Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c16.2

c16.2

About the time that the cakes or chapátis were being circulated throughout the North-West of India, a common pariah dog was passed from village to village in the Panch Maháls and eastern Gujarát. It was never ascertained who first set the dog in motion, but it came from the Central India frontier with a basket of food which was given to the village dogs, and a similar supply with the dog was forwarded to the next village. When pestilence or other calamity threatens an Indian village, it is the custom to take a goat or a buffalo to the boundary and drive it into the lands of the adjoining village, in the hope that it will avert evil from the community. A similar belief prevailed among the Jews. There is no reason to suppose that this movement of the dog in Gujarát was a signal of revolt or had any deeper political significance than a vague feeling that troublous times were approaching. Still it was by many regarded as an evil omen and created considerable alarm.¹