CHAPTER 21
The Importance of Mythology.
—It has been observed by that
philosophical traveller, Dr. Clarke, that, “by a proper attention
to the vestiges of ancient superstition, we are sometimes enabled
to refer a whole people to their original ancestors, with as much,
if not more certainty, than by observations made upon their
language; because the superstition is engrafted upon the stock,
but the language is liable to change.”
[1] Impressed with the
justness, as well as the originality of the remark, I shall adopt
it as my guide in the observations I propose to make on the
religious festivals and superstitions of Mewar. However important
may be the study of military, civil, and political history,
the science is incomplete without mythological history; and he
is little imbued with the spirit of philosophy who can perceive
in the fables of antiquity nothing but the extravagance of a
fervid imagination. Did no other consequence result from the
study of mythology than the fact that, in all ages and countries,
man has desecrated his reason, and voluntarily reduced himself
below the level of the brutes that perish, it must provoke inquiry
into the cause of this degradation. Such an investigation would
develop, not only the source of history, the handmaid of the arts
and sciences, but the origin and application of the latter, in a theogony
typical of the seasons, their changes, and products. Thus
mythology may be considered the parent of all history.
The Aboriginal Tribes.
—With regard, however, to the rude
tribes who still inhabit the mountains and fastnesses of India,
and who may be regarded as the aborigines of that country, the
converse of this doctrine is more probable. Not their language
only, but [558] their superstitions, differ from those of the Rajputs:
though, from a desire to rise above their natural condition, they
have engrafted upon their own the most popular mythologies of
their civilized conquerors, who from the north gradually spread
themselves over the continent and peninsula, even to the remote
isles of the Indian Ocean. Of the primitive inhabitants we may
enumerate the Minas, the Meras, the Gonds, the Bhils, the
Sahariyas, the Savaras, the Abhiras, the Gujars, and those who
inhabit the forests of the Nerbudda, the Son, the Mahanadi,
the mountains of Sarguja, and the lesser Nagpur; many of whom
are still but little removed from savage life, and whose dialects
are as various as their manners. These are content to be called
the ‘sons of the earth,’
[2] or ‘children of the forest,’
[3] while their
conquerors, the Rajputs, arrogate celestial descent.
[4] How soon
after the flood the Suryas, or sun-worshippers, entered India
Proper, must ever remain uncertain.
[5] It is sufficient that they
were anterior in date to the Indus, or races tracing their descent
from the moon (
Ind); as the migration of the latter from the
central lands of Indo-Scythia was antecedent to that of the
Agnikulas, or fire-worshippers, of the Snake race, claiming
Takshak as their original progenitor. The Suryas,
[6] who migrated
both to the East and West, as population became redundant in
these fertile regions, may be considered the Celtic, as the Indu-Getae
may be accounted the Gothic, races of India.
[7] To attempt
to discriminate these different races, and mark the shades which
once separated them, after a system of priestcraft has amalgamated
the mass, and identified their superstitions, would be
fruitless; but the observer of ancient customs may, with the
imperfect guidance of peculiar rites, discover things, and even
names, totally incongruous with the Brahmanical system, and
which could never have originated within the Indus or Atak,—the
Rubicon of Gangetic antiquaries, who fear to look beyond
that stream for the origin of tribes. A residence amongst the
Rajputs would lead to a disregard of such boundaries, either to
the moral or physical man, as the annals of Mewar abundantly
testify.
Comparative Study of Festivals.
—Sir Wm. Jones remarks,
“If the festivals of the old Greeks, Persians, Romans [559],
Egyptians, and Goths could be arranged with exactness in the
same form with the Indian, there would be found a striking
resemblance among them; and an attentive comparison of them
all might throw great light on the religion, and perhaps on the
history, of the primitive world.”
Analogies to Rājput Customs in Northern Europe.
