Chapter III · DISEASE DEITIES.

During the course of the disease no low-caste person and no woman in her monthly course is allowed to cast his or her shadow on the patient.21 The women in the house are prohibited from combing their hair, or churning curdled milk, or indulging in sexual intercourse. Such acts are believed to cause extreme displeasure to the Mātā, who then causes some limb of the patient to be affected. Branches of nimb leaves are suspended over the doors of the house, and also round the patient’s bed. The same leaves are used to fan the patient.21

Women whose relatives have recovered from a dangerous attack of small-pox observe a vow on every sātem, i.e., the 7th day of the dark half of every month. They first bathe with cold water and, after offering an oblation of kulerā, take their meals only once during the day. This food has to be prepared on the previous day.

It is said that the powderlike substance which falls from the scabs of small-pox cures cataract if applied to the eyes.34

The following are some of the remedies adopted in cases of fever:

(i) The recitation of sacred hymns in honour of the gods.

(iii) Rudrābhishek—pouring a stream of water on the image of Shiva with the recitation of verses in his honour.

(iv) Drawing the jantra of Mrityunjaya (lit. Death-conquering, an epithet of Shiva) as shown below.

There is a flower garden to the west of Jodia where there is a tree called ghelun (mad) tree. Vows in honour of this tree are believed to be efficacious in curing fever.45

There is also a belief that the sixty-four Joganis, when they are desirous of victims, cause baneful epidemics among mankind, the remedies in such a case being such as offering a goat or a he-buffalo to them, or the observation of an ujāni in their honour.

The following tale is related regarding an occurrence said to have taken place not long ago in the village of Verad. The headman of the village who was a Rajput by birth but who had lost his caste owing to irregular conduct with a woman, died of fever, and as he was an outcaste his body was buried instead of being cremated. Soon after, a number of persons in the same village happened to die of the same fever and the people conjectured that the late patel’s corpse must be lying in its grave with its face downwards chewing the khahan (? perhaps kaphan, i.e. the cloth in which a corpse is wrapped). Many thought that the health of the village would not be restored until the corpse was replaced in the correct position with its face upwards and unless the kaphan was taken out of its mouth. But none ventured to do so, being dissuaded by the fear of meeting with a worse fate.

The following are some of the remedies practised by the village people in the case of certain cattle-diseases.

The following ceremony is sometimes performed in order to ascertain whether a person is under the influence of an evil spirit or not. A bhuvā is invited to the patient’s house in the company of drummers, and there he dances for some time amidst the din produced by the beating of the drums and by the loud recitation of hymns in honour of his favourite goddess. Afterwards a handful of grain is passed round the head of the patient and presented to the bhuvā for inspection. The bhuvā selects a few seeds from the grain and making certain gestures, offers them to the patient with either the words ‘vācho’ or ‘vadhāvo’. In case the bhuvā says ‘vācho’ and the number of seeds happens to be even, what he declared to be the cause of the patient’s trouble is believed to be true. So also if the bhuvā says vadhāvo and the number of seeds proves to be odd. But in case the number of seeds proves to be odd when the bhuvā says ‘vācho’, or even, when he says vadhāvo, then his explanation of the cause of the patient’s trouble is not credited.

The following are other methods of expelling an evil spirit from the body:—

Either lobhān, i.e., incense powder, or chillies or even the excreta of dogs are burnt under the nose of the patient, who, overpowered by the unpleasant odour, is supposed to give out the name of the evil spirit and also what the latter wants.

The eighth day of the bright half of Āshvin is dedicated to the worship of the Mātās and devis (minor goddesses), and on this day, bhuvās have to dance each before his favourite mātā. This they have also to do on the 1st day of the bright half of Āshādh. Bhuvās are also invited to dance on the Diwāsā day i.e., the last day of Āshādh.74

The respect which a bhuvā commands in this way is sometimes increased by the performance of such tricks as his putting lighted torches into his mouth, placing his hand in boiling oil, and similar performances.

But although there may be some bhuvās who profit by imposing upon the credulity of the villagers, there are many bhuvās who do not work with the expectation of any reward, and are only actuated by benevolent motives. Many of them honestly believe that at the time when they are thrown into a state of trance, the mātās or deities actually enter their bodies and speak their wishes through them as a medium.

Once, a child saw its mother offering a rag to such a tree, and asked her the reason of the offering. The mother replied that her brother, that is the child’s maternal uncle, dwelt in the tree. Hence a belief arose that a chithario (ragged) uncle dwells in such trees. Others assert that the chithario pir dwells in such trees, and they propitiate him by offering cocoanuts and burning frankincense before it.89

There is a Khijado tree near Sultānpur which is believed to be the residence of a demon māmo. This demon is propitiated by the offerings of rags.

Some declare that travellers fix rags of worn out clothes to the trees mentioned above in order that they may not be attacked by the evil spirits residing in them. Another belief is that the spirits of deceased ancestors residing in such trees get absolution through this form of devotion. It is also believed that a goddess called chitharia devi resides in such trees, and being pleased with these offerings, blesses childless females with children, and cures persons suffering from itch of their disease. There is a further belief that ragged travellers, by offering pieces of their clothes to the Khijado, Bāval or Kerado trees, are blessed in return with good clothes.

