Note 118 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.
Reading edition
Passing on to birds, the crow is a famous totem or sacred bird.118 It personifies in Indian tradition the soul of the dead man; hence, to give food to the crows, known in Northern India as Kâgaur, is equivalent to offering food to the Manes. Râma in the Râmâyana orders Sîtâ to make this offering, and Yama, in reward for its services, conceded to it the right of eating the funeral meats, for which reason the souls of the dead, when this food is given to the crows, are enabled to pass into a better world. Hence the bird is known as Balipushta or “nourished by offerings,” and Balibhuj or “devourer of oblations.”119