1975: 221, fn. 151), they can also change into snakes, bees or wasps. Also in Bangan they metamorphose into bees (see below p. 102), and in Garhwal they are occasionally called c carī (see part II) which compare with OIA (Udbhaṭa) cañcarī ‘bee’. Sometimes they fall in love with young men, typically shepherds. But a man may instead coerce such a fairy into the role of a mother who adopts him and who then guarantees him her continuous protection. Some people insist that fairies are so pure and holy

50 The word may be connected with OIA (partly lex.) mādhavī- a.o. ‘procuress’, ‘name of one of the s attending on Skanda’, ‘honey-sugar’, ‘an intoxicating drink’ and ‘rich in honey’. Cf. Bro. mətəks ‘honey’, Bshk. “mud” ‘wine’ (Biddulph), and Dari. mātike ‘to get drunk’ and mātla ‘drunk’ (all with preservation of a medial stop), and Toch.B mīt ‘honey’ and mot ‘alcohol; alcoholic beverage’. A clearer case for the here suggested etymology is the name of a Ḍākinī worshiped in Himachal Pradesh in Saraj under the name “Devi Madabhakhan” (Handa 2001: 68) who is said to have come from Kashmir and whose name quite clearly means ‘she who feeds on intoxicating drinks’. Regarding the phonology of the above words, see Witzel (2005: 131) on the opposition -t- vs. -dh- in the word for ‘honey, mead’. 51 But this etymological suggestion would not hold if “mell” does not mean ‘mountain’ (cf. e.g. Pog. māl ‘hill’) but rather is the same as meél- (in meélgus) whose etymology is unclear. 94 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller that any idea of a sexual connection is out of the question (p. 422). Also in Chitral the fairies are pure and benevolent but also moody and irascible. Some Chitrali rulers have claimed to have fairy ancestry probably in order to counter their image of being foreign immigrants (p. 425). Similar practices are found in Garhwal. For instance, in the Garhwali fairy hymn presented below, the Nine Fairies are said to be the daughters of certain chivalrous or royal persons. Moreover, some deities, e.g. like God Mahāsu in Bangan, are married to fairies. To be more precise: Mahāsu comprises four brothers, and the two eldest of them, namely Boṭhɔ and Pɔvasi, have fairy wifes. In their case it is plausible to assume that the marriages took place not in order to obliterate Mahāsu’s image of being an invader – since this image is rather cultivated in the annual performance during the Ḍaknāċaṇ festival in form of a ballad that celebrates his advent from Kashmir in the Ṭōns Valley – but in order to tame and confine the independent fairies. On p. 427 Jettmar mentions a fairy living in a juniper tree, and that hunters would fix scraps of cloth on the tree. In Bangan, fairies have different places of residence and some of them live in pine or fir trees which can be marked with red scraps of cloth (see below figure 6). Fairies have sovereign territories (p. 428). Also in Bangan they have their territories (see below p. 109f.). Relationships can exist between a fairy and an individual hunter but also between her and a kin association. Fairies punish through rain, tempest, hailstorms and flood debris accumulation. Also in Garhwal there are many stories and songs describing erotic relationships between fairies and young men (usually herdsmen). Two stories from Bangan are presented below p. 114. In Bangan lives (a type of) fairy called śɔruai who is worshiped in order to prevent hailstorms (see below p. 108f.). It is said that quite a few times fairies have abducted young men. Fairies drink the blood of the animal brought down by the hunter (p. 430f.). Both things are also done by Bangani fairies (see p. 110). Especially women get possessed by fairies partly due to mistakes done by them (p. 442). In one case, a woman stepped on the toes of a fairy and in another case a woman gushed out hot water before the door and scalded an invisible fairy child standing right there. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 95

Also in Bangan mostly women get possessed, usually due to some mistakes committed by them (see below p. 104f.). But there are also the so-called Perizhuni, women who go into controlled possession and have the fairies speak through them (p. 443).52 Fairies are exorcised by professional exorcists called Peri-Khan (p. 441). In Bangan fairies are exorcised once a year jointly by a Brahmin and a shaman (māli) (see below p. 104).

4.1 Jettmar on hunters A hunter first needs to win the trust of one or several fairies. In the night before the hunting expedition they appear to him in a dream, sometimes in European clothing, and disclose to him where he can find the game. The hunter has to purify himself and avoid milk and sexual contact. In the morning he gives the fairies a sacrifice of bread doused with goat ghee which he distributes among children. After killing the animal, it gets disemboweled, and heart and liver are taken out and roasted: “Peris like the smell of smoking blood” (p. 246). A common idea is that the gun of the hunter pre-announces an imminent hunting success by turning restless and producing some sound (p. 248). This can be compared with traditional Bangani ideas according to which some famous battle-axes (ḍaṅgrɔ) formerly started to buzz in order to indicate that they were eager for a fight. In the Northern Areas, fairies can get involved in combats. Jettmar was told (p. 249) that if in the Haramosh Valley a fairy appeared in a dream of a (bellicose) man carrying the head of an ibex or markhor, this indicated that the dreamer would soon kill an enemy. In Bangan, the zāgas ‘female power centers’ in villages (their similarities with fairies have been mentioned above p. 81f.) roused through their energy (mīr) a battle-intoxication (gḕrɔ) in the warriors and steered them into battle (see Zoller 2007). In former times it was custom to bring back into the village the heads (or hacked-off hands) of the enemies.53 Women danced around the heads, and the heads were used as polo balls before they were fixed above the gate of the village fortification.

52 This is not known to me from Bangan or Garhwal. 53 See also Jettmar (1975: 359) for another example for fairies’ involvement in killing of enemies. He also calls attention (ibid.) to former similar practices among the Kafirs. 96 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Also in Bangan it was formerly customary among the Khūnd sub-caste of Rajputs to bring home the heads of enemies and play football with them – the latter at least affirmed in oral hero songs. The heads however, were later-on deposited for a rather short time (because of fear of reconquering though the enemy) in the “mouths” of the zāgas which was done in order to increase their power (for more details see Zoller 2007). Above we have seen that Bangani fairies and zāgas share some common features. Therefore it is not surprising that in one area fairies are involved in head- hunting and in another the zāgas.54 Jettmar (ibid.) rightly highlights the similarities between hunting of animals and fighting with enemies, and he accentuates its religious basis. The warriors in the Northern Areas, like the hunters, acted to acquire fertility and blessing for their community like formerly also the Bangani warriors.

5 Summaries of other authors’ observations on fairy traditions in Nuristan and Dardistan

Irmtraud Müller-Stellrecht notes55 (1979: 262) that shamans in Hunza have seven or twenty-one protective fairies. They use the shamans as mouthpieces. During a session, the shaman drinks goat blood56 (thinking that it is milk). In order to maintain his contact with the fairies, he has to be absolutely pure: no sexual contact before a session, clean body and avoidance of cows and all its products: milk, meat, leather, dung. In Bangan and its surroundings, horses are traditionally regarded as impure, and milk and leather are subject to different kinds of taboos in certain villages and/or for specific lineages. Means for getting a fairy under one’s control in the Northern Areas are the following: taking away their clothes, throwing cow-dung at them, making knots into their hair (1980: 66, fn. 156). Taking away the clothes of the fairies in order to get control of them is also a procedure known in Bangan (see a story below p. 114). Each hunter needs to win a protective fairy with whom he develops a personal relationship which can develop into a love affair (1980: 191).

54 On former head-hunting in neighboring Himachal Pradesh see Hendriksen (1976: 35). For similar practices in Garhwal and Kumaon see the hero stories collected in Oakley and Gairola (1935). In Zoller 2007 and 2014 more references can be found. 55 Many details presented by her are quoted from Lorimer. 56 In Bangan and some parts of Himachal Pradesh shamans drink goat blood that spurts out of the trunk of the sacrificed animal during sessions performed for deities. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 97

Also in Bangan hunters had traditionally relationships with fairies (see below p. 109f.) and I was told that a ‘sensuous’ relationship could exist between a warrior and a zāga. As already mentioned, fairies usually live on top of the highest mountains in wonderful palaces; they milk their domestic animals – ibex and markhor – in containers made of precious metal. They wear superb clothes. Besides hunters, shamans also have personal contacts with them in order to get from them answers to questions the shamans’ clients have asked. Fairies command the weather and can evoke according to their will rain, hail, snow and storm. Fairies punish those men with whom they have a relationship when the men enter into a relationship with a human woman. Unmarried hunters are more successful than married ones (193 fn. 42). D.L.R. Lorimer (1929: 519) observed that in the Gilgit region there are female (peri) and male (periān) fairies. Their eyes are vertical. “They can fly; but if cow-dung is thrown on a Peri, or if its clothes are held in the smoke of a cow-dung fire it becomes unable to move… Peris wear green clothing … and they don’t like people wearing red colors. Their human confidants are the Dayāls … The Daiyals say, “We understand what the Peris say. We communicate it in songs to the people …” Below we will see that the fairies of Bangan wear ribbons in the colors green (rarely), red, ochre and white. There exist obviously color-related interconnections between Bangan and the other parts of Garhwal and the Northern Areas. Alberto and Augusto Cacopardo (2001: 25-26) quote Jettmar (1965: 117) who had stated that “In pre-Islamic days this region [namely Kafiristan, Chitral and Gilgit or rather the whole of Kafiristan and Dardistan except Kashmir] shows a multiplicity of social and religious systems which can be regarded as variants of a single basic structure.” They further observe that the Shin had “a ‘pastoral ideology’ constructed around goat-herding, and based on a polar opposition between the pure mountain areas and goat-herding on one side, and agriculture and the village areas on the other.57 The opposition is gendered: males are closer to the sphere of the pure; females, especially their sexuality, to that of the impure. The sanctity of the wild mountain areas is connected to the belief in mountain

57 It seems that societies in mountainous areas with pastoral economy typically ascribe either to the goats or the sheep a central cultural-religious role. For example, among the Pamir Tajiks, the sheep fulfills a similar role as the goats in societies of Dardistan (Parkes 1987: 654, Litvinskij 1983). 98 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller spirits, mostly female, who herd the wild caprids as their domestic animals and own the pasture lands of the heights … There can be little doubt that this peculiar constellation basically had its roots within the Indian universe … The question is to what extent the Peristani systems should be seen as an independent development from an early Indo-Aryan basis, possibly harking back to pre-Vedic times … and probably influenced by local pre-Indo-Aryan cultures, rather than a late and marginal by-product in the history of the great religions of the subcontinent.”58

6 Fairies in Garhwal

Govind Chatak (1973: 62) writes about the ācharī:59 They live on mountain peaks like Khaiṭ Mountain (in Tehri Garhwal) and near lakes, they are beautiful and splendidly dressed. They plague women (the term for this is chāyā lagan ‘shadow contact’), but it is not difficult to stop this through worship and the usage of amulets. The fairies do not attack men, but they fall in love with them and abduct them, but having enjoyed them they jilt or even kill them. The most famous Garhwali story about fairies seducing a young man is that of Jītū Bagaḍvāl.60 In a crucial scene, the fairies sit into the corner of his eyes and in his ear channels and suck his blood and eat his flesh.61

7 The fairies of Bangan

7.1 General features Unlike gods (deu, deuta) and guardian deities (bīr), fairies (m tri) have little or no individual identity, and thus mostly – with a few exceptions discussed below – no own names. People say that one can see fairies

58 I will shortly take up this question again at the end of the first part of this article. 59 My summary translation from Hindi. 60 A good description concerning story, performances, publications etc. is found in Alter 2012. 61 sāt baiṇī ācharī ain, nau baiṇī bharāṛī ‘there came the seven ācharī-fairy sisters, the nine bharāṛī-fairy sisters’. The phrase of the seven ācharī and the nine bharāṛī is a pattern found also in other Garhwali ballads and hymns, also in the hymn presented in the second part. I think this is a clear cue that Jītū got attacked by fairies in the shape of bees. Interestingly, Alter says about Jītū Bagaḍvāl (2012: 10) that “[l]ike a bee he would fly this way and that.” I interpret this as an indication for his intrinsic fairy nature: before he got abducted by the fairies he already is of a fairy-like nature. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 99 moving around either with sheep or with black dogs.62 Fairies walk in groups ahead of their herds while spinning63 and regularly shouting pwwwaaa64 in order to goad the animals. A number of them live inside rock faces. In Bangan there are at least three such rock faces, one near the Debēṇ (devavana) temple for Pɔvasi-Mahāsu high up in a mountain forest (see picture p. 113), another in mid height between village Kiroli and the alpine site Loasu, and the third below village Rauṇa at a place called Kuāṇu not far from the Pabar River which forms the western and south- western boundary of Bangan.65 Inside these rocks they live in houses and palaces made of silver, and close to the buildings are heaps of gold and silver. Other fairies live in the following trees which, however, must show a recess in their stem: rɔi ‘type of coniferous tree’ (< OIA róka- ‘light, splendour’ [10826]), murɔṇḍɔ ‘type of pine tree’, kevēḷ ‘the Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara’ (< OIA kilima- ‘a kind of pine’ [3187]). In some cases, such trees are thought to be surrounded by an invisible house (smaller than a normal house) with a slanting roof. Bangani fairies are exuberant and playful, and they like to dance, however usually single (i.e. not like in community dances in the villages). They are “loose character type of goddesses” and some people say they are the devadāsīs of the gods. Bangani fairies have white skin, blue eyes and golden hair which reaches down to the heel, and older people say that they look like the wifes (mīmɛ) of the Europeans. They don’t wear headpieces. They have a (female) leader or a “queen” whose name, however, is not known. They wear a silvery, lightish transparent skirt66 that reaches from the hips to the feet. From their shoulders fall multicolored ribbons to their feet which are called dɔ̀zɛ (probably connected with OIA dhvajá- ‘flag’ or rather < Dhātup. dhvajati ‘goes, moves’ which compares with Av. dvažaiti ‘flutters’) and which are “like a gown”. Fairies can fly through the air, indeed they like to commute up and down along mountain ridges. Some

62 That fairies in Bangan and Garhwal can be accompanied by dogs will also be shown further below in this part of the essay, and it is also mentioned in the fairy hymn in the second part. It verifies the huntress-nature of fairies in the Central Himalayas. There do not seem to exist supernatural huntresses in Nuristan and Dardistan which may be due to the distinct masculism there. 63 Also male human herders in Garhwal use to spin while walking with their herds. 64 Practically the same shout is heard in Indus Kohistan for goading donkeys or horses. 65 There is no doubt that Bangani fairies are especially closely related with the high alpine areas; yet they also have residences in lower areas. On the other hand, the main temple of Mahāsu is in relatively low-lying Hanōḷ at the banks of the Ṭōns-River; however, his most high-lying major temple, which is in Debēṇ, belongs to Pɔvasi-Mahāsu who is particularly closely related with the fairies. 66 Clothes in lightish colors are regarded as bad by Banganis. 100 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Bangani villages that are located at the lower end of a ridge, like village Jāgṭa in the Khɔṇiaṭɔ Valley, have put up at the uphill border of the village a menhir (see figure 1) the task of which is to stop the fairies from entering the village. The menhir itself is also called and there may be a “puja-stone” at its foot. On the way from Tyuni Bazaar (at the confluence of Pabar and Ṭōns Rivers) up to village Kiroli, one passes through a forest where there is a wooden shrine devoted to the fairies. It is empty, but at least occasionally one finds multicolored ribbons fixed to the front of its roof and representing the clothing of the fairies. In some places a fairy temple consists of a kind of a stone wall which is called ɔ g r ‘fairy house’ (see figure 2). There are also fairies living in tents/ camps (ḍērɛ) close to milk lakes. In some places one finds small wooden fairy shrines with some stones placed inside on house gables, as in village Naiṭvāṛ,67 these are shrines.

Figure 1. menhir at the side of a Figure 2. ɔ g r 'fairy house' at the murɔṇḍɔ pine tree. side of a murɔṇḍɔ pine tree.

When shepherds arrive at the alpine meadows, they use to offer sweets to the fairies. There are hundreds of fairies. They have one syāṇi (elder female leader), who is always the first to take a bath while the other fairies keep an eye on her clothes (so that they may not be stolen).68 They also have to comb the syāṇi’s hair. Fairies are fickle and unsteady, and

67 At the confluence of Rupaṇ and Śupaṇ, the two tributaries of the Ṭōns River. The old name of Naiṭvāṛ is actually thatrɔ ‘(sacred) place’ (< OIA sthātrá- ‘station, place’ [13752a]). 68 For parallels in the Northern Areas see p. 96. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 101 fairies are very bloodthirsty.69 They are close to six feet high but of very tender appearance. Upland Debēṇ (devavana) in Bangan is the bygone center for fairy worship. Kɔilāth is guardian deity of Pɔvasi-Mahāsu who has a temple in Debēṇ. Both Pɔvasi and his guard Kɔilāth are aligned with the fairies in a somewhat paradoxical way: Both are engaged in keeping the fairies in check, but Kɔilāth, despite his role as guardian deity of Pɔvasi, continues to be leader of the fairy troupes. This is, for instance, suggested by the fact, that his symbolic representation, an iron staff with a horn-like attachment on top (see below photos on p. 106f.), is draped during yātrās with the same multicolored ribbons which are also found fixed to fairy shrines (and his own shrines) and which symbolize the dress of the fairies. And Pɔvasi-Mahāsu, who is otherwise everywhere regarded as the controller of fairies, does not hesitate to regularly incarnate as bumblebee – the typical embodiment of the Bangani fairies.70 If someone makes him angry, he scatters hemp seeds as punishment into the fields of the culprit (because hemp plants are annoying weeds) and then flies round them, i.e. he contaminates the fields. However, if he is in good mood, he likes to fly as bumblebee to the flower fields in Debēṇ.71 The tree associated with him is the kevēḷ ‘the Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara’, which is, as we have seen, a favorite habitat of fairies. Some people say that the wife of Bōṭhɔ-Mahāsu, whose name is Nɔṭari ‘the naughty, mischievous one’ (< OIA niṣṭhura- ʻhard, cruel’ [7505]), and the wife of Pɔvasi-Mahāsu, whose name is Ruśaṛi ‘the angry one’72 (< OIA RUṢ ʻbe angry’), are actually fairies.73 They do not receive any worship,

69 It is probably due to this rather oppositional character of theirs that they can be both associated with sinister beings like the ɛ̄ṛis and portrayed as innocent beings living in crystal palaces near milk lakes. 70 We have here, together with the just-mentioned case of Kɔilāth’s representation through an iron rod draped with ‘fairy ribbons’, two examples for a more widespread South Asian phenomenon, namely an identity contamination of a ‘dominant’ and a ‘subjugated’ personality. This may be also seen in case of Jītū Bagaḍvāl who flies around like a bee (see above fn. 61) and it can be clearly seen in case of Himalayan deities whose core identities as snake gods got superimposed by identities of Mahābhārata actors like Duryodhana or Karna (see Zoller 2014: 178). 71 The four Mahāsu Brothers are also associated with the four seasons. Pɔvasi-Mahāsu is associated, not surprisingly, with the spring season. 72 On the other hand, some people say that Ruśaṛi is actually the wife of Kɔilāth. 73 Obvously, these are not ordinary names of goddesses. The Mahāsu brothers are of Nāga ancestry (Zoller 2014), and under this perspective the marriage of the two elder brothers with fairies is not surprising because also in the Northern Areas there exist striking affinities between fairies and snake deities, and in Garhwal (see part II) fairies are sometimes said to be the daughters of vāsukī nāga. Müller-Stellrecht (1980: 59) points out the following parallels: Both Nāgas and Paris react strongly against pollution of water bodies; both reside 102 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller and during yātrās they are transported in sacks! (See below photo 3 which shows a boy standing at the left side with the sack hung around his neck and containing [the figure of] Ruśaṛi. The long sword in his hand embodies the divine kingship of Mahāsu).

Figure 3. Mahāsu yātrā with professional musicians.

