File:Natives of northern India (1907) (14742110476).jpg

Identifier: nativesofnorther00croo (find matches)
Title: Natives of northern India
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Ethnology -- India India -- Social conditions India -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ne erected under a tree andsmeared with vermilion. In the Bengal Delta thevillage spirit is represented by an earthen pot filledwith water, with a mango twig placed on the top, andthe whole covered with a piece of new cloth to keepout evil spirits. The usual offerings are a little milkand a share of the fruits of the earth, while at night alamp is lighted at the shrine. It is only when seriousdanger menaces the village that a goat is slain. Itshead is severed by a single blow, and with the blooddripping from it the head is laid upon the altar, whilethe flesh is cooked and consumed then and there inthe presence of the god with whom his worshippersthus gain communion. The characteristic of this form of worship is that itis purely local, each village having its own shrine andits own set of gods. Sometimes, of course, one ofthese acquires a wider vogue on account of cures per-formed at his shrine, or other mercies which have beenvouchsafed by him. In this case the cultus is usually No. 2\
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m > POPULAR RELIGION AND BELIEFS 237 taken over by a Brahman, and the village deityblossoms out into an incarnation or manifestation ofone of the greater gods. But, as a rule, they are con-tent to remain in obscurity, and this has the importanteffect of tying the Hindu down to his own village,whose gods he knows and can propitiate, and ofmaking him averse to wander beyond it into thedomain of strange powers whose worship he does notunderstand. Those village gods in Bengal who havesecured a wider range than the confines of the villageare those which are believed to inhabit trees, to whichpieces of rag are tied as an offering to secure thewelfare of children. But besides this group of deities all representing themanifestations of Nature, Animism has created a classof spirits of quite another type. These are, first, thevague spiritual beings which inhabit the air, some-times visit earth, and are inimical to the human race;secondly, the ghosts of the dead, some of whom arekindly, other

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