--- CO iioo en CD CO The Author Photo by Rat Bahadur B. A. Gupte HINDU HOLIDAYS AND CEREMONIALS f- WITH DISSERTATIONS ON ORIGIN, FOLKLORE, AND SYMBOLS BY *s RAI BAHADUR B: A GTJPTE, F.Z.S., Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, Honorary Member -Bombay Art Society, Associate Member Asiatic Society of Bengal, Member Royal Agricultural Society of London, formerly Honorary Assistant Superintendent of Ethnography to the Government of Bombay, Assistant Director of Ethnography for India. retired Deputy Minister, and Member of Council, Indore. WITH EIGHTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS, SIX IN COLOUR. CALCUTTA: THACKER SPINK & Co., 1916 Price Rs. 6 BEE PRESS: Printer: PASHUPATI GHOSE, 31-5, Dbaramtala Street, CALCUTTA. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece (the author). Adyitya, the Sun. Aditdora, the necklace. Anant, the endless, Vishnu. Dattatreya, the trio of Hindu gods. Divali drawings, the ancient hieroglyphics of the, Ganesh, as the god of knowledge. Ganesh, as the god of success. Ganesh and Gauri, the possible origin of, illustrated. Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. Martaud, the sun god. Sarasvati, the goddess of knowledge. Shivaratri, the starry origin of, Tortoise incarnation, ancient hieroglyphics recording the discovery of Saturn. Trimurti, the Orion and the stars showing the origin of the trio of Hindu gods. Vatasavitri, an ancient family drawing of Zodiac showing the origin of the Kokila Vrat, and the asterisms Hasta and Chitra connected with Kapila Shashthi. Mrs. Ramabai alins Maisaheb Gupte, PREFACE THE origin and evolution of this work will form an interest- ing fascicle of the history of India during Lord Curzon's regime, as it was he who succeeded in creating the Ethno- graphic Survey of India in the face of strong opposition from certain quarters. His Lordship's name will remain in the pages of the future history of India as the greatest patron of the science of Ethnography of the vast continent of India. Sir Herbert Risley was selected for the important duties of Honorary Director of Ethnography for India. That was a happy choice and through his able and scholarly directions, a tremendous mass of the most fascinating details of the social life of India has been collected. I was first appoin- ted Honorary Assistant Superintendent of Ethnography to the Government of Bombay, and subsequently Assistant Director of Ethnogrophy for India under Sir Herbert. He asked me to write some articles for the Indian Antiquary at Sir Richard Temple's request. This is the beginning of the work I now call the Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials." When Sir Herbert was promoted to the Secretaryship of the Government of India, Sir Edward Gait was appointed Census Commissioner. I continued working under both the officers and in that joint capacity submitted some of my articles to him, as well as to the Honourable Mr. R. Burn, I.C.S. who succeeded him. li PREFACE On the 1st of July 1903 Sir Edward Gait, the then Census Commissioner and my chief remarked on my note " " " on Ganesh and Gauri that it would be better if I could find time to incorporate these interesting notes in a full dis- cussion of the Vratfts." 1 followed this advice but it took me years to collect sufficient materials for this volume. Some of these notes were revised and published by Sir Herbert Risley, some were contributed to the Indian Antiquary and edited by Sir Richard Temple, some were published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and revised by Dr. N. Annandale, and some appeared in the Bombay Gazette, the Statesman, the Reis and Rayyet and other journals. But the originals of all these stories are not in print and attempts had to be made to collect unpublished traditions. The best course to follow was to take the help of a lady. Indian ladies can collect folklore and traditions with a facility denied to the sterner sex owing to social restrictions on free conversation between members of different sexes. Religious episodes are moreover communicated to ladies by the priests and priestesses without reserve, because they are not supposed to criticise them. Publication or discussion among educated young men involves exposure in several instances, resulting in the loss of sacerdotal influence. I therefore asked my wife to help me in collecting materials and I am thankful to her for valuable help the result of her indefatigable labour of love. She has collected together quite a library of Sanskrit and Mar^thi books and manuscripts bought solely to help me in my task. PREFACE iii I am responsible for the translations and dissertations added in the light of the training I have received as a literary Assistant