The rather hostile attitude of Pɔvasi-Mahāsu and Kɔilāth towards fairies continues in the so-called zāga-pūjās ‘sacrifices to the female village power centers’ (more on these centers below) which serve, apart from strengthening and rejuvenating the zāga (see Zoller 2007), also to drive away ghosts and fairies out of the villages. Fairies may also appear as parrots74 (in Indus Kohistani and Tibetan traditions they can embody as doves [see e.g. Bielmeier 1984]) but most commonly they are visible, as pointed out above, as bees (màkhi < OIA mákṣikā- ʻbee’ [9696]). According to God Mahāsu, the fairies earned this curse which turned them into bees due to their “questionable moral conduct”, but also in Dardistan, as already pointed out, one of the manifestations of fairies are

on top of the highest mountains; like Nāgas also Paris possess pearls, gold and jewels; and in stories with similar narrative patterns, sometimes Nāgas and sometimes Paris occupy the same actor functions. According to Khan Hasrat (1996: 189), a Khowar name for ‘fairy’ is “nangíni” basically meaning ‘mothers’ “a term used for fairies as an expression of respect” but actually related with OIA nāginī- in the sense of *‘a female snake’. 74 This may be an influence from a widespread motif found in fairy tale stories. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 103 bees or wasps (Jettmar 1975: 221, fn. 151 who quotes Müller-Stellrecht and Snoy).

One month after the common Diwali of the Plains, in many hill regions in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand people celebrate another ‘Diwali’ which is transgressive in nature in various ways – e.g. when young men and young women dance in separate circles on the dancing ground and sing indecent songs. During this ritual festival, demonic beings from the underworld make their appearance,75 but also fairies are attendand. The festival lasts for two night, the first night is called rəṇ devāḷa (with first word < OIA ráṇa- ʻdelight, battle’ [10595]) and the second night buṛi divāḷi ‘old Diwali’. For instance, this festival is celebrated on a big ground outside the Bangani village Mãũsār.76 At the south-western edge of the ground there is a pine tree with a red-and-white flag marking the habitat of the fairy named Kāli.77 At the north-eastern end stands a temple for Pɔvasi-Mahāsu, and directly outside the temple to the left of the entrance, two more red-and-white flags are deployed, marking the presence of fairies. The presence of the fairies during this transgressive festival is – together with other characteristics of Bangani and Garhwali fairies already mentioned above and to be mentioned below – a rather clear indication for their divine-terrifying double nature. I may add here that the fairy Kāli is also found e.g. in a small shrine directly at the entrance to the compound of the most important temple of Mahāsu in village Hanōḷ at the banks of the Ṭōns River. And in high-lying village Deoti is another temple for Pɔvasi-Mahāsu; there Kāli resides directly in the sanctum. She is said to be a female gaṇa of Mahāsu (cf. OIA gaṇá- ʻtroop, flock’ [3988]), and Kɔilāth is sometimes called a male gaṇa.78

75 These four beings are possibly the four fathers of the demonic Kauravas of the Mahābhārata.They are represented by young men wearing animal masks of a ram, a boar, a bull and a he-goat (on the demonic ancestry of the Kauravas in the Pɔṇḍuaṇ, the Bangani oral Mahābhārata, see Zoller 2014). 76 For a number of years the festival was abandoned in Bangan due to political correctness pressure from outside, but at least in some places it is now celebrated again “because the deity (Mahāsu) wants so”, I was told. I attended this festival in 1986. 77 She has nothing to do with the Kālī of mainstream Hinduism, but her name is probably an adaptation or rather distortion of Kɔili,still found as the name of a fairy consort of Kɔilāth, and meaning ‘(she who looks as black as) charcoal’ (see below p. 105). 78 The fact that Kɔilāth is not only a guardian deity (bīr) of Mahāsu but also part of his gaṇa certainly reflects his fairy background. 104 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

7.2 Some more details on Bangani fairies Small children in Bangan are not allowed to be taken out of the house until the nāmkaraṇ ‘name-giving’ sacrament has been performed. Otherwise they run danger to get possessed by fairies. Bng. ṅgɔ, ṅgḷɔ ‘the effect of the influence of fairies or cremation ground ghosts upon s.b. (usually upon women and children); a bad omen; the ingratiating of o.s., the creeping into (if one ‘behaves like a fairy’)’ (with a -ḷ(ɔ) suffix) derives

7.3 Bangani fairies and involuntary possession The m trīs, who are controlled by Mahāsu, mostly possess women from any caste. Usually, women get possessed by them if they have done something wrong, e.g., crying loudly in the forest, sleeping in the forest, (partially) exposing themselves. A few days after such a woman got touched by a fairy, she falls ill and gets fever, headache and debilities. Now before she gets treated, she is obliged to strictly observe purity prescriptions with regard to caste, food, etc. If she does not do so, her state will either worsen or the fairy discloses herself to her and admonishes her. This goes on until the woman decides to undertake a yātrā (jatrɔ) to Debēṇ where every April or May during a festival such possessed women undergo an exorcism (see a photo of the site below on p. 113). An infallible sign for the priest (deopuzia) and the shaman (māli < OIA mahallaka- ‘old man’ [9935]) – who are the exorcists – that a woman indeed is possessed by a fairy is, when during the exorcism the woman makes some propositions to the shaman through graphic gestures. The shaman would then turn away his face “because of shame”. In Debēṇ stands, as mentioned above, a temple of Pɔvasi-Mahāsu. There the fairy Kāli is found behind the temple in form of a flag. At the opposite end of the forest glade stands a big Deodar (Himalayan cedar) tree. In the process of exorcism, the fairies are banned into this tree by the shaman. This tree constitutes an element of a group of three: directly beside it are a temple of Kɔilāth and the remains of a former Koḷi-maṇḍap.79 Very obviously, Debēṇ was originally a sanctuary of the fairies, the fairy leader

79 The Koḷis are the dominant outcastes in the area. Note, however, that traditionally their relationship with the Rajputs (the other dominant caste in the area) is not characterized by the opposition ‘impure – pure’ but rather by the relational term ‘menial – master’. Cf. OIA kola- ‘name of a tribe inhabiting the hills in central India’ and e.g. G. koḷī ʻa particular Śūdra caste’; and note OIA maṇḍapa- meaning a.o. ‘temple’. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 105

Kɔilāth and their ‘outcaste’ religious specialists, 80 before the sacred clearing was usurped by Mahāsu.81 Bangani gods have guardian deities who are inferior to them, whereas Bangani fairies have a male or female leader. Even though I could not find out the name of the female leader, my guess is that is is Kāli. The name of their male leader, as mentioned several times, is Kɔilāth. 82 I suggest to derive his name < OIA *kokila-nātha- ‘the lord (who is black as) charcoal’.83 The same kokila- is also reflected in Kɔilu ‘name of a guardian god’,84 Kɔili ‘name of a fairy’ and Kāli ‘name of a fairy’. Interestingly, on a mountain pass above the Bangani village Sarās is a shrine for Kɔilāth and his fairy wife Kɔili. Thus it is quite obvious that the fairy couple of Kɔilāth and Kɔili are the old leaders of the fairies of Bangan. This is also supported by the fact that from among Mahāsu’s four main guardian deities, named Kɔilu, Kɔpla Bīr, Śeṛkuṛia and Kɔilāth, only Kɔilāth is said to be original and long-time resident of the area whereas the other three were immigrants who came together with Mahāsu from Kashmir. During processions Kɔilāth is represented as an iron staff with a horn-like attachment on top on which can be fixed red or multicolored ribbons (see figures 7 and 8 below).

80 The structure of the sanctuary with the so-called Koḷi-maṇḍap suggests that formerly the Koḷis, who are now regarded outcasts, were the shamans/mediums of the fairies. And I may again mention the fact that the fairies of Bangan do not have (anymore) their own shamans/mediums as against the fairies of Dardistan and Nuristan. 81 This may also be a reason that fairies in Bangan do get sacrifices, but there are no fairy hymns in Bangan. 82 There are exceptions: On a mountain pass above the Bangani village Sarās is a sanctuary for Kɔilāth and his wife Kɔili (probably basically same meaning) who is a fairy. 83 See OIA kokila- ‘charcoal’ (3484) and Turner’s remark that “all NIA. forms must or may rest on *kōilla-“ which is supported by the Bng. dental -l-. 84 He is described as being always hungry for food. He does not have a weapon, so, in order to drive away ghosts he throws consecrated rice at them. He wears shoes and white cloth, is of fairly small size but athletic and young. He has short black hair, but no beard or moustache. 106 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Figure 4. Shrine of Kɔilāth in Debēṇ Figure 5. 5 Inner sanctum with Kɔili with dead ‘fairy cedar’. (right) and wild (left) and mild (middle) forms of Kɔilāth

Figure 6. Shrine entrance with bells and Figure 7. The ċhɔṛi staff symbolizing multicolored ribbons and ‘handkerchiefs’. Kɔilāth.

Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 107

Figure 8. Pɔvasi-Mahāsu on palanquin,85 ċhɔṛi staff of Kɔilāth and flags of fairies.

This staff is called ċhɔṛi (< OIA *chaṭa- ʻstick, cane’ [4966]), and is also said to be his vāhana- ‘conveyance’ although obviously it represents himself as a male fairy. 86 His weapon is a pike (khāṇḍɔ < OIA *khaṇḍaka- ʻsword’ [3793]) and he fends attacks from demons: If they approach from ahead he blows on the combined fingertips of his right hand and then makes a moving out gesture with his right arm; if a demon approaches from behind, he breaks off a twig from the bekhēḷ thornbush and puts it on the path which then functions as a barrier (bāṛ).87 Kɔilāth is

85 The silver box contains his metal bust which is not called mūrti but, as everywhere in the region, mōrɔ (< OIA mukhará- ‘leader’ [10167]). 86 For representation of a female fairy as a wooden pole see next page. 87 Note also that the penetration of a fairy into a human body is experienced by the person like the pricking of a thorn. This is called ḍɔ kiśāḷṇɔ which either means ‘to create pain (with) a thorn’ or ‘to create pain (with) an arrow’ (see OIA *kāṇṭa- ʻhaving thorns’ [3022] and ṇḍa- ‘arrow’ [3023]). The origin of the verb is somehow unclear, but according to a language consultant it is connected with Bng. kīś ‘awn, beard’ (also ‘goose pimples’) which compare with OIA (Kālidāsa) kaṇiśa- ‘an ear or spike of corn’. According to tradition, the bekhēḷ thornbush had its origin in Debēṇ. Since formerly Kɔilāth did not have an own weapon, he got this bush as weapon. In olden times, this bush was very big like a tree, and Mahāsu gave its timber to Kɔilāth so that he could build his own temple. People extract oil from it, which ‘belongs’ to Kɔilāth, and they use it in certain ritual festivals like śiuriāt ‘Shiva ratri’. 108 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller described as an elderly but strongly built fellow, he walks barefoot, he wears long black hair but no beard or moustache, and he wears a white cloth.

Figure 9. Shrine of Kāli fairy in Bangani village Bhutanu together with fairy flags.

7.4 Fairy protection agains hailstorms Wooden poles called Śɔruai (n.f.) as protection against hailstorms88 are found in Bangan on hilltops within a village area (never outside it) and are sometimes fixed to a zāga as e.g. in village Mainjani (figure 10). They are probably representations of fairies – though not every Bangani would agree with this – because also in Bangan it is said that fairies control the weather. In village Mainjani the Śɔruai receives a sacrifice of a female goat on such a hilltop every year on a Sunday in March because the hailstorm season lasts from March to June. On the same day also other fairies, (the fairy) Kāli and God Mahāsu receive worship on hilltops. Mahāsu (especially Ċāḷda-Mahāsu) is said to be responsible for rain.

88 Cf. OIA śáru- ʻmissile’ [12336] and Bng. śɔru ‘hailstone’; the basic meaning of Śɔruai, however, must be ‘arrow bearer’ or ‘spear bearer’ because the person who carries the royal parasol of Ċāḷda-Mahāsu (the youngest of the four brothers) is called ċhɔtruai ‘parasol bearer’. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 109

Figures 10, 11. Śɔruai-fairy defences against hailstorms.89

7.5 Fairies and hunters Traditionally hunters (Bng. naḷia ← nāḷ ‘gun’ < OIA nāḍ - ‘tube’ [7047]90) organize their hunting expeditions also according to messages through dreams. Some dream patterns have to do with fairies: If they dream that fairies are leading (a herd of) sheep, this means that game can be hunted. If fairies are leading (a herd of) goats, this means that the hunter will bring down a thiār ‘Himalayan wild goat’. The hunters converse with fairies while dreaming and the fairies may tell them: “For 15 days we are there and there and for 15 days we are there and there.” In this way, the hunter can find his game. It is also said that formerly (in a former life) fairies were human shepherds, and anyway they are the protectresses of the wild animals. Hunters have to take care that no blood of the killed animals spills on their (own) clothes. Otherwise the fairies will punish them and tell them: “You have killed our animal!” Bng. oṛai means (a) ‘a shelter or cover for hunters’ or (b) ‘the own hunting area of a hunter’91 which is said to be roughly a circle with the radius of a gunshot. Such an oṛai also corresponds with the territory of

89 The upright oblong stones which are topped by whitewashed round stones represent two of Mahāsu’s guardian deities, namely Raṅg Bīr and Jaṅg Bīr. The square stone construction further behind in front of the house is a zāga. 90 Note also Bng. naḷɛ kɛ ḍeṇɔ ‘to hunt (go for hunting)’. 91 Cf. OIA *ōḍḍā- ‘shelter, screen’ (2544) but more likely is derivation < OIA avaṭá- ʻhole in the ground’ (774). 110 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller one fairy. These oṛai are scattered outside the cultivated area with ‘hunting wasteland’ in-between, meaning that outside the oṛai no game can be hunted. If someone wishes to become a hunter, he moves around in the hills trying to bring down game. If he fails, he gives up the idea and says: “My sign of the zodiac (rāś)92 does not match with any rāś of a fairy.” But the successful hunter returns next time to exactly the same place and will again bring down game there because his rāś and the rāś of the local fairy match.93 A certain oṛai must not belong to only one hunter, but can also be shared by two or three. The killing of game through the hunter is a sacrifice for the fairy. Thus, when they appear to him in a dream, they prompt him to go hunting because they want a sacrifice.94 Consequently, the moment the naḷia brings down a game, he is called ḍɔṅgruai ‘carrier of a (battle-)axe’95 (ḍaṅgrɔ ‘[battle-]axe’ < OIA *ḍaṅga- ‘stick’ [5520]). Then he takes out some blood with his hand and sprays it around in the cardinal directions. The fairies receive the soul (sās < OIA śvāsá- ‘breath’ [12769]) of the animal and consume it.96 Actually, deities, guardian deities and fairies “eat” the sās of the animal and “drink” its blood by inhaling the smell of the blood. This blood is regarded śucɔ ‘sacred, pure’ and fairies relish its smell. Having brought down the game, the hunter carries it home, and only he is entitled to consume the heart (ziḍoḷi < OIA *jīva-dola- “live-litter” [5239, 6582]) because ziḍoḷi (or rather ziu which is the invisible ‘essence’ or core of the ziḍoḷi) is after sās the second highest element in the animal. If he would not eat it, the fairies would take offence at him for a long time. Fairies emanate an animating and radiating numinous energy which is called tēz ‘immaculate, pure splendor’97 (< OIA téjas- ‘fiery energy’ [5946]). Also deities (e.g. Mahāsu) emanate tēz, however with a higher intensity than fairies.98 Another commonality of deities and fairies

92 Actually ‘moonsign at the time of the birth’ is meant here. 93 This shows the need for a personal bond between hunter and fairy. 94 This can be seen as a mirror-image of the ‘sacrifice’ conducted by fairies of Nuristan and Dardistan mentioned above footnote 20. 95 Like the sacrificer in the village who is also called ḍɔṅgruai because animals are traditionally sacrificed in Bangan with the ḍaṅgrɔ. In Kalashaland axes are used by shamans “against spells and curses” (Loude 1996: 332). 96 Actually both men as well as animals have two souls each, in Bangani called ‘old soul’ and ‘young soul’. It is the ‘old soul’ which is consumed by fairies and deities. But ‘eating of a soul’ is also done by mythical heroes like Bhīmsen in the Paṇḍuaṇ, the regional oral version of the Mahābhārata, where it is said that he ate the souls of Droṇa, Bhīṣma and Karṇa after they got killed in the war (Zoller 2014: 377–79). 97 The word seems to be an old tatsama. As a verb tēzṇɔ it means ‘to give a push (e.g. to a swing)’. 98 Heaven is said to be filled with tēz. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 111 is that both belong to the deu zuni ‘(beings) of divine origin’ (cf. OIA devayoni- ‘of divine origin’). The ‘earthly’ but also numinous complement of tēz is zōr ‘power’ (← Pers.): gods, heaven, sun and moon, and fairies only have tēz, the Bangani female power centers zāga (see figure 11 below)99 and guardian gods (bīr) possess both tēz and zōr, whereas demon gods,100 ghosts and demons, the god of the dead etc. possess only zōr. Fairies like landscapes in light colors which are called ċiṭkɔ (< OIA citrá-‘bright; variegated’ [4803]) and which are reddish, whitish, yellowish. Therefore, a place where fairies prefer to reside is called ċiṭ The opposite is bɔ̀śkɔ ‘dark-coloured’101 like brown, black, dark blue, but also pale, pallid. The traditional dark clothes of Bangani men and women are believed to be protective against attacks from fairies, and, as mentioned above, Banganis have a traditional dislike for lightish clothes.

Figure 12. A Bangani zāga.

99 In case of the zāgas of some Bangani villages like Peṭaṛi or Thɔḷi the flat stones that cover the sacrificial holes inside the zāgas (usually called “mouth”) are called “signs of the fairies”. Also this suggests a relationship between zāgas and fairies. This is also interesting because the regionally dominant god Mahāsu certainly tries (also through the exorcisms) to hold control over the fairies. His relationship with the zāgas has always been described to me as one of mutual respect. This may be a political correct statement, but I have also heard of occasional skirmishes between the two: once a Mahāsu procession passed by a zāga who, through her power, flung the palanquin bearers and accompanying Brahmins to the ground. 100 They are called rākśas devta, are worshiped in temples like ‘normal’ deities but are seen as very sinister characters. One example for a rākśas devta is Pōkhu in village Naiṭvāṛ. 101 Perhaps connected with an allomorph of OIA busá- ‘chaff, any rubbish’. 112 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

7.6 The erotic side of fairies and the notion of ċhɔruāṇ “ashes stuff” I must start by saying that the following section is not more than a snippet of an aspect of cultures in the high mountains of South Asia that has so far largely gone unnoticed: the (partly transgressive) erotic side of divine beings.102 In many places between Nuristan and Himalayas one comes across divine/demonic beings – an example could be the Garhwali ‘bawd goddesses’ (see e.g. UGK p. 501) – related in immodest stories, sung in indecent songs and performed in indecent rituals that are in circulation but usually (and fortunately) evade the notice of casual visitors from outside. There are talks about fabulous penisses and multible vaginas and other unusual ‘freaks of nature’. Such narratives do not squarely fit in our times – they relate transgressive sexuality with community fertility and prosperity– so they are endangered because local people fear stigmatization through outsiders who feel called upon the spread of timely ideologies in those peri-pheral regions and desire to clear out the old dust traps: the wild fairies have already been domesticated in many places, and their former shamans shoe-horned into their proper (i.e. low) caste place. Thus the following small observations are probably on the verge of becoming history: 1. In former times it was like this: Sometimes, when a man or a woman was outside the village with a non-relative boy or girl, then the adult took a handful of earth and pressed it “out of fun” on the genitals of the child. This is called ċhɔruāṇ “ashes stuff”.103 2. When one is on the way towards Debēṇ, then there are – still at a distance – several elevations from which one can get the first glance of the forest clearing with the temple and the rock-face inhabited by fairies (see picture on next page and the fairy flag to the right).

