Title: Omens and Superstitions of Southern India
Author: Edgar Thurston
Publisher: Shilpy Prakashan, Delhi 2019 (First published 1912)
ISBN: 9788187405016
Pages: 311
Faith is an integral part of Indian life. Regardless of economic circumstances, social position or geographical diversity, most of us keep some fond beliefs which sometimes turn out to be, well, not very rational. This state of affairs existed for a long time and we see a British anthropologist taking a keen interest in them. Edgar Thurston studied medicine but worked in a variety of fields such as numismatics, ethnography, geology and anthropology. He served as the superintendent of the Madras Government Museum for 23 years. He has published books on all topics of his interest. This book is an attempt to categorize the various faces of superstitious belief prevalent in southern India around the beginning of the twentieth century. As it was included in the Madras presidency, a part of present-day Odisha is also included in the book. One important thing to keep in mind is that the effort to list out the superstitious traits in the country is neither purely academic nor entirely benign. This book is clearly another tool in the arsenal of British evangelists to paint the whole of South Indian society with the brush of backwardness and barbarity by elaborating on some of the obscure rituals rarely practiced by a few people, as representative of the entire genre of Hinduism. The book includes several notes from missionaries, priests and bishops detailing the gory aspects of some local custom which fall just short of advocacy to the people to convert to Christianity in order to get redeemed of the worship of the devil. With this caveat at the back of one’s mind, this book is an interesting read as it helps to assess the current society and marvel at the several habits they still possess which are narrated in the book. The book is divided into many chapters such as omens, animal superstitions, evil eye, snake worship, vows, votive and other offerings, charms, human sacrifice, magic and magicians, divination and fortune-telling, agricultural and rain-making ceremonies. The Onam and Vishu celebrations in Kerala are also clubbed with superstition in the true spirit of colonial haughtiness and evangelical disdain.
The book includes detailed descriptions of the gory practice of animal sacrifice. Cutting the body open and observing the quivering or throbbing internal organs was the usual way. Sometimes, sanctified water is thrown over the animals brought to be sacrificed to see if they shiver in a specified manner which is taken as a good omen. Thurston seamlessly shift from the horrid description of animal sacrifices in one paragraph to an analysis of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala in the next where the throbbing of the right arm is given mystic interpretations. Readers are expected to grasp the unspoken clue that all (emphasis added) of India is riddled with superstition and heresy. Many observations recorded in the book regarding brutal rituals are always made by Christian missionaries who operated in these regions in search of converts. Bishop Whitehead tells a tale in which the situation is made most disgusting by adding nauseating bits of truth or falsehood. He says of an incident where the blood of a sacrificial pig is fed to itself while still alive along with rice. If it eats the material, that is taken as a good omen. Whitehead adds that the pujari finally cuts the throat of the animal. These stories are cleverly woven to cause maximum revulsion and encourage educated natives to convert to Christianity. While discussing the magical practice of bottling evil spirits and casting the bottles away, Thurston tactfully inserts the legend of the goddess Bhagavati of Kodungallur being rescued by a fisherman when he found her shut up in a jar at sea (p.247). This clearly exposes the colonial narrative of equating Hindu gods with evil spirits.
In the many chapters comprising the book, one encounters numerous practices which are grotesque, brutal, harmless or even outright funny. In Telugu, the number ‘seven’ is unlucky because the word ‘yedu’ is the same as that for weeping. Even a treasury officer, who was a university graduate, is reported as pronouncing ‘six and one’ when he was required to say ‘seven’. Omens were observed not only before starting auspicious ventures. The robber castes indulged in watching omens before a thieving expedition which occasionally included animal sacrifices. A gang of Donga Dasaris proceed to a Hanuman temple and garland the deity with a wreath of flowers. The garland hangs on both sides of the neck. If any of the flowers on the right side drop down first, it is regarded as the permission granted by the god to start on their plundering trip. If a tree snake bites a person, things are a bit humorous. The snake is believed to ascend the nearest palm tree and waits until it sees the smoke ascending from the funeral pyre of the victim. The only chance of saving his life is to have a mock funeral where a straw effigy is burnt. Seeing the smoke, the deluded snake comes down from the tree and the bitten person recovers. The gullible natives sometimes adored even foreigners as gods. A horse-riding Bengali babu was worshipped as a deity for giving protection to fishermen in a coastal hamlet of Odisha. It is noted that in the Ayudha Puja at the Madras School of Arts, the puja was done to a bust of the late Bishop Gell upon an improvised altar with a cast of Saraswati above and various members of the Hindu pantheon around.
Altogether, some of the practices followed by the people blended them easily into nature and their habitat even though they were not exactly rational. Sparrows were credited with bringing good luck to the house in which they build their nests. For this purpose, when a house is under construction, holes are left in the walls or ceiling, or certain earthen pots are hung on the wall by means of nails, as an attractive site for roosting. Wild elephants were held in veneration by the jungle tribe of Kadirs, whereas tame ones are believed to have lost the divine element. People of other religions also practiced irrational beliefs. A Mappila thangal (Mohammedan priest) once cursed the crows for dropping their excrement on his person, and that’s why it is believed that the crow does not exist in the Lakshadweep Islands. Muslims killed geckos unlike other social groups. The reason for this is shrouded in misty religious history. When some fugitive Muslims were hiding from their enemies in a well, one gecko came and nodded its head in their direction till their enemies saw them. In another interesting anecdote, a Lambadi was seen repeating mantrams over his patients and touched their heads with a book which was a small edition of the Telugu translation of St. John’s Gospel! Neither the physician nor the patient could read and had no idea of the contents of the book. Still, the disease was cured occasionally. All Hindu castes, irrespective of the hierarchy in ranking made vows and offerings to gods worshipped by them or other castes with the object of securing their good will or appeasing their anger. The lower castes sought to propitiate minor deities while the higher castes usually performed vows to the deities of Tirupati, Palani, Tiruvallur or Melkote. But they also sought the good offices of the minor deities when afflicted with serious illness or reversal of fortunes (p.133).
An amusing thing to note is that some of the harmless practices are still followed in South India. The propensity to avoid the '‘evil eye’ is widely persisting. We come across hideous effigies erected at construction sites and painting of large black dots on children’s faces to avert the evil eye. There is a good illustration of snake worship in Kerala and the rituals of Mannarasala are given prominence. On the other hand, the author never for an instant forgets that he belongs to a colonial master race tasked by destiny to rule over black ignoramuses steeped in superstition. So he is sensitive to even inoffensive local beliefs and disrespectful to what the natives consider as sacred. Overarching colonial contempt makes him offer a few coins to a native woman in return for her tali which is tied around her neck by the groom at the time of marriage. In England, this would have been tantamount to offering a price to a lady’s wedding ring. But the Indian woman set the record straight by giving a stream of abuse in return for this indecent proposal. In another instance, Thurston describes a head mason who always carried a copper coin which was six centuries old and was reluctant to part with. His attachment to this antique object is made fun of (p.191). In some cases the author does not comprehend what is going on around him but still ventures to pass judgment. Ceremonies related to Vaastu which sometimes involve drawing a human figure on the ground where a house is to be constructed is confused as pertaining to human sacrifice (p.212). Amid the rule of the British, the author mentions some events which indicate that there was a strong undercurrent of resentment among the people against foreign rule. In the chapter on rain-prophesies, the author remarks that in the year before the Mutiny, the prophecy was ‘they have risen against the white ants’.
The book is recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
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