Rajput 12: Religion and traditions
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Rajput 12: Religion and traditions
Rajput Religion
The religion of the martial Rajput, and the rites of Hara, the god of battle, are little analogous to those of
1 'Mahurat ka shikar.' 2 the Siebi of Tacitus. 3 Sammes's Saxon Antiquities. 4 Hara is the Thor of Scandinavia ; Hari is Budha, Hermes, or Mercury. 5 Mallet derives it from kempfer, ' to fight.' [The name is said to mean 'comrades' (Rhys, Celtic Britain, 116). Irmansul means ' a colossus,' and has no connexion with Skr. sula (Grimm, Teutonic mythology, i. 115).] 6 Ku is a mere prefix, meaning ' evil ' ; ' the evil striker (Mar).' Hence, probably, the Mars of Rome. The birth of Kumar, the general of the army of the gods, with the Hindus, is exactly that of the Grecians, born of the goddess Jahnavi (Juno) without sexual intercourse. Kumara is always accompanied by the peacock, the bird of Juno. [Kumara probably means ' easily dying ' ; there is no connexion with Mars, originally a deity of vegetation.]
7 For a drawing of the Scandinavian god of battle see Sammes. the meek Hindus, the followers of the pastoral divinity, the worshippers of kine, and feeders on fruits, herbs, and water. The Rajput delights in blood : his offerings to the god of battle are sanguinary, blood and wine. The cup (kharpara) of libation is the human skull. He loves them because they are emblematic of the deity he worships ; and he is taught to believe that Hara loves them, who in war is represented with the skull to drink the foeman's blood, and in peace is the patron of wine and women. With Parbati on his knee, his eyes rolling from the juice of the phul (ardent spirits) and opium, such is this Bacchanalian divinity of war. Is this Hinduism, acquired on the burning plains of India ? Is it not rather a perfect picture of the manners of the Scandinavian heroes ?
The Rajput slays buffaloes, hunts and eats the boar and deer, and shoots ducks and wild fowl (kukkut) ; he worships his horse, his sword, and the sun, and attends more to the martial song of the bard than to the litany of the Brahman. In the martial mythology and warlike poetry of the Scandinavians a wide field exists for assimilation, and a comparison of the poetical remains of the Asi of the east and west would alone suffice to suggest a common origin.
Bards
In the sacred Bardai of the Rajput we have the bard of our Saxon ancestry ; those reciters of warlike poetry, of whom Tacitus says, " with their barbarous strains, they influence their minds in the day of battle with a chorus of military virtue."
A comparison, in so extensive a field, would include the whole of their manners and religious opinions, and must be reserved for a distinct work. The Valkyrie [69], or fatal sisters of the Suevi or Siebi, would be the twin sisters of the Apsaras, who summon the Rajput warrior from the field of battle, and bear him to " the mansion of the sun," equally the object of attainment with the children of Odin in Scandinavia, and of Budha and Surya in the
1 I have in contemplation to give to the public a few of the sixty-nine books of the poems of Chand, the last great bard of the last Hindu emperor of India, Prithwiraja. They are entirely heroic : each book a relation of one of the exploits of this prince, the first warrior of his time. They will aid a comparison between the Rajput and Scandinavian bards, and show how far the Provencal Troubadour, the Neustrienne Trouveur, and Minne- singer of Germany, have anything in common with the Rajput Bardai. [For Rajput bards on horseback, drunk with opium, singing songs to arouse warriors' courage, see Manucci ii. 437 f.l plains of Scythia and on the Ganges, like the Elysium1 of the Heliadae of Greece.
In the day of battle we should see in each the same excitements to glory and contempt of death, and the dramatis personae of the field, both celestial and terrestrial, move and act alike. We should see Thor, the thunderer, leading the Siebi, and Hara (Siva) the Indian Jove, his own worshippers (Sivseva) ; in which Freya, or Bhavani, and even the preserver (Krishna) himself, not un frequently mingle.
War Chariots
The war chariot is peculiar to the Indu-Seythic nations, from Dasaratha,2 and the heroes of the Mahabharata, to the conquest of Hindustan by the Muhammadans, when it was laid aside. On the plains of Kurukshetra, Krishna became charioteer to his friend Arjun ; and the Getic hordes of the Jaxartes, when they aided Xerxes in Greece, and Darius on the plains of Arbela,' had their chief strength in the war chariot.
The war chariot continued to be used later in the south-west of India than elsewhere, and the Kathi,4 Khuman, Kumari of 1'HXvaioi, from "HXtos, ' the sun ' ; also a title of Apollo, the Hari of India. [The two words, from the accentuation, can have no connexion.]
2 This title of the father of Rama denotes a ' charioteer ' [' having ten chariots.' Harsha (A.D. 612-647) discarded the chariot (Smith, EHI, 339)].