102 One example is found with Jettmar (1961: 88f.) who says in connection with the above- mentioned fairy named Murkhum (see p. 91) that once a year a she-ibex was sacrificed to her (which had been sent by the fairy before). Only women were present for the occasion which the exception of one man, the priest (“zhabán”) of the fairy. And then “…the priest danced before the goddess (without clothes, as some audacious people maintained) taking liberties with the surrounding women.” Examples of ritual obscene speech in Nuristan are given by Snoy (1962: 106f., 118). Of course, festivals where salacious songs are sung, e.g. during marriages, are still common in many parts of South Asia. But ritual performances with a religious background where transgressive-erotic acts are staged are now very rare and about to disappear. 103 It will soon become clear that this gesture symbolizes the ‘burning’ of the genitals. This has a counterpart in ideas that vulvas can split into many parts which itself may have a parallel in Kashmiri Tantrism: In Abhinavagupta’s Parātriṃśikāvivaraṇa Goddess Mālinī is characterized as binnayoni ‘she whose vulva is split’ (White 1998: 183, 193). Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 113

If a young man went for the first time that way, the following happened: at such a place the accompanying Koḷi straightened the ground and scratched a triangle into the ground, understood as the genital of all the fairies which was called pus. The newcomer then had to bow to and greet the ‘genital’ with the ḍ ḷ gesture (folding his hands). After drawing the ‘genital’, the Koḷi said: aɔ dɔṇia bɛ, kitɛ ḍ ḷ kɔr ki ċhɔruāṇ ja dinnɛ nokhai104 ɛ “Come down here, you either make the greeting gesture or the ashes stuff has to be applied; it’s an introductory gift.”105 In case an ‘apprentice’ has not done that, the Koḷi would throw him down in front of all the other companions, open his trouser and press a handful of earth on his genitals. If the ‘apprentice’ would still be reluctant, the Koḷi would say: nokhai ja dɔṇiã dennɛ etkɛ, ɔgɔṇikɛ ḍ ḷ kɔriɛ tɛ zīb laia “here you have to give an introductory gift, first make the greeting gesture, then touch (with) the tongue (the ‘genital’)”

Figure 13. Debēṇ with fairy rock-face and fairy flag.

104 The word is ← Bng. nokhɔ ‘unfamiliar, unacquainted’ which is < OIA upākhya- ‘discernible, observable by the eye’ and negative prefix. 105 A nokhai is a “first present” e.g. s.th. given or taken at a first visit. 114 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Thus, if the apprentice is not willing to greet the fairy and kiss her ‘genital’, his genitals will be burnt symbolically.106 I was told that for an ‘apprentice’ such a scene is shameful. Moreover, he is very scared about the reaction of the others who are also present. There is the following related story: Once a shepherd slept on an alpine meadow when fairies came, took off his penis and covered the place with earth. They took away his penis in order to “play” with it. Later the shepherd woke up and noticed what had happened. But he fell again asleep and in a dream he saw the fairies. He bade them to return his penis. They told him: “Come the other day to this and this place. There we will return you your penis.” So it happened. The word ċhɔruāṇ is connected with ċhār ‘ashes’ (< OIA kṣārá- ‘ashes’ [3674]) and I got the following explanation: The fairies put the earth on the genitals so that the young man thinks this is ashes and ergo he would conclude that his genitals got burnt off and he would not suspect the fairies. In some Old Diwali songs there is the line peḷɔ mɔrɔ zɔḷi ‘(my) penis is burned off’ which corresponds, I think, with the very common curse used in everyday situations: “I burn your moustache/beard!” Another fairy story also contains some widespread patterns: A young shepherd went for the first time up to the alpine meadows at the ridge called Caĩ Śīl.107 In the morning he saw the fairies taking a bath in the morning dew. Meanwhile his sheep ran away, so he returned to the hut where also some old shepherds stayed. When the same incident recurred for several days, the old shepherds finally came to know the facts. So they advised the young shepherd to grab the clothes of the fairies, make a knot into them and run back to the hut. Since he had everything except a wife he agreed. Before the old shepherds left the hut, they advised him to keep the captured fairy inside a room without an opening. When he troupe of fairies arrived at the hut, their female leader negotiated with the shepherd and it was agreed that they would get back their clothes and he would marry one of them. So it happened. But one day his fairy wife asked the shepherd to bring her water because she was thirsty. Before going he locked the door very carefully. But there was a very small hole which he had not noticed, and through this hole the fairy escaped. Also in the Northern Areas are stories in circulation describing young men lifting the clothes of fairies (Jettmar 1975), and the knot made into the clothes of the Bangani fairies can be compared with a story from

106 It is worth noting that also in the Northern Areas fairies may emasculate men for which a story is found in Müller-Stellrecht (1980: 193). 107 The northern end of this ridge merges with the chain of the High Himalayas. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 115

Hunza where a shaman catches a fairy by making a knot in her hair (Lorimer 1929: 521).108

8 Widespread similar patterns for classification of mountain landscapes

8.1 Bangan In Bangan the landscape is divided in three parts in terms of the opposition between ‘pure’ and ‘impure’, thus in ‘pure – mixed – impure’:

a) kã̀̀ṇḍɔ109 ‘pure and cold alpine region with meadows and high peaks’ b) śucɔ kã̀̀ṇḍɔ ‘forests, hills, the middle area of human habitation (between valley ground and high peaks)’ c) nikami nevēḷ110 ‘impure and hot deep valley floors with the big rivers’

a) Associated notions are: śucɔ ‘pure’, sɔt ‘truth’, ɔsli ‘veracious’. It is the area where fairies can easily be seen. It is compared with heaven (gɔiṇ < OIA gagana- ʻatmosphere’ [3950]). The area is (traditionally) taboo for women and can be visited only by male shepherds and hunters. Note also that only wild animals can see fairies, not the domesticated ones. People, who come for the first time to the kã̀̀ṇḍɔ area, may fall in a faint because of the pure fragrances.111 To this area belong: musk deer, Himalayan wild goat (Hemitragus jemlaicus), Himalayan pheasant (Lophophorus imeyanus)’, musk deer, a type of eagle (bōd), but also cow, goat and sheep and the non-cobra snakes called deu s p ‘divine snakes’; various types of grass and mushrooms, grape and wild strawberries, the Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara (kevēḷ [also called kemaḷɔ]),

108 The magic-symbolic character of both actions is obvious. 109 kã̀̀ṇḍɔ < OIA kaṇṭhá- *‘border, immediate proximity’ (2680) (Turner has mixed here several different lemmata, see Zoller forthcoming) with parallels in West Pahāṛī “kanda” ‘high pasturing slopes and meadows’ (Handa 1998: 73), Kal. khaṇḍér ‘mountain pass’ and in Bal. kaṇḍ ‘hill pass’. 110 nikamɔ < OIA niṣkarman- ʻinactive’ (7475) (cf. Kṭg. nəkammɔ ʻbad, useless’) and for nevēḷ (also neūḷ) I suggest derivation < OIA *nīpālaya ‘lowland’ (cf. OIA nīpá- ʻsituated low, deep’ [7548]) against Hendriksen’s implausible suggestion to derive Kṭg. and Kc. neuḷ ‘low-lying hot place’ < OIA nīca- ‘low’ and a suffix. 111 Jettmar (1975: 359) writes that in the Bahuk Valley in the region of the Kalash are two mountains inhabited by fairies and a fairy lake called Bahuk-o-chat. Only pure boys are allowed to approach the lake, everyone else would fall in a faint. 116 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

lēvər ‘a huge type of fir’ and khɔrśu ‘oak’ as well as cereals like wheat, millet, the sacred anəṇi rice (< OIA aṇuni- ‘millet’ [195] with nasal consonant swapping), ċɔlai ‘amaranth’,112 snow and spring water. b) Area of human cultivation: mix of a) and c). c) Associated notions are: nikamɔ ‘impure’, ɔsɔt ‘untrue’, badaliũ ‘skewed’. It is compared with the underworld jɔmpri (OIA yamapura-). Here belong water buffalo, cobra, vulture, dung beetle, owl, rat, fish, frogs, chicken, horse etc., and trees like ɔĩār and lōj which are called b t pēṛ ‘demon trees’. It is said that people formerly thought that in the deep valleys no flowers can grow.

The opposition of śucɔ and nikamɔ is also projected on the bodies of humans, gods and fairies: the upper portion of a body from head to hip/nave is śucɔ and the lower portion is nikamɔ.113 This division includes also the inner organs, e.g. b ś ‘lungs’ are śucɔ whereas tɔllɔ śeuṭɔ ‘large intestine’ is nikamɔ. Note, however, that both male and female sexual fluids (both are called bīrya – OIA vīryà- ‘semen’ [12061]) are regarded as śucɔ even though the female bīrya is thought to be located in the lower half of the body whereas male bīrya is placed in the upper half. During intercourse, the tēz ‘animating and radiating energy’ of man and woman creates heat which melts and mingles the two bīrya. Instead of bīrya, also the term suɔ mɔɔ is used (Zoller 2007), the basic meaning of which is probably ‘honey fount’ and thus would derive, however as a borrowing from a non-West Pahāṛī language, from OIA srutá- ‘streaming’ (13886) and mádhu- ‘honey’ (9784). I have also been told that suɔ mɔɔ has been given to man by God, but that it actually belongs to a woman, and that in heaven milk streams are flowing and there are honey springs which are also called suɔ mɔɔ. This suggests a nexus between sexuality, honey and fairies (as bees), all of which are pure. In Nuristan, honey was an offering

112 Amaranth is closely associated with fairies (perhaps because of its reddish colour?) as can be seen in the fairy hymn in the second part. This grain is quite similar to millet; the high value of millet in Bangan can be seen in the semantic development of OIA aṇuni- ‘millet’ into ‘sacred rice’. Millet is also highly valued in the Northern Areas, and Jettmar (1975: 63) points out that the Yush (OIA yakṣá-) ‘hunters’ are closely related with this grain which points to the ancientness of its use. 113 So, at least traditionally, this opposition is not projected on the castes. Note also that the traditional representation of a deity in Bangan and large parts of Himachal Pradesh is not called mūrti but mohra (< OIA mukhará- ‘leader’ [10167]) which is a metal bust typically presenting the deity from head to navel. This differing term makes much sense because, as I will explain below in the last section 11, fierce deities and fairies (‘mothers’) can be organized in this tract of the Himalayas in families with a leader. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 117 for the Goddess Kushumai (who appeared in goat-shape) (Snoy 1962: 145). 114

8.2 Indus Kohistan A very similar vertical geographical segmentation is found here as described by me (Zoller 2010). The corresponding terms are sùz ‘pure’ and murd r ‘impure’:

Area activity types of beings purity degree high mountains hunting men and fairies + alpine pastures herding men and women ± permanent settlements agriculture men and women ± settlements in plains business men and women115 –

8.3 Kalasha country Peter Parkes (1987: 640) suggests a ‘pure-impure’ bipolar pattern. Here the terms are ónǰeṣṭa ‘pure’ and pragata ‘impure’. Examples for pure

114 Maybe all this is the background for the fact that Kalash women are not allowed to eat honey and that honey appears sometimes to be a taboo in the Northern Areas of Pakistan (Stellrecht 1980: 193): When a man, who was married to a fairy, ate honey “the fairy wife became wrath with her husband” and consequently rid herself of him. About Nuristan, Parkes notes (1987: 650): “Like the meat of male goats, honey is treated as a highly sacred substance which is forbidden to women and must be treated under conditions of extreme ritual purity. The sacred status of bees and their honey is elucidated in several myths that present the hive as a divine exemplar of masculine social order, of male co-operation under the leadership of a ‘king bee’ (mac̣hērik ša), explicitly associated with the regal domain of the mountain sūči …” The tabooing of honey in this area is probably old. Gavin Flood (2006: 144) quotes from the early medieval -tantra, which belongs to Kashmir Shaivism, about Shaiva practitioners who have taken a special vrata ‘observance’: “The defines an observer of vrata as someone who has given up meat, women and honey…” He thinks that the term ‘honey’ would refer to a fermented beverage but this is not really likely. On the other hand, one finds in Peter Bisshop and Arlo Griffiths’ presentation of Atharvaveda-pariśiṣṭa 40, which is a medieval text titled Pāśupatavrata, in verse 6.14 the phrase “Those who undertake this observance of Paśupati with faith, to them they give nectar …” where ‘nectar’ is translation of madhu (2003: 341). Also this quote may indicate an ancient magico-religious function of honey. 115 This fourth segment is certainly a later addition, and also in Indus Kohistan the original system was ‘pure – mixed – impure’. 118 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller items given by Trail and Cooper are honey, wine, snow, spring water, flour, juniper and male goat meat.116

pure impure mountain valley pastoral agricultural & domestic male female divine demonic

According to Parkes (op.cit. p. 649), under the category ‘pure’ in Kalasha country fall: mountains and pastures, juniper, holm oak (like khɔrśu ‘oak’ in Bangan), markhor (like Himalayan wild goat in Bangan), honey-bees (are embodiments of fairies in Bangan and regarded as one of the purest animals), altars, goat-stables, men. Under the category ‘impure’ fall: lower valleys, onions and garlic (these items plus eggs are traditionally not part of Bangani diet, even though it is not clear whether they have been regarded as impure), “rhoŋ” (sic) ‘red tubers of a shrub, cattle, (sheep), hens and eggs (like in Bangan), birth-house (bašāli), 117 graveyard, women.

9 Some comparative observations on Nuristan, Dardistan and Bangan

Parkes claims (1987: 637): “… contrastive livestock codes, as noted by Blok … in the Mediterranean, are intrinsic elements of a more general pastoral ideology of opposed male and female domains characteristic of transhumant mountain communities throughout Eurasia.” He substantiates this thesis with a number of data from Nuristan and the Kalasha area. Thus he shows that men take care of lifestock and of all dairy production related activities whereas women undertake much of the work in the fields, including harvesting, winnowing and milling of grain. A similar labor division is observed in Bangan: whereas only men take the sheep up to the alpine pastures and do the ploughing work, women do harvesting, winnowing, milling, collection of water and weeding. On the other hand, it is women’s work to feed and milk cattle. Also in Nuristan (op.cit. p. 647) “… cattle … are kept in village stables throughout the year, fed by women …” In Kalasha language the enclosed grazing grounds at the high summer pastures are called ist which derives < OIA

116 The items honey, wine, snow, spring water have exact parallels within the Bangani category of śucɔ where also are listed honey, grape (instead of wine), snow and spring water. 117 Regarding the origin of this word cf. OIA lex. vaśa- ‘birth, origin’. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 119 sth na- ʻstation, place of standing or staying’ (13753). The word can be compared with Bangani thāc ‘alpine grazing ground’118 which derives < closely related OIA *sthātra- ‘station, place’ (13752a) and which has many modern parallels in West and Central Pahāṛī where they frequently designate highly situated place names. “Goats are conceptually opposed to women as the respective embodiments of ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ ritual spheres” and goats are “to be sacrificed exclusively for male deities” (op.cit. p. 640). Again, the situation in Bangan is partially similar and I wish to bring again to mind that in Bangan practically no goddesses are found but only the fairies and the female zāgas. As contrasted with Nuristan but similar with Tajikistan, in Bangan clearly the sheep are śucɔ ‘pure’ and not the goats because “it is the sheep that eat the pure plants.” However, meanwhile things have become mixed up “because of the Brāhmaṇ-vād” (i.e. Brahmin religious ideology) as one informant put it. In Nuristan, on the other hand, “[s]heep are also regarded as ritually inferior livestock and are never sacrificed at the major sanctuaries of male deities”, “[r]ams are therefore frequently used in offerings to the familial goddess Jeshtak … sheep are also thought to be the livestock of debased bhut spirits or ‘demons’ of the lower valley region …” (op.cit. p. 647f.). The different position of sheep vis-à-vis goats in the world of Bangan seems to be rather complex in connection with animal sacrifices for Mahāsu the conqueror, and the subjected fairies. Mahāsu would never accept a sheep sacrifice; he only accepts goat sacrifices and especially values sacrifices of he-goats. However, his guardian deities receive rams as sacrifice (khāḍu < OIA *khaḍḍu - ʻram’ [3790a]) with the exception of Kɔilāth for whom female sheep are sacrificed. On the other hand, the fairy Kāli, the ‘hailstorm fairy’ Śɔruai and other fairies receive female goats.119 There is one more occasion for sacrificing rams: If it happens that a ‘foreign’ guardian deity (bīr) manages to sneak into Bangan through marriage of a bride from outside into a Bangani family120 and consequently creates strife or demands to be worshiped, a nocturnal sacrifice on the path leading to the bride’s parental home takes place. This can only be attended by male family members, and invariably a ram will be sacrificed by a shaman (māli).121 This is called pheṛaɔ ‘sacrifice’ (← pheṛaṇɔ ‘to sacrifice’ < OIA

118 But also ‘(sacred) spot in high altitudes (like opening, clearing, meadow)’. 119 In the second part it is described that in Garhwal certain goats are raised in the name of fairies. They are especially fertile and make their owners prosper. 120 This is a common fear and it is thought that marrying-in brides can bring along also other evil and dangerous spirits. 121 Only he and the attendant male family members are allowed to eat the sacrificial meat. 120 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller spheṭayati ʻinjures’ [13838]). Interestingly, a zāga can receive male or female goats or male or female sheep. The choice of the animal, I was told, depends however on the category of strength a specific zāga belongs to.122 The choice of either goat or sheep as sacrificial animal for Mahāsu or the guardian deities or the fairies has nothing to do with different ‘sacrificial powers’ of goats and sheep but it is claimed that e.g. male goats give more power to the Mahāsu Brothers, female goats give more power to fairies, zāgas etc., rams give more power to guardian deities, etc. It needs finally to be added that in many areas of Jaunsar and Baur (located to the east of Bangan) people do not eat the meat of female sheep. Summing up these observations, it seems that in Bangan the dual oppositions of ‘pure-impure’ and ‘male-female’ are not interlinked the way they are in Nuristan. Parkes notes (op.cit. p. 655) that “[t]here is a noticeable contrast in the dual symbolic livestock codes of mountain pastoralists to the more elaborate categorisation of animal values reported of predominantly agricultural communities.” Since in Bangan – other than in parts of Nuristan and Dardistan – agriculture appears now to be more important than transhumance (also under a cultural perspective), the more elaborate distinctions and classifications found in Bangan do not come as a surprise.

10 Parallels outside South Asia

Recalling Jettmar’s observation that the manifold social and religious forms found in Dardistan and Nuristan can be regarded as variants of a single basic structure, the conclusion is obvious that the single basic structure concerning the world of fairies and concerning the vertical segmentation of the mountain landscape is also found till today in parts of the Western and Central Himalayas. It is not a bold assumption to suggest that, despite countless differences, this must once have been a unitary cultural-religious sphere. Indeed, it seems that this sphere once was much more extensive, including the area of the Pamir-Tajiks (Litvinskij 1983) but also the hunting believes among the Boir Ahmad who live in the Zagros mountains of Southwest Iran. According to Reinhold Löffler (1983: 399ff.), the wild mountain sheep and goats are the herds of the jenn (i.e. Jinn spirits). The jenn live in camps in the mountains, and they

122 Zāgas are classified according to the number of (main) sacrificial items they receive, so there are “three-sacrifice-zāgas”, “six-sacrifice-zāgas” up to “twelve-sacrifice zāgas”. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 121 tend and milk these animals. They punish humans very severely when they commit some undue behavior, etc. Similar ideas are certainly also found in still other pastoral communities in other parts of the world. This cannot be pursued here, but I would like to return shortly to the central figures of hunters and herders. We have come across several reciprocal relationships between divine and human beings concerning these two social roles: human hunters hunting game that belongs to fairies (mainly in Nuristan and Dardistan, and less obvious in Bangan), beings similar to fairies who are hunting humans (in Garhwal, but less obvious in Nuristan and Dardistan), divine herders and human herders herding divine beings (the devapālas ‘herding’ fairies and deities).

