Note 76.1 — Chapter XVIII · THE RESCUE OF ANDROMEDA: ITS RELATION TO HUMAN SACRIFICES.

But, though this may be a true explanation of the story of the Talao Lake, it will generally be agreed that the legend could not have assumed its present form had not human sacrifices to water and water-gods been familiar to the natives of India. The sacred books of the Aryans prescribe human sacrifices on divers occasions to various deities; and it is doubtful whether even yet British rule has entirely extinguished them. Among the aboriginal tribes they have been put down with extreme difficulty. All over India the folktales are full of them; and many are the sagas relating to the consecration of tanks in this way. I need only add two instances. “At Ahmadábád, by the advice of a Brahman, a childless Ványa was induced to dig a tank to appease the goddess Sítalá. The water refused to enter it without the sacrifice of a man. As soon as the victim’s blood fell on the ground the tank filled, and the goddess came down from heaven to rescue the victim. The Vadála lake in Bombay likewise refused to hold water till the local spirit was appeased by the sacrifice of the daughter of the village headman.”76.1 Among the records of actual sacrifices to water, the author of the treatise on the names of rivers and mountains attributed to Plutarch cites Archelaus (a philosopher of the fifth century before Christ, whose works have perished) for the statement that virgins were nailed to wooden crosses and flung into the Hydaspes, one of the five great rivers (tributaries of the Indus) from which the Panjáb takes its name. These offerings were accompanied by hymns addressed to a goddess called by the writer Aphrodite—probably Párvatí, to whom in her character of Kálí there is reason to suspect that human victims are still presented in remote places.76.2 As Párvatí, however, she is still, with her husband Siva, the joint object of an instructive rite in the Kánagrá district during some part of March and April. The girls of the village procure two clay images, the one of Siva and the other of Párvatí, which they marry together with full ceremonial. A feast follows; and on the Sankránt of Baisákh (in April) “they all go together to the riverside, throw the images into a deep pool, and weep over the place, as though they were performing funeral obsequies. The boys of the neighbourhood often annoy them by diving after the images, bringing them up, and waving them about while the girls are crying over them.” The custom is called Ralí Ka melá or the Fair of Ralí, “the Ralí being a small painted earthen image of Siva or Párvatí”; and its object is said to be to secure good husbands.77.1 “Until the beginning of the present century,” says Mr. Crooke, “the custom of offering a first-born child to the Ganges was common”; and he goes on to suggest that “akin to this is the Gangá Játra, or murder of sick relatives on the bank of the sacred river, of which a case occurred quite recently at Calcutta.” However this may be, the natives are still suspicious when a bridge is built. “The Narbadá, it was believed, would never allow herself to be bridged until she carried away part of the superstructure and caused the loss of lives as a sacrifice.” And the rumours that a victim was required when the Hooghly Bridge at Calcutta was built, and when the waterworks of Benares were constructed, point to a wide prevalence of the superstition that these and other great public works demand a human sacrifice.77.2