3 The Indian satrapy of Darius, says Herodotus [iii. 94], was the richest of all the Persian provinces, and yielded six hundred talents of gold. Arrian informs us that his Indo-Scythic subjects, in his wars with Alexander, were the elite of his army. Besides the Sakasenae, we find tribes in name similar to those included in the thirty-six Rajkula ; especially the Dahae (Dahya, one of the thirty-six races). The Indo-Scythic contingent was two hundred war chariots and fifteen elephants, which were marshalled with the Parthii on the right, and also near Darius's person. By this disposition they were opposed to the cohort commanded by Alexander in person. The chariots commenced the action, and prevented a manoeuvre of Alexander to turn the left flank of the Persians. Of their horse, also, the most honourable mention is made ; they penetrated into the division where Parmenio com manded, to whom Alexander was compelled to send reinforcements. The Grecian historian dwells with pleasure on Indo-Scythic valour : " there were no equestrian feats, no distant fighting with darts, but each fought as if victory depended on his sole arm." They fought the Greeks hand to hand [Arrian, Anabasis, iii. 15]. But the loss of empire was decreed at Arbela, and the Sakae and Indo Scythae had the honour of being slaughtered by the Yavans of Greece, far from their native land, in the aid of the king of kings.
4 The Kathi are celebrated in Alexander's wars. The Kathiawar Kathi can be traced from Multan (the ancient abode) [mtdasthcma, ' principal place ']. Saurashtra have to recent times retained their Scythie habits, as their monumental stones testify, expressing their being slain from their cars [70].
Position of Women
In no point does resemblance more attach between the ancient German and Scandinavian tribes, and the martial Rajput or ancient Getae, than in their delicacy towards females,
" The Germans," says Tacitus [Germania, viii.], " deemed the advice of a woman in periods of exigence oracular." So does the Rajput, as the bard Chand often exemplifies ; and hence they append to her name the epithet Devi (or contracted De), ' god- like.' " To a German mind," says Tacitus, " the idea of a woman led into captivity is insupportable " ; and to prevent this the Rajput raises the poignard against the heart which beats only for him, though never to survive the dire necessity. It is then they perform the sacrifice ' johar,' when every sakha (branch) is cut off : and hence the Rajput glories in the title of Sakha-band, from having performed the sakha ; an awful rite, and with every appearance of being the sacaea of the Scythie Getae, as described by Strabo.1
The Dahya (Dahae), Johya (the latter Hunnish), and Kathi are amongst the thirty-six races. All dwelt, six centuries ago, within the five streams and in the deserts south of the Ghara. The two last have left but a name. 1 The Sakae had invaded the inhabitants on the borders of the Pontic Sea : whilst engaged in dividing the booty, the Persian generals surprised them at night, and exterminated them. To eternize the remembrance of this event, the Persians heaped up the earth round a rock in the plain where the battle was fought, on which they erected two temples, one to the goddess Anaitis, the other to the divinities Omanus and Anandate, and then founded the annual festival called Sacaea, still celebrated by the possessors of Zela. Such is the account by some authors of the origin of Sacaea. According to others it dates from the reign of Cyrus only. This prince, they say, having carried the war into the country of the Sakae (Massagetae of Herodotus) lost a battle. Compelled to fall back on his magazines, abundantly stored with provisions, but especially wine, and having halted some time to refresh his army, he departed before the enemy, feigning a flight, and leaving his camp standing full of provisions. The Sakae, who pursued, reaching the abandoned camp stored with provisions, gave themselves up to debauch. Cyrus returned and surprised the inebriated and senseless barbarians. Some, buried in profound sleep, were easily massacred ; others occupied in drinking and dancing, without defence, fell into the hands of armed foes : so that all perished. The conqueror, attributing his success to divine pro tection, consecrated this day to the goddess honoured in his country, and decreed it should be called ' the day of the Sacaea.' This is the battle
Gaming
In passion for play at games of chance, its extent and dire consequences, the Rajput, from the earliest times, has evinced a predilection, and will stand comparison with the Scythian and his German offspring. The German staked his personal liberty, became a slave, and was sold as the property of the winner. To this vice the Pandavas owed the loss of their sovereignty and personal liberty, involving at last the destruction of all the Indu [71] races ; nor has the passion abated. Religion even consecrates the vice ; and once a year, on ' the Festival of Lamps ' (Diwali), all propitiate the goddess of wealth and fortune (Lakshun) by offering at her shrine.
Destitute of mental pursuits, the martial Rajput is often slothful or attached to sensual pleasures, and when roused, reck- less on what he may wreak a fit of energy. Yet when order and discipline prevail in a wealthy chieftainship, there is much of that patriarchal mode of life, with its amusements, alike suited to the Rajput, the Getae of the Jihun, or Scandinavian.
