Note 123 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Religion. 9. Binds more or less follow the Brâhmanical ritual, while the esoteric doctrine, on which the whole body of symbolism depends, is entirely unknown to the votaries of the popular religion.123 In Mirzapur their favourite deity is Mahâdeva, and they make annual pilgrimages to Baijnâth (Baidyanâth), in Shahâbâd, where they pour Ganges water over the lingam. Members of the Maiwarha sept act as special priests of the Pânchonpîr. These five saints and the local deities (dih) are generally worshipped. On the eighth day of the dark half of Kuâr, the Jiutiya, women fast. Those who belong to Nârâyaniha sub-division worship at Mau at the Sivarâtri in the month of Phâlgun, Mahâdeva, Pârvati, Mahâbîr and Satya Nârâyan or Vishnu, with offerings of cakes. Their priests are a class of low Brâhmans of Sikari, in Mirzapur. “The patron deity (kuladevata) of all Binds is Kâshi Bâba, about whom the following story is told:—A mysterious epidemic was carrying off the herds on the banks of the Ganges, and the ordinary expiatory sacrifices were ineffectual. One evening a clownish Ahîr, on going to the river, saw a figure rinsing its mouth from time to time, and making an unearthly sound with a conch shell. The lout, concluding that this must be the demon causing the epidemic, crept up and clubbed the unsuspecting bather. Kâshi Nâth was the name of the murdered Brâhman, and as the cessation of the murrain coincided with his death, the low Hindustâni castes have ever since regarded Kâshi Bâba as the maleficent spirit that sends disease among their cattle. Now-a-days he is propitiated by the following curious ceremony. As soon as an infectious disease breaks out, the village cattle are massed together, and cotton seed scattered over them. The fattest and sleekest animal being singled out, is severely beaten with rods. The herd, scared by the noise, scamper off to the nearest shelter, followed by the scape bull, and by this means it is thought the murrain is stayed. In ordinary times the Binds worship Kâshi Bâba in a simpler fashion, each man in his own house, by presenting flowers, perfumes and sweetmeats. The latter, after having done duty before the god, are eaten by the votary. Kâshi Bâba, no doubt, was an actual person, who came by his end, if not exactly as told in the legend, at least in some tragic fashion, which led to his being elevated to the rank of a god. In some of the other objects of the rural worship we may, perhaps, see survivals of the primitive animism which formed the religion of the aborigines of India before their insensible conversion to Brâhmanism. Some of the tribal deities were, as we know, promoted to seats in the Hindu pantheon: others, whose position was less prominent and whose hold on the mind of the people was weaker, got thrust into the background as patrons of various rural events.”124