11 Fairies, wild deities and Tantras123

In South Asia, the fairy traditions have been influenced – depending on their geographical location – to different degrees by Islam (relationship with jinns) and tantric Hinduism. However, whereas the relationship between fairy traditions and Islam is largely one of before versus after conversion124 – with the aerial female divine powers just tolerated outside the gates of Islamic theology – the relationship between fairy traditions and tantric Hinduism125 is quite different. This is not at all to say that tantric Hinduism originated in fairy traditions; however, it was influenced in the sense that they were parts of a non-brahmanic tradition of Hinduism.126 Flood notes (2006: 14): “There is much speculation about the origins of Tantrism. On the one hand the origins have been seen in an autochthonous spirituality of Shamanism that reaches back to pre-Āryan times in the subcontinent, yet textual historical evidence only dates from a more recent period. While certainly there are elements in tantric traditions that may well reach back into pre-history … we simply do not

123 Before I can discuss connections between fairies and Tantras a fairly long introductory background has to be given. 124 Kafiri religion is usually described as pre-islamic. 125 And Buddhism, I have to add. Buddhism remains, however, outside the reflections in this subsection. 126 I use this term in a similar sense as others speak of the pre-vedic religions of the Nuristani- and Dardic-speaking people (see Witzel 2004). However, I presume that pre- vedic respectively non-brahmanic religions were formerly much more widespread and certainly extended into the Western and Central Himalayas (Zoller forthcoming). 122 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller have sufficient evidence to speculate in this way. As Robert Mayer127 has shown, there is no evidence for a non-Āryan substratum for Tantrism, which must be understood as a predominantly Brahmanical, Sanskritic tradition with its roots in the Veda.” The attempted juxtaposition of Brahmanical, Sanskritic tradition with autochthonous spirituality of Shamanism or with a non-Āryan substratum had to fail because of a too monolithic perception of what constituted ancient ‘Aryan’ religions. My use of the plural is meant to suggest that speakers of Old Indo-Aryan dialects did not only follow Sanskritic, Brahmanical religion as it has come down to us in form of the Vedic heritage. There is clear and ample evidence that the spread of people speaking Old-Indo Aryan dialects into South Asia was not a singular event, and there is evidence that groups who successively entered the subcontinent had similar but not identical religions. Massive linguistic evidence for dialectal differences ‘from the beginning’, differences which are known in the relevant literature as a distinction between the so-called Outer Languages and Inner Languages, will be presented in my forthcoming book. With regard to possible religio- cultural difference between different groups of ‘Aryan’ migrants I can refer here, because of lack of space, only to one article128 by Yaroslav Vassilkov about hero stones in India. He observes (2011: 198): “The territories with the hero-stones form a kind of belt around the subcontinent. They have something in common: we often find in them cattle-breeding societies with strong vestiges of an archaic social organization and traditions of cattle-raiding. Interestingly, there are no “hero-stones” in Madhyadeša, i.e. the northern part of Uttar Pradesh, the cradle of the Vedic (Brahminic) civilization.” He suggests further (2011: 199) that the tradition of hero stones “… could possibly represent one of the non-Vedic waves of Aryan migration to India.” Thus it seems that the geographical distribution of hero stones in South Asia matches roughly with the picture of the geographical distribution of the Outer and Inner Languages (see Zoller forthcoming). If this ‘hero-stone culture’ was more martial than the Vedic Brahminic one, as suggested by Vassilkov,129 then we may see in the martial traditions of head-hunting heroes and fierce

127 Flood refers here to Mayer’s paper “The Origins of the Esoteric Vajrayāna,” a seminar paper for The Buddhist Forum, London School of Oriental and African Studies, Centre of Religion and Philosophy, October 17, 1990. 128 But see also with a similar line of arguments Gerald D. Berreman “Brahmins and Shamans in Pahari religion.” 129 It needs hardly to be pointed out that cattle-breeders are more typically found in plane terrain whereas breeding of sheep and goats is the fitting for high alpine country. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 123 gods and fairies found in so many places between eastern Afghanistan and Himalayas distant echoes of these ancient religio-cultural traits. Under this perspective it also does not make sense to categorize the different manifestations of Hinduism in this very area as little or folk tradition versus the so-called great tradition in the wake of the conceptualizations of Dumont, Redford, Singer etc. These manifestations cannot be called folk Hinduism because they too always had and still have their own religious elites and specialists, thus their regionally limited great traditions.130 The rise of Tantrism, at least in the north-west of South Asia, is to a large extend the result of an encounter between Brahmanic Hinduism originating from “Madhyadeśa” and a different archaic and non- brahmanic form of Hinduism that has mainly survived in the mountains of northwestern South Asia. The tantric texts were created in this area, as many specialists like Flood point out, by an elite minority. It is standing to reason that these creations were the result of interactions between these Brahmanical elites and the elites who represented non-brahmanical forms of Hinduism. Above we have come across many instances showing the sinister or even dangerous character of fairies, Yakshas, autochthonous deities etc., and I have suggested characterizing them as amoral and transgressive (footnote 17 with a reference). Flood and many other authors have shown the transgressive traits within Tantrism. For instance Flood states (2006: 10): “Sanderson has pointed out that the tantric traditions of power defined themselves against the vedic tradition of purity and saw their power as lying in the transgression of vedic social norms.” He further distinguishes between two different forms of Tantrism (op.cit. p. 74f.), namely “… the tension between ‘institutionalized Tantra’ and ‘trans-gressive Tantra’ (which roughly map on to Samuel’s priestly and shamanic forms). The latter … has emphasized those scriptures that transcend the orthodox revelation of the Veda whose practices transgress orthodox dharma, particularly in the emphasis on eroticism in worship and the violence of its deities. But this violence and eroticism become quickly incorporated within

130 Usually the religions of the Kafirs are not connected with Hinduism but seen as a (pre-) vedic offshoot that got never really influenced by the classical forms of Brahmanism. However, it has gone unnoticed that ‘Kafir’ words like Dardic Kalasha dic̣ ‘period of three days of sexual abstinence in winter festival’ which is < OIA dīkṣ - ‘preparation for religious ceremony’ (6345) or Nuristani Kati “pochetr” ‘the Musalman fast’ which is < OIA ścitta- ‘atonement’ (8950) etc. betray old and continuous connections with the Hindu world. 124 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller institutionalized Tantra, particularly where political power is concerned.” Thus we see that probably in early medieval times Brahmanism expanded into areas in the north-west of South Asia that hitherto had remained outside its reach – for instance many parts between Kashmir and present- day Himachal Pradesh – where it itself got influenced by regional cults located at the fringes of the Hindu world. Regarding the role of northwestern South Asia in the development of Tantrism White states (2012: 146): “Kashmir’s geographical location at the northern-most reach of the Indian subcontinent has made for a somewhat eccentric history with respect to Indic and Sanskritic traditions” and with regard to the geographical spread of medieval tantric works devoted to demonology (apparently among the oldest Tantras) White suggests (2012: 146, 154, 156) that Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria, and to different degrees the Tarim Basin and sub-Himalayan North-western India “was a nursery for new cultural forms and religious doctrines and practices” (p. 146). Apparently he regards this geographical space as a rather special cultural area (p. 154). Om Chand Handa writes about demonic gods and their temples in Himachal Pradesh (2001: 95): “The autochthonous demonic deities – the nature spirits – of this region have been of the terrific disposition … The people chose to keep them at a safe distance on the mountain-tops, in the forlorn caves … They never cherished the idea to settle them within the community or in their close vicinity. In order to keep those destructive deities in good humour, the people would propitiate and appease them occasionally or only at the time of exigency by offering numerous sacrifices. For the rest of the time, they were supposed to fend for themselves. There was, thus, hardly any reason to erect temples and shrines for those ill-disposed deities … [W]e do not have any material evidence about the existence of any temple dedicated to an autochthonous deity prior to the late medieval times, although wooden temple built in the classical style for the goddess Lakshana Devi stood at Bharmaur in Chamba district as early as the seventh-eigth century.” Apparently only centuries later (op.cit. p. 96) “[s]mall shrines and platforms (chauk, thada or than),131 thus, came to be improvised for them” (namely for the

131 “chauk” reflects OIA catuṣka- ‘quadrangular courtyard’ (4629), “thada” reflects OIA *sthagha- ʻbase’ (13738) with modern reflexes having the same suffix and similar meaning in N. thāro ʻboundary’, Paṭṭ. ṭhari ‘place’ and Bng. ṭh ṛi ‘area of a village’ with the preciser meaning ‘area of a zāga, i.e. village and adjacent fields (that she invigorates with her power)’. It is obvious that the above-discussed zāgas ‘places’ are the modern descendants of the ancient ‘places’ and ‘bases’ mentioned by Handa, but it is unclear whether these ancient places were always places for femine supernatural beings. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 125 demonic deities). Handa continues (ibid.): “Interestingly, most of the deities of this region, who descended from the autochthonous origin, observe ‘purdah’ and ordinarily do not allow to be visited or [to be] seen by the lay people, except on ceremonial occasions … Mostly, the women are not allowed into the sanctum of the autochthonous deities, and the one in menstruation, not at all permitted.” This reminds one of the strict pure- impure gender distinctions among the Kafir and Kalasha people. However, over the centuries there was also a trend to domesticate these fierce deities. Handa explains (op.cit. p. 98f.): “The alien Brahmanical influence, perpetuated through the patronage of the petty rulers, overpowered the native beliefs and traditions, and the native people also thought of ‘domesticating’ their fierce deities. Besides the occasional propitiation, daily worship for them also came to be offered by the localized version of Brahmans, the Khasha-Brahmans132 … A wooden temple built in the heart of a village is generally known as the bhandar,133 as against the dehra134 – the root-place in the jungle, where the original ‘symbol’ of the deity is enshrined. In the bhandar, the trumpery or ‘duplicate’ image of the deity, in the form of a mohara (the face-image), is enshrined.”135 In Himachal Pradesh there do not only exist ‘root-places’ of fierce deities, there are also ‘root-deities’: there is a class of snake deities responsible for the weather called Narains.136 In Turner’s dictionary one finds sub 10252 the entry *mūlanārāyaṇa- ‘name of a local deity (?)’ with a modern reflex in Ku. ṛ̃ə ‘a demigod worshiped in Gangoi’. Turner refers here to OIA (RV) - ‘a class of demons’ for which Manfred Mayrhofer (EWA) suggests as basic meanings “root worshipper” (‘Wurzelanbeter’) or even “yap gods” (‘Maulgötter’), whatever these could possibly mean. But actually similar compounds are also found in Himachal Pradesh. There is for instance a Mūl Mahun Nāga. According to Handa (2001: 55, 60, 88), his name means “the original Mahun Naga” because there are dozens of secondary Mahun Nāgas in the regions of Mandi, Shimla und Kullu. In addition, in Shimla

132 The Khasha are actually an ancient martial ‘Kshatriya’ people whose name is found throughout the Himalayas. The existence of Khasha-Brahmans is thus due to Brahmanic influence. In Bangan ‘Khasha’ is a term of respect, but further east in Garhwal the word is used with contempt. 133 < OIA bhāṇḍāgāra- ʻtreasury’ (9442). So called because the building stores also property of people and the village. 134 < OIA 6528 *dēvaghara- ʻtemple’ (6528). 135 On the term mohara see above footnote 113. 136 The word has certainly nothing to do with Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa but for more details on the possible etymology see Zoller (2014: 181). 126 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

District there are two Mūl Nāgas whose mohras are said to have been spit out by a python (Handa 2001: 66). I do not think that the first part of Mūl (Mahun) Nāga is a direct reflex of OIA mūla- ‘root’ because there is for instance Bng. muḷɛṇɔ ‘to sprout (as plants), to swell up (as water)’ which is rather connected with OIA Dhātup. mūlayati ‘plants or grows (plants)’ but must derive directly < OIA *mūlati ‘sprouts’. The Bng. root appears also in muḷ, muḷɔnɔ ‘irrigation canal channeled off from a brook’ and mūḷ ‘family’ with masculine gender which contrasts with homophone mūḷ ‘root’ with feminine gender. A Mūl Nāga is thus a “well or sprout snake deity”.137 Such a “well or sprout deity” is connected on the one hand with its many multiplications and on the other hand with its divine relatives, comparable to an irrigation system with a network of channels. Therefore Handa observes (2001: 91): “The native gods and goddesses of the western Himalayan region have strong suzerain identities and kinship ties” and (op.cit. p. 79) “[u]nless there exist interclan relationships between them, these local deities have strong inter-cultic rivalries and are generally antagonistic to each other.” In other words, these gods are either kindred or enemies. The above-sketched structures, which appear in many myths, suggest a mythical world view based on concepts like divine sprouting and multiplying, and notions of family, clan and lineage, of bonding and antagonism. Because many of these supernatural beings are, as pointed out repeatedly, amoralic and thus beyond the opposition of dharma and adharma, they do not hesitate to engage in transgressive violence and sexuality. Even though they all are part of Hinduism, they are in marked contrast with typical Vedic and Brahmanic views based on dharma. Legions of these beings found entrance into the Tantras. The 9th Century Netra-tantra speaks of “innumerable goddesses” who “… are exceptionally filthy, violent, merciless, fearless, (and) mighty” (White 2012: 146). Also in Bangan and elsewhere people speak of the very great number of fairies, and Handa writes about the deities in Mandi District in the upper reaches of the Uhl Valley (op.cit. p. 61): “The deities of this remote valley are ‘dressed’ in typically uncough manner and are of very terrific disposition.” Simultaneously, the Tantras are strongly informed by Brahmanic cosmological concepts like that of cosmic emanation (creation and absorption), the “common overall structure … of pure, mixed, and impure creation” (Flood 2006: 109), “emanation and reabsorption of the cosmos” (op.cit. p. 129), spiritual paths “arranged in a graded sequence

137 In fact, various snake deities in the Himalayas are said to reside below springs. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 127 from supreme to subtle to gross” (op.cit. p. 130) etc. On the other hand, the concepts of vertical landscape divided into pure-impure oppositions, as found in the high mountains, which correlate with the visibility or invisibility of supernatural beings like fairies, are manifestations of an ideology that can be termed non-brahmanic Hinduism. Also the Bangani conviction that sacrifices for zāgas not only strengthen them but rejuvenate them (in a concrete sense, i.e. they transform back into babies) can be seen as distantly related with the Brahmanic concept of emanation and reabsorption even though the more closely related Brahmanic notion of rebirth (or rather ‘redeath’) is, outside centers of Brahmanism, hardly found in the more remote parts of the high mountains, for instance in Bangan. Above (p. 85) I have pointed out that the Sakian term derives < * -pālaka- deva- pālaka in Buddhist Hybdrid Sanskrit. The term deva-pālaka continues to live on in the meaning of ‘shaman’ (or literally ‘herder of deities’) in many areas between Bangan and eastern Afghanistan, and therefore the meaning of may also rather have been ‘shaman or herder of the mothers’. Reflexes of the term are used till today with meaning ‘fairy’ in parts of Garhwal (including Bangan) and Himachal Pradesh. But these ‘fairies’ or ‘mothers’ appear also frequently in tantric texts from the area. Again according to the Netra-tantra they form a ‘family’ (kula) and “[i]f someone is possessed by one of the innumerable ‘mothers’ who wish to harm a person, then the practitioner needs to perform worship to their source, namely the seven ‘great mothers’ ( ) … from whose wombs they originated” (Flood 2006: 90). In other words, these ‘mothers’ form clans and lineages like the Himalayan fairies and autochthonous deities, and they originate from ‘great mothers’ in a similar way as the girias ‘female house/family power centers’ are the “daughters” of the zāgas ‘female village power centers’ who are the “daughters” of māṭi ‘Mother Earth’.138 This is a clear example for the impact of regional non-brahmanic Hinduism on a Tantra belonging to a Brahmanic elite tradition.139

138 Seen conversely, this is a development from the one earth to a limited number of village centers to a great number of house centers. 139 It is also important to keep these ‘mother’-fairies conceptually distinct from the Mother goddesses of Brahmanic Hinduism. Whereas the latter are typically real motherly goddesses, calling the former non-brahmanic fairies ‘mothers’ is a euphemism and insofar incorrect as most fairies neither have children nor are they especially child-friendly. My impression is that this distinction was not seen clearly enough by Shaman Hatley in his 2012 article “From Māt to Yoginī.” 128 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

I have not heard that the Bangani ‘fairies’ are the daughters of a ‘great fairy’ but they have a female leader (siāṇi) with whom they form a family. As described above in detail, they also have the male leader Kɔilāth who seems to be married with Kɔili. And again this can be compared with the Netra-tantra which says that the eight mothers “are the entourage of Kuleśvara”140 (op.cit. p. 156). This, in turn, reminds us of the Garhwali ɛ̄ṛi hunter and his entourage of bloodthirsty fairies.141 There is another parallel between a modern form of exorcism practiced in an area in Uttarakhand using a group of terms and concepts also mentioned in the Netra-tantra (but not elsewhere). A detailed description for the former is found in Sax (2009) and the comparison with the Netra-tantra has been done by White (2012: 146, 151-54, 156, 164). Here a very brief summary: the Tantra uses the terms chāyā-cchidra ‘shadow-crack’ and chala ‘witchcraft’142 in connection with the treatment of the ‘evil eye’ ( ṣṭi-pāta). The Lord explains to the Goddess that once in the ‘psycho-somatic coating’ of an evil person (who has neglected some dharmic duties) a crack (chidra) has developed, a can enter the evildoer and cause him or her to throw a shadow (chāyā) on an innocent victim, i.e. possess the victim, make him sick or kill him. After explaining this strategy, counter measures are described. White notes (op.cit. p. 151) that the grouping together of the three terms is only found in this Tantra and then again in modern “Dalit religion of Garhwal” (op.cit. p. 152) (i.e. in Chamoli District) in a long description of an exorcism ritual, called “chal puja” (ibid.),143 given by William Sax (2009)

140 That is Shiva. 141 White, commenting on a commentary by the Kashmiri Śaiva Tantric Jagaddhara Bhatta on fairy-like beings described in the Mālatī-Mādhava, observes (1998: 196): “These hosts of female figures live on, delight in, and are energized by the consumption of human flesh, and it is through their extraction of the essence of the bodies they eat that they are afforded the power of flight. Yoginīs or Ḍākinīs need human flesh in order to fly: this continues to be a commonplace of folk belief.” 142 White rightly suggests this special meaning (p. 148) instead of the usual Sanskrit meaning ‘trick’. 143 Such a pūjā always involves a “masan” demon, and White finds Sax’ description confusing (footnote 9) because he uses “masan” in the plural. But Sax is correct, the term derives < OIA śmaśāná- ʻerection for burning dead, burial place for cremated bones’ (12658) and is thus again a personification of an item. In Bangan these terrific beings are called mɔśaṇ, they live at burning places and in prehistoric stone circles with a single stone in the middle which are also called mɔśaṇ. Oakley writes of such an embodiment of death (1905: 220): he lives “at places where dead bodies are burnt … He is the chief or head of the other ghosts … The belief is that wicked people … and all who die a violent or wilful death … become ghosts for a time. When the term of a thousand such ghosts expires … the souls of the thousand are concentrated and transformed into one body, and the being thus formed is called Masan.” Note also that in connection with the Netra-tantra Alexis Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 129 where the three terms chāyā, chidra and chala have been reinterpreted as three different types of demonic beings. This shows a stunning parallel between the more than thousand years old Tantra and the modern ritual in Garhwali “Dalit religion”. It is unlikely that the group of terms and the ritual were taken by former “Dalits” from the Tantra, but it is very likely that it was the other way round. This is then additional evidence for my claim that Tantrism in the north-west of South Asia was strongly influenced by shamanic non-brahmanical Hindu religions. However, it also needs to be pointed out that the magical term chāyā (“shadow”, see above), which is widely used all over North India, has usually the meaning, also in Garhwal, ‘affliction through the influence of a ghost, fairy etc. leading to illness etc.’ Besides the “chal puja” there is in Garhwal also a chāyā pūjaṇ (see Purohit and Benjwal), and Garhwali chɔḷ is defined by Purohit and Benjwal very similar like chāyā as affliction through ghosts or supernatural beings. Note, however, that Turner quotes sub OIA chala- ‘fraud, deceit’ (5001) Kṭg. ċhɔ́ḷ ʻhaunt of an evil spirit, haunted feeling’ but Gaṅgoī dialect of Ku. ċhaw ‘goblin’. This suggests that chala is now perceived in the Himalayas either as a magical force or a supernatural being. Another example showing connections between Tantras and fairy cults is this: the Kumāra-tantra144 contains a chapter dealing with “the Śaiva exorcist deity Khaḍgarāvaṇa … Here we find possession by twelve mothers ( ) … who are within the sphere of Khaḍgarāvaṇa, ‘Rāvaṇa with the sword’, who is described in the ISG145 as having three heads each with three eyes and with ten arms holding a skull-topped staff, a trident, a sword, drum, a shield, a skull bowl, with the fear-not and boon-giving gestures.” Whatever the explanation for the presence of Rāvaṇa in this context may be, this parallels the fact that in Garhwali propitiation songs it is claimed that the fairy sisters are daughters of Rāvaṇa who had entrusted them to Lord Śiva (Nautiyal 1981: 154). However, since Khaḍgarāvaṇa can hardly be the Rāvaṇa of the Rāmāyaṇa, the question is whether this is an accidental similarity. The etymological origin of the name Rāvaṇa is unclear, but -rāvaṇa of Khaḍgarāvaṇa may derive < OIA RU ‘smash, break to pieces’ with possible semantic contamination by the concept of Rāvaṇa. The description of Khaḍgarāvaṇa with his characteristic features in the ISG is

