< The Divine Afflatus of the Hindoos (continued from page 8-241) >
within the sanctuary and supplicate the presence of the Deity. The concurrence of the Patell would appear to he very necessary on these occasions; for, according to some of our informants, the Waren will never come, unless the Patell, who is the temporal lord or lay patron of the establishment, has first given his sanction, and joined in the general invocation. The consulters, meanwhile, stand outside the sanctuary, in the vestibule of the temple, whence they can dimly see what passes. The first preliminaries having been gone through, as above, the Bramhin who is the recipient of the Waren, having bathed his body afresh, sits down before the idol upon a sort of tripod, unties his hair, and fixes his eyes in contemplation upon the image. The other Bramhins commence a song of praise or invocation, to the accompaniment of a small mellow-toned drum. Flowers are spread between the idol and the contemplating Bhuktu, and a chafing-dish with some live embers is placed among them. On this the head Bramhin casts from time to time, while he chaunts, frankincense and camphor, the fumes of which ascend in thick clouds around the head of the contemplative Bhuktu. In a short time the right arm of the latter is observed to move up and down by a slow, involuntary movement: the Waren is then established in his person, and he gives the responses of the god to all questioners. According to all our informants, the above is the only convulsive motion which takes place in the Rameshwuru Waren. Its peculiarity in this respect distinguishes it from most other Warens, and may depend on some vapour, or other natural cause, peculiar to the locality. For ourselves, we would refer it rather to the particular physical constitution of the Bhuktu himself; for although under certain circumstances strangers are permitted by the Patell and Bramhins to take his place on the tripod, and the same result, a convulsive movement of one arm only, is said invariably to follow, we are inclined to doubt the accuracy of this report, knowing, as we do, that convulsive movements of one arm or leg are the special symptom of a particular form of disease.
In a great majority of cases, the health of the parties is the subject of the consultation. The following is a brief example:—
Questioner.—“Oh god! I am sore unwell: make thou me well. What have I done? what must I do?”
Oracle.—“Thou hast done so and so. I will heal thee in eight days: for seven days thou must abstain from such and such food; twice must thou bathe in the sacred water from my feet; on this day and the third day hence: on the eighth day thou shalt be cured.”
Water is poured down the feet of the god (i.e., of the man who has the Waren on him), and this water, esteemed holy as the Ganges, is preserved for the purpose above specified. The directions are all rigidly obeyed, the promise implicitly trusted; and, as we are informed, a cure generally follows. So omnipotent is faith!
The Bramhins are peculiarly jealous of the entrance of any stranger into this temple. Two or three years ago a Government officer, travelling with his family through the district, wished to put up during the night in the vestibule, as is very usually done at other places without offence. Both the Bramhins of the temple and the Peons in his own suite besought him not to do so, on account of the great sanctity of the shrine. He, perhaps inconsiderately, disregarded their entreaties and warnings, and occupied the forbidden precincts. His lady was then enceinte. On the same night, she was prematurely delivered of a still-born child. This, though a very natural result of the fatigue endured in travelling1 on the previous day, was immediately set down as a retribution for having violated the temple, and is now quoted in the country in proof of the divinity of the place: so that an injudicious act, on the part of a Christian traveller, has thus had the unintentional effect of strengthening the popular superstition.
Although this is designated the oracle of Raimeshwivrii, i.e., of Shivu, yet, according to the theory of some of the learned, noticed in a former note, the afflatus should, perhaps, properly be regarded not as that of the great Shivu himself, but of one of his attendant demi-gods or spirits, commissioned by him to enter the frame of the Bhuktu (a b).
Notes by Professor Bal Gungadhur Shastree.
(a) [“During the month of Poush, the Waren is dumb.”]
This period of temporary cession of the Waren is common to most of the oracles. In some places the Devce is said id retire to her Mahar, or father’s house, during the period.
(b) [“Nature of the afflatus.”]
