GUARDED TREASURE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 January 1927, Page 11

GUARDED TREASURE

the central provinces of India, comes the remarkable story of a cobra guardian of treasures belonging to an old family vault. It seems that Rajah Nursing Rao, a wealthy landholder in the Bohars, was trying to find some old treasures which, according to family tradition, were buried in one of his underground cellars. After sinking trial pits at several places an opening was discovered, and big copper vessels were found piled up by the walls of the room when the opening was cleared up. Nobody venturing to go in, they managed to draw out one copper vessel with the aid of a hook, and broke it open. To the surprise of all, gold coins of the .time of Alcbar the Great, the famous Emperor of Delhi, in the sixteenth century t tumbled out, followed by strings of rings and bracelets studded with wonderful gains. The Rajah was sent for, and he was about to order the rest of the vessels to be pulled out, when, to the horror of everybody, a large yellow cobra wriggled out from the cellar and attacked those who were despoiling the treasure. Everybody ran away, and after a little while the cobra was observed slithering in and about the piles of gold and jewels that had tumbled out of the broken vessel. The Rajah allowed a couple of hours to pass by and, being a .superstitious man, ordered the treasure should be sealed up again in another copper vessel and thrown back into the cellar as soon as the cobra had disappeared within. The opening of the cellar was again closed up, and the Rajah took a vow binding on himself and his descendants never to open the old treasure again,

LEGEND OF A COBRA

unless a dire necessity arose in the family. On going through his family records it was found that the same palm leaf which contained news about this treasure also had a note saying that a holy cobra was guarding the treasure, and would not allow anybody to touch it unless convinced that there was real necessity for the safety of the family to touch the riches so concealed. It was also stated that the spirit of the family priest of the Rajah who founded the family of Narsing Rao was living in the body of the cobra. To the Hindu, who believes in reincarnation and transmigration of the soul, the cobra would mean the linking up for a time of an evolved human soul, for the purpose of the atonement of his sins, to that of the cobra. This is supposed to be one of the most terrible punishments awarded to human beings for their sins. It is, however, a punishment especially reserved for a. person who is advanced enough to know right from wrong, but whose lower nature is too powerful for him to be controlled wiselv or well.

For a person Who is in the. early stages of civilisation, and therefore more of a savage in his character and actions, it is believed that such a linking up would be no punishment. But to a person who has a highly sensitive, mind and who continues to keep the memory of his human individuality, even after being linked up with an animal, it is ghastly to have all the feelings that he used to have and to .be conscious, moreover, of the limitations to which the body he is occupying at that time are binding his actions.