Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s5: Section IX. Village Gods and Deities
Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s5
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Section IX. Village Gods and Deities
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An account of the religious conditions of the period will not be complete without a mention of the village Gods and their festivals. The village deities were considered to be the guardian deities that protected the people of the respective villages from evil spirits, and were propitiated by the residents. As Whitehead remarks, " the sole object of the worship of these village deities is to propitiate them and avert their wrath. There is no idea of praise and thanksgiving, no expression of gratitude or love, no desire for any spiritual or moral blessings. The one object is to get rid of cholera, small-pox,........The worship, therefore, in most of the villages takes place occasionally."166
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An important feature of the festivals conducted in the temples of these village deities is the bloody sacrifices offered to them. Buffaloes and sheep were killed before them during nights, and offered to them. Paes says that in the city of Vijayanagar no sheep was to be killed anywhere except before the temple of one of these guardian deities. Sometimes human sacrifice too was made to appease them. Paes and Nuniz say that for the successful termination of the construction of the reservoir at Nāgalāpura “the heads of sixty men and of certain horses and buffaloes” were cut off. Nuniz says that they were Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s prisoners and “deserved death.”¹⁶⁷
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¹⁶⁶ Village Gods of South India, p. 46; see also South Indian Gods and Goddesses by H. Krishna Śāstri, pp. 223-24 and 226-27.
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¹⁶⁷ Sewell, op. cit., pp. 245 and 365.
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The Jogis or the travelling mendicants took some part in such temple offerings. They possessed nothing of their own and their dress consisted of “bands of moorish brass on which hang girdles of many coins which dangle on both sides.” Referring to them Barbosa says: “They carry a small horn or trumpet, on which they blow.”¹⁶⁸ While describing a temple at “Darcha” (Dharwar) Paes says that the Jogi was present when beasts were slaughtered for the propitiation of the Gods and that as soon as the head of the sheep or goat was cut off he blew a horn as a signal that the idol received that sacrifice.168a
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¹⁶⁸ Barbosa, I, pp. 230-31. 168a. Sewell, op. cit., p. 255.
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A feature of the worship of the village deities was what is known as the hook swinging. But the ceremony appears to have been different at different times. Nicolo dei Conti, as has been said earlier, says that the people made an incision in their side and hung themselves to the chariot by way of ornament.¹⁶⁹ But Barbosa who saw the same ceremony a century later notes certain interesting details with regard to it. He says that hook swinging was performed by certain maids who had vowed to perform it if they were able to marry the person of their heart. When their desire was about to be accomplished they performed the ceremony. They hung themselves by two sharp iron hooks thrust into their loins. The hooks were attached to a water lift, and when it was raised they remained hanging from the lift with the blood running down their legs showing no sign of pain, but waving their dagger most joyfully all the while, and throwing limes at their respective husbands. In this way they were carried to the temple wherein was the idol to whom they had vowed such a sacrifice. They were later handed over to their respective husbands. The occasion was taken advantage of for making gifts to Brahmans and idols.170 But Pietro della Valle who was an eye-witness to the festival which was celebrated at Ikkēri in 1623 gives a different account of it. He says that on certain holy days the devout people were wont to hang themselves by the flesh upon hooks fastened to the top beam raised for the purpose and remain hanging for some time, while all the while blood was running down from their body. They also waved their sword and buckler in the air and sang verses in praise of their Gods.¹⁷¹ But this festival has disappeared now. Buchanan who visited Mysore in 1773 A.D. says "that the ceremony was not performed before the great Gods, and that the southern Brahmans looked upon it as an abomination, fit only for the grovelling understanding of the vulgar."¹⁷² Fire-walking which is another feature of the worship of the village deities must have been prevalent, but is now fast disappearing.
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¹⁶⁹ Major, India, p. 28.
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¹⁷¹ Travels, II, p. 259.
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¹⁷² Journey Through Malabar, II, p. 440.