Omens, Auguries
Divination by lots, auguries, and omens by flights of birds, as practised by the Getic nations described by Herodotus, and amongst the Germans by Tacitus, will be found amongst the Rajputs, from whose works1 on this subject might have been supplied the whole of the Augurs and Aruspices, German or Roman.
Love of Strong Drink
Love of liquor, and indulgence in it to excess, were deep-rooted in the Scandinavian Asi and German tribes, and in which they showed their Getic origin ; nor is the
related by Herodotus, to which Strabo alludes, between the Persian monarch and Tomyris, queen of the Getae. Amongst the Rajput Sakha, all grand battles attended with fatal results are termed sakha. When besieged, without hope of relief, in the last effort of despair, the females are immolated, and the warriors, decorated in saffron robes, rush on inevitable destruction. This is to perform sakha., where every branch (sakha) is cut off. Chitor has to boast of having thrice (and a half) suffered sakha. Chitor sakha ka pap, ' by the sin of the sack of Chitor,' the most solemn adjuration of the Guhilot Rajput. If such the origin of the festival from the slaughter of the Sakae of Tomyris, it will be allowed to strengthen the analogy contended for between the Sakae east and west the Indus. [For the Sacaea festival see Sir J. Frazer, The Golden Bough, The Dying God, 113 ff. It has no connexion with the Rajput Sakha, ' a fight,' which, again, is a different word from Sakha, ' a branch, clan.']
1 I presented a work on this subject to the Royal Asiatic Society, as well as another on Palmistry, etc. Rajput behind his brethren either of Scythia or Europe, It is the free use of this and similar indulgences, prohibited by ordin- ances which govern the ordinary Hindu, that first induced me to believe that these warlike races were little indebted to India.
The Rajput welcomes his guest with the munawzoar piyala, or ' cup of request,' in which they drown ancient enmities. The heroes of Odin never relished a cup of mead more than the Rajput his madhu ; 1 and the bards of Scandinavia and Rajwara are alike eloquent in the praise of the bowl, on which the Bardai exhausts every metaphor, and calls it ambrosial, immortal.2 " The bard, as he sipped the ambrosia, in which sparkled the ruby seed of the pomegranate, rehearsed the glory of the" race of the fearless.3 May the king live for ever, alike bounteous in gifts to the bard and the foe ! " Even in the heaven of Indra, the Hindu warrior's paradise, akin to Valhalla [72], the Rajput has his cup, which is served by the Apsaras, the twin sister of the celestial Hebe of Scania. " I shall quaff full goblets amongst the gods," says the dying Getic warrior ; 4 "I die laughing " : sentiments which would be appreciated by a Rajput.
A Rajput inebriated is a rare sight : but a more destructive and recent vice has usurped much of the honours of the ' invita tion cup,' which has been degraded from the pure ' flower ' 5 to an infusion of the poppy, destructive of every quality. Of this pernicious habit we may use the words which the historian of German manners applies to the tribes of the Weser and Elbe, in respect to their love of strong drink : " Indulge it, and you need not employ the terror of your arms ; their own vices will subdue them."
1 Madhu is intoxicating drink, from madhu, ' a bee,' in Sanskrit [madhu, ' anything sweet ']. It is well known that mead is from honey. It would be curious if the German mead was from the Indian madhu (bee) : then both cup (kharpara) and beverage would be borrowed. [3IadJm does not mean ' a bee ' in Sanskrit.] 2 Amrita (immortal), from the initial privative and mrit, ' death.' Thus the Immurthal, or ' vale of immortality,' at Neufchatel, is as good Sanskrit as German [?]. 3 Abhai Singh, ' the fearless lion,' prince of Marwar, whose bard makes this speech at the festal board, when the prince presented with his own hand the cup to the bard. 4 Regner Lodbrog, in his dying ode, when the destinies summon him. 5 Phul, the flower of the mahua tree, the favourite drink of a Rajput. Classically, in Sanskrit it is madhuka, of the class Polyandria Monogynia [Bassia latifolia] (see As. Res. vol. i. p. 300).
The Clip of the Scandinavian worshippers of Thor, the god of battle, was a human skull, that of the foe, in which they showed their thirst of blood ; also borrowed from the chief of the Hindu Triad, Hara, the god of battle, who leads his heroes in the ' red field of slaughter ' with the khopra1 in his hand, with which he gorges on the blood of the slain.
Kara is the patron of all who love war and strong drink, and is especially the object of the Rajput warrior's devotion : accord ingly blood and wine form the chief oblations to the great god of the Indus. The Gosains,2 the peculiar priests of Hara, or Bal, the sun, all indulge in intoxicating drugs, herbs, and drinks. Seated on their lion, leopard, or deer skins, their bodies covered with ashes, their hair matted and braided, with iron tongs to 5'ecd the penitential fires, their savage appearance makes them fit organs for the commands of the blood and slaughter. Contrary, likewise, to general practice, the minister of Hara, the god of war, at his death is committed to the earth, and a circular tumulus is raised over him ; and with some classes of Gosains, small tumuli, whose form is the frustrum of a cone, with lateral steps, the apex crowned with a cylindrical stone [73].'