Sanderson referes to a cult (1995: 19f., 80) in which Svacchandabhairava and Aghoreśvarī are surrounded by a ring of eight cremation grounds (śmaśāná). 144 “Filliozat thinks [that this Tantra] originated in the north and spread to Tibet and Southeast Asia” (Flood 2006: 91). 145 Īśanaśivagurudevapaddhati. 130 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller similar to the ɛ̄ ī hunter figure described above (p. 88f.) and fits that of a deity in the Pāśupata tradition of ascetics – especially (deified) Lakulīśa – which included the two subgroups of the Kāpālikas and the Kālāmukhas (Lorenzen 1972). A distinctive feature of the Kālāmukhas was the khaṭvāṅga- ‘club’. Possible etymological relationships between khaṭvāṅga ‘a club shaped like the foot of a bedstead’, khaḍga- ‘sword’ and *khaṇḍaka- ʻsword’ (3793) are unclear but possible and ought to be analyzed more closely. Thus, the term Khaḍgarāvaṇa may actually have a Pāśupata background. There is a certain parallel between the spread of Pāśupata ideology and the spread of Tantrism in the north-west of South Asia because the Kālāmukhas are believed by some to have had their origin in Kashmir or its surroundings (Muller-Ortega 1989: 33, Ingalls 1962, Fleet 1907: 426, Lorenzen 1971: 109), 146 and, according to Maheshwar Joshi (1989, 2010) and Nachiket Chanchani (2013: 139), the Pāśupatas had a stronghold in the famous temple complex of Jageshwar (near Almora in Kumaon) where one finds several figures of Lakulīśa (Chanchani p. 144), the founder of the Pāśupatas. Other presentations of Lakulīśa are found in many places in Kumaon and Garhwal (Joshi 1989, 2010), and like Khaḍgarāvaṇa also Lakulīśa of the Central Himalayas typically shows abhaya mudra and is sometimes portrayed with a trident instead of a club (Joshi 2010). Even though the Pāśupata religion has died out in India, there may exist a small survival in Kumaon. Joshi writes (2010) in his concluding observations: “While concluding, it would not be out of place to add that in Uttarakhand Himalaya the Katyūrī-s147 are deified and invoked during the Katyūrī-jāgar (spirit possession séance) rituals. In the Katyūrī-jāgar spirits of deified Katyūrī-s and one Lākuḍa-vīra possess the devotees. The characteristic attribute of Lākuḍa-vīra is a sabbala (crow-bar). However, literally Lākuḍa-vīra means: brave man, the wielder of a wooden stick. Since in jāgar rituals iron equipments are placed in the dhūṇi (altar/hearth) and when heated red hot are taken out by the possessed persons to show their divine power, it is but natural that a metal tool alone can serve the purpose, hence a metal bar is substituted for the wooden stick. It is likely that Lākuḍa-vīra represents a Lakulīśa Pāśupata ascetic, or Lakulīśa himself. In any case association of Lākuḍa-vīra with the jāgar r incorporation of Lakulīśa Pāśupatism in Katyūrī traditions.” Joshi seems correct because Cecil

146 But Elizabeth Cecil (2014: 143f.) suggests Upper Mālava (southwest Rajasthan and northwest Madhya Pradesh) as main centre of the cult. See also Joshi 1989 and 2010. 147 This is the name of a dynasty which ruled large parts of the Central Himalayas over many centuries in the early Middle Ages until their disintegration in the 12th or 13th Century. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 131 notes (2014: 142) that the Skanda-purāṇa “… contains the earliest purāṇic reference to Lāguḍi (a variant of Lakulīśa) as a manifestation of Śiva…” and Bisshop notes (2003: 332, fn. 88) that the Kālāmukhas were sometimes designated as Lāguḍas.148 However, if Lākuḍa-vīra is identical with a (guardian) deity widely known in Western Garhwal and large parts of Himachal Pradesh – e.g. called lãṅkuṛɔ in Bangan – and frequently identified with Bhairava, 149 a different etymology seems possible because lãṅkuṛɔ may derive < OIA *lāma-kuḍa- ‘black boy, dark son’. 150 Whatever the origin of this name may be, the Bangani lãṅkuṛɔ is not one of Mahāsu’s four main guardian deities. However, he is the only one riding a black or white horse. Regarding size he is bigger than Mahāsu and “his internal power is big” due to his mantra śakti. His weapon is a trident. He wears long black hair but no beard or moustache and on his head he wears a black cap formerly typical for the area.151 He is elderly, yet unmarried, and when he rides around a village at night as guardian he wears a knee-length black coat. Regarding the Himachali “Launkara Bir” Handa writes (2006: 76): “Wooden images of the Launkara Bir are very common in the interiors of Shimla district almost in all temples. ‘Launkara’ in the local parlance means a vagrant person, and that name fully justifies the capricious nature of this deity. For, when offended, he is known to harass the young women and milch cattle.”152 Another Bangani guardian deity who appears close to the old Pāśupati religion is kɔpla bīr whose name is certainly connected with OIA - ‘skull; beggar’s bowl’. He is also called ɔṅgārua bīr ‘the coal-black hero’ (< OIA aṅgāra- ‘glowing charcoal’ [123]) or ċhārua- ɔṅgārua (bīr) ‘the ash-covered coal-black hero’ (< OIA kṣārá- ʻcorrosive’ [3674]). He is regarded as the cruelest among all guardian deities. Ashes and glowing coal are his weapons which he can use to burn down houses

148 Lakulīśa is iconographically always presented as ithyphallic (ūrdhvameḍhra) and usually as wearing a club, and I may mention here in passing that OIA lakuṭa- (but also laguḍa-) ‘club’ is reflected in many NIA languages also with meaning ‘penis’ (see 10875). 149 Apart from being guardian of various gods and goddesses, he also has his own shrines and temples. 150 Regarding first word see OIA *lāma- ‘defective’ (11021) where Turner suggests comparison with rāmá- ‘dark, black’, second word < OIA *kuḍa- ‘boy, son’ (3245). Variation of r ~ l is also found in the Himachali designation ludar for Rudra/Śiva. 151 This type of cap is hardly seen anymore. It looks very similar to caps formerly worn in Dardistan and Nuristan, and a picture of it can be found in Chetwode (1972) on the plate opposite p. 23 where one sees a sqatting drummer with a long beard and wearing this cap. 152 Pictures of this deity are found in Handa (2006: plates 16 and 122), and the first is also found in Arya and Arya (1985: 55). The god is depicted wearing a sword and a spear (and a moustache!). 132 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller and temples. He wears long black hair (but no beard), shoes and black clothes. He is of young age and unmarried. There are indications that the Pāśupatas were especially closely associated with the ‘mothers’. The earliest known inscriptional references to Pāśupatas are found in copper plates from the 4th Century in Madhya Pradesh, one of which “… records a land grant to the shrine of the Mothers ( ) which had been established by the Pāśupatācārya Bhagavant Lokodadhi in the village of Piñcchikānaka” (Bisshop 2003: 322, fn. 37; the same copper plates are also mentioned by Cecil [2014: 150]). And Gray points out (2005: 54) that the Buddhist tantric yoginīs and ḍākinīs – associated with meat eating, violent sexuality and with outcaste social groups153 – are linked in the Buddhist Yoginī- tantras (which are also called “mother tantras” in Tibetan [op.cit. p. 59]) with left-hand Śaiva traditions like the Kāpālikas.

12 Thematic transition to the Garhwali fairies

12.1 Brahminized worship of fairies A common brahminized way of worshipping the s is found in a manual called daśa karmādi paddhati. It is used in Garhwal and Kumaon for carrying out domestic rites, and its third section is named pūjā (Atkinson 1882: 891). Atkinson explains (op.cit. p. 883f.): “The celebrant takes a plank and cleans it with rice-flour and then draws sixteen figures representing the Mátris and to the right of them a figure of Ganesha.”154 This is followed by a pratiṣṭhā during which the ritualist places a flower on each ‘mother goddess’ while chanting “‘Om gaṇapatayenamaḥ’ followed by Gauri, Padmá, Sachi, Medhá, Devasená, Svadhá, Sváhá, Mátri, Lokmátri, Dhriti, Pushti, Tushti, and the household female deities” (ibid.).155

12.2 The recorded hymn and some remarkable words found in it The name of the hymn needs some explanation. The singer uses diśa dh kuṛi, although this contrasts with the more common denomination

153 Gray quotes (ibid.) from the Hevajra-tantra the yoginīs called Ḍombī, Caṇḍāli and Pukkasī, all three of which denoting outcaste groups. 154 Because of him being the Lord of the Troops. Note also that the notion of ‘Sixteen Goddesses’ is very common in Kashmiri Tantrism and in tantric Śrīvidyā (cf. e.g. White 1998: 185f.). 155 Many of the goddesses mentioned here are daughters of Dakṣa (son of Lord Brahmā) and therefore close to Śaiva religion. Hence they are a suitable company for the ‘mothers’ who, as we have seen, can also be ‘daughters’. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 133 disa d guṛi (e.g. in Nautiyal 1981: 153f.). In the second part below it is suggested that d guṛi is denomination for a particular class of fairies. This means, I think, that we have here again a case of personification of an item. But first my suggestion for the origin of diśa/disa: the alternation diśa ~ disa ‘daughter’ suggests older *dija which compares with Indus Kohistani dhiž ‘a young daughter’ and Shina dií ‘daughter’ (but plural dižai) all of which derive < OIA duhit - ‘daughter’ (6481) as synonym compounds (literally ‘daughter-daughter’) built from two different historical reflexes of the OIA word (cf. e.g. Pk. dhī(d)ā- but G. jhī both ʻdaughter’). For the second component I suggest – different from suggestions quoted in the second part below – derivation < OIA *daṅga- kuḍī- ‘hill girl’ (cf. OIA *daṅga- ‘hill’ [5423.16] and *kuḍī- ‘girl, daughter’ [3245]). The whole expression would thus mean ‘the (fairy) daughter (who is a) hill girl’. The etymologically unmotivated aspiration of the initial stop in dh kuṛi is, in my opinion, poetic diction because it is also very common among professional bards in Bangan. There are two more words found in the hymn below which belong to our topic of fairy lore but have not yet been discussed. The first word appears in hymn line 57: pūtan ‘dog’. This corresponds to OIA pūtana- ‘a partic. class of demons or spirits’ which is a term also found in the Buddhist demonological text Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī-sūtra in a list of demonic beings (White 2012: 156). The word, which is neither found in Turner 156 nor in MIA, is apparently shared by Tantrism and non- brahmanic Hinduism: the above-discussed ṛi ‘hunter’ is accompanied by dogs and, hardly worth mentioning, a dog is the vāhana of God Bhairava. The second word quoted below in the second part is sārī “a kind of ritual conducted in villages to escape the demoniac powers of the ācharīs …” which is the same as Garhwali dictionary entry sāru, explained as ‘a tantric pūjā performed by the whole village to remove the misfortune that has befallen the village (in this ritual, a goat is sacrificed at the village border)’. The word derives < OIA sāra- ʻcourse, motion’ (13354) but is semantically close to the Atharva-veda term pratisara- (literally ‘that which turns back, reverts’) which designated a mantra-conjured amulet as a counter-device against demonic forces, and which – we understand this now – later converted into the Buddhist goddess Pratisarā.

156 Besides Monier-Williams, the OIA word is also quoted in KEWA sub ‘becomes putrid, stinks’. Compare also Garh. putakaṇ ‘to have repeatedly slight dysentery’. 134 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Part 2: Disā D guṛī : A Fairy ‘Hymn’ from the Central Himalayas

Ram Prasad Bhatt and Heinz Werner Wessler

13 Aujīs and jāgars

Disā D guṛī157 is the title of a jāgar ‘hymn’ or ‘ballad’ from Central Himalayas usually sung by a Jāgarī,158 mostly an Aujī159 by caste. The traditional social setup of the Central Himalayan society consists basically of three groups, i.e. Brahmans, Rajputs (including Khasiyas) and Doms (i.e. Dalits).160 The Aujī belongs to the third group, i.e. in modern India they are categorized as a “scheduled caste” that is traditionally regarded as “untouchable”. The hill Dalits – usually called Śilpkārs - have not much in common with the scheduled castes from the North Indian plains except the socio-political appellation. Aujīs form one of 51 subcastes among Śilpkār according to the 1931 census. 161 Trained musicians from among the Aujīs specialise primarily in rhythmic instruments and singing. Besides, all kinds of instruments may be used. The song repertoire consists traditionally of songs and all kinds of hymns in local languages. Aujīs are also known to work as tailors and/or hairdressers. Educated Aujīs can profit from job reservations (“quota”) and tend to give up singing and drumming, since this occupation is usually identified with their low caste identity and therefore not prestigious. However, members of the upper castes Hindus believe that without the participation of the Aujīs in rituals (an Aujī can be a Jāgarī but not all Jāgarīs are Aujīs) – temple festivals, birth, marriage and death rituals – any ritual function is perceived to be incomplete. His importance in religious performance however contrasts with his low social position in caste society.162

157 Or: ḍ ṛīs, with hard velar. 158 Person who professionally sings a jāgar and who at times can be possessed and functions as a kind of shaman. The jāgar songs, mainly related to aggressive spirits, are also used by exorcists (Gāruṛī and Aujhā). The 1931 census lists a subcast under the name of “Jagari” or “Jagariya”, which are associated with shamanist practices (Subarddhan 2012: 50). 159 Aujīs ar “tailors and drummers; a section of hill Doms” (Blunt 1931: 341). For further details see Chandola 1969; Berremann 1971; Alter 2000; Fiol 2008. 160 Blunt 1941: 135ff. 161 Subarddhan 2012: 48. 162 Jośī (2011) calls this fact the “Brahmanhood” (brāhmanatva) of the low caste in Central Himalayan society. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 135

The praise of fairies – ,163 mātarīs,164 ṛīs165 and bharāṛīs166 at ritual occasions, particularly related to spirit possession ceremonies, plays a central role in the traditional hymn repertoire. The term disā/diśā (Sanskrit duhitā- ‘daughter’, see above p. 132f.). 167 Sometimes disā-dhyāṇ is also used as a synonymous compound which means the daughter or sister of the family and the village (see Chatak 1967; Purohit & Benjwal 2007). In most Garhwali-Hindi Dictionaries however, the term ‘diśā’ is not documented and the meaning of the term ‘disā’ is explained as ‘direction’ (from Sanskrit ‘diśā’). Jāgar is derived from Sanskrit √jag-. The Sanskrit nominal derivative jāgaraṇa means ‘wakefulness’ or ‘religious vigil’ with a connotation of awakening a deity or a spirit (Williams [1899] 2004: 417). In the context of the Himalayas, it often refers to ceremonies of spiritual possession and the narrative of the deity during ritual performances (Alter 2000). Scholars such as Babulkar (1964) and Bhatt (1976) have divided the jāgars into three different categories according to their length and singing style. Beyond that jāgars are also divided by their themes or the musical patterns used for the hyms.168

14 Fairies in Garhwal

In common Central Himalayan folk lore, fairies – ācharīs, mātarīs, d guṛīs, and bharāṛīs – are believed to be demoniac spirits of young girls of Brahmin and Rajput families, whose desires, especially for sexual union, remain unfulfilled. They are cursed to remain in m tyuloka ‘the world of mortals’ because of their inauspicious death and dwell on high hill tops, mountain ridges, pastures, river valleys and caves.

163 Vedic Apsarás “one of the female divinities connected with water” (no. 502 in Turner 1965). In folk belief these are the spirits of young girls who die even before puberty. Chatak 1990 describes ācharīs as the spirits of the dead young girls of elite families in society (see Chatak 1990: 375). They are believed to live on the Khaiṭ Mountain in Tehri Garhwal. 164 Mātarīs are the spirits of very young girls in popular belief (see Nautiyal 1981; Chatak 1968; Bhatt 1976; Maithani 2004; Sharma 2006). 165 ṛīs are believed to be particularly demoniac spirits of young girls of Brahmin and Rajput families, more dangerous than the mātarīs. 166 A third group of the spirits of young girls differentiated by geographical boundaries. Bharāṛīs are more prevalent in the Piri (Pīṛī) Mountain, Balganga valley, Bhigun and Basar region. All these places are situated in Tehri Garhwal. The primary dwellings of the fairies are in fact revealed in a ahvān gīt ‘summons hymn’ that goes like this - biji jāvā khɛ̄ṭə kī āchariyõ pīṛī kī bharāṛiyõ ‘the ācharīs of Khaiṭ and the bharāṛīs of Pīṛī get awake’. 167 It is quite common in Pahari languages that the sibilant ‘ś’ is pronounced and eventually written as ‘s’. 168 See Chatak ([1958] 1996); Babulkar (1964:18); Bhatt (1976); Nautiyal (1981). 136 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Chatak (1990) also mentions another term for the fairies under the name of . The term is not much known in Tehri Garhwal but appears to be originally used in Nagpuriya and Jaunpuri. He describes them as the spirits of kanyās ‘unmarried girls’ of the sambharānt ‘elite’ or ‘honoured’ families. What Chatak really meant by sambharānt is not clear, but by taking the caste system into account, his reference is probably to Brahmin and Rajput girls, as even Babulkar (1964), Bhatt (1976) and Nautiyal (1981), Maithani (2004) have stated. Maithani (2004) and Sharma (2006) describe ācharīs and ṛīs as the daughters of vāsukī nāga – the mythical snake Vāsukī – who is supposed to have once ruled the Central Himalayas. In yet another version of folk story, they are considered as the seven sisters of a Rawat family – Rawat is a warrior caste (Rajput) – who were once abducted by a huṇīyā ‘barbar’. This story might have a historical background in an abduction of girls by a Tibetan warrior (Nautiyal 1981). Chatak (1990) has also documented that in folk belief, the ācharīs are believed to be the daughters of Rāvaṇa, the demoniac king of Lanka in the Ramayana story, who had donated them to Shiva. Babukar (1964) has documented that the ācharīs are sometimes related to the gopīs (milkmaids) in love of Krishna. They are believed to go to bath to the bank of Yamuna River together with the Himalayan s169 and perform the classical ‘round dance’ (in the Himalayas usually a dance of the spirits) with Krishna in moonlit nights. Chatak (1996:98) has documented a complete jāgar on Krishna’s dance with the ācharīs on the Khait Mountain. According to folk belief, they go out for their bath during mid-day, especially in spring and summer, hunt during the dawn or mid-day while collecting food and flowers and dance in the moonlit nights.170 Some scholars argue that ṛī and bharāṛī are just alternative names for ācharī in some parts of Garhwal, especially in Uttarkashi, Jaunpur, Nagpuriya and Chamoli regions (Chatak 1967; Sharma 2006; Nautiyal 1981). However, others such as Dabral 1973, Kukreti 1983, Bhatt 1976 claim that ṛīs and bharāṛīs are originally different from ācharīs and mātarīs by their nature and their attitude towards humans, especially towards young women and men. According to a folk story ṛīs are the spirits of the nine young daughters of a Garhwali ruler living in the high hills of the Central Himalayas, between earth and

169 Cowgirls/milkmaids. 170 See Babulkar (1964), Nautiyal (1981), Chatak (1990). Ram Prasad Bhatt has heard these stories during his childhood in the village which is about 25 km from Ghonti, the river bank at the bottom of Khaiṭ Mountain. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 137 heaven. The legend has it that the young sisters were abducted by a brutal Tibetan (Bhoṭ) rural bordering Garhwal. To protect their chastity the nine sisters jumped from a cliff on the way to Tibet and became the ṛī and bharārī sisters, whose wishes to stay alive and lead a married life remained unfulfilled.171 Nautiyal has documented that ācharīs and ṛīs are the spirits of the seven sister of a Raut/Rawat family who were abducted by the Huṇiyā Demigod (Nautiyal 1981:153). Historically the Hūṇas are considered to be the barbarian people who once ruled in the Himalayas. The concept of “nine” as a number is well known in Hinduism and Tantrism. In Śrī Yantra nine maidens (at the same time considered to be goddesses) are mentioned several times. Śrī Yantra ‘sacred instrument’ also ‘Śri Cakra’ is a diagram formed by nine interlocking triangles that surround and radiate out from the central point. The source of the nine ṛī-sisters appears to go back to the tantric context (Kukreti 1983). It appears that ācharīs and mātarīs are closely related to Tantrism in the Central Himalayas. Nautiyal (1981:153) even believes that the mātarīs and ācharīs are the same and only the names are different. Ᾱcharīs and ṛīs are supposed to be very beautiful and dressed splendidly, whereas there is no explicit description found regarding the beauty of the mātarīs and bharāṛīs (Nautiyal 1981; Maithani 2004; Sharma 2006). There is some confusion about the number of the ācharīs ṛīs and mātarīs. Sometimes the number of the ācharīs is said to be seven and the number of ṛīs and bharāṛīs to be nine. Others state that the number of both the ācharīs and ṛīs is nine. The number of mātarīs equals to the classical number of the s, the seven mothers in Tantrism. Throughout the Central Himalayas, folk belief has that the ācharīs and ṛīs live on the Khait (Khaiṭ) Mountain.172 According to common folk lore, mortars, pestles, grain, bangles and flowers of ācharīs and ṛīs can be found in the caves on the upper ridges of the mountain. Bharāṛī-sisters are believed to reside on the Pīṛī173and Bharāṛ Mountains

171 A story reported from several reference persons to us in personal talks (Gajendra Nautiyal, Gairsain; Chandra Singh Rahi, Pauri Garhwal, D. R. Purohit, Srinagar Garhwal; Ganesh Thapliyal, Sirain; Surendra, Uttarkashi; Devendra Semwal, Ghuttu). 172 A mountain near Ghansali in Tehri Garhwal on the bank of Bhilangana River. 173 The Piri Mountain is also within the proximity of Khait Mountain. In the āhvān gīt ‘summons songs’ and the tantric mantras both the ācharīs and bharāṛīs and their dwellings are cited together (Chatak 1967; Nautiyal 1981). 138 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller in Tehri Garhwal, which are about 22 km from Khait Mountain. Mātarīs are supposed to live on the high hills all over.