working under Sir James Campbell, Sir George Birdwood, Sir Edward Gait, Sir William Meyer, Sir Herbert Risley and the Honourable Mr. Enthoven. I am obliged to so many authors and friends that it is impossible for me to make a complete list, I therefore thank them all. Mrs. Gupte is specially obliged to the wives of Mr. Jogesh Chandra Dutt, J.P., Honorary Magistrate of Calcutta, Rai Bahadur Matilal Ganguli, Mrs. Jogesh Chandra Bose, Mrs. Motilal Bose and Mrs. Mahendra Nath Shome our old landlady. Mrs. Alice Elizabeth Dracott rendered very valuable assistance in examining the proofs. She is herself the author of a book styled Simla Village Tales. Her ex- perience and literary attainments have been fully utilized in avoiding unEnglish expressions which often creep in unobserved, in works compiled by an Indian, however ex- perienced he may be. BELVEDERE, CALCUTTA,) B. A. GUPTE. 15-5-16 INTRODUCTION In this Chapter I have strung together the opinions of European scholars on allied matters, to be able to give an idea of what to expect from the study of these pages. J.Bryant's "System of Analysis of Ancient Mytho- " " logy tells us that like the people of Babylonia and Egypt where the first ray of religion possibly appeared, the people of this country began with devotion to the unaccountable phenomena of nature. He says that the Deity which they originally worshipped was the Sun. The wor- ship of Baal was the worship of the Sun, Ham was es- teemed the Zeus of Greece and Jupiter of Latium." The Hindu Ratha-saptami, Sanskrit and Kapilci-shathi, are examples. Even the sandhya of the twice born castes of India has for its chief deity the vedic Savita or the sun. Bryant adds that the ancients soon conferred the titles of the Sun upon some of their ancestors. Of this we have an example in the M^rtand of Jejuri near Poona. There, instead of the glorious orb as its very name M^rtand im- plies, people worship Khand-oba -which means the swords-ma n-father from Khand, the sword oba or aba the father. A woman married to the sword of a hero is called Khandci-Rani in Marathi from the same root Khand, a sword. But the Khandoba of Jejuri still retains the attributes of the Sun. For instance, he rides a yellow steed (yellow rays), his flag is also yellow (yellow reflected light on the clouds), and he has two wives one fair and one dark. They represent Eos and Eve respectively. " Fergusson says that the inhabitants of the Valley of the Ganges, before the Aryans reached India, seem to have been Tree and Serpent worshippers, a people without any distinct idea of God, but apparently worshipping their vi INTRODUCTION ancestors, and it may be, indulging in human sacrifices." (p 126) In addition to ancestor worship being thus mixed up with Nature worship there are deified Patriarchs, who may or may not have been the heads of their line. The B3p- dev of Kadappa or Savarsai may be cited as instances. Bap clearly means father. Like Nimrod the son of Cush, he was a hunter. His history is plainly alluded to under the character of Alorus, the first king of Chaldaea, but more frequently under the title Orion, the starry constel- " lation. This personage is represented by Homer as of a gigantic make and as being continually in persuit of wild beasts." If we look at the celestial chart, what do we see, but hunters and wild beasts! The Orion of the West, is the Mriga constellation of this country. Thus it will be seen that the story of the MakZ-Shivar&tra merely repro- duces in a modified form the ancestor worship and wor- ship of Nature, which originated in Chaldasa the cradle of ancient astronomy. It is said that the Cushite or Cuthite families which went from Chaldasa carried with them memorials of their ancestor. Nibarhana says Mr. Waidya " in his Sanskrit dictionary means killing, destruction, annihilation." It is for Philologists to say whether Nim- rod the killer or hunter has any connection with this root. Nibros in the Greek language is a fawn which gave occa- sion to many allusions about that animal, and its skin in the Dionusiaca and other mysteries. Hindu God Shiva, whose origin can easily be traced to the Mithun or third sign of the Zodiac, and who is mentioned in the Shivaratra story, has a fawn in his hand. He is associated with a fawn skin in many of his pictures or representations. Ideas thus travel with colonies, they may undergo modi- fications, but some of the resemblances do remain. " J. Bryant again tells us (p. 7) that the Amonians call Ham, Amon, and having in process of time raised him to divinity they worshipped him as the sun. The reading INTRODUCTION vii therefore of folklore stories is a fascinating study. One has to divest them of fantastic allegory with which they " have been obscured.