It is related by some people that in deserts trees are rare and the summer heat is oppressive. To the travellers passing through such deserts, the only place of rest is in the shadow of a solitary tree that is to be met occasionally. In order that no harm be done to such trees, some people have given currency to the belief that a spirit called māmo dwells in such trees and expects the offering of a rag and a pice at the hands of every passer by.90

There is also a belief, that the holy trees that receive offerings of rags from travellers, are the abodes of gods or evil spirits, and are distinguished from other trees of the same species by the epithet of chithario. Some people hoist flags on such trees instead of offering rags.

It is stated by some people that the belief in chithario pir has grown during the last four hundred years.

Rags are never offered to wells, but it is common to offer them copper coins and betelnuts. Sometimes flags are hoisted near holy wells in honour of the water-goddess Jaldevki. Travellers hoist flags on certain wells and throw copper coins into them in the course of their journey. The origin of this offering is said to be in the desire of travellers to prevent people from committing a nuisance near wells.

Some wells are noted as being the abode of spirits who have the power of effecting certain cures. It is customary to throw a pice in such wells. When a person is bitten by a rabid dog, he goes to a well inhabited by a vāchharo, the spirit who cures hydrophobia, with two earthen cups filled with milk, with a pice in each, and empties the contents into the water.

It is a belief among Hindus that to give alms in secret confers a great merit on the donor. Some of the orthodox people, therefore, throw pice into wells, considering it to be a kind of secret charity.

The belief in the practices adopted for transferring disease from one person to another obtains mostly among women, who have recourse to such practices for curing their children.

One of such practices is to lay a suffering child in the cradle of a healthy child. This act is believed to result in transferring the disease of the ailing child to the healthy child. Another practice is that the mother of the sickly child should touch the mother of a healthy child with the object of transferring the disease of her child to the child of the latter. Some believe that the mere contact of an ailing child with a healthy child is sufficient to transfer the malady of the former to the person of the latter. Others maintain that this can be brought about by a mother either by touching the cradle of another child or by touching the person of another woman. There are others, who hold that the disease of a sickly child can be transferred to another child by feeding the latter with the leavings of the former. There is a further belief that a mother can transfer the disease of her suffering child to the child of another woman by applying the end of her robe to the end of the robe of the latter. In some places, when a child begins to weaken, its mother makes an idol of cow or buffalo dung, and keeps it fixed to a wall of the house, in the belief that the child will be cured slowly as the idol dries. It is stated that instances are actually known of the recovery of children by this process. These methods of transferring disease are called tuchakās i.e. mystic methods. As a rule superstitious women practise them on Sundays or Tuesdays, as it is believed, that to be efficacious, they must be practised on these days.

In addition to the tuchakās above stated the utārs, dorās, etc., already described, are used for curing diseases.

Some diseases are attributed to vir possession. Virs are male spirits fifty two in number. The bhuvās or exorcists are believed to have control over them, and are supposed to be able to detect an illness caused by possession by a vir. In such cases, the bhuvās drive away the evil spirits from the patients by magic incantations, or transfer them to others by waving a certain number of grain seeds round the head of the patient. By another process the bhuvās can confine the evil spirit in a glass bottle, which is buried underground.

In order to eradicate a dangerous disease, an utār is frequently offered to a dog, in the belief that by eating the utār the disease is transferred to the dog.

When a man is suffering from ānjani (a sore or mole on the eye-lid) he goes to another person’s house and strikes earthen vessels against his door saying “I have shaken the vessels. May the ānjani be with me to-day and with you tomorrow”. It is also stated that such a patient goes to the house of a man who has two wives while the latter are asleep, and taps his door uttering the words “Anjani ghar bhāngani āj mane ane kal tane” i.e., “May ānjani, the breaker of the house, be to-day with me and tomorrow with thee.” This process is believed to transfer the disease from the person of the patient to that of the husband of the two wives.

A common method for transferring disease is to wave water round a sick person and give it to another to drink. Similarly, a goblet filled with water is passed round a patient’s head and offered to a bhuvā, who drinks off the contents.

In some places the patient is supposed to be possessed by a goddess instead of by an evil spirit. A goat, cock or a male buffalo is offered to the goddess in the same way as to an evil spirit.

In some villages, when there is an outbreak of a serious epidemic, it is customary to drive a buffalo beyond the village boundary, with the disease on his back. The back of the buffalo which is chosen for this purpose is marked with a trident in red lead and covered with a piece of black cloth, on which are laid a few grains of adad and an iron nail. Thus decorated, the buffalo is driven beyond the limits of the village. It is believed that an animal driven in this way carries the disease wherever it goes.

Very often, the beast to which a disease is transferred is kept tied to a post all its life, with the belief that by so doing the disease remains enchained. Jain teachers confine a disease in a bottle and bury it underground. Sometimes, a disease is passed on to a crow, whose legs are tied to a pillar, thus making it a life-long prisoner.

A few years ago there lived in Khākhi Jalia, a village in the vicinity of Kolki, a Khākhi (recluse) named Nārandās, who, when laid up with fever, passed on the disease to his blanket, and after a time drew it back to his own person.