The Uvusuru is ascribed to Rameshwuru or Shivu, but it should be regarded as that of some one of the thousands of demons and spirits, of which he is the lord, according to our mythology.
The temple of Hur-hureshwuru gives its own name to the town which has sprung up around it, situated on the coast of the Southern Conkan, close to the sea, and not more than one or two day’s sail from Bombay. It is a distinguished Siddhusthanu, i.e., a perfect or holy place. There are abundance of these minor sacred places in India, most of which, in addition to their religious character, have the medical reputation of effecting miraculous cures on those who visit them.
Many ng these, no doubt, rose into reputation, from having been formerly the places of sojourn of persons of great reputed sanctity; and the cures, which are accomplished at such, may be imputed, partly to the operation of faith, partly to the effects which change of air, exercise, novelty, and freedom from the daily routine of wearisome toil and depressing cares, in which most men are compelled to pass their monotonous existence, are known to produce all the world over; and now and then, perhaps, to the real salubrity of the situation; for, in the choice of their dwellings, the, solitary and contemplative devotees, as well as the learned men who gathered disciples around them for instruction in such secluded spots, generally exhibited excellent taste and judgment. There are, however, many others, the secret of whose miraculous powers has been penetrated, by Europeans having discovered, either in the vicinity, or within the precincts of the temple or shrine which forms the religious centre of attraction, hot wells, or springs impregnated with sulphur and other mineral substances. Of this kind is a celebrated spot within thirty miles of Bombay, known to the natives as the holy shrine and miraculous water of “The Diamond Goddess” (i.e., Devee under that title), but more familiar to Europeans as the Hot Wells of Vujra Baee.*
In this double origin, the one spiritual, the other physical, these Siddhu-athanus of India bear a very close resemblance to the holy wells, which, a few centuries ago, were so celebrated in Roman Catholic Britain, such as St. Winifred’s St. Roman’s Holy Well, &c., and which have how either lost their reputation altogether, or subsided into mere mineral waters. The knowledge of the real secret of such places as Vujra-baee, may lead us to suspect that similar natural causes, though of a less obvious character, may be in operation at many other of these sanatory shrines.
Hur-hureshwuru, as the name implies, is a temple dedicated to Hurhuru or Shivu, and the Lingum is the emblem there worshipped; but the Sanatory Waren, or afflatus, which renders the place so famous, is attributed to Bhuiroba, a sort of minor incarnation of Shivu, who is generally represented as accompanied with a dog, and to whom there is a separate shrine adjoining that of the Lingum.
Hard by the temple is a sacred Peepul tree, or Ficus Religiosa, round which, as well as the Lingum, the patients must once or twice daily perform the ceremony of Prudukshina, which consists in going round and round it one hundred and eight times, pausing once during each circumambulation, to worship it with joined hands.†
There is also a sort of reservoir on the beach, which is filled with the salt water when the tide is in, and in this all the patients are obliged to bathe daily, before presenting themselves at the temple. These facts should not be overlooked, in estimating the sanatory influences of the locality. What with the short sea voyage to the place, the prescribed fasts there, the change of air, the exercise enforced in circumambulating the Sacred Peepul one hundred and eight <... continues on page 8-243 >
* Lit., adamantaæ mater—i.e., the fountain considered as a personification of Devee. The meaning and probable elemental origin of this title will be understood by remembering the lines of Horace to the deified fountain of Bandusia—
“O Fons Bandusiæ, splendidior vitro, |
But, as the word Vujra signifies a thunderbolt as well as a diamond, the title may also be rendered “Our Lady of the Thunderbolt,” Baee being equivalent to lady or mother. In accordance with this second application, and with the destructive power assigned to this goddess in the mythology and the popular ideas, her image is represented as bearing this emblem.
† Vide note on the ceremony of Prudukshina in the article “Theory and Phenomena of Possession among the Hindoos,” published in the Dublin University Magazine for March, 1848, p. 328.