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At the Crossroads: Mother Goddess Cult-Sites in Ancient India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

D. D. Kosambi
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Extract

1. The Problem. The chain of incident and action in Śūdraka's deservedly popular drama Mṛcchakaṭika commences with a peculiar ritual on a dark night. The hero Cārudatta, an impoverished but virtuous brahmin caravan merchant, has just finished his evening prayers. At the beginning of the first act, he asks his clownish brahmin friend Maitreya to help in the consummation: kṛto mayā gṛhadevatābhyo baliḥ; gaccha, tvam api catuṣpathe mātṛbhyo balim upahara. “I have completed the bali (food-)offerings to the household gods; go thou, offer (this) bali to the Mothers at the crossroads.” This simple request leads to the rescue of the heroine Vasantasenā from abduction. Here we leave the development of the plot, to investigate the ritual.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 92 , Issue 1-2 , April 1960 , pp. 17 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1960

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References

page 17 note 1 For the background: Sukṭhaṇkar, V. S., Studies in Bhāsa: Memorial Edition (Poona, 1945), vol. ii, pp. 81–183Google Scholar and 347–52 (or Q. J. Mythic. Soc., 1919, and JAOS, 42.59.74). The second chapter of my Introduction to the Study of Indian History (Bombay, 1956)Google Scholar might be found useful, as well as the eighth.

page 18 note 1 Kāṇe, P. V.: History of the Dharmaśāstra (Poona, Bhāṇḍārkar Oriental Research Institute, particularly vol. 2, 1941)Google Scholar.

page 19 note 1 Keith, A. Berriedale: Religion and Philosophy of the Veda, Harvard Oriental Series, vols. 31–2 (1925)Google Scholar; see also pp. 145, 239, 322, 414, and 426 for references to trifling magic rites at the crossways, the haunts of evil spirits and occasionally of their leader Rudra.

page 19 note 2 Kosambi, D. D.: “The origin of brahmin gotras,” JBBRAS, 26, 1950, 21–80Google Scholar, particularly the final section on survivals of mother-right in the Ṛgveda.