Art. IV.—The Religious Festivals of the Hindus

H. H. Wilson

doi:10.1017/S0035869X0015614X

Art. IV.—The Religious Festivals of the Hindus

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011

H. H. Wilson

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Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 9 , January 1848 , pp. 60 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X0015614X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1848

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^{page 64 note 1} According to Bentley, this was 1181 B.C.

^{page 64 note 2} The term Makara denotes an aquatic non-descript animal: the more ancient name of the sign seems to have been Mriga, a deer “The two Sankrántis, the deer and the crab.” —Tithi Tatwa. The same work explains the application of the term, the type of the constellation having the head, not of a goat, but of a deer

^{page 65 note 1} Kála Saukaliá, p. 4, note.

^{page 66 note 1} The ablution is to be preceded by a fast and followed by a feast and gifts to Brahmans. Tithi T.

^{page 70 note 1} Pongali, according to Rottler, Tam. Dict., means “a bubbling up;” in Telugu, it denotes a dish of rice mixed with boiled milk and sugar and other articles.—Campbell, Tel. Diet.

^{page 71 note 1} The Abbé Dubois adds the following particulars of this part of the ceremony. “On peint de diverses couleurs les cornes des vaches et on leur met au cou une guirlande de feuillages verts entremêlés de fleurs à laquelle on suspend des gateaux, des cocos, et autres fruits, qui se détachant bientôt par le mouvement de ces animaux sont ramassés et mangés avec empressement par ceux qui les suivent. Après avoir conduit les vaches en troupe hors de la ville ou du village, on les force à s'enfuir de coté et d'autre en les effarouchant par le bruit confus d'un grand nombre de tambours et d'instrumens bruyans. Ce jour là ces bêtes peuvent paître par tout sans gardien, et quelques dégats qu'elles fassent dans les champs où elles se jettent, il n'est pas permis de les en chasser.“—II., 337.

^{page 71 note 2} This authority acknowledges, therefore, a principal festival of but two days, but we have that of the Madras calendar for three; the first being called the Bhoga Pándikei, the second the Pongal, and the third the Matu (or cattle) Pongal. So the Abbé Dubois, “La fête dure trois jours;” the first of which is called Bhoga Pongal (pongol de la joie, from Bhoga, enjoyment), the second Surya Pongal (pongol du soleil), and the third the Pongol des vaches.—2, 335. In Rottler's Tamil Dict, we have the three days; the first Pongi-pandikei, dedicated, it is said, to Indra; the second Perum pongol, sacred to the sun; and the third the Mátu pongol, sacred to Krishn'a.

^{page 76 note 1} The specification of the date is to be understood as applicable to Bengal, and even there it is subject to occasional variation.

^{page 76 note 2} The Vishnu Puran'a specifies three altogether—Aghan, Mágha, and Phálguna. Raghunandana quotes the Brahma P. for the same.

^{page 76 note 3} Mitákshará, 33, I. 16.

^{page 76 note 4} Boiled in a pot, sthálípáka, as Gobhila says,

^{page 76 note 5}

^{page 77 note 1} Harivansa, as cited by Raghunandana. The text, as quoted by Raghunan-dana, is—

^{page 77 note 2} As in the Nirnayámrita, from the Brahma Puràn'a. The Kalpa Tatwa has

^{page 77 note 3} Hemádri, Nirnayámrita, Padma Purán'a.

^{page 78 note 1} See Sir WmOde, Jones's to Bhavání, ; also translation of Kumára Sambhava, by DrMill, , Journal As. S. B., Vol. II., p. 329.Google Scholar

^{page 80 note 1} Sárada Tilaka. Sir W. Jones translates this prayer somewhat differently.

^{page 80 note 2} Brahma Purán'a.

^{page 81 note 1} Ratí is personified as a young and beautiful female, richly attired and decorated, dancing and playing on the Víná; and Káma is represented as a youth with eight arms, attended by four nymphs,—Pleasure, Affection, Passion, and Power,—bearing the shell, the lotus, a bow and five arrows, and a banner with the Makara,—a figure composed of a goat and a fish, or, as before mentioned, the sign Capricorn.