Funeral Ceremonies
In the last rites for the dead, compare- son will yield proofs of original similarity. The funeral cere- monies of Scandinavia have distinguished the national eras, and the ' age of fire ' and ' the age of hills,' 4 designated the periods when the warrior was committed to mother earth or consumed on the pyre.
Odin (Budha) introduced the latter custom, and the raising of tumuli over the ashes when the body was burned ; as also the practice of the wife burning with her deceased lord. These 1 A human skull ; in the dialects pronounced khopar : Qu. cup in Saxon ? [Cup, in Low Latin cuppa.]
2 The Kanphara [or Kanphata] Jogis, or Gosains, are in great bodies, often in many thousands, and are sought as allies, especially in defensive warfare. In the grand military festivals at Udaipur to the god of war, the seymitar, symboho of Mars, worshipped by the Guhilots, is entrusted to them [I A, vii. 47 ff. ; BO, ix. part i. 543]. 3 An entire cemetery of these, besides many detached, I have seen, and also the sacred rites to their manes by the disciples occupying these abodes of austerity, when the flowers of the ak [Calatropis gigantea] and leaves of evergreen were strewed on the grave, and sprinkled with the pure element. 4 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, chap. xii.
manners were carried from Sakadwipa, or Saka Scythia, " where the Geta," says Herodotus [v. 5], " was consumed on the pyre or burned alive with her lord." With the Getae, the Siebi or Suevi of Scandinavia, if the deceased had more than one wife, the elder claimed the privilege of burning.'1 Thus, " Nanna was consumed in the same fire with the body of her husband, Balder, one of Odin's companions." But the Scandinavians were anxious to forget this mark of their Asiatic origin, and were not always willing to burn, or to make " so cruel and absurd a sacrifice to the manes of their husbands, the idea of which had been picked up by their Scythian ancestors, when they inhabited the warmer climates of Asia, where they had their first abodes.2
" The Scythic Geta," says Herodotus [iv. 71], " had his horse sacrificed on his funeral pyre ; and the Scandinavian Geta had his horse and arms buried with him, as they could not approach Odin on foot." 3 The Rajput warrior is carried to his final abode armed at all points as when alive, his shield on his back and brand in hand ; while his steed, though not sacrificed, is often presented to the deity, and becomes a perquisite of the priest.
Sati
The burning of the dead warrior, and female immolation, or Sati, are well-known rites, though the magnificent cenotaphs raised on the spot of sacrifice are little known or visited by Euro peans ; than which there are no better memorials of the rise and decline of the States of the Rajput heptarchy. It is the son who raises the mausoleum to the memory of his father ; which last token of respect, or laudable vanity, is only limited by the means of the treasury. It is commemorative [74] of the splendour of his reign that the dome of his father should eclipse that of his predecessor. In every principality of Rajwara, the remark is applicable to chieftains as well as princes.
Each sacred spot, termed ' the place of great sacrifice ' (Maha- sati), is the haunted ground of legendary lore. Amongst the altars on which have burned the beauteous and the brave, the harpy 4 takes up her abode, and stalks forth to devour the hearts
1 Mallet chap. xii. vol. i. p. 289. 2 Edda. 3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, chap. xii. The Celtic Franks had the same custom. The arms of Chilperic, and the bones of the horse on which he was to be presented to Odin, were found in his tomb.
4 The Dakini (the Jigarkhor of Sindh) is the genuine vampire [Ain, ii. 338 f .]. Captain Waugh, after a long chase in the valley of Udaipur, speared of her victims. The Rajput never enters these places of silence but to perform stated rites, or anniversary offerings of flowers and water to the manes (pitri-deva1) of his ancestors.
Odin 2 guarded his warriors' final abode from rapine by means of " wandering fires which played around the tombs " ; and the tenth chapter of the Salic law is on punishments against " carrying off the boards or carpets of the tombs." Fire and water are interdicted to such sacrilegious spoliators.
The shihaba,3 or wandering meteoric fires, on fields of battle and in the places of ' great sacrifice,' produce a pleasing yet melancholy effect ; and are the source of superstitious dread and reverence to the Hindu, having their origin in the same natural cause as the ' wandering fires of Odin ' ; the phosphorescent salts produced from animal decomposition.
The Scandinavian reared the tumulus over the ashes of the dead ; so did the Geta of the Jaxartes, and the officiating priests of Hara, the Hindu god of battle. The noble picture drawn by Gibbon of the sepulture of the Getic Alaric is paralleled by that of the great Jenghiz Khan. When the lofty mound was raised, extensive forests were planted, to exclude for ever the footsteps of man from his remains.