Figure 14. New temple on Khait Figure 15. Khait Mountain. Mountain.

Oakley has documented in 1935 that ācharīs, d guṛīs and bharāṛīs like to play in water and are fond of collecting flowers from high hills and dense pine forests where pure water-springs and lakes are to be found. They fly and dive with the sunrays. Gairola, who has for some time worked together with Oakley, describes the characteristics of ācharīs, d guṛīs and bharāṛīs as follow: “… they are kind hearted and they love the kids. They also put their shadow on the young girls. There are various stories of their abducting the young handsome warriors.” Stories of abductions of young handsome men by the ācharīs are part of the common folk memory, as in the case of Jītū Bagaḍvāl, Sūraj Kãvaḷ, Barmi Kãvaḷ and the warrior Sidvā of Mukhem.174 There is a strong belief even today that the fairies in the Himalayas are harmful to humans. Mātarīs are believed to attack young women, especially pregnant women. The ācharīs are believed to assail handsome young men as well as young women. ṛīs are believed to abduct very young girls in order to play with them. They are supposed to be fond of bright colours, which is why young girls and newly married brides and even the bridegrooms are advised to take care and are not sent alone to forests or to fetch water from a spring that is outside of the

174 Mukhem is a place in Tehri related to Nagraja Krishna, in the same range of the hills as Khait Mountain. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 139 boundary/periphery of the village.175 The perception of the fairies is however changing, particularly in urban centres in the Himalayas. The best evidence for this is the Khait Mountain itself, where people did not dare to go even in the daylight until recently. However, in recent years jāgaraṇs are performed and a tourist fair is held on the Khait Mountain itself.176 When an ācharī or a mātarī assails the body of a girl or a young woman, an exorcist (Gārūṛī) is called in to wade off the evil spirits. Neither a Jāgarī nor even an Aujī specialized in some form of exorcism can do much to wade off these evil spirit that are considered to be very aggressive and adamant while possessing the body of the victim, as they normally do not possess hard-core tantric knowledge that is believed to wade off evil spirits. The spirits are not sent away empty-handed, but are given their beloved items such as colourful bangles, vermillion, flowers, and small pieces of colourful clothes, comb, bindis (a colored round mark on the forhead of women, particularly married women) and other makeup items. A cock or a goat is sacrificed. Rōṭs ‘thick-sweet chapaties’ and satanājā ‘seven types of grains’ are also offered in the sacrifice. The rituals are performed at a secluded place mostly on top of a hill or in the forest near a water spring. Several times, when even the Gāruṛī is not able to successfully segregate the evil spirit from the body of the victim, people take refuge in the village deity which in Himalayan folk is considered to be more effective than e.g. the classical Gods and Goddess – Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti.

175 Personal talks with Mizajilal, D. R. Purohit, Ganesh Thapliyal, Trepan Singh and Ram Prasad Bhatt’s own childhood experience. 176 http://www.jagran.com/uttarakhand/tehri-garhwal-9292374.html (22.12.2014). 140 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Figure 16. A typical open fairy shrine on a Figure 17. View of Khait Mountain from mountain ridge in Tehri Garhwal. Pipal Dali (Tehri Garhwal).

According to folk belief, mātarīs are not always vicious. They can be kind and generous to the woman affected or shadowed by them. It is believed that if the mātarīs are happy, they bring prosperity to the family. The goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) that is kept and raised in their name is very fertile and makes the family of its owner prosper. Bhatt (1976:381) mentions sārī, a kind of ritual conducted in villages to escape the demoniac powers of the ācharīs, d guṛīs and mātarīs. The positive view of the folk even toward the evil spirit is marked by a saying in Central Himalayas – bhūt sarīkho debtā ni ar māmā sarīkho pauṇu ni ‘there is no generous God as an [evil] spirit and there is no greater guest than the maternal uncle’. In fact both the (the Deity venerated by the family) and the maternal uncle both play a great role in family matters in the social system of the Central Himalayan society. The ācharī and ṛī jāgars consist of a setup of hymns referring to the stories of the fairies and are usually recited at a particular place and time177 accompanied by a ḍhōl178 and damaũ179 or by a ḍaũr180 or thālī.181

177 Our singer Mr. Mizajilal sang this jāgar song in Srinagar Garhwal in a room of a guesthouse for the recording convenience. Traditionally however, a Jāgarī would hesitate to sing such a ballad randomly at any place and time. Before the performance, the place is prepared and an environment is created, so that it [the spirit] does not cause any harm to any member of the village society and the singer himself. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 141

Traditionally, these jāgars are sung either in a closed room or in a circumscribed area, mostly in front of the house of the victim or the medium of these spirits. The reasons for this are usually explained as follows: Firstly, it is believed that if these spirits are given a free space, they might roam around freely and affect others who are present at the spot or somewhere else in the village, as they are able to easily fly and shift from one victim to another instead of leaving the village boundaries. Secondly, the music and melodies played for these spirits might attract other evil spirits to the spot. It is the socio-cultural and moral responsibility of the Jāgarīs and Aujīs to perform the tradition, not to endanger the security of small children, young girls and the newly married women in the village and to protect the environment of the village.182 Generally people are afraid of ṛī, bharāṛī and mātarī dances and sometimes avoid attending them. However, children, young women, men, upper caste people, low caste and Dalits are allowed to watch and participate in the performance together.183 The participation includes hand clapping, joining in in refrain singing, rhythmical body movements and dance (usually men only). Though traditionally jāgars related to ṛī, bharāṛī and mātarī are not sung by popular folk singers; there are incidents when the particular jāgar which is in the focus of this article was also sung in a studio and in open spaces by a popular folk singer, the late Patiram Nautiyal. It was him who recorded an audio cassette of this particular jāgar song in 1980s in Uttarkashi. The song became one of the most popular jāgar songs throughout Garhwal Himalayas.184

178 A barrel-shaped drum which has both heads equal in size. Its shoulder strap is slung from the left side of the instrument over the left shoulder and under the right arm. The left side is played with hand and the right side is played with a gently curved stick (Nautiyal 1981, Alter 2000). Ḍhōl is also played as a solo instrument. 179 A shallow kettle drums, higher in pitch and is usually played with two thin sticks together with the ḍhōl and hangs from a strap around the neck of the performer. It is rarely played solo. 180 Many times it is also pronounced ḍaũru (Sanskrit ḍamarū) and is a small drum which has an hourglass-shaped body and is usually traditionally used in ritual songs. 181 A plate, traditionally a brace plate played with ḍaũru or huṛakī, another type of small drum. 182 See Kukreti 1983, in personal talk with D. R. Purohit and Dinesh Uniyal from Srinagar Garhwal, Mahipal Singh Negi and Ganesh Thapliyal from New Tehri, Mizajilal (our singer). 183 The traditional caste system used to be much less rigid in the Central Himalayas as compared to the North-Indian plains, and the sense of community of people irrespective of their social background is a remnant of this, as among other Maheshvar Prasad Joshi (2011) tries to demonstrate. 184 Patiram Nautiyal died on 20th August 2013 at the age of 74 years in Uttar-kashi. 142 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

15 Mizajilal Aujī and Bājgī

Figure 18. Mizaji Lal accompanied by a tambourine player.

Mizajilal (Mizājīlāl), the singer of the jāgar Disā D guṛī which is documented in this article, belongs to the Śilpkār ‘artisan’ strata called Aujī group of the Dalit community in Central Himalayas. While referring to his professional art, he frequently refers to himself as Bājgī ‘musician.’ 185 Both terms are interchangeable in their use, since in traditional society the musical performer in general and the player of drums and singer is understood to be an Aujī by caste. In religious and spiritual functions an Aujī is also called Ḍholī ‘one who plays the ḍhōl’, since the big drum is characteristic of his professional function. He is the one who carries the ḍhōl and plays the celestial rhythms that invoke certain spirits or deities. By caste an Aujī is usually Dās ‘the servant of the drum’. Mizajilal, however, does not use the term Dās, he instead calls himself a Lāl meaning ‘son’. The status of an Aujī or Bājgī in the social hierarchy within the Dalit community and the larger society in general is ambiguous. As a bearer of the tradition, he ranks high, but he is low in caste. Mizajilal is trained from childhood to sing the characteristic sketches and stories of the spirit in question. Basically, anyone can

185 Fioli 2011 lists Bājgī as a separate caste which unfortunately is misleading as socially and religiously Bājgī as well as Jāgarī are functional terms relating to playing and singing music in a ritual context, but are similar to Nagāṛī ‘player of the nagāṛā’ (a kind of drum) in use as names for subcasts, as in the 1931 census (Subarddhan 2012:50-51), probably identical with Aujī-subcast. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 143 become a Jāgaī/Jāgariyā, whereas Aujī is a hereditary designation. The term Jāgariyā is generally understood as a functional term while Aujī is a caste as an endogamous social unit (Chatak [1958] 1996, Raturi 1988, Alter 2000). Mizajilal is married and has four children. He presently lives with his brother and his mother in a small village called Muyal Gaon near Ghansali. He is the only one in his family who actively performs and continuing the tradition within the family. When asked about his age he bluntly said cālīs ar sāt (fourty and seven) years, i.e. 47. According to Mizajilal he has visited a primary school till 5th grade, but since he did not pass the final exam he simply discontinued. He learnt drumming and singing from his father Girdharilal who died a few years back. Girdharilal’s father, i.e. Mizajilal’s grandfather, (name not known) originally migrated from village Pangrana, Hindau Patti to Muyal Gaon about 50 years ago. Some farming land was then allotted to him by the villagers to meet his basic needs. In general, villagers are his jajmāns ‘clients’,186 i.e. those who employ a singer and remunerate him accordingly. Today, Mizajilal is a well-trained Aujī who professionally plays Ḍhōl, Damaũ, and Thālī and has a local reputation for his jāgar performances in Garhwali. Mizajilal explained to us repeatedly that people tell him that he as a Jāgarī, who plays a role of a kind of therapeutical psychologist for them. His father Giridharilal used to perform mild forms of exorcism with what Mizajilal freely calls ‘ ’, i.e. the ‘blowing’ away of spirits. Mizajilal himself, however, says he does not perform exorcism. However, he keeps a ḍolī (also sometimes called rath in Garwali tradition), a mobile representation of the divine in his house transported by two persons on their shoulders, which is taken on procession through the village on certain festive occasions and is an object of divination, deciding the way and the speed of the procession through the village on its own. It can also be approached through questions, and responds with “yes” or “no” according to the way it moves. For Mizajilal, drumming at religious and social occasions and festivals and performing the jāgars in his village and occasionally even outside his village is his main source of income. He usually gets some cash and ḍaḍvār187 from his jajmāns. His family also grows rice and

186 The client of a priest, an Aujī. Yajamāna is a Sanskrit term meaning ‘the person paying the cost of a sacrifice, the institutor of a sacrifice (who to perform it employs a priest or priests, who are often hereditary functionaries in a family)’. 187 A share of grain that an Aujī, a Purohit (family priest) and a watchman received from their clients. Ḍaḍvār has been a common practice in the past throughout Himalayan regions 144 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller wheat. Since the soil of their few fields is not very fertile, the production is low and insufficient to sustain his family’s needs. Mizajilal does not own the drums he plays. They belong to the village council (paṃcāyat). He is free to use the drums whenever he wants and keeps donations and the honorarium for performances for himself. However, the maintenance of the instruments is his responsibility. Mizajilal reports that he mainly sings the jāgars in praise of Nāgelū, Nāgarjā,188 Narsiṃg ‘Viṣṇū’, Rājrājeśvarī ‘Goddess Durgā’, Saidvāḷī 189 and some folksongs. Alter states in his thesis (2000: 137) that “most families of Bājgī musicians in Garhwal own drums which are several generations old”. According to our information however, most of the Bājgīs in Garhwal unfortunately do not own their instruments. They are usually declared to belong to the village paṃcāyats. The financial and social condition of these musicians is very bleak, their important and acknowledged role in rituals notwithstanding. Though Mizajilal is a well known and somehow important person in the village community, his economic condition is poor like in the case of most Aujīs throughout Garhwal. Similarly, the social respect given to Aujīs and their professional skills as performers of the tradition is rather low. They do not get respect from upper castes and very often face ridiculous behaviour of upper class men. Since playing drums and singing does not generate social respect, the young generation of these families tends not to continue their traditional family profession anymore. Instead, there is a strong tendency towards education, migration to the socially less rigid urban environment and to professional careers that are not necessarily related to their caste origin. If they manage to fulfil the minimum qualification for governmental reservations for members of Scheduled Castes, i.e. the matric exam (tenth standard), they are able to profit from governmental programmes. However, this is often not the case, since the number of school dropouts is high. Other performers change over to new market demands and perform “band” music instead of the inherited repertoire in Garhwali. “Band” is the common term used as an English loanword in

when currency notes were not easy to get. With a continuingly growing monetarization of Central Himalayan economy the trend is more towards currency notes, which is perceived to be more convenient for both parties – for a priest and for an Aujī and for their Jajmāns. According to Mizajilal carrying the bags of grains is not easy up- or downhill. Apart from that, the growth of the crops in the hills has dramatically declined in recent years. 188 Name of Krishna in Garhwal. 189 Jāgar in the praise of a Said ‘a demonic spirit’ belonging to Islamic faith. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 145

Hindi all over North India. The North Indian brass band music is in high demand particularly during marriages. Mizajilal regrets that the young generation of Aujī families is unable to recognize the value of traditional Garhwali hymns and the importance of the profession they could inherit. Consequently, the traditional artistic skills of the Aujīs are “dying out” while “those who previously have looked down upon us are profiting from the new chances in the field of music and singing”, says Mizajilal. Mizajilal murmurs often while singing, as is also noticed in the singing of the tantric Gurus and Nath Yogis. They consider the language of their tantric texts as mystic and do not necessarily allow normal people to understand it. Mizajilal does so probably to create a kind of mystic environment for the performance. He sometimes changes unaspirated sounds as aspirated, e.g. he pronounces the velar consonant “g” as “gh” or “ǥ” and “k” and so on. It is interesting that tune Mizajilal uses to sing the ācharī jāgar is different from the better known version of the great jāgar master Omkardas from Gawana village in Bhilangana Valley, Tehri Garhwal. This choice of tune and the hymn as such seems to be his own creation. Mizajilal has also not followed the text sung by Omkardas and popularly sung by Patiram Nautiyal. Mizajilal has his individual style of singing the jāgars, even though he frequently confirms that he strictly follows the tradition of Ḍholsāgar190 ‘the ocean of drumming’ in rhythm and melody. His knowledge of this authoritative text is however obviously rather limited and may reflect not much more than hearsay.

16 ṛī”

The first systematic work on Central Himalayan Folklore was published in 1935 by Oakley and Gairola. Their main focus was on ballads and folktales. Between 1955 and 1976 at least six important works including the anthologies and studies were published, namely, Dhũyāl (1955)191 by Abodhbandhu Bahuguna; Gaṛhwālī lok gītõ kā ālocnātmak adhyayan (1956) ‘a critical study of Garhwali folk songs’ and Gaṛhwālī lok-gāthāẽ (1958) ‘Garhwali folk epics’ by Govind Chatak; Gaṛhwālī lok-sāhitya kā

190 Ḍholsāgar is a classical work on the technics of drumming. For details see Alter (2000) and Chandola (1977). 191 Probably ‘to make the sound, to produce a tone’ etc. The root of dhũyāḷ is dhun which means ‘tune’. Dhũyāḷ is performed by an Aujī before and after a devpūjā in any religious ceremony. It could be understood as a kind of call for descending and ascending of the Gods and Goddesses. 146 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller vivecnātmak adhyayan (1964) ‘a critical study of Garhwali folk literature’ by Mohanlal Babulkar and Gaṛhwālī bhāṣā evaṁ uskā sāhitya (1976) ‘Garhwali language and its literature’. All of them discussed the folk traditions relating to the ācharī, m tarī and bharāṛī-sisters. The focus in all these studies is that in this Central Himalayan region, fairies are frightening since they do hunt humans. However, none of these earlier studies mentions the term ṛī. It is Shivanand Nautiyal who for the first time refers to a jāgar192 ‘hymn’ titled ṛiyõ ‘sister- ṛīs’ in his book Gaṛhwāl ke lok-nṛtya- gīt ‘folk-dance songs of Garhwal’ published in 1981 from Allahabad. Around this time, Patiram Nautiyal from Uttarkashi recorded this jāgar, apparently yet another version of the jāgar in Bhagirathi valley. A cassette of this recording came out the same year. As already discussed in the first section of the second part of the article, the variants in the names of the fairies hint to a complex history that is not yet systematically studied, even though they are frequently identifies with each other. It is strange that the term ṛī does not appear in the anthologies before the 1980s. Two possible explanations can be imagined: Either the scholars have bluntly not documented the term thinking that it was a synonym of mātarī or ācharī as some of them (Chatak 1958) have stated about ācharī, mātarī and even bharāṛī, or they have indeed not come across this term during their fieldwork.193 It appears that the term is peculiar particularly in the Bhilangna valley. Neither Chatak, Bahuguna, Babulkar nor Bhatt are from Bhilangna valley and it seems that they have not studied the area either. Beyond that, as already mentioned, there are ambiguities regarding the number of the ācharī and ṛī-sisters. Nautiyal (1981) and Chatak (1958) have documented the number of the ṛī-sisters as seven, whereas Babulkar (1964) and Bhatt (1976) claim that the number of the ācharī-sisters is nine. They also state that they belong to a Rawat family from a Garhwali village named Dānguṛā. The existence of the ṛī- sisters as the dhiyāṇ ‘family daughters’ of the Rawat clan is not contested by any of the scholars but no one has explicitly gone into the distinctions between ācharī, ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters. Nautiyal (1981) has stated that the ṛī-sisters were born in the mentioned village in Garhwal. Unfortunately we fail to identify a village in Garhwal that is called Dānguṛā/Dānguṛ/Dāngur in the list of the villages of India 2014.194 The list shows the only village named Dānguṛā near Puri in Odisha. Several

192 A genre of folk epic in Central Himalayas. 193 Chatak does not mention even after revising his works during1990-1998. 194 http://vlist.in/ (31.12.2014). Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 147 villages named 'Dangar' are situated in Kumaun and Himachal Pradesh, but not in Garhwal. The list even shows a village named Dāngar Khoḷā ‘the quarter of the Dangar’ near Almora. D is connected by some with the term ‘dāngar’ ‘cattle’.195As stated in part 11 in the first part of this article, fairies are often believed to roam around in the wild with small quadroped animals, i.e. goats and sheep, but rather not so with cows or buffalows. An etymology relating the term to Ḍaṅgar or Ḍaṅgur ‘bullock’ is therefore rather fancy. The fairies are supposed to have the power to turn human beings into stones, birds, into a goat or a beautiful young woman to bear children and lead a married life (Chatak 1958; Babulkar 1964, Nautiyal 1981). Mātarīs never attack a man. Whenever they attack a woman, it is impossible to get rid of them by force. One can only try to please them ceremonially and get their blessings, whereas ācharīs s and bharāṛīs attack young girls and fall in love with young handsome men. It is possible to get rid of them with the help of a shaman (Gāruṛī/Aujhā) or a village Demigod (Chatak 1958; Nautiyal 1981). Muyal Gaon, Mizajilal’s village, is close to Ghansali, not far from the mountains where the ācharīs s and bharāṛīs are believed to be dwelling. A similar jāgar has been documented by Shivanand Nautiyal in his book -gīt (1981: 153). And as stated earlier, another jāgar of similar content was reportedly recorded by a folk singer Mr. Patiram Nautiyal in Uttarkashi in the early 1980s, but unfortunately we were unable to obtain a copy of the cassette. According to D. R. Purohit, Srinagar (Garhwal), there is yet another version of this jāgar sung by Omkardas who also lives in Bhilangana valley.