—In treating
of the festivals and superstitions of the Rajputs, wherever there
may appear to be a fair ground for supposing an analogy with
those of other nations of antiquity, I shall not hesitate to pursue
it. The proper names of many of the martial Rajputs would
alone point out the necessity of seeking for a solution of them
out of the explored paths; and where Sanskrit derivation cannot
be assigned, as it happens in many instances, we are not, therefore,
warranted in the hasty conclusion that the names must
have been adopted since the conquests of Mahmud or Shihabu-d-din,
events of comparatively modern date. Let us at once admit
the hypothesis of Pinkerton,—the establishment of an original
Indu-Getic or Indo-Scythic empire, “extending from the Caspian
to the Ganges”; or if this conjecture be too extensive or too
vague, let us fix the centre of this Madhya-Bhumi in the fertile
region of Sogdiana;
[8] and from the lights which modern history
affords on the many migrations from this nursery of mankind,
even since the time of Muhammad, let us form an opinion of those
which have not been recorded, or have been conveyed by the
Hindus only in imperfect allegory; and with the aid of ancient
customs, obsolete words, and proper names, trace them to Indo-Scythic
colonies grafted on the parent stock. The Puranas
themselves bear testimony to the incorporation of Scythic tribes
with the Hindus, and to the continual irruptions of the Saka,
the Pahlavas, the Yavanas,
[9] the Turushkas, names conspicuous
amongst the races of Central Asia, and recorded in the pages of
the earliest Western historians. Even so early as the period of
Rama, when furious international wars were carried on between
the military and sacerdotal classes for supremacy, we have the
names of these tribes recorded as auxiliaries [560] to the priesthood;
who, while admitting them to fight under the banners of
Siva, would not scruple to stamp them with the seal of Hinduism.
In this manner, beyond a doubt, at a much later period than the
events in the Ramayana, these tribes from the North either forced
themselves among, or were incorporated with, ‘the races of the
sun.’ When, therefore, we meet with rites in Rajputana and in
ancient Scandinavia, such as were practised amongst the Getic
nations on the Oxus, why should we hesitate to assign the origin
of both to this region of earliest civilization? When we see
the ancient Asii, and the Iutae, or Jutes, taking omens from the
white steed of Thor, shut up in the temple at Upsala; and in like
manner, the Rajput of past days offering the same animal in
sacrifice to the sun, and his modern descendant taking the omen
from his neigh, why are we to refuse our assent to the common
origin of the superstition practised by the Getae of the Oxus?
Again, when we find the ‘homage to the sword’ performed by
all the Getic races of antiquity in Dacia, on the Baltic, as well as
by the modern Rajput, shall we draw no conclusion from this
testimony of the father of history, who declares that such rites
were practised on the Jaxartes in the very dawn of knowledge?
[10]
Moreover, why hesitate to give Eastern etymologies for Eastern
rites, though found on the Baltic? The antiquary of the
North (Mallet) may thus be assisted to the etymon of ‘Tir-sing,’
the enchanted sword of Angantýr, in
tir, ‘water,’ and
singh,
‘a lion’;
i.e. in water or spirit like a lion; for even
pani,
the common epithet for water, is applied metaphorically to
‘spirit.’
[11]It would be less difficult to find Sanskrit derivations for many
of the proper names in the Edda, than to give a Sanskrit analysis
of many common amongst the Rajputs, which we must trace to
an Indo-Scythic root:[12] such as Eyvorsél, Udila, Attitai, Pujun,
Hamira,[13] and numerous other proper names of warriors. Of
tribes: the Kathi, Rajpali, Mohila, Sariaspah, Aswaria (qu.
Assyrian?), Banaphar, Kamari, Silara, Dahima, etc. Of mountains:
Drinodhar, Arbuda, Aravalli, Aravindha (the root ara,
or mountain, being Scythic, and the expletive adjunct Sanskrit),
‘the hill of Budha,’ ‘of strength,’ ‘of limit.’ To all such as
cannot be [561] resolved into the cognate language of India, what
origin can we assign but Scythic?[14]
Festivals in Mewār. Naurātri Festival.
—In a memoir prepared
for me by a well-informed public officer in the Rana’s court, on
the chief festivals celebrated in Mewar, he commenced with those
following the autumnal equinox, in the month Asoj or Aswini,
opening with the Nauratri, sacred to the god of war. Their fasts
are in general regulated by the moon; although the most remarkable
are solar, especially those of the equinoxes and solstices, and
the Sankrantis, or days on which the sun enters a new sign. The
Hindu solar year anciently commenced on the winter solstice,
in the month Pausha, and was emphatically called ‘the morning
of the gods’; also Sivaratri, or night of Siva, analogous, as has
been before remarked, to the ‘mother night,’ which ushered in
the new year of the Scandinavian Asi, and other nations of Asiatic
origin dwelling in the north.
The Repose of Vishnu.
—They term the summer solstice in the
month of Asarh, ‘the night of the gods,’ because Vishnu (as the
sun) reposes during the four rainy months on his serpent couch.