The tumulus, the cairn, or the pillar, still rises over the Rajput who falls in [75] battle ; and throughout Rajwara these sacri- ficial monuments are found, where are seen carved in relief the warrior on his steed, armed at all points ; his faithful wife (Sati) a hyena, whose abode was the tombs, and well known as the steed on which the witch of Ar sallied forth at night. Evil was predicted : and a dangerous fall, subsequently, in chasing an elk, was attributed to his sacrilegious slaughter of the weird sister's steed. 1 Pitri-deva, ' Father-lords.' 2 Mallet chap. xii.
3 At Gwalior, on the east side of that famed fortress, where myriads of warriors have fattened the soil, these phosphorescent lights often present a singular appearance. I have, with friends whose eyes this will meet, marked the procession of these lambent night-fires, becoming extinguished at one place and rising at another, which, aided by the unequal locale, have been frequently mistaken for the Mahratta prince returning with his numerous torch-bearers from a distant day's sport. I have dared as bold a Rajput as ever lived to approach them ; whose sense of the levity of my desire was strongly depicted, both in speech and mien : " men he would encounter, but not the spirits of those erst slain in battle." It was generally about the conclusion of the rains that these lights were observed, when evaporation took place from these marshy grounds impregnated with salts. beside him, denoting a sacrifice, and the sun and moon on either side, emblematic of never-dying fame.
Cairns, Pillars
In Saurashtra, amidst the Kathi, Khuman, Bala, and others of Scythic descent, the Paliya, or Jujhar (sacri- ficial pillars), are conspicuous under the walls of every town, in lines, irregular groups, and circles. On each is displayed in rude relief the warrior, with the manner of his death, lance in hand, generally on horseback, though sometimes in his ear ; and on the coast ' the pirates of Budha '1 are depicted boarding from the shrouds. Amidst the Khuman of Tatary the Jesuits found stone circles, similar to those met with wherever the Celtic rites pre vailed ; and it would require no great ingenuity to prove an analogy, if not a common origin, between Druidic circles and the Indo-Scythic monumental remains. The trilithon, or seat, in the centre of the judicial circle, is formed by a number sacred to Hara, Bal, or the sun, whose priest expounds the law.
Worship of Arms. The Sword
The devotion of the Rajput is still paid to his arms, as to his horse. He swears ' by the steel,' and prostrates himself before his defensive buckler, his lance, his sword, or his dagger.
The worship of the sword (asi) may divide with that of the horse (aswa) the honour of giving a name to the continent of Asia. It prevailed amongst the Scythic Getae, and is described exactly by Herodotus [iv. 62]. To Dacia and Thrace it was carried by Getic colonies from the Jaxartes, and fostered by these lovers of liberty when their hordes overran Europe.
The worship of the sword in the Acropolis of Athens by the Getic Attila, with all the accompaniments of pomp and place, forms an admirable episode in the history of the decline and fall of Rome ; and had Gibbon witnessed the worship of the double edged sword (khanda) by the prince of Mewar and all his chivalry, he might even have embellished his animated account of the adoration of the scymitar, the symbol of Mars.
Initiation to Arms
Initiation to military fame was the same with the [76] German as with the Rajput, when the youthful candidate was presented with the lance, or buckled with the sword ; a ceremony which will be noticed when their feudal 1 At Dwarka, the god of thieves is called Budha Trivikrama, or of triple energy : the Hermes Triplex, or three-headed Mercury of the Egyptians. [No such cult is mentioned in the account of Dwarka, BG, viii. 6O1.] manners are described ; many other traits of character will then be depicted. It would be easy to swell the list of analogous customs, which even to the objects of dislike in food 1 would furnish comparison between the ancient Celt and Rajput ; but they shall close with the detail of the most ancient of rites.
Asvamedha, the Horse Sacrifice
There are some things, animate and inanimate, which have been common objects of adoration amongst the nations of the earth, the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven ; the sword ; reptiles, as the serpent ; animals, as the noblest, the horse. This last was not worshipped as an abstract object of devotion, but as a type of that glorious orb which has had reverence from every child of nature. The plains of Tatary, the sands of Libya, the rocks of Persia, the valley of the Ganges, and the wilds of Orinoco, have each yielded votaries alike ardent in devotion to his effulgence : Of this great world both eye and soul.
His symbolic worship and offerings varied with clime and habit ; and while the altars of Bal in Asia, of Belenus among the Celts of Gaul and Britain, smoked with human sacrifices, the bull 2 bled to Mithras in Babylon, and the steed was the victim to Surya on the Jaxartes and Ganges.
