THE GOD AND MENAGE OF INDIA

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 27

THE GOD AND MENAGE OF INDIA

Two startling announcements1' affecting India recently appeared together, says-the "News-Chronicle." One'told that year snakes killed 1207 people;in, the Central Provinces, tigers 33, leopards '28, and other wild animals 84: Thus, as ever, snakes are the • most deadly'- enemies of human life in- the Dependency, apart from disease-carrying insects. . ••

The second'item was news' of the discovery -at -Rajgir, in the Patna district, ■:of.=. Northern, India,. of: relics of snake-worship dating back some 22 centuries. Among the finds are wonderful examples of pottery • decorated with,the hooded heads of ; snakes, each head forming a spout, from which fluid could flow. .:,.,' ■■'

The site of the find, Rajagriha, as it was formerly known, iwas the an-1 cient capital pi Northern India,Vandi the spouts of the 'pottery represent stream's of water which Mani Naga, the wonderful snake, was supposed to pour on the State for the irrigation of its soil, the fertility of its crops, >and' the food and life of its people. While snakes still kill their thous; ands, they are still worshipped. Bengal has a widespread cult of snake-wor-shippers."1 It is believed by the natives that snakes.! guard mines of precious stones'.arid; metals, as well as treasure hidden by--ancient Indian, families of noble origin.

Enormous ~. quantities of- such treasure iare. known to ;be concealed in India;, indeed it used to be said that gold was mined in Africa simply

to be buried in the land of the Hindus. It is widely believed that mines of precious ores have double- .phalanxes of guardians, snakes and demons. The snakes they propitiate by offerings,' but it was the old custom to make human sacrifices to " appease the demons.

It seems to', have bee.n ever the custom of primitive minds to ■ worship that which' they fear and do not understand.- Our own British ancc iors worshipped ,the forces of. Nature as gods; they .believed in the guardianship of certain \ districts by huge snakes and dragons, which meant .the same thing.:. ;Many~such legends are preserved in. England and believed to this day. ■ """ "' "

Civilisation is a thing of yesterday compared with the length of time men have been struggling up from ignorance and darkness of mind: We bear in our bodies traces of scores of organs for which, we have no further use; and we carry in our minds scores of echoes of fears, anxieties, and superstitions which seemed frightful realities to. our; ancestors.

Medical missionaries, returning to an up-country station in India from which v death or illness had d|:iven. their, predecessors, found the natives worshipping a number of medicine bottles set up on a pole. >

They did so, they explained, because the white man had healed them with the help of the spirits in the bottles.