The lunar year of 360 days was more ancient than the solar, and
commenced with the month of Asoj or Aswini: “the moon being
at the full when that name was imposed on the first lunar station
of the Hindu ecliptic.”
[15]According to another authority, the festivals commenced on
Amavas, or the Ides of Chait, near which the vernal equinox falls,
the opening of the modern solar year; when, in like manner as
at the commencement of the lunar year in Asoj, they [562]
dedicate the first nine days of Chait (also called Nauratri) to
Iswara and his consort Isani.
Having thus specified both modes of reckoning for the opening
of the solar and lunar years, I shall not commence the abstract
of the festivals of Mewar with either, but follow the more ancient
division of time, when the year closed with the winter solstice
in the month of Pus, consequently opening the new year with
Magh. By this arrangement, we shall commence with the spring
festivals, and let the days dedicated to mirth and gaiety follow
each other; preferring the natural to the astrological year,
which will enable us to preserve the analogy with the northern
nations of Europe, who also reckoned from the winter solstice.
The Hindu divides the year into six seasons, each of two months;
namely, Vasanta, Grishma, Varsha, Sarad, Sisira, Sita; or spring,
summer, rainy, sultry, dewy, and cold.
It is not, however, my intention to detail all the fasts and
festivals which the Rajput of Mewar holds in common with the
Hindu nation, but chiefly those restricted to that State, or such
as are celebrated with local peculiarity, or striking analogies to
those of Egypt, Greece, or Scandinavia. The goddess who presides
over mirth and idleness preferred holding her court amidst
the ruins of Udaipur to searching elsewhere for a dwelling. This
determination to be happy amidst calamity, individual and
national, has made the court proverbial in Rajwara, in the adage,
‘sat bara, aur nau teohara,’ i.e. nine holidays out of seven days.
Although many of these festivals are common to India, and their
maintenance is enjoined by religion, yet not only the prolongation
and repetition of some, but the entire institution of others, as
well as the peculiar splendour of their solemnization, originate
with the prince; proving how much individual example may
influenceinfluence the manners of a nation.
Spring Festival, Vasant Panchami.
—By the arrangement we
have adopted, the lovely Vasanti, goddess of the spring, will
usher in the festivals of Mewar. In 1819 her rites were celebrated
in the kalends of January, and even then, on the verge of the
tropic, her birth was premature.
The opening of the spring being on the 5th of the month
Magha, is thence called the Vasant panchami, which in 1819 fell on
the 30th of January; consequently the first of Pus (the antecedent
month), the beginning of the old Hindu [563] year, or ‘the
morning of the gods,’ fell on the 25th of December. The Vasant
continues forty days after the panchami, or initiative fifth, during
which the utmost license prevails in action and in speech; the
lower classes regale even to intoxication on every kind of stimulating
confection and spirituous beverage, and the most respectable
individuals, who would at other times be shocked to utter
an indelicate allusion, roam about with the groups of bacchanals,
reciting stanzas of the warmest description in praise of the powers
of nature, as did the conscript fathers of Rome during the Saturnalia.
In this season, when the barriers of rank are thrown
down, and the spirit of democracy is let loose, though never
abused, even the wild Bhil, or savage Mer, will leave his forest or
mountain shade to mingle in the revelries of the capital; and
decorating his ebon hair or tattered turban with a garland of
jessamine, will join the clamorous parties which perambulate the
streets of the capital. These orgies are, however, reserved for the
conclusion of the forty days sacred to the goddess of nature.
Bhān Saptami Festival.
—Two days following the initiative
fifth is the Bhan saptami or ‘seventh [day] of the sun,’ also
called ‘the birth of the sun,’ with various other metaphorical
denominations.
[16] On this day there is a grand procession of the
Rana, his chiefs and vassals, to the Chaugan, where the sun is
worshipped. At the Jaipur court, whose princes claim descent
from Kusa, the second son of Rama, the Bhan saptami is peculiarly
sacred. The chariot of the sun, drawn by eight horses, is taken
from the temple dedicated to that orb, and moved in procession:
a ceremony otherwise never observed but on the inauguration of
a new prince.
Sun Worship.
—In the mythology of the Rajputs, of which we
have a better idea from their heroic poetry than from the legends
of the Brahmans, the sun-god is the deity they are most anxious
to propitiate; and in his honour they fearlessly expend their
blood in battle, from the hope of being received into his mansion.