The father of history says that the great Getae of Central Asia deemed it right to offer the swiftest of created to the swiftest of non-created beings. It is fair to infer that the sun's festival with the Getae and Aswa nations of the Jaxartes, as with those of Scandinavia, was the winter solstice, the Sankrant of the Rajput
1 Caesar informs us that the Celts of Britain would not eat the hare, goose, or domestic fowl. The Rajput will hunt the first, but neither eats it, nor the goose, sacred to the god of battle (Hara). The Rajput of Mewar eats the jungle fowl, but rarely the domestic.
2 As he did also to Balnath (the god Bal) in the ancient times of India. The baldan, or gift of the bull to the sun, is well recorded. [Baldan, balidana, does not mean the offering of a bull : it is the daily presentation of a portion of the meat to Earth and other deities.] There are numerous temples in Rajasthan of Baahm [?] ; and Balpur (Mahadeo) has several in Saurashtra. All represent the sun —
Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile. Paradise Lost, book i. 412 f. [77], The temple of Solomon was to Bal, and all the idolaters of that day seem to have held to the grosser tenets of Hinduism. and Hindu in general. Hi, Haya, Hywor, Aswa denote the steed in Sanskrit and its dialects. In Gothic, hyrsa ; Teutonic, hors ; Saxon, horse. The grand festival of the German tribes of the Baltic was the Hiul, or Hiel (already commented on), the Asvamedha1 of the children of Surya, on the Ganges.
The Asvamedha Ceremonies
The ceremonies of the Asvamedha are too expensive, and attended with too great risk, to be attempted by modern princes. Of its fatal results we have many historical records, from the first dawn of Indian history to the last of its princes, Prithwiraja. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the poems of Chand all illustrate this imposing rite and its effects.2
The Ramayana affords a magnificent picture of the Asvamedha. Dasaratha, monarch of Ayodhya, father of Rama, is represented as commanding the rite : " Let the sacrifice be prepared, and the horse ' liberated from the north bank of the Sarju ! "4 A year being ended, and the horse having returned from his wanderings,5 the sacrificial ground was prepared on the spot of liberation.
1 In Aswa (medha signifies ' to kill ') we have the derivation of the ancient races, sons of Bajaswa, who peopled the countries on both sides the Indus, and the probable etymon of Asia [?]. The Assakenoi, the Ariaspai of Alexander's historians, and Aspasianae, to whom Arsaces fled from Seleucus, and whom Strabo terms a Getic race, have the same origin ; hence Asigarh, 'the fortress of the Asi ' (erroneously termed Hansi), and Asgard were the first settlements of the Getic Asi in Scandinavia. Alexander received the homage of all these Getic races at ' the mother of cities,' Balkh, ' seat of Cathaian Khan ' (the Jat Kathida of my inscription), according to Marco Polo, from whom Milton took his geography.
2 The last was undertaken by the celebrated Sawai Jai Singh of Amber ; but the milk-white steed of the sun, I believe, was not turned out, or assuredly the Ratliors would liave accepted the challenge.
3 A milk-white steed is selected with peculiar marks. On liberation, properly guarded, he wanders where he listeth. It is a virtual challenge. Arjuna guarded the steed liberated by Yudhishthira ; but that sent round by Parikshita, his grandson, " was seized by the Takshak of the north." The same fate occurred to Sagara, father of Dasaratha, which involved the loss of his kingdom.
4 The Sarju, or Gandak, from the Kumaun mountains, passes through Kosalades, the dominion of Dasaratha.
5 The horse's return after a year evidently indicates an astronomical revolution, or the sun's return to the same point in the ecliptic. This return from his southern declination must have been always a day of rejoic- ing to the Scythic and Scandinavian nations, who could not, says Gibbon, fancy a worse hell than a large abode open to the cold wind of the north. To the south they looked for the deity ; and hence, with the Rajputs, a religious law forbids their doors being to the north.
Invitations were sent to all surrounding monarchs to repair to Ayodhya : King Kaikeya,1 the king of Kasi,2 Lomapada of Angadesa,3 Kosala of Magadhadesa,4 with the kings of Sindhu,5 Sauvira,6 and Saurashtra [78].7
When the sacrificial pillars are erected, the rites commence. This portion of the ceremony, termed Yupochchraya, is thus minutely detailed : " There were twenty-one yupas, or pillars,8 of octagonal shape, each twenty-one feet in height and four feet in diameter, the capitals bearing the figure of a man, an elephant, or a bull. They were of the various sorts of wood appropriated to holy rites, overlaid with plates of gold and ornamented cloth, and adorned with festoons of flowers. While the yupas were erecting, the Adhvaryu, receiving his instructions from the Hotri. or sacrificing priest, recited aloud the incantations.
