Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religionHartland, Edwin Sidney
Religion
Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religion
Hartland, Edwin Sidney
Ethnopsychology; Magic; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
In this Transylvanian _märchen_ the crown is the instrument of
divination. Going next to the dim and distant East we find other
emblems of royalty thus represented. In the _Jātaka_, the great book
of Buddhist Birth-stories, the supposititious child of a merchant’s
wife of Maghada is the hero of a similar adventure. He is, however, no
ordinary child but the Bodhisatta, the future Buddha in an earlier
birth. He was called Banyan, from having been found under a banyan
tree, where his own mother had forsaken him at his birth. Travelling
with two faithful companions who had been born on the same day as
himself, he came to Benares, and entering the royal park lay down upon
a slab of stone with his two companions beside it. The previous night
they had slept in the city under a tree at a temple. One of the youths
had awakened at dawn and heard some cocks quarrelling in the branches.
He listened, and learnt that whoever killed a certain one of these
birds and ate of his fat would become king that very day, he who ate
the middle flesh {298} would become commander-in-chief, and he who ate
the flesh about the bones would become treasurer. He killed the bird,
gave the fat to Banyan, the middle flesh to his other friend, and
gnawed the bones himself. Now the king of Benares was dead, and that
day the festal car was going forth with the five symbols of royalty,
the sword, the parasol, the diadem, the slippers, and the fan, within
it, to choose the king’s successor. As the three youths lay in the
royal park, the ceremonial chariot rolled up and stopped before them.
The chaplain (presumably a Brahman) followed. Removing the cloth from
Banyan’s feet he examined the marks upon them. “Why!” he exclaimed,
“he is destined to be king of all India, let alone Benares!” and he
ordered the gongs and the cymbals to strike up. This awoke Banyan, who
sat up. The chaplain fell down before him, saying: “Divine being, the
kingdom is thine.” “So be it,” quietly answered the youth; the
chaplain placed him upon the heap of precious jewels and sprinkled him
to be king.[298.1]
In a Calmuck tale the instrument of divination is not one of the royal
insignia, but a sacrificial cake. An assembly of the people is held to
choose a new khan; and it is decided to appeal to the judgement of
heaven by throwing a sacrificial cake, called _Baling_, apparently a
figure of dough, into the air, at the time of the sacrifice
(_Streuopfer_). On whosesoever head the cake fell, he should be
khan.[298.2]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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