Their highest heaven is accordingly the Bhanuthan or Bhanuloka,
the ‘region of the sun’: and like the Indu-Scythic Getae, the
Rajput warrior of the early ages sacrificed the horse in his honour,
[17]
and dedicated to him the first day of the week, namely, Adityawar,
contracted to Itwar, also called Thawara
[18] [564].
The more we attend to the warlike mythology of the north,
the more apparent is its analogy with that of the Rajputs, and
the stronger ground is there for assuming that both races inherited
their creed from the common land of the Yuti of the
Jaxartes. What is a more proper etymon for Scandinavian, the
abode of the warriors who destroyed the Roman power, than
Skanda, the Mars or Kumara of the Rajputs? perhaps the origin
of the Cimbri, derived by Mallet from koempfer, ‘to fight.’
Thor, in the eleventh fable of the Edda, is denominated Asa-Thor,[19]
the ‘lord Thor,’ called the Celtic Mars by the Romans.
The chariot of Thor is ignobly yoked compared with the car of
Surya; but in the substitution of the he-goats for the seven-headed
horse Saptasva we have but the change of an adjunct
depending on clime, when the Yuti migrated from the plains of
Scythia, of which the horse is a native, to Yutland, of whose
mountains the goat was an inhabitant prior to any of the race of
Asi. The northern warrior makes the palace of the sun-god
Thor the most splendid of the celestial abodes, “in which are
five hundred and forty halls”: vying with the Suryamandala,
the supreme heaven of the Rajput. Whence such notions of the
Aswa races of the Ganges, and the Asi of Scandinavia, but from
the Scythic Saka, who adored the solar divinity under the name
of ‘Gaeto-Syrus,’[20] the Surya of the Sachha Rajput; and as,
according to the commentator on the Edda, “the ancient people
of the north pronounced the th as the English now do ss,” the
sun-god Thor becomes Sor, and is identified still more with Surya
whose worship no doubt gave the name to that extensive portion
of Asia called Συρία, as it did to the small peninsula of the Sauras,
still peopled by tribes of Scythic origin. The Sol of the Romans
has probably the same Celto-Etrurian origin; with those tribes
the sun was the great object of adoration, and their grand festival,
the winter solstice, was called Yule, Hiul, Houl, “which even at
this day signifies the Sun, in the language of Bas-Bretagne and
Cornwall.”[21] On the conversion of the descendants of these
Scythic Yeuts, who, according to [565] Herodotus, sacrificed the
horse (Hi) to the sun (El), the name of the Pagan jubilee of the
solstice was transferred to the day of Christ’s nativity, which
is thus still held in remembrance by their descendants of the
north.[22]
Sun Worship at Udaipur.
—At Udaipur the sun has universal
precedence; his portal (
Suryapol) is the chief entrance to the
city; his name gives dignity to the chief apartment or hall
(
Suryamahall) of the palace; and from the balcony of the sun
(
Suryagokhra) the descendant of Rama shows himself in the dark
monsoon as the sun’s representative. A huge painted sun of
gypsum in high relief, with gilded rays, adorns the hall of audience,
and in front of it is the throne. As already mentioned, the sacred
standard bears his image,
[23] as does that Scythic part of the regalia
called the
changi, a disc of black felt or ostrich feathers, with a
plate of gold to represent the sun in its centre, borne upon a pole.
The royal parasol is termed
kirania, in allusion to its shape, like
a ray (
kiran) of the orb. The last day but one of the month of
Magha is called Sivaratri (night of Siva), and is held peculiarly
sacred by the Rana, who is styled the Regent of Siva. It is a
rigid fast, and the night is passed in vigils, and rites to the phallic
representative of Siva.
The Spring Hunt.
—The merry month of Phalgun is ushered
in with the Aheria, or spring-hunt.