17 Mizajilal’s version of the hymn and its performance

The narrative content of a jāgar is revealed within the oral text as names of the characters and locations relate the visible and concrete reality to the world of the fairies. The oral text explicitly reveals the dwellings of the d guṛī and bharāṛī-sisters, their appearance and their movements. The description of the dwellings of d guṛī and bharāṛī-sisters in the text documented by Nautiyal (1981) is different from that of our text. This is

195 See Turner 1965: ḍaṅgara 5526 *ḍaṅgara 1.ʻcattleʼ. 2. *daṅgara-. [Same as ḍaṅgara- 2 s.v. *ḍagga- 2 as a pejorative term for cattle] 1. K. ḍangur m. ʻbullockʼ, L. ḍaṅgur, (Ju.) ḍ̠ãgar m. ʻhorned cattleʼ; P. ḍaṅgar m. ʻcattleʼ, Or. ḍaṅgara; Bi. ḍ gar ʻold worn-out beast, dead cattleʼ, dhūr ḍ gar ʻcattle in generalʼ; Bhoj. ḍāṅgar ʻcattleʼ; H. ḍ gar, ḍ grā m. ʻhorned cattleʼ. 2. H. d gar m. = prec. 148 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller simply because the stories are adapted to other local and regional geographical and socio-cultural conditions. According to our oral text the d guṛī-sisters live in Khaiṭ-Khāḷ ‘Khait-Mountain’ and the bharāṛī-sisters live in Pīṛī and Bharāṛ/ Bh gu-Mountains, whereas according to the oral text documented by Nautiyal (1981) the d guṛī-sisters live as mentioned in a certain Dānguṛā village, which the author locates in the Alaknanda valley of Garhwal. The ṛī-sisters in our oral text dwell in caves and on the ridges and cliffs of Khait in summer huts close to the Sundariyā Lake, the Gājaḷiyā Forest, in general in the fields of amaranth (rāmdānā), in flower gardens, and in Kemar Paṭṭī, all within the proximity of the Khait Mountain. The Bharāṛī-sisters are supposed to dwell in the plains of Basar Paṭṭī, Pīṛī and Bharāṛ Mountains, in the fields of Chakurasera, on the slopes of Ghumeti and in the sky. The ṛī-sisters are accompanied by the Demigods Hiṇḍvāṇ196 ‘the spirit of a warrior of Garhwal’, Hīt,197 Vinsar,198 Krishna, and Raja Shah.199 Similarly the bharāṛī-sisters are accompanied by the Demigods Lāl Singh, Mān-Camphvā and by a couple of dogs (pūtan), by a swarm of butterflies (malesī bhīṛākū), by a swarm of sparrows (ghẽduṛī bhīṛākū) and both the ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters roam in the sky with their Garuḍā-ratha ‘the chariot of Garuḍā’. Garuṛā or Garuḍā – the traditional vāhana (‘accompaning animal’ of Vishnu) – is a mythical bird that quite often appears in Nath literature as a kind of messenger of the divine world in this world.200 This particular element

196 Mān-Hiṇḍvāḷ or Hindvāl or Hiṃḍ ṇ is believed to have been a powerful and tricky warrior in Central Himalayas who was in the service of the ṛī-sisters. It is the Hardyaul in Kumaun, who is supposed to be the spirit of a prince. Mān-Hiṇḍvāḷ is synonymous to a powerful warrior. (as explained by Mizajilal, D. R. Purohit, Gajendra Nautiyal). 197 Hīt is a Demigod in Garhwal who is considered to be the well-wisher of the humans and the younger brother of the Demigod Ghanṭākarṇa (‘a character with bell-shaped ears’ – son of Bhīmsen and Hiḍimbā). Hīt is a divine form of Shiva (śiv se is devtā kī utpatti mānī jātī hai, Maithani 2004: 357). Hīt-Vinsar as a divine couple is however sometimes identified with Krishna and Balarama. Beyond that, Hīt is supposed to be the disciple of God Niraṅkāra (‘formless god’). In Central Himalayas the term Niraṅkāra is used for Shiva, the god of destruction and creation at the same time. The term Niraṅkāra is used equally by Aujīs, tantrics, Nath Yogis and musicians in the Central Himalayas (see Nautiyal 1981: 87- 95), Chatak 1967). 198 Vinsar is usually identified with Vishnu’s nāga (‘snake’), i.e. Vishnu himself in form of the divine snake (Sharma 2014: 491). 199 Probably a local warrior belonging to the Shah dynasty ‘the erstwhile rulers’, known as the Panwar dynasty of Garhwal. The term ‘Shah’ is obviously a honorary term conferred by the Mughal rulers. 200 Turner 1965: 4041 garuḍá- m. ʻa mythical birdʼ Mn. Pa. garuḷa- m., Pk. garuḍa-, °ula- m.; P. garaṛ m. ʻthe bird Ardea argalaʼ; N. garul ʻeagleʼ, Bhoj. gaṛur; OAw. garura ʻblue Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 149 indicates the remarkable and inevitable influence of the Nāth Saṃpraday on the belief system of people of Central Himalayas. Our oral text does not vary the number of the ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters and their flying chariots as is documented by Nautiyal (1981). Throughout the text they are nine fairy sisters and they possess nine flying chariots. The outfit of both of the ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters is described as bright and jazzy red and yellow coloured, a typical Pahari ghāgharā ‘circular skirt’, silk scarfs and flowers. Their cloths are the integral part of the aesthetic description of the fairies, and equally the rest of their appearance, particularly the sharp sickles as symbols of their demoniac power. The references to the colourful amaranth and the seven different sorts of grains, especially the odorant rice growing in the Bhilangana valley contrast sharply with their bloodthirsty and particularly carnivorous character at times when the seductive fairies fall in love with a handsome young man. Mizajilal’s narration describes the ṛī and ācharī-sisters as the daughters of the Rawat (a warrior caste) clan and their maternal uncles are the Panwar’s, the erstwhile ruling family in Tehri Garhwali till 1948.201 In another jāgar the ācharī-sisters are believed to have a queen from among themselves too.202 The text shows that the fairies always appear in a group. The drummer who is also the singer essentially marks the importance of the changing scenes in the oral text by a constant change between short or long beats. The intensive engagement of the drummer and singer with the spirits or deity is usually indicated by more intensive solo drumming in-between individual verses during the jāgar performance (Nautiyal 1994). For example our drummer-cum-singer has shown the importance of the particular divine characters and their presence through solo drumming after lines 10, 13, 14, 18, 20, 23, 38, 47, 55, 59, and 62, a kind of invocatory drumming for the characters jayʼ; H. garuṛ m. ʻhornbillʼ, garul ʻa large vultureʼ; Si. guruḷā ʻbirdʼ (kurullā infl. by Tam.?). – Kal. rumb. gōrvḗlik ʻkiteʼ??. 201 For details, see Ajay S. Rawat 1989. 202 ãchariyõ kī rāṇī āī phūl phul dī re b j kī ḍālyõ ma āī bur s kā phūlu ma phyõli kā phūlu ma āī jhamkadā gītū ma phyõli kā phūlu ma āī jhamkadā gītū ma! Aujī ho! Bhatt ‘Shailesh’ 1976:133 “The Queen of the Ācharis descends during the spring She sits on oak trees and on rhododendron trees She sits on the yellowflax flowers, she comes to listen to happy dance songs She sits on the yellowflax flowers; she comes to listen to happy dance songs! So (tells us) the Aujī!” 150 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller appearing in the respective part of the hymn. The solo drumming is particularly strong after line 10, when the Demigods Hīt and Vinsar appear, after line 13 with the appearance of Indra and again after line 20, when the term ṛī is substituted by bharāṛī without any explanation for the listener/reader. In jāgar singing the singer frequently changes his role from the descriptive and narrative to the performative while singing. This is marked by the grammatical change from the third to the first person. The singer turns into the first person, forms part of the party that moves with the fairies and virtually moves from one place to another together with the ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters. An astonishing feature of the language of our singer is the spontaneous change of unaspirated consonants into aspirates. Without giving any particular reason for this peculiar change of phonemes during performance, the singer bluntly explained this by stating that this was simply the way they [the Jāgarīs] sing the jāgar. It seems that the Jāgarī deliberately produces unusual stress and spontaneous aspiration in phonemes to let his language sound strange and somehow mysterious. The singer often changes the subject from ṛī to bharārī-sisters to relate to terms used in different geographical regions, which are within the rein of either ṛī or bharāṛī-sisters. The shift in the geographical regions and their importance is also marked by the style of drumming. Elements like rhododendron flower ( ), Huṇiyā’s chariot, dripping water in the caves and a place named Ranthal which are found in all other oral texts related to ācharī, ṛī and bharāṛī-sisters in Uttarakhand are missing in our text.203 Mizajilal may have omitted certain parts of the hymn, possibly due to the unusual performance out of its ritual context. However, his version of the jāgar, judging from the sequence of the story line and geographical description, appears to be more towards the original one than for example the version that is documented by Shivanand Nautiyal (1981).

18 Disā ṛī: A Fairy ‘Hymn’ from Central Himalayas204

Singer: Mizajilal, Jakhnyali, Tehri Garhwal Recorded: 15.11.2013 in Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand

203 See Nautiyal 1981, 1994, Bhatt 1976, Bahuguna 1954, Babulkar 1967, Chatak 1958, Kukreti 1983. 204 Recorded by Heinz Werner Wessler and Claus Peter Zoller and edited by all three authors. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 151

Text 1. tum tə randā cā khɛ̄ṭ khāḷə, disā dh kuṛyõ 2. tum tə randā cā khɛ̄ṭ khāḷə, disā dh kuṛyõ x3205 3. h , tumārā sāth chə mān-və-hiṇḍvāḷə, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 4. h , tum randā tɛ̄ī uḍyāryõ, disā dh kuṛyõ 5. kanā randā tɛ̄ī talai uḍār, disā dh kuṛyõ 6. h , tum randā tɛ̄ī taṛī udār, disā dh kuṛyõ 7. h , tumārū caḷu tə nɔ̄ ṭoḷɛ̄ kvɛ̄ rathə, disā dh kuṛyõ 8. tumārū caḷu tə nɔ̄ ṭoḷɛ̄ kvɛ̄ rathə, disā dh kuṛyõ 9. h , tumārā sāth tə hīt-vinsarə, disā dh kuṛyõ 10. tumārā sāth tə hīt-vinsarə, disā dh kuṛyõ 11. h , tumārā sāth chə hīt-vinsarə, disā dh kuṛyõ 12. tumārā sāth chə kriṣṇ bhagvānə, disā dh kuṛyõ 13. tumɛ̄ holā tə indrā kī parī, disā dh kuṛyõ 14. h , tum hvālā tə indrā kī parī, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 15. h , mũḍu dharyāli bhɛ̄ reśamī rumɛ̄lā, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 16. h , gati pɛ̄ryālī pĩgəḷī ghāghərī, disā dh kuṛyõ 17. gati pɛ̄əryālī pĩgəḷī ghāghərī, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 18. mũḍu dharyāli bhɛ̄ reśamī rumɛ̄lā, disā dh kuṛyõ 19. h , tum tə j dā ḍ ḍu kī marūṛī, disā dh kuṛyõ 20. tum tə j dā ḍ ḍu kī marūṛī, disā dh kuṛyõ 21. h , tum tə hvālā tə nɔ̄ bɛ̄ṇi āchurī, disā bharāṛyõ 22. h , tum tə hvālā tə nɔ̄ bɛ̄ṇi āchurī, disā bharāṛyõ x2 23. tum hvālā tə rautu kī dhiyāṇ, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 24. h , tumārā māmā chan hɛ pãvāra, disā dh kuṛyõ 25. tumārā hvālā si māmā pãvāra, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 26. h , tumārā pitā si rautə hɛ chan, disā dh kuṛyõ 27. tumāru holu tə nɔ ṭolɛ̄ kvaɛ̄ rathə, disā dh kuṛyõ 28. h , saṅg mã caladu rājā śā(h) bhɛ̄jī, disā dh kuṛyõ 29. saṅg mã rãdā su rājā śāh bhɛ̄jī, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 30. h , tum jāṇā tə sundəriyõ kā tāḷə, disā dh kuṛyõ 31. tuman jāṇə tə gajəḷiyõ kā baṇə, disā dh kuṛyõ 32. h , ab jāṇā tə mārchū kā khētə, disā dh kuṛyõ 33. tuman jāṇə tə mārchū kā khetə, disā dh kuṛyõ 34. h , hāti dharyāli tə chuṇkyāḷī dāthuṛī, disā dh kuṛyõ

205 “X3” at the end of a line marks double repetition, i.e. the line is sung three times, “x2” is a simple repetition, i.e. the line is sung two times. 152 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

35. hāti dharyālī tə chūṇkyāḷī dāthuṛī, disā bharāṛyõ 36. hāti dharyāli tə chūṇkyāḷī dāthuṛī, disā dh kuṛyõ 37. h , kanā gɛ̄nə tə mārchu kā phūlə, disā dh kuṛyõ 38. tuman baiṇi tə mārchū kāṭyālī, disā dh kṛyõ 39. h , kanā hõdā tə mārchā kā khīl, disā dh kuṛyõ 40. kanā hõdā tə mārchū kā khīl, disā dh kuṛyõ 41. h , mũḍ dharyālī bhɛ̄ reśamī rūmɛ̄lā, disā dh kuṛyõ 42. h , ab jāndā tə kemarā kī paṭṭī, disā dh kuṛyõ 43. calā re bɛ̄ṇyõ tə kemarā kī paṭṭī, disā dh kuṛyõ 44. h , takh hōndu tə jīrī bāsmatī, disā dh kuṛyõ x2 45. calā re bɛ̄ṇyõ tə kemarā kī paṭṭī, disā dh kuṛyõ 46. takh hōndu tə jīrī bāsmatī, disā bharāṛyõ 47. h , tumārū hōlu tə cɔ̄baṭyā bāsarə, disā bharāṛyõ x2 48. h , sāth m caladā lālə-siṅgə debətā, disā bharāṛyõ 49. sāth caladu lālə siṅgə debətā, disā bharāṛyõ 50. sāth chaldu mānvā-caṃphuvā, disā bharāṛyõ 51. h , calā re bɛ̄ṇyõ tə cākurā kā serā disā bharāṛyõ x2 52. h , mān-caṃphuvā randū ghumeṭī kā pākhū, disā bharāṛyõ 53. mān-caṃphuvā tə ghumeṭī kā pākhū, disā bharāṛyõ 54. tumārū cali tə nɔ ṭolā kū rathə, disā dh kuṛyõ 55. kanu caladū re nɔ ṭolā kū rathə, disā bharāṛyõ 56. h , tumārū caldu tə āsmānī rathə, disā bharāṛyõ x2 57. h , saṅg caladi tə pūtənõ kī joṛī, disā bharāṛyõ x2 58. h , tumārū caladu tə malēsī bhīṛākū,disā bharāṛyõ 59. kanu caladū tə malesī bhīṛākū, disā dh kuṛiõ 60. h , tumārū caladū tə ghedaṛī (ghẽdaṛī)-sī bhīṛākū, disā bharāṛyõ 61. kanu caladū tə nɔ ṭoḷā kū rathə, disā bharāṛyõ 62. tumārū holu tə garuṛ-bāṇīrathə, disā bharāṛyõ 63. h , sajaṇ lɛ̄gī tə garuṛbāṇī rathə, disā bharāṛyõ x2 64. kanu calādu ūpərī āgāsā, disā bharāṛyõ x2

19 Translation

1. Oh yes, you dwell on the high-rising slopes of the Khaiṭ-mountain, oh D guṛī sisters! 2. You dwell on the high-rising slopes of the Khaiṭ-mountain, oh D guṛī- sisters! x3 3. Oh yes, you are accompanied by the demigod Mān-va-Hinḍvāḷ,206 oh D guṛī-sisters! x2

206 “va” is just an exclamation here. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 153

4. Oh yes, you live in those caves, oh D guṛī-sisters! 5. How [nicely] you live in those nether caves! oh D guṛī-sisters! 6. You live in that steep rock face cave, oh D guṛī-sisters! 7. Oh yes, your nine wagons chariot moves around, oh D guṛī-sisters! 8. Your nine wagons chariot moves around, oh D guṛī-sisters! 9. Oh yes, you are accompanied by the demigods Hῑt and Vinsar, oh D guṛī-sisters! 10. You are accompanied by Hīt and Vinsar, oh D guṛī-sisters! 11. Oh yes, you are accompanied by the demigods Hῑt and Vinsar, oh D guṛī-sisters! 12. Oh yes, you are accompanied by Lord Krishna, oh D guṛī-sisters! 13. You are the fairies of Lord Indara207, oh D guṛī-sisters! 14. Oh yes, you are the fairies of Lord Indara, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 15. Oh yes, you have put on a silken [head] scarf on your head, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 16. Oh yes, you have put on [your body] a yellow skirt, oh D guṛī- sisters! 17. You have put on [your body] a yellow skirt, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 18. You have put on a silken scarf on your head, oh D guṛī-sisters! 19. Oh yes, you visit the summer huts in the mountains,208 oh D guṛī- sisters! 20. You visit the summer huts in the mountains, oh D guṛī-sisters! 21. Oh yes, you truly are the nine ācharī sisters! oh Bharāṛī-sisters!209 22. You truly are the nine Bharāṛī-sisters! oh Bharāṛī-sisters! x2 23. Oh yes, you are the dhiyāṇ of the Rawats, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 24. Oh yes, your maternal uncles are the Panwars,210 oh D guṛī-sisters!

207 Indra the king of the Gods is often accompanied by fairies in folklore. 208 The sentence can be also translated as “you are going to the summer huts in the mountain”. Marāṛī or Maroṛ are also the names of a place in the Himalayas, e. g. a place near Budhakedar, Tehri Garhwal. 209 Bharāṛīs are supposed to live in the Pīṛī and Bharāṛ hills (there are many hills in Garhwal, Kumaun and Himachal called Pīṛī and Bharāṛ). Pīṛī is also worshiped as Pīṛī mātā ‘mother Pīṛī’ and there is a temple devoted to Pīṛīdevī in Himachal near Shimla. Nautiyal (1981:141) has also mentioned “Pīṛī kī bharāṛī. Traditionally “khaiṭ kī ācharī” and “pīṛī kī bharārī” are invoked in the beginning of the jāgar songs. The sudden change of names here supposes that the Jāgarī (the singer) is slowly introducing the other geographical region other than the Khait region, namely Basar and Kemar Pattis that are supposed to be the playgrounds of the bharāṛī sisters. 210 Panwar is a warrior Rajput caste in Garhwal and Kamaun and one of the ruling dynasties of Uttarakhand. They ruled Garhwal untill 1948. 154 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

25. Your maternal uncles are the honourable Panwars, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 26. Oh yes, your father is the honourable Rawat,211 oh D guṛī-sisters! 27. You own a chariot of nine wagons, oh D guṛī-sisters! 28. Oh yes, your elder brother Raja Shah212 accompanies you, oh D guṛī- sisters! 29. Your elder brother Raja Shah is always by your side, oh D guṛī- sisters! x2 30. Oh yes, you are going to the lake of sundriyõ213, oh D guṛī-sisters! 31. You have to go the forest of the gājḷiyõ,214 oh D guṛī-sisters! 32. Oh yes, now you are going to the amaranth-fields,215 oh D guṛī- sisters! 33. You have to go to the amaranth-fields, oh D guṛī-sisters! 34. Oh yes, you holding the chuṇkyālī sickles216 in your hands, oh D guṛī- sisters!