1 Kaikeya is supposed by the translator, Dr. Carey, to be a king of Persia, the Kaivansa preceding Dariu. The epithet Kai not unfrequently occurs in Hindu traditional couplets.- One, which I remember, is connected with the ancient ruins of Abhaner in Jaipur, recording the marriage of one of its princes with a daughter of Kaikamb. Tu beti Kaikamb ki, nam Parmala ho, etc. ' Thou art the daughter of Kaikamb : thy name Fairy Garland.' Kai was the epithet of one of the Persian dynasties. Qu. Kam-bakhsh, the Cambyses of the Greeks ? [Cam- byses, Kabuziya or Kambuziya, possibly ' a bard ' (Rawlinson, Herodotus, iii. 543).] 2 Benares. 3 Tibet or Ava [N. Bengal]. 4 Bihar. 5 Sind valley. 6 Unknown to me [W. and S. Panjab and its vicinity]. 7 Peninsula of Kathiawar. 8 I have seen several of these sacrificial pillars of stone of very ancient date. Many years ago, when all the Rajput States were suffering from the thraldom of the Mahrattas, a most worthy and wealthy banker of Surat, known by the family name of Trivedi, who felt acutely for the woes inflicted by incessant predatory foes on the sons of Rama and Krishna, told me, with tears in his eyes, that the evils which afflicted Jaipur were to be attri- buted to the sacrilege of the prince, Jagat Singh, who had dared to abstract the gold plates of the sacrificial pillars, and send them to his treasure' : worse than Rehoboam, who, when he took away from the temple " the shields of gold Solomon had made," had the grace to substitute others of brass. Whether, when turned into currency, it went as a war contribution to the Mahrattas, or was applied to the less worthy' use of his concubine queen, ' the essence of camphor’ it was of a piece with the rest of this prince's unwise conduct. Jai Singh, who erected the pillars, did honour to his country, of which he was a second founder, and under whom it attained the height from which it has now fallen. [Some sacrificial pillars (yupa) were recently found in the bed of the .Jumna near Mathura, with inscriptions dated in the twenty -fourth year of Kanishka's reign, about A.D. 102.]
"The sacrificial pits were in triple rows, eighteen in number, and arranged in the form of the eagle. Here were placed the victims for immolation ; birds, aquatic animals, and the horse. "Thrice was the steed of King Dasaratha led round the sacred fire by Kosala, and as the priests pronounced the incantations he was immolated 1 amidst shouts of joy.
"The king and queen, placed by the high priest near the horse, sat up all night watching the birds ; and the officiating priest, having taken out the hearts, dressed them agreeably to the holy books. The sovereign of men smelled the smoke of the offered hearts, acknowledging his transgressions in the order in which they were committed.
"The sixteen sacrificing priests then placed (as commanded in the ordinances) on the fire the parts of the horse. The oblation of all the animals was made on wood, except that of the horse, which was on cane. "The rite concluded with gifts of land to the sacrificing priests and augurs ; but the holy men preferring gold, ten millions of jambunada2 were bestowed on them" [79].
Such is the circumstantial account of the Asvamedha, the most imposing and the earliest heathen rite on record. It were superfluous to point out the analogy between it and similar rites of various nations, from the chosen people to the Auspex of Rome and the confessional rite of the Catholic church. The Sankrant,3 or Sivaratri (night of Siva), is the winter solstice. On it the horse bled to the sun, or Balnath.
1 On the Nauroz, or festival of the new year, the Great Mogul slays a camel with his own hand, which is distributed, and eaten by the court favourites. [A camel is sacrificed at the Tdu-1-azha festival (Hughes, Dict. Islam, 192 ff.).]
2 This was native gold, of a peculiarly dark and brilliant hue, which was compared to the fruit jambu (not unlike a damson). Everything forms an allegory with the Hindus ; and the production of this metal is appropriated to the period of gestation of Jahnavi, the river-goddess (Ganges), when by Agni, or fire, she produced Kumara, the god of war, the commander of the army of the gods. This was when she left the place of her birth, the Hima- laya mountain (the great storehouse of metallic substances), whose daughter she is : and doubtless this is in allusion to some very remote period, when, bursting her rock-bound bed, Ganga exposed from ' her side ' veins of this precious metal.
3 Little bags of brocade, filled with seeds of the sesamum or cakes of the The Scandinavians termed the longest night the ' mother night,' 1 on which they held that the world was born. Hence the Beltane, the fires of Bal or Belenus ; the Hiul of northern nations, the sacrificial fires on the Asvamedha, or worship of the sun, by the Suryas on the Ganges, and the Syrians (I'VO )and Sauromatae on the shores of the Mediterranean.
The altars of the Phoenician Heliopolis, Balbec2 or Tadmor,3 were sacred to the same divinity as on the banks of Sarju, or Balpur, in Saurashtra, where " the horses of the sun ascended from his fountain (Surya-kund),'" to carry its princes to conquest. From Syria came the instructors of the Celtic Druids, who made human sacrifices, and set up the pillar of Belenus on the hills of Cambria and Caledonia.
When " Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill and under every tree," the object was Bal, and the pillar (the lingam) was his symbol. It was on his altar they burned incense, and " sacrificed unto the calf on the fifteenth 4 day of the month " (the sacred Amavas of the Hindus). The calf of Israel is the bull (nandi) of Balkesar or Iswara ; the Apis of the Egyptian Osiris [80].
Sacred Trees
The ash was sacred to the sun-god in the west. The asvattha (or pipal)5 is the ' chief of trees,' say the books same, are distributed by the chiefs to friends on this occasion. While the author writes, he has before him two of these, sent to hini by the young Mahratta prince, Holkar.
1 Sivaratri would be ' father night ' [?]. Siva-Iswara is the ' universal father.' 2 Ferishta, the compiler of the imperial history of India, gives us a Persian or Arabic derivation of this, from Bal, ' the sun,' and bee, ' an idol." [This has not been traced in Dow or Briggs.] 3 Corrupted to Palmyra, the etymon of which, I believe, has never been given, which is a version of Tadiiior. In Sanskrit, tal, or tar, is the ' date tree ' ; mor signifies ' chief.' We have more than one ' city of palms ' (Talpur) in India ; and the tribe ruhng in Haidarabad, on the Indus, is called Talpuri, from the place whence they originated. [Tadmor is Semitic, probably meaning ' abounding in palms.' The suggested derivation is impossible.] 4 I Kings xiv. 23. 5 Ficus religiosa. It presents a perfect resemblance to the popul (poplar) of Germany and Italy, a species of which is the aspen. [They belong to different orders.] So similar is it, that the specimen of the pipal from Carohna is called, in the Isola Bella of the Lago Maggiore, Populufi angulata ; sacred to Bal in the East : and death, or loss of limb, is incurred by the sacrilegious mutilator of his consecrated groves,1 where a pillar is raised bearing the inhibitory edict.
We shall here conclude the analogy between the Indo-Scythic Rajput races and those of early Europe. Much more might be adduced ; the old Runic characters of Scandinavia, the Celtic, and the Osci or Etruscan, might, by comparison with those found in the cave temples and rocks in Rajasthan and Saurashtra, yield yet more important evidence of original similarity ; and the very and another, in the Jardin des Plantes at Toulon, is termed the Ficuspopuli folia, ou figuier a feuilles de peuplier. The aspen, or ash, held sacred by the Celtic priests, is said to be the mountain-ash. ' The calf of Bal ' is generally placed under the pipal ; and Hindu tradition sanctifies a never-dying stem, which marks the spot where the Hindu ApoUo, Ilari (the sun), was slain by the savage Bhil on the shores of Saurashtra. [This is known as the Prachi Pipal, and death rites are performed close to it (BQ, viii. 271, note 2).]
1 The religious feelings of the Rajput, though outraged for centuries by Moguls and mercenary Pathans, will not permit him to see the axe appUed to the noble pipal or umbrageous bar (Ficus indica), without execrating the destroyer. Unhappy the constitution of mind which knowingly wounds religious prejudices of such ancient date ! Yet is it thus with our country men in the East, who treat all foreign prejudices with contempt, shoot the bird sacred to the Indian Mars, slay the calves of Bal, and fell the noble pipal before the eyes of the native without remorse. He is unphilosophic and unwise who treats such prejudices with contumely : prejudices beyond the reach of reason. He is uncharitable who does not respect them ; im- politic, who does not use every means to prevent such offence by ignorance or levity. It is an abuse of our strength, and an ungenerous advantage over their weakness. Let us recollect who are the guardians of these fanes of Bal, his pipal, and sacred bird (the peacock) ; the children of Surya and Chandra, and the descendants of the sages of yore, they who fill the ranks of our array, and are attentive, though silent, observers of all our actions : the most attached, the most faithful, and the most obedient of mankind ! Let us maintain them in duty, obedience, and attachment, by respecting their prejudices and conciliating their pride. On the fulfilment of this depends the maintenance of our sovereignty in India : but the last fifteen years have assuredly not increased their devotion to us.
Let the question be put to the unprejudiced, whether their welfare has advanced in pro portion to the dominion they have conquered for us, or if it has not been in the inverse ratio of this prosperity ? Have not their allowances and com forts decreased ? Does the same relative standard between the currency and conveniences of life exist as twenty years ago ? Has not the first depreciated twenty-five per cent, as half-batta stations and duties have increased ? For the good of ruler and servant, let these be rectified. With the utmost solemnity, I aver, i have but the welfare of all at heart in these observations. I loved the service, I loved the native soldier. I have name of German (from wer, bellum)1 might be found to be derived from the feud (vair) and foe-man (vairi) of the Rajput.
If these coincidences are merely accidental, then has too much been already said ; if not, authorities are here recorded, and hypotheses founded, for the assistance of others [81 J.