[24] The preceding day the Rana
distributes to all his chiefs and servants either a dress of green,
or some portion thereof, in which all appear habited on the
morrow, whenever the astrologer has fixed the hour for sallying
forth to slay the boar to Gauri, the Ceres of the Rajputs: the
Aheria is therefore called the Mahurat ka shikar, or the chase
fixed astrologically. As their success on this occasion is ominous
of future good, no means are neglected to secure it, either by
scouts previously discovering the lair, or the desperate efforts of
the hunters to slay the boar when roused. With the sovereign
and his sons all the chiefs sally forth, each on his best steed, and
all animated by the desire to surpass each other in acts of prowess
and dexterity. It is very rare that in some one of the passes or
recesses of the valley the hog is not found; the spot is then
surrounded by the [566] hunters, whose vociferations soon start
the
dukkara,
[25] and frequently a drove of hogs. Then each cavalier
impels his steed, and with lance or sword, regardless of rock,
ravine, or tree, presses on the bristly foe, whose knowledge of the
country is of no avail when thus circumvented, and the ground
soon reeks with gore, in which not unfrequently is mixed that of
horse or rider. On the last occasion there occurred fewer casualties
than usual; though the Chondawat Hamira, whom we
nicknamed the ‘Red Riever,’ had his leg broken, and the second
son of Sheodan Singh, a near relation of the Rana, had his neighbour’s
lance driven through his arm. The young chief of Salumbar
was amongst the distinguished of this day’s sport. It would
appal even an English fox-hunter to see the Rajputs driving their
steeds at full speed, bounding like the antelope over every barrier—the
thick jungle covert, or rocky steep bare of soil or vegetation,—with
their lances balanced in the air, or leaning on the
saddle-bow slashing at the boar.
The royal kitchen moves out on this occasion, and in some
chosen spot the repast is prepared, of which all partake, for the
hog is the favourite food of the Rajput, as it was of the heroes
of Scandinavia. Nor is the munawwar piyala, or invitation cup,
forgotten; and having feasted, and thrice slain their bristly
antagonist, they return to the capital, where fame had already
spread their exploits—the deeds done by the barchhi (lance) of
Padma,[26] or the khanda (sword) blow of Hamira,[27] which lopped
the head of the foe of Gauri. Even this martial amusement, the
Aheria, has a religious origin. The boar is the enemy of Gauri of
the Rajputs; it was so held of Isis by the Egyptians, of Ceres by
the Greeks, of Freya by the north-man, whose favourite food was
the hog: and of such importance was it deemed by the Franks,
that the second chapter of the Salic law is entirely penal with
regard to the stealers of swine. The heroes of the Edda, even in
Valhalla, feed on the fat of the wild boar Saehrimner, while “the
illustrious father of armies fattens his wolves Geri and Freki, and
takes no other nourishment himself than the interrupted quaffing
of wine”: quite the picture of Har, the Rajput god of war, and
his sons the Bhairavas, Krodha, and Kala, metaphorically called
the ‘sons of slaughter.’ We need hardly repeat that the cup
of the Scandinavian god of war, like that of the Rajputs, is the
human skull (khopra) [567].[28]
The Phāg or Holi Festival.
—As Phalgun advances, the bacchanalian
mirth increases; groups are continually patrolling the
streets, throwing a crimson powder at each other, or ejecting a
solution of it from syringes, so that the garments and visages of
all are one mass of crimson. On the 8th, emphatically called
the Phag, the Rana joins the queens and their attendants in the
palace, when all restraint is removed and mirth is unlimited.
But the most brilliant sight is the playing of the Holi on horseback,
on the terrace in front of the palace. Each chief who chooses to
join has a plentiful supply of missiles, formed of thin plates of
mica or talc, enclosing this crimson powder, called
abira, which
with the most graceful and dextrous horsemanship they dart at
each other, pursuing, caprioling, and jesting. This part of it
much resembles the Saturnalia of Rome of this day, when similar
missiles are scattered at the Carnivâle. The last day or Punon
ends the Holi, when the Nakkaras from the Tripolia summon all
the chiefs with their retinues to attend their prince, and accompany
him in procession to the Chaugan, their Champ de Mars.
In the centre of this is a long
sala or hall, the ascent to which is
by a flight of steps: the roof is supported by square columns
without any walls, so that the court is entirely open. Here,
surrounded by his chiefs, the Rana passes an hour, listening to
the songs in praise of Holika, while a scurrilous
kavya or couplet
from some wag in the crowd reminds him, that exalted rank is
no protection against the license of the spring Saturnalia; though
‘the Diwan of Eklinga’ has not to reproach himself with a
failure of obedience to the rites of the goddess, having fulfilled
the command ‘to multiply,’ more than any individual in his
kingdom.
[29] While the Rana and his chiefs are thus amused above,
the buffoons and itinerant groups mix with the cavalcade, throw
powder in their eyes, or deluge their garments with the crimson
solution. To resent it would only expose the sensitive party to
be laughed at, and draw upon him a host of these bacchanals: so
that no alternative exists between keeping entirely aloof or
mixing in the fray [568].