211 The headman of the Rawat warrior clan in Uttarakhand. 212 The royal title ‘Shah’ appears in Garhwal only after 17th century, when the Mughal rulers started to interact with the Central Himalayan kings. The term ‘Shah’ is a symbol of power and mightiness in this context. The brother Raja Shah is supposed to possess the demoniac and divine powers. 213 Most probably it’s the sahasratāl, the mystic lake in the Bhilangana Valley, which is about 40 km away from Budhakedar towards north. The lake is at about 14000 feet including the siddhatāl, yamtāl, , narsiṃhatāl and liṅgtāl. The Sundriyā Lake is considered sacred in the Nath tradition. The Nath Yogis Macchendranath, Gorakhnath and Chauranginath are worshiped as gods in the Central Himalayas. In Tehri, where our singer Mizajilal comes from, the Balganga and Bhagirathi valley are known as places where Nath Yogis use to stay during their travels around the Himalayas. 214 Gājaḷ is an ornament of flowers and leaves, especially of the fir tree. Here it appears to refer to a forest of colourful flowers, most probably the high Himalayan pastures and slopes, e.g. ‘Valley of Flowers’. See Sharma 2014. It is the folk belief that the ṛī and bharāṛī sisters are very active during the mid-days in the spring and summer when the flowers are blossoming everywhere in the hills and valleys. 215 Mārchū ‘amaranth’ is one of the basic ingredients used in the oblations to the mātaris, ācharis, d guṛīs and bharāṛīs due to its mystic colours and its peculiar attributes. The Himalaya Amaranth usually grows in higher altitude and is supposed to be the favourite food of spirits. 216 Chuṇḍkyāḷī is a sickle with a small bell that rings while being used. In folk belief the sickle is also used by the mātaris, ācharis, d guṛīs and bharāṛī- sisters. Interestingly, the sickle with a small bell at its back nook is also used by many farmers for safety reasons. It is generally used to alert the reptiles so that they are not hurt when the grass is cut and they do not hurt the person cutting the grass. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 155

35. You are holding the chuṇkyālī sickles217 in your hands, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! 36. You are holding the chuṇkyālī sickles in your hands, oh D guṛī- sisters! 37. Oh yes, how [delightfully] you have approached the blooming amaranth, oh D guṛī-sisters! 38. Oh sisters, you have already cut the [blooming] amaranth, oh D guṛī- sisters! x2 39. Oh yes, the parched amaranth is so tasty, oh D guṛī-sisters! 40. The parched amaranth is so tasty, oh D guṛī-sisters! 41. Oh yes, you have [so nice] put on a silken scarf on your head, oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 42. Oh yes, now you are going to the Kemar Valley,218 oh D guṛī-sisters! 43. Oh sisters, “let us go to the Kemar valley!219, oh D guṛī-sisters!” 44. Oh yes, there grows the Jīrī Bāsmatī rice,220 oh D guṛī-sisters! x2 45. Oh sisters! Let us go to the valley of Kemar, oh D guṛī-sisters!” 46. Oh, there grows the Jīrī Bāsmatī rice, oh Bharāṛī221-sisters! 47. Oh yes, you rule the flat landscape of Basar region222, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! x2 48. Oh yes, you are accompanied by the Demigod Lal Singh223, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! 49. You (indeed) are accompanied by the Demigod Lal Singh, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! 50. You are accompanied by mān-vā-camphuvā224, oh Bharāṛī-sisters!

217 A sickle with small bells at the rear edge of it. These bells are usually meant to disperse the insects and reptiles when the farmers cut the grass or the crop. 218 Kemar Paṭṭī is situated in Balganga Valley between Ghansali and Budhakedar. The term paṭṭī used to be an administrative division of villages in pre-independence India. 219 The singer suggests to go together, including the listeners of his performance into the narrative. 220 A variety of rice which has a very good fragrance and is supposed to be very nutritious. It grows in Balganga valley. 221 Here the singer is changing his subject from d guṛī to bharārī to show that it’s a different geographical region that is within the rein of the bharāṛī-sisters and not the d guṛī- sisters. With the change of the text and geographical region the importance of the tone and the style of drumming is also (sometimes) changed. The beats of drumming may become longer or shorter according to its importance. 222 Caubaṭiā: Originally a crossing of two roads, i.e. the flat land in the region of Basar. “Basar” is a Sanskrit term and means ‘the day light’. 223 Lāl Siṃh is a spirit of a heroic character in Garhwali and Kumauni folklore. It is very common in Central Himalayas that the spirit of a dead person is elevated and venerated as a demigod. 156 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

51. Oh yes, oh sisters, let us go to the rice fields of Chakura225, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! x2 52. Oh yes, the demigod mān-camphuvā dwells on the colder slopes of Ghumeti,226 oh Bharāṛī-sisters! 53. The Demigod mān-camphuvā is dwelling on the [cold] slopes of Ghumeti, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! 54. Oh yes, your chariot that consists of nine wagons moves around,227 oh D guṛī-sisters! 55. Oh yes, your chariot of nine wagons moves so elegantly, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! 56. Oh yes, your heavenly chariot is moving around, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! x2 57. Oh yes, together with you move pairs of dogs,228 oh Bharāṛī-sisters! x2 58. Oh yes, your swarm of butterflies flies around with you, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! 59. See! How beautifully your swarm of butterflies is gliding around, oh D guṛī-sisters! 60. Oh yes, you are gliding around like a swarm of sparrows, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! 61. Oh see! How elegantly the chariot of nine wagons is moving around, oh Bharāṛī-sisters!

224 Mān-Camphuvā or Mān-Camphvā or Campvā ‘the great Champhva’ is considered to be an associate of Bhairava (i.e. Shiva) and vīr who keeps a couple of dogs with himself. 225 Chakrusera is a flat piece of fertile land below Khait Mountain near Ghonti, Ghansali, Tehri Garhwali and known for good crops. 226 A valley below the Khaiṭ Mountain, near Ghansali town. 227 Nauṭolai kvai rath, can eventually also be understood as a reference to the tantric concept of nine powers (navaśakti). 228 In Central Himalayan languages put/pūt is used in the sense of ‘dogs’ (see above section 12 in part 1), which are generally related to the Demigod ‘Camphvā’, who is supposed to be an attendant to Bhairava and ācherīs. It is a common belief in Garhwal and Kumaun that the demigod Camphvā is accompanied by dogs. Camphvā is probably the local form of the paśupati, i.e. Shiva as Lord of the Animals (Sharma 2006; Maithani 2004; personal talks with D. R. Purohit and Mizajilal). In Kumaon, Camphvā is known as chaumū devtā. Fairy lore in the high mountains of South Asia 157

62. Your chariot is like the garvāṇi chariot,229 oh Bharāṛī-sisters! 63. Oh yes, you have begun to decorate the garvāṇi chariot, oh Bharāṛī- sisters! x2 64. How [beautifully] it is ascending up in the sky, oh Bharāṛī-sisters! x2

229 The singer is pronouncing the term garvāṇi as garuṛbāṇī. Garvāni means the hailstorm (Purohit and Benjwal 2007:106). Garvāṇi-rath means a chariot that is as powerful and strong as the hailstorm itself, i.e. a chariot that can even withstand the thunder and hailstorms. The Garvāṇi is also commonly used by the Gorakhpanthīs in their songs and tantric rituals texts (Babulkar 1982; Kukreti 1983; Atkinson (1882) 1973). In folk belief in Garhwal and Kumaun, a Nath Jogi (Yogi) possesses the power to change the route of the hailstorm and thunder (Babulkar 1982, Kukreti 1983; personal talks with Mizajilal and D. R. Purohit). Garuḍa/Garuda is the riding animal of Vishnu and the enemy of the serpent race (Williams 1899: 348). In Tantrism and its repercussions in the Gorakhpanth, Garuda is messenger between earth and sky, the worldly and the divine (Atkinson 1882 [1973]; Babulkar 1982; Kukreti 1983). 158 Bhatt, Wessler & Zoller

Language abbreviations

Ash. Ashkun (Nuristani) Kṭg. the Kōṭgaṛhī dialect of Av. Avestan West Pahāṛī Aw. Awadhī Ku. Kumaunī Bal. Balūčī (Iranian) P. Panjabi Bng. the Baṅgāṇī dialect of West Pa. Pali Pahāṛī Paš. Pashai (Dardic) Bro. the Brokpā dialect of Shina Paṭṭ. Paṭṭanī (also called Bshk. Bashkarīk (Dardic) Manchad or Lahauli) (Tibeto- Bur. Burushaski Himalayan) Dari. Darai (Indo-Aryan PIE Proto Indo-European [Nepal]) Pk. Prakrit G. Gujarātī Pog. the Pōgulī dialect of H. Hindi Kashmiri Ind. Indus Kohistani (Dardic) Pr. Prasun (Nuristani) Kal. Kalasha (Dardic) S. Sindhī Khaś. the Khaśālī dialect of Si. Sinhalese West Pahāṛī Taj. Tajik Kho. Khowār (Dardic) Toch.B Tocharian B Kt. Kati (Nuristani) Wg. Waigalī (Nuristani)

Other abbreviations

Dhātup. Dhātupāṭha OIA Old Indo-Aryan EWA see Mayrhofer 1986-2001 RV g-veda KEWA see Mayrhofer 1956-80 UGK Uttarākhaṇḍ gyānkoṣ see lex. lexicographer Sharma, Devi Dutt MIA Middle Indo-Aryan

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BOOK REVIEWS

Cacopardo, Augusto S. Natale pagano. Feste d’inverno nello Hindu Kush, Palermo: Sellerio, 2010; 476 pp.; bibliography, 4 maps, 8 photographs, glossary, index. SBN Pal0229009.

The dense and rich volume (in Italian) by Augusto S. Cacopardo, dedicated specifically, but not exclusively, to the winter feasts of the Kalasha population of the Birir valley (Chitral, N.W.F.P., Pakistan) is divided in three parts – I: Il contesto (the context); II Feste Kalasha d’inverno (Kalasha winter feasts); III: La comparazione (a comparative approach) – preceded by an ample introduction (pp. 11–35) and followed by Epilogue, Appendix (Chronological table of Birir winter feasts, Glossary and cartography), Bibliographic References, Analytical Index and Acknowledgements (pp. 414–476). Such an organization of the contents of the book is very effective, considering the enormous amount of data which the author had to organize in his effort to give a systematic illustration and a comparative anthropological and historic-religious analysis of the winter festive cycle of the Kalasha. For an appropriate understanding of the type of work carried out, the section of the Introduction (pp. 414–476) is particularly relevant in which the author discusses the main points of the anthropological debate in relation to his work: always in a problematic way and without forgetting to mention the theoretical and practical difficulties which, like all field researchers, he inevitably had to deal with. Cacopardo does not appear to subscribe in full to any particular school; a position we may appreciate if we consider that certain forms of methodological fideism, as is well known, can indeed turn into a 168 Book Reviews cage, golden as it may be. His broad knowledge of the relevant literature and his referring, in turn, to different theoretical approaches in the course of his analysis, are, in the end, a good guarantee that the reader is provided, at least, with the largest possible array of data; on which, he remains free, of course, to reason otherwise. After the introduction, the first section of the work, subdivided in three chapters, is dedicated to the illustration, based on personal observation, of the broader world of which the Kalasha of Birir are a component (the necessary topographical indications to geographically delimit the area investigated are given in the maps of pp. 436–438. Unfortunately the photographic material is not equally adequate). The A. offers a general cultural and historical frame by providing a synthetic, but very apt, reconstruction of the main events in the history of the Hindu Kush/Karakorum region – which the author calls Peristan – stressing its former cultural unity, in times preceding the advent of Islam (Ch. 1 pp. 39–65). He then proceeds to describe the traditional system of production and the symbolic system underlying it, as well as the polytheistic religion of the Kalasha in the light of research carried out by scholars of comparative religion (Ch. 2, pp. 66–99). A socio-cultural illustration of the Birir community closes this first section. The focus (Ch. 3, pp.100–121) here is first on the problematic relations with the Muslim environment, ‘internal’ (converted Kalasha) as well as ‘external’ (non-Kalasha Muslims), and then on the annual ritual cycle of Birir. The substantial delimitation of the investigation to a specific geographical area within the Hindu Kush – presented as the protagonist in the subtitle – is therefore quite clear. The A. is perfectly aware of the objective limits of his approach in recruiting informants, and of the problems of communication with them. These, however, are difficulties commonly encountered in researches of this kind, which, inevitably, are never as transparent in their methodology as would be desirable. The author’s notes on the advance of Islam in Birir and on the relations between Muslim converts and polytheists (Ch. 3, pp. 100– 105) have great documental value for a better understanding of the itineraries followed by the spread of Islam in the Hindu Kush, and not only there. They describe indeed concrete instances and provide close- up views of processes which may very well have been typical in the Islamization of all the mountain areas of Central Asia in the last three Book Reviews 169 centuries, when the spread of Islam gained the greatest momentum. They significantly enhance the scope of comparison by disclosing an horizon which goes beyond the rhetoric of the conquest and the forcible conversion, fostered by the jihad launched at the end of the XIX century by the Amir Abdurrahman Khan in the Afghan region of Nuristan (formerly Kafiristan), bordering the Pakistani district of Chitral where the Kalasha are settled. We learn for example that among the first Kalasha to embrace Islam in Birir were the members of a small inferior caste (intermarriage was forbidden) of serfs/artisans who, on the basis of the pervasive pure/impure bi-polar model, with many intermediate degrees, through which the Kalasha perceive their social and natural environments, were considered the quintessence of impurity. This is rather interesting in the light of research I conducted – as member of an ethno-linguistic mission organized by Prof. Antonio Panaino of Bologna University in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences of Dushanbe in the summer of 2010 – in the Yaghnob valley of Tajikistan among the local sedentary population. There I encountered on the one side ‘natural’ shrines very similar to the ones described by Cacopardo and similarly located in isolated places and adorned with goat-horns; and on the other, Islamic shrines, frequented by pilgrims, believed to be the burials of holy men who played an important role in the conversion of the area. The relevant point here is that in some cases these venerated figures have names clearly connected to the artisan-class, as for example Chub-tarash (‘wood-carver’). In the second section of the book, the author aptly adopts a writing style in first person to embark in a narration which, though not coinciding exactly with his field-journal (but excerpts from the actual journal are interspersed in the narration, bearing witness to the awareness of the author of the role played by the point of view of the observer), remains quite close to it by following its temporal sequence, making the reading extremely light and pleasing. The pursuit of scientific ends is successfully combined, here, with an enjoyable style which pleasantly approaches the travelogue genre. It must be remarked, however, that the adequateness of an informant should be evaluated not only in relation to the needs of the researcher, but also with regard to the technical precision of the information to be recorded, selected and transmitted. The readiness of an informant to 170 Book Reviews fulfil the wishes of the researcher is a well-known sore point in this type of research (especially when linguistics is involved). Divided in four chapters, this central part of the work includes a description of the arrival of the author in Birir, the presentation of his informants and assistants and, especially, the illustration of the rituals of the winter festive sequence (Ch. 4, pp. 125–246, and Ch. 5, pp. 247–320), where the author extensively relates his direct experience, in 2006-07, of the Winter Solstice Festival of Birir, and of the other winter feasts which followed it. The reference to the dates of the Gregorian calendar is most welcome, because the local reckoning of time (whether ‘cyclical’ or ‘linear’) and the system adopted to determine the beginning of a celebration, is not very clear. The text mentions, rather fleetingly, that the moment of the central astronomic phenomenon, the winter solstice, is deduced by direct observation of the course of the sun (p. 266); which is quite perplexing, not only because of the unpredictability of atmospheric conditions, but also because the moment of the solstice must be known beforehand, since it marks the climax, and not the inception, of the festival. The absence of any connection between the winter ritual cycle and the Kalasha calendar system is thus rather disappointing. The information given on this aspect is indeed quite scant. It appears that the dates of festivals may very well oscillate. But how, one wonders, and within which limits? Observation of lunar phases is mentioned in connection with solar months (“new moon of January” for the celebration of Jhanì, ib.; a reference to the “autumn full moon” appears in a nom nomek praise- song transcribed on p. 168): must we think then of a lunar-solar time- reckoning system? And how about the seasons? How are they subdivided? The presence of a term like cil’a (p. 279), designating the period of time which ends with Salgherek – a true turning-point in the year cycle, as indicated by the etymology (“the rotation of the year”) – in which the author recognizes, quite correctly I believe, the Iranian calendar term cilla (the forty days), appears to hint at a precise parallelism with the cycle of Iranian (not Zoroastrian!) “pastoral” winter feasts. Indeed, forty days more or less elapse between the end of the Chaumos Winter Solstice Festival and the first day of the new year. A more in-depth analysis of the Kalasha calendar could have provided extremely useful indications on the matter, and would have maybe even allowed us to determine, more or less precisely, the time in history when these Iranian influences penetrated the Kalasha world. Book Reviews 171

In the following chapter of this second section the reader is offered an accurate and productive comparison between the Chaumos of Birir and the Chaumos of the two Northern valleys of Bumburet and Rumbur, formerly observed by the author in 1973 and described at length also by other researchers (Ch. 6, pp. 295–320). A chapter dedicated to Kalasha cosmology concludes the section (Ch. 7, pp. 321–333). Maybe a rather short one, considering that it deals with what the author announces as “the crucial point”, where the logic of the entire system is to be unravelled. The last section of the book, as its title recites, is devoted to comparison. Chapter 8 (pp. 337–356) deals with the relations of the broader Hindu Kush/Karakorum region – the author’s ‘Peristan’ – with the Indian world and with sanskritic and non-sanskritic Hinduism. Cacopardo recalls here the main points of the comparative studies formerly carried out by other scholars, to show subsequently to which extent the Kalasha pure/impure polarity – which he considers typical of Peristan – may be compared to the structurally homologous one of the Indian world. He then proceeds to compare the Chaumos with Indian festivals and concludes the chapter with a brief, but quite dense, overview of the cultural parallels offered by the rather heterodox forms of Hinduism found among the Pahari people of the Western Himalayas. At the end of the chapter he ventures to suggest, as a hypothesis deserving investigation, that “we may imagine a vast culture area possibly spanning, in the past, the whole great Asian chain from its Western reaches in Afghanistan to its Eastern ones in Nepal as far as speakers of Indo-European languages are settled” (p. 356), characterized by religious systems based on a model broadly akin to the Kalasha – and hence the ‘peristani’ – one. Chaper 9 (pp.357–390) – extremely interesting and even enlightening in some points – is entirely dedicated to the comparison of what observed among the Kalasha with the available data on the winter feasts of the archaic European world, where the critical reconstruction of the ritual figures of the Divine Visitor and of the God that Dies and Resurrects impersonated in European folklore by the Carnival King, is accompanied by an intriguing proposal of a Dionysian reading of Chaumos. In Chapter 10 (pp. 391–414), the last, the author tackles the thorny issue of the possible relations between the data offered by Peristan and what is conjectured about the religion of the proto-Indo- Europeans. With great caution and due attention, accompanied by 172 Book Reviews absolute clarity on methodological choices, Cacopardo shows here quite effectively how, starting from the analysis of a contemporary case, it is possible to ascertain the degree of validity of the criteria proposed for the reconstruction of an archaic past. A brief Epilogue finally sums up the main findings of the whole investigation helping the reader to pinpoint in his mind the complex picture emerging from the analysis of the data presented in the volume. The vast bibliographic (pp. 439–466) apparatus is up-to-date and exhaustive. Together with an essential analytical index, it concludes a work which sheds new light on unique phenomena seen in the light of contemporary anthropological debate. A work to be considered, therefore, a precious source of information for all those who investigate the complex issues connected to the winter ritual cycle of Indo-European peoples as well as, more in general, for researchers in religious anthropology and comparative religion.

Simone Cristoforetti University of Venice, “Ca’ Foscari”