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Another interesting custom of certain classes of people in the Karnāṭaka districts was the amputation of the last joints of two fingers (little finger and the ring finger) of the wives of the farmers in honour of Kālabhairava. The classes of cultivators who observed this custom were known as 'finger giving classes.' "There was till recently, it appears, a regular establishment in the temple for carrying on the amputation—a goldsmith for cutting off the finger and others for dressing the wound, and for kneading the finger and holding it so that no blood might be shed at the time. The devotees had also to pay certain fixed proportions among the arcak and other servants of the temple as well as among the āyagārs of the village such as the Shanbog, patel, goldsmith, barber, etc. They had moreover to bring a fixed quantity of rice per head. An inscription of about the fourteenth century fixes the proportions in which this rice (viral ariśi) was to be provided among the goldsmiths and others."¹⁷³
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¹⁷³ M.A.R., 1909-10, para 16; "when the amputation was prohibited by the government the 'finger-giving' classes raised a strong but unavailing protest against the prohibition. They have now adopted the harmless substitute of having the fingers wound round with flowers in the temple and of unwinding the same with due ceremony on return to their village."
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A popular phase of the religion prevalent in the Vijayanagar days as it still is, was the worship of the Nāgas (snakes). Virūpākṣa himself was considered to be the Lord of the Nāgas. The Vijayanagar sovereigns worshipped the Nāgas and consi- The *fraternities* of the Middle Ages, which were so numerous and so varied in their objects, were not all of the same origin. Some were religious, some social, some charitable, and some industrial. The religious guilds, or *gilds*, as they were often called, were associations of laymen for the purpose of performing religious duties, such as the maintenance of a chaplain, the celebration of masses, or the support of a hospital. The social guilds were formed for the purpose of mutual aid and good fellowship, and often included in their objects the relief of the poor, the sick, and the aged. The charitable guilds were established for the purpose of supporting hospitals, almshouses, and other institutions of mercy. The industrial guilds, or *craft guilds*, were associations of men engaged in the same trade or industry, and were formed for the purpose of regulating the trade, protecting the interests of the members, and maintaining the quality of their work.
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The craft guilds, which became so powerful in the later Middle Ages, were the successors of the earlier *collegia* of the Roman Empire. The *collegia* were associations of artisans and tradesmen, which were recognized by the state and had a legal existence. When the Roman Empire fell, these associations were largely destroyed, but the idea of association for mutual protection and the regulation of trade survived. In the early Middle Ages, the *gilds* began to reappear, and by the twelfth century they were firmly established in many of the cities of Europe.
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The craft guilds were organized on a democratic basis, and every member had a voice in the management of the guild's affairs. The officers were elected by the members, and the rules and regulations were made by the guild as a whole. The guilds had the power to fix prices, to regulate the hours of labor, and to determine the conditions of apprenticeship. They also had the power to punish members who violated the rules, and to expel those who were guilty of serious offenses. The guilds were thus a powerful force in the economic life of the Middle Ages, and they played an important part in the development of the modern industrial system.
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The decline of the craft guilds began in the sixteenth century, when the rise of the factory system and the growth of international trade made it difficult for the small, local guilds to compete with the larger and more efficient industrial organizations. The guilds were also weakened by the growth of the power of the state, which began to regulate trade and industry directly, and by the rise of the capitalist class, which sought to break the power of the guilds and to establish a system of free competition. By the end of the eighteenth century, the craft guilds had largely disappeared, but their influence lived on in the trade unions and other labor organizations of the modern world.
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Pipal and Margosa, near Madura
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dered Śiva as Nāganātha, the lord of the Nāgas. Their queens set up nāgakkals in the temples, which they attended, and also special female Nāga deities.¹⁷⁴ Childless women used to vow to instal a nāgakkal (snake stone), nāgapratiṣṭhai, if they were blessed with children. The nāgakkal was given life (prāṇapratiṣṭhai) by the recitation of certain mantras and installed under the shade of a pipal or margosa tree, preferably under a pipal tree. Such Nāgas and Nagīs were worshipped on a large scale in the Vijayanagar days.¹⁷⁵ Similarly cows were held in great veneration.¹⁷⁶
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¹⁷⁴ See Mad. Ar. Sur. Rep., 1914-15, p. 38.
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¹⁷⁵ See Longhurst, Hampi Ruins, pp. 28-31.
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¹⁷⁶ See for a tradition about the worship of cows, Rockhill, Notes on the Relations and trade of China, Toung Pao, XVI, p. 456 and fn. 2.
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Tree worship was also prevalent. The pipal and the margosa trees were the objects of great veneration and worship. They were married according to Brahmanical rites. An epigraph of A.D. 1358 records that a particular individual performed the upanayana-nam of the pipal trees planted at the four corners of the tank at Aruvaṇahaḷḷi.¹⁷⁷
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¹⁷⁷ E.C., III, Ml. 22.