[30]On the last day, the Rana feasts his chiefs, and the camp
breaks up with the distribution of khanda nariyal, or swords and
coco-nuts, to the chiefs and all “whom the king delighteth to
honour.” These khandas are but ‘of lath,’ in shape like the
Andrea Ferrara, or long cut-and-thrust, the favourite weapon
of the Rajput. They are painted in various ways, like Harlequin’s
sword, and meant as a burlesque, in unison with the character
of the day, when war is banished, and the multiplication,[31] not
the destruction, of man is the behest of the goddess who rules the
spring. At nightfall, the forty days conclude with ‘the burning
of the Holi,’ when they light large fires, into which various
substances, as well as the crimson abira, are thrown, and around
which groups of children are dancing and screaming in the streets
like so many infernals. Until three hours after sunrise of the
new month of Chait, these orgies are continued with increased
vigour, when the natives bathe, change their garments, worship,
and return to the rank of sober citizens; and princes and chiefs
receive gifts from their domestics.[32]
Chait.
—The first of this month is the Samvatsara (vulg.
Chamchari), or anniversary of the death of the Rana’s father, to
whose memory solemn rites are performed both in the palace and
at Ara, the royal cemetery, metaphorically termed Mahasati, or
place of ‘great faith.’ Thither the Rana repairs, and offers
oblations to the manes of his father; and after purifying in the
Gangabheva, a rivulet which flows through the middle of ‘the
abode of silence,’ he returns to the palace.
On the 3rd, the whole of the royal insignia proceeds to Bedla,
the residence of the Chauhan chief (one of the Sixteen), within
the valley of the capital, in order to convey the Rao to court.
The Rana advances to the Ganesa Deori[33] to receive him; when,
after salutation, the sovereign and his chief return to the great
hall of assembly, hand in hand, but that of the Chauhan above
or upon his sovereign’s. In this ceremony we have another
singular memorial of the glorious days of Mewar, when almost
every chieftain established by deeds of devotion a right to the
eternal gratitude of their princes; the decay of whose [569]
power but serves to hallow such reminiscences. It is in these
little acts of courteous condescension, deviations from the formal
routine of reception, that we recognize the traces of Rajput
history; for inquiry into these customs will reveal the incident
which gave birth to each, and curiosity will be amply repaid, in a
lesson at once of political and moral import. For my own part,
I never heard the kettledrum of my friend Raj Kalyan strike at
the sacred barrier, the Tripolia, without recalling the glorious
memory ofmemory of his ancestor at the Thermopylae of Mewar;[34] nor
looked on the autograph lance, the symbol of the Chondawats,
without recognizing the fidelity of the founder of the clan;[35] nor
observed the honours paid to the Chauhans of Bedla and Kotharia,
without the silent tribute of applause to the manes of their
sires.
Sītala’s Festival.
—Chait badi sat, or ‘7th of [the dark fortnight]
Chait,’ is in honour of the goddess Sitala, the protectress
of children: all the matrons of the city proceed with their
offerings to the shrine of the goddess, placed upon the very
pinnacle of an isolated hill in the valley. In every point of
view, this divinity is the twin-sister of the Mater Montana,
[36] the
guardian of infants amongst the Romans, the Grecian or Phrygian
Cybele.
Birthday of the Rana.
—This is also the Rana’s birthday,
[37] on
which occasion all classes flock with gifts and good wishes that
“the king may live for ever”; but it is in the penetralia of the
Rawala, where the profane eye enters not, that the greatest
festivities of this day are kept.
New Year’s Day. The Festival of Flowers.
—Chait Sudi 1st (15th
of the month) is the opening of the luni-solar year of Vikramaditya.
Ceremonies, which more especially appertain to the Nauratri of
Asoj, are performed on this day; and the sword is worshipped
in the palace. But such rites are subordinate to those of the fair
divinity, who still rules over this the smiling portion of the year.
Vasanti has ripened into the fragrant Flora, and all the fair of
the capital, as well as the other sex, repair to the gardens and
groves, where parties assemble, regale, and swing, adorned with
chaplets of roses, jessamine, or oleander, when the Naulakha
gardens may vie with the Tivoli of Paris. They return in the
evening to the city.
The Festival of Flowers.
