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
Concerning the performance of sacrifices, Mr. Fawcett writes that
"the Saoras say they never practiced human sacrifice. Most Saora
sacrifices, which are also feasts, are made to appease deities or
Kulbas that have done mischief. I will first notice the few which do
not come in this category. (a) The feast to Jalia when mangoes ripen,
already mentioned, is one. In a village where the sun, and not Jalia,
is the chief deity, this feast is made to the sun. Jalia does not
trouble the village, as the Kudung meets him outside it now and
then, and sends him away by means of a sacrifice. [Sacrifices and
offerings of pigs or fowls, rice, and liquor, are also made at the
mahua, hill grain, and red gram festivals.] (b) A small sacrifice,
or an offering of food, is made in some places before a child is
born. About Kolakotta, when a child is born, a fowl or a pound or so
of rice, and a quart of liquor provided by the people of the house,
will be taken by the Kudang to the jungle, and the fowl sacrificed
to Kanni. Blood, liquor, and rice are left in leaf cups for Kanni,
and the rest is eaten. In every paddy field in Kolakotta, when the
paddy is sprouting, a sacrifice is made to Sattira for good crops. A
stick of the tree called in Uriya kendhu, about five or six feet
long, is stuck in the ground. The upper end is sharpened to a point,
on which is impaled a live young pig or a live fowl, and over it an
inverted earthen pot daubed over with white rings. If this sacrifice
is not made, good crops cannot be expected. [It may be noted that
the impaling of live pigs is practiced in the Telugu country.] [155]
When crops ripen, and before the grain is eaten, sacrifice is made
to Lobo (the earth). Lobo Sonnum is the earth deity. If they eat the
grain without performing this sacrifice, it will disagree with them,
and will not germinate properly when sown again. If crops are good,
a goat is killed, if not good, a pig or a fowl. A Kolakotta Saora told
me of another sacrifice, which is partly of a propitiatory nature. If
a tiger or panther kills a person, the Kudang is called, and he,
on the following Sunday, goes through a performance, to prevent
a similar fate overtaking others. Two pigs are killed outside the
village, and every man, woman, and child is made to walk over the
ground whereon the pig's blood is spilled, and the Kudang gives to
each individual some kind of tiger medicine as a charm. The Kudang
communicates with the Kulba of the deceased, and learns the whole
story of how he met his death. In another part of the Saora country,
the above sacrifice is unknown; and, when a person is killed by a tiger
or panther, a buffalo is sacrificed to the Kulba of the deceased three
months afterwards. The feast is begun before dark, and the buffalo
is killed the next morning. No medicine is used. Of sacrifices after
injury is felt, and in order to get rid of it, that for rain may be
noticed first. The Gomango, another important man in the village,
and the Kudang officiate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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