Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
(4) Dharma Boja, Lankan (above), Ayungang (the sun). The first name is,
I think, of Uriya origin, and the last the real Saora name. There is
an idea in the Kolakotta country that it causes all births. This deity
is not altogether beneficent, and causes sickness, and may be driven
away by sacrifices. In some villages, this deity is almost the only
one known. A Saora once told me, on my pointing to Venus and asking
what it was, that the stars are the children of the sun and moon, and
one day the sun said he would eat them all up. Woman-like, the moon
protested against the destruction of her progeny, but was obliged to
give in. She, however, managed to hide Venus while the others were
being devoured. Venus was the only planet he knew. In some parts,
the sun is not a deity.
(5) Kanni. Very malevolent. Lives in big trees, so they are never
cut in groves which this deity is supposed to haunt. I frequently
saw a Saora youth of about 20, who was supposed to be possessed by
this deity. He was an idiot, who had fits. Numerous buffaloes had
been sacrificed to Kanni, to induce that deity to leave the youth,
but to no purpose.
"There are many hill deities known in certain localities--Derema,
supposed to be on the Deodangar hill, the highest in the neighbourhood,
Khistu, Kinchinyung, Ilda, Lobo, Kondho, Balu, Baradong, etc. These
deities of the hills are little removed from the spirits of the
deceased Saoras. [Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu refers to two hills, one at
Gayaba called Jum-tang Baru, or eat cow hill, and the other about
eight miles from Parlakimedi, called Media Baru. At the former, a cow
or bull is sacrificed, because a Kuttung once ate the flesh of a cow
there; at the latter the spirits require only milk and liquor. This
is peculiar, as the Savaras generally hold milk in abhorrence.]"
"There is invariably one fetish, and generally there are several
fetishes in every Saora house. In some villages, where the sun is the
chief deity (and causes most mischief), there are fetishes of the sun
god; in another village, fetishes of Jalia, Kitung, etc. I once saw
six Jalia fetishes, and three other fetishes in one house. There are
also, especially about Kolakotta, Kulba fetishes in houses. The fetish
is generally an empty earthen pot, about nine inches in diameter,
slung from the roof. The Kudang slings it up. On certain occasions,
offerings are made to the deity or Kulba represented by the fetish
on the floor underneath it. Rude pictures, too, are sometimes
fetishes. The fetish to the sun is generally ornamented with a rude
pattern daubed in white on the outside. In the village of Bori in the
Vizagapatam Agency, offerings are made to the sun fetish when a member
of the household gets pains in the legs or arms, and the fetish is
said on such occasion to descend of itself to the floor. Sacrifices
are sometimes made inside houses, under the fetishes, sometimes at
the door, and blood put on the ground underneath the fetish."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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