—The Rajput Floralia ushers in the
rites of the beneficent Gauri, which continue nine days, the
number sacred to the creative [570] power. These vie with
the Cerealia of Rome, or the more ancient rites of the goddess
of the Nile: I shall therefore devote some space to a particular
account of them.
[38]Ganggor Festival.
—Among the many remarkable festivals of
Rajasthan, kept with peculiar brilliancy at Udaipur, is that in
honour of Gauri, or Isani, the goddess of abundance, the Isis of
Egypt, the Ceres of Greece. Like the Rajput Saturnalia, which
it follows, it belongs to the vernal equinox, when nature in
these regions proximate to the tropic is in the full expanse of her
charms, and the matronly Gauri casts her golden mantle over
the beauties of the verdant Vasanti.
[39] Then the fruits exhibit
their promise to the eye; the koil fills the ear with melody; the
air is impregnated with aroma, and the crimson poppy contrasts
with the spikes of golden grain, to form a wreath for the beneficent
Gauri.
Gauri is one of the names of Isa or Parvati, wife of the greatest
of the gods, Mahadeva or Iswara, who is conjoined with her in
these rites, which almost exclusively appertain to the women.
The meaning of Gauri is ‘yellow,’ emblematic of the ripened
harvest, when the votaries of the goddess adore her effigies, which
are those of a matron painted the colour of ripe corn; and though
her image is represented with only two hands, in one of which
she holds the lotos, which the Egyptians regarded as emblematic
of reproduction, yet not unfrequently they equip her with the
warlike conch, the discus, and the club, to denote that the goddess,
whose gifts sustain life, is likewise accessary to the loss of it:
uniting, as Gauri and Kali, the characters of life and death, like
the Isis and Cybele of the Egyptians. But here she is only seen
as Annapurna, the benefactress of mankind. The rites commence
when the sun enters Aries (the opening of the Hindu year), by a
deputation to a spot beyond the city, “to bring earth for the
image of Gauri.”[40] When this is formed, a smaller one of Iswara
is made, and they are placed together; a small trench is then
excavated, in which barley is sown; the ground is irrigated and
artificial heat supplied till the grain germinates, when the females
join hands and dance round it, invoking the blessings of Gauri on
their husbands.[41] The young corn is then taken up, distributed,
and presented by the females to the men, who wear it in their
turbans. Every wealthy family has its image, or at least every
purwa or subdivision of the city. These and other [571] rites
known only to the initiated having been performed for several
days within doors, they decorate the images, and prepare to
carry them in procession to the lake. During these days of
preparation, nothing is talked of but Gauri’s departure from the
palace; whether she will be as sumptuously apparelled as in the
year gone by; whether an additional boat will be launched on
the occasion; though not a few forget the goddess altogether
in the recollection of the gazelle eyes (mrig-nayani) and serpentine
locks (nagini-zulf)[42] of the beauteous handmaids who are
selected to attend her. At length the hour arrives, the martial
nakkaras give the signal “to the cannonier without,” and speculation
is at rest when the guns on the summit of the castle of
Eklinggarh announce that Gauri has commenced her excursion
to the lake.
The Bathing of the Goddess.
—The cavalcade assembles on
the magnificent terrace, and the Rana, surrounded by his nobles,
leads the way to the boats, of a form as primitive as that which
conveyed the Argonauts to Colchis. The scenery is admirably
adapted for these fêtes, the ascent being gradual from the margin
of the lake, which here forms a fine bay, and gently rising to the
crest of the ridge on which the palace and dwellings of the chiefs
are built. Every turret and balcony is crowded with spectators,
from the palace to the water’s edge; and the ample flight of
marble steps which intervene from the Tripolia, or triple portal,
to the boats, is a dense mass of females in variegated robes, whose
scarfs but half conceal their ebon tresses adorned with the rose
and the jessamine. A more imposing or more exhilarating sight
cannot be imagined than the entire population of a city thus
assembled for the purpose of rejoicing; the countenance of
every individual, from the prince to the peasant, dressed in
smiles. Carry the eye to heaven, and it rests on ‘a sky without
a cloud’: below is a magnificent lake, the even surface of the
deep blue waters broken only by palaces of marble, whose arched
piazzas are seen through the foliage of orange groves, plantain,
and tamarind; while the vision is bounded by noble mountains,
their peaks towering over each other, and composing an immense
amphitheatre. Here the deformity of vice intrudes not; no
object is degraded by inebriation: no tumultuous disorder or