^{page 82 note 1} From the Brahmá Vaivartta Purán'a.—Prakriti Khan'd'a, s. 40.

^{page 84 note 1} It has been thought that Herodotus alludes to the custom, when he observes, lib. ii., c. 82, that the Egyptians assign their months and days to different deities. Pliny also has an obscure intimation that the sovereignty over each day was attributed to the planets in the order of their revolution. In the time of Dion Cassius, or in the beginning of the third century, the nomenclature had come into general use, and he is the authority for its Egyptian origin. As in the Latin version, quod autem dies ad septem sidera illa, quos planetas appellarunt, referuntur id ab Ægyptiis institutum.—Lib. 38, c. 18. Christmannus, a modern Latin writer, (de Kalendario Romano,) attributes the nomenclature to the Babylonians: Sane apud Romanes nulla tunc erat distinctio temporis in hebdomades dierum; ea tamen apud Babylonios et Ægyptios statim a regno Nabonasari in usu fuit cum septem planetarum nominibus dies septimanæ appellarentur. He does not give his authorities. It was not impossibly of Chaldæan invention, but was very generally diffused throughout the East at a remote date.

^{page 85 note 1} The jackall declines touching the sinewy meshes of the noose, because it is Sunday.—Hitopadesa.

^{page 85 note 2} Commentary on Tithi Tatwa.

^{page 86 note 1} From the Narasinha Purán'a.

^{page 89 note 1} Kalpa Druma.

^{page 90 note 1} Macrobius, , Saturn. I. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 1} The Kalpa Druma does notice a Dolotsara,—the swinging of Krishn'a on the Phálguí purnimá.

^{page 102 note 1} It appears from the Bhavishyottara Purán'a, as given below, to be derived from Homa, burnt offering, and Loka, mankind; because the latter are made prosperous by the performance of the former on this occasion; an evidently fanciful derivation.

^{page 106 note 1} That this was by no means singular is plain, from the admission of Macrobius, which he puts into the mouths of two of his interlocutors, Horus and Vettius. —1 Saturn, cap. XV.

^{page 107 note 1} Quo item modo tres præcedentes quadragesimale jejunium dies peragat, dicere opus non erit, si cognoscatur qua populari qua spontanea insania cætera Germania, a qua et Franconia minime desciscit, vivat, comedit enhn et bibit, seque ludo jocoque omnimodo adeo dedit, quasi usus nunquam veniant, quasi eras moritura hodie prius omnium rerum satietatem capere velit; atque ne pudor obstet qui se ludicro illi committunt, facies larvis obducunt, sexum et aetatem mentientes, viri mulierum vestimenta, mulieres virorum induunt. Quidam Satyros aut malos demones potius repræsentare volentes, minio se aut atramento tingunt; habituque nefando deturpant; alii nudi discurrentes Lupercoa agunt, a quibus ego annuum istum delirandi morem ad nos defluxisse existimo.

Naogeorgus, in his description, has a variety of passages as applicable to the Holi as the Carnival:—

Then old and young are both as much as guests of Bacchus' feast;

And four days long they tipple, square, and feede, and never rest.

—feare and shame away;

The tongue is set at libertie, and hath no kind of stay.

All things are lawfull then and done, no pleasure passed by,

That in their minds they can devise, as if they then should die.

He also speaks of the nudity of some of the revellers, an indecency of which even the Holi players are never guilty:—

Some naked runne about the streets, their faces hid alone

With visors close, that so disguised they may of none be knowne, and of the insults to which decent people were subjected,—

No matron old, nor sober man can freely by them come.

^{page 107 note 2} According to Spalding, the Carnival is supposed to begin from New Year's Day. Matthews says it lasts eight days, with intervals, before Lent.

^{page 108 note 1} Amongst the Portuguese the practices on the Sunday and Monday preceding Lent, as on the first of April in England, people are privileged here (Lisbon) to play the fool. It is thought very jocose to pour water on any person who passes, or throw powder in his face, but to do both is the perfection of wit.—Southey's Letters.

^{page 108 note 2} Asiatic Researches, Vol. II., page 334.Google Scholar

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