A HINDOO GODDESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6771, 7 February 1890, Page 4

A HINDOO GODDESS.

The great active power in the universe, according to the belief of the wild Musliera tribes of India, is Banaatti, or "Forest Goddess," the deity who personifies and presides over forests. The annual or periodical worship of the Forest Goddess is not kept in the same way and at the same time by all the Musheras. Those in the plains hold the worship on Monday or Friday, at three o'clock in the day, in the beginning of May. The oldest man in the household performs the ceremony. He. must not touch any food up till the hour named, which is calculated with sufficient accuracy from the position of the sun. Having purified himself by bathing in a river, he, with a clean cloth round his loins, takes a handful of unhusked rice, husks it, and boils it in water mixed with sugar. The boiled rice is then made up into pancakes, which are baked in oil. These, together with a piece of yellow cloth, are placed on the altar, which 13 made of clay and about an inch higher than the level of the floor of the hut. An oil-burner is then lighted, from a new-made fire. Taking the light in his hand, the man passes it several times round the offerings, repeating" certain words in honour of the goddess. The worshipper then sacrifices a ram, or a hegoat, or a hog, or all three, if he possesses them, the victims being always males, for the Mushera goddess takes no pleasure in those of the opposite sex. The head is cut off and placed on the altar. Standing before this Bevered head, the man questions dt-asto whether the offering has been accepted by tha goddess ornofc. If the head trembles, or appears to do so, the worshipper is greatly pleased; for this is token to indicate that the offering has been 1 accepted, and that the Forest Goddess lias actually entered into the [hut |and tasted the blood. All the members-of the household then rejoice with the old man, and do homage to the altar, or rather to the j goddess who has visited it. The trem- j bling test, by which the head of the ' victim is interrogated, is similar to that: practised by the ancient Greeks, who Bounded the fitness of a goat to be used as a victim by throwing cold water over it, which, if it did not shiver and trem-: ble, was believed to be unfit and unacceptable as an offering.

The periodical festival- of the Forest Goddess, aakept by hill Masheras, is more imposing, in proportion 'as the deity herself comes more nearly home ta the mind of a forester than to that of men living in the plains, where only patches of jungle remain. The time of the festival coincides with that of the Dushera -of. theHindoos, that is, about the end. of Septemberor the beginning of October, accords ing to the changes of the moon* This, coincidence arises from physical causes,. To all who are engaged in agriculture, that is, about 80 per cent of the whole population of India, this is the time for gathering in the autumnal harvest, and is, therefore, the fittest season for the celebration.of an annual feast inihonourof any hero, god, or goddess who may be most patronised by the people. To the Mußherasitis the season for gathering in the harvest of the Tussur Bilk-worm, which has been sown, so to bo to speak, on the asan leaves some four months previously. During^ allthis period of'preparation, the Forest Goddess has been regularly invoked by the man in charge of the silt worms. At tho close of her labours, when the cocoons produced by her aid have been collected, th.9. female deity^is invited to take rest, and come and visit her Tjridegroom and re-enact the scene of her. uiarriage'day. The festival, therefore,. i» imyjiSie'^AOnivezßaigr; qfr,;fche< weddingsof;

amongst her worshippers by the -name of Karm, being so called from the tree, a branch -of whieh-ia fixed in the middle of the dancing floor prepared for the occasion. The bridegroom to whom the goddess is wedded on this day is Ghansam, whois supposed to be Krishna of the Hindoos. A cone-shaped mound or pillar of mud, about a foot^md a half in height, is erected in his honour ; and this is to Muaheras the phallic emblem, corresponding to the .stone emblem worshipped by Hindoos in honour of Siva. Pulse and rice are mixed together and placed with some honey in a leaf plate before the mud pillar, which is painted red ; it is then addressed in the following words : " Come, O father, into the world, eat rice, pulse, and honey, the food of thy norae." By the " horse " is meant the worshipper ; for the deity, when he is thus invoked and presented with offerings, is believed to take entire possession' of the worshipper, and to control him as a rider does a horse. There is a great deal of music, dancing, and feasting, in which both sexes freely join ; and all kinds of jokes, sometimes risky ones, are passed between the merry-makers, as in the Holi festival amongst Hindoos. On thenight of the last day the Musheras go to the mud mound representing the bridegroom, taking with them red earth, chaplets, and jungle plants and flowers. After repainting this phallic emblem with the red earth, they throw handfula of rice over its top. The flowers and chaplet3 are spread on the ground before the emblem, and the Forest Goddess is invited to come , and visit, her hußband. During the festival the bamboo is a sacred plant, a sanctuary ; and no Muster a would presume to cut or break it at that time. The offerings presented to the deity have varied with time. It is said that formerly human victims were sacrificed to the Forest Goddeas — a trace of which appears in the blood offerings still made to her front the cut ball o£ the finger. Now the deity has to content herself with a male buffalo or a boar, a. he-goat, and a ram, juet as Demeter, the Earth Goddess of the Greeks was propitiated with the sacrifice of boars. The musical instruments used during, the festival are very peculiar. One of them consists of a wooden apparatus, to the top and bottom of which a string is attached to either side. A couple of fiat wooden plates, about six inches in diameter, are strung on each cord in such a way asto slide upanddown r andstrikeeach other whenever theapparatusisshaken for thispurpose. The rattling of these tablets is Mnshera music. Another instrument which they sometimes use at times of worship, or in marriages, is a kind of drum made of the dried akin of a lizard, which is stretched across shallow gourd, or a piece of wood.situilnrly-Bhaped, into which tiny brags cymbals are Inserted. They beat the drum with their fingers, and make the cymbals tinkle in the worship of the Forest Goddess. One peculiarity to be noticed in connection with the worship of the Forest Godi dess is the absence of images-and temples. ; The pballio emblem mentioned above is a ' mere mad-made -cone, putup in the open airland subject to being washed away by the rain; very different from the polished -and consecrated Btone.emblems.and. figures erected to different deities under the solid domes of temples in Northern India. An* other peculiarity is that the head of the victim is the partoffered to the deity, it is always left on the altar-; thetcarcase -being taken awayand divided among- the fiaori.ficers.