deafening clamour, but all await patiently, with eyes directed
to the Tripolia, the appearance of Gauri. At length the procession
is seen winding down the steep, and in the midst [572], borne on a
pat,
[43] or throne, gorgeously arrayed in yellow robes, and blazing
with ‘barbaric pearl and gold,’ the goddess appears; on either
side the two beauties wave the silver
chamara over her head,
while the more favoured damsels act as harbingers, preceding
her with wands of silver: the whole chanting hymns. On her
approach, the Rana, his chiefs and ministers rise and remain
standing till the goddess is seated on her throne close to the
water’s edge, when all bow, and the prince and court take their
seats in the boats. The females then form a circle around the
goddess, unite hands, and with a measured step and various
graceful inclinations of the body, keeping time by beating the
palms at particular cadences, move round the image singing
hymns, some in honour of the goddess of abundance, others on
love and chivalry; and embodying little episodes of national
achievements, occasionally sprinkled with
double entendre, which
excites a smile and significant nod from the chiefs, and an inclination
of the head of the fair choristers. The festival being entirely
female, not a single male mixed in the immense groups, and even
Iswara himself, the husband of Gauri, attracts no attention, as
appears from his ascetic or mendicant form begging his dole
from the bounteous and universal mother. It is taken for
granted that the goddess is occupied in bathing all the time
she remains, and ancient tradition says death was the penalty
of any male intruding on these solemnities; but the present
prince deems them so fitted for amusement, that he has even
instituted a second Ganggor. Some hours are thus consumed,
while easy and good-humoured conversation is carried on. At
length, the ablutions over, the goddess is taken up, and conveyed
to the palace with the same forms and state. The Rana and
his chiefs then unmoor their boats, and are rowed round the
margin of the lake, to visit in succession the other images of
the goddess, around which female groups are chanting and
worshipping, as already described, with which ceremonies the
evening closes, when the whole terminates with a grand display
of fireworks, the finale of each of the three days dedicated to
Gauri.
Considerable resemblance is to be discerned between this
festival of Gauri and that in honour of the Egyptian Diana[44] at
Bubastis, and Isis at Busiris, within the [573] Delta of the Nile, of
which Herodotus says: “They who celebrate those of Diana
embark in vessels; the women strike their tabors, the men
their flutes; the rest of both sexes clap their hands, and join
in chorus. Whatever city they approach, the vessels are brought
on shore; the women use ungracious language, dance, and indelicately
throw about their garments.”[45] Wherever the rites
of Isis prevailed, we find the boat introduced as an essential
emblem in her worship, whether in the heart of Rajasthan, on
the banks of the Nile, or in the woods of Germany. Bryant[46]
furnishes an interesting account from Diodorus and Curtius,
illustrated by drawings from Pocock, from the temple of Luxor,
near Carnac, in the Thebaid, of ‘the ship of Isis,’ carrying an
ark; and from a male figure therein, this learned person thinks
it bears a mysterious allusion to the deluge. I am inclined to
deem the personage in the ark Osiris, husband of Isis, the type of
the sun arrived in the sign of Aries (of which the ram’s heads
ornamenting both the prow and stem of the vessel are typical),
the harbinger of the annual fertilizing inundation of the Nile:
evincing identity of origin as an equinoctial festival with that of
Gauri (Isis) of the Indu-Scythic races of Rajasthan.
The German Suevi adored Isis, and also introduced a ship in
her worship, for which Tacitus[47] is at a loss to account, and with
his usual candour says he has no materials whence to investigate
the origin of a worship denoting the foreign origin of the tribe.
This Isis of the Suevi was evidently a form of Ertha, the chief
divinity of all the Saxon races, who, with her consort Teutates
or Hesus[48] (Mercury), were the chief deities of both the Celtic
and early Gothic races: the [574] Budha and Ila of the Rajputs;
in short, the earth,[49] the prolific mother, the Isis of Egypt, the
Ceres of Greece, the Annapurna (giver of food) of the Rajputs.
On some ancient temples dedicated to this Hindu Ceres we have
sculptured on the frieze and pedestal of the columns the emblem
of abundance, termed the kamakumbha, or vessel of desire, a
vase of elegant form, from which branches of the palm are gracefully
pendent. Herodotus says that similar water-vessels, filled
with wheat and barley, were carried in the festival of Isis; and
all who have attended to Egyptian antiquities are aware that the
god Canopus is depicted under the form of a water-jar, or Nilometer,
whose covering bears the head of Osiris.