the traditional hill or jungle cradle of the clan, and the BuruBōnga or spirit of that hill are all identified in thought by the Tāmāṛia, although they do not, like the Birhōrs, make use of any emblem of their totem at the sacrifice to the Buru-Bōngā of the clan. Besides the ancestral Bürü-Bōngā and ancestral Nage Era of a clan, each Tāmāṛiā settlement now situate by the side of a jungle has to offer sacrifices to the spirit of that jungle as well as to that of the prominent spring situate in its neighbourhood; and these are called respectively the Buru-Bōnga and the Nage-Era of the village or locality. This local Būrū-Bōngā and local Nag-Erā have no connexion with the clan and are accordingly considered as of far less importance than the clan Būrū-Bōngā and the clan Nage-Era which are, as we have seen, vitally connected with the clan and the traditional home of the clan. Thus these local Búrú-Bōngās and local Nage-Eras are of no account in the present discussion. As for the Münḍās still living in the Tamar pargana of the Ranchi district, we find the clan Bürü-Bōngā or Kili BūrūBōngās as they are called, still occupying the same prominent position in their pantheon as among their Tamāṛiā brethren now settled in the Singhbhum district. Members of any clan living away from the neighbourhood of their ancestral buru or hill, offer sacrifices to their clan Bürü-Bonga in front of a new ant-hill which is brought and set up at the place of sacrifice as an emblem of the Bürü-Bōnga. This ant-hill which resembles in shape a buru or hill takes the place of the skin, claw or other emblem of the clan-god and clan-totem used by the Birhōrs at their Bürü-Bōngā sacrifices. If we next turn to the main body of the Mündas living in the Ranchi district we come to what appears to be the last stage of the decay of the totemic BūrūBōngă cult. At this stage, the Būrū-Bōngās or clan-gods of the different clans settled within an area of several miles appear to have merged into a high god or general deity called by the Mundas the "Marang-bonga" or Marang-Buru (lit. "Great god " or "Great mountain") and also Bürü-Bōrga. Except in a few 5 7 Res, J. places, the main body of the Mundas of the Ranchi Plateau no longer retain traditions of different hills or mountains having been the respective cradles of different clans, although particular hills and springs in the neighbourhood of their present settlements are regarded as seats of spirits of the local "Būrū-Bōngā " and "Nāgē-Erā" classes respectively. As for the superior BūrūBōngā distinguished by the names of Marang Buru or MahaBuru or Bar-Pahar, the most prominent hill within an area of several miles is now regarded as such, and sacrifices are offered to this deity outside their respective villages by the various Mūṇḍa villages situate within the area. This deity now ranks as the highest in the Munda pantheon next only to the inactive Sun-god or Supreme God known as Sing-bonga.1 The Mundas of the Ranchi District have evolved a mythology which may throw some light on the evolution of the modern Marang Buru or Marang Bonga 2 out of the ancient clan-gods or Buru-bongas. According to Munda mythology, Marang-Buru (or Barṇḍā) is the elder brother of Sing-bōnga or the Sun-god and Nāgē-Erā is their sister; and the three lived together when the accidental sprinkling of water on his body from the bellows of a Lohar, or iron-smelter, caused defilement to Marang-Buru, his younger brother Sing-bongã had to part company with him and went to live in the sky above, and his sister Nage-Era chose the waters for her abode, whereas Marang-Buru remained as the chief god on earth. Now, if we connect this myth with the Mūṇḍa tradition that an ancient race of iron-smelters called the Asurs were the first people with whom the Mundas came in contact on the Ranchi plateau, the story of Sing-bonga thus establishing himself in the heavens owing to the defiling contact with an alien race may not unreasonably be taken to indicate the borrowing by the Mundas of the idea of a high god or Supreme 1 Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vol. II, p. 103. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vol. II., p.103. The Divine Myths of the Mundas in Vol. III (pp. 201 ff.) of the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society. 175 Deity from a more advanced people traditionally known throughout the Ranchi and Singhbhum districts as the Asurs. I have elsewhere adduced reasons for inferring (Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1928, Vol. IX, pp. 376393) that the Asur of Mūṇḍā tradition may be identical with the Pre-Aryan Asura race represented in the Rig-Veda as contesting the valley of the Five Rivers and the Ganges and the Jamuna against the "Aryan" immigrants. This meloderm Asura race would appear to have absorbed the indigenous black Nishada race of ancient Sanskrit literature, and when finally worsted by the Aryans, a section of them retreated to Chōṭā Nāgpur where they were in their turn overpowered and absorbed by an intrusive short-statured, broad-nosed, Pre-Dravidian people-the ancestors of the present Munda race. And it is probable that the idea of a Supreme Sun-god (the Sabita of the Rig-Veda) may have been introduced by the ancient Asuras among the Mundās. Although the Būrū-Bōngā or clan spirit has now been displaced from his supreme position in the Mūṇḍa pantheon by his "younger brother" Sing-Bonga, the clan or the society still appears to hold equal rank as a divine power with Sing-Bonga. In all his invocations to the gods and spirits, the Munda sacrificer begins "Sirmāre Sing-Bonga, Otere Pancho" ("O thou Singbonga that art in the sky, and ye Panch that are on Earth.") The Mundas, it may be noted, use the Sanskritic word "Pancho "not in the literal sense of "five" or "council of five" but in the sense of the community or clan as represented by all its adult members. The Hōs of Singhbhum now recognize two principal deities, Sing-Bonga and Nage-Era, and always begin their invocations to the spirits (whose number is legion) by calling upon their two principal deities as follows:-"Sirmare Sing-Bonga, otere Nāgē-erā”, “O (Thou) Sing-bonga which art in the sky, and (thou) Nage-era which art on the earth". According to the Hōs, Nāgē-era is regarded as the partner or wife and not, as among the Mundas, the sister of Sing-Bonga. In the Ho pantheon, next to Sing-Bonga and Nage-Era, ranks MarāngBonga or Maráng-Bürü or Dupub Lisum Bonga who appears to be identical with the Marang Bonga of the Mundas. The Hōs also recognize local Bürü Bongās just as the Tamariās and the Mundās now do. The Kharias cf the Ranchi district-a tribe allied to the Mundas also exhibit the same stage of the decay of the BürüBonga cult. Like the Mundas, they too have merged the clan Bürü-Bōnga into a more general Marāng-Buru Bonga to whom sacrifices are offered by a number of villages within some distance of a prominent hill. The Kharias always face west while offering sacrifices to Marang-Pūru, as tradition points to the west as their original home. Thus, Chota Nagpur evidence appears to me to suggest the inference that totemism, though not indeed the source of all religion, is one of the aspects in which the religious feeling (or the sense of the "sacred") expressed itself among certain tribes at a certain stage of culture,-that it is, in fact, an aspect of "animism" or rather "animatism" and, as such, of early religion, though not the whole of it. True, the sociological aspect of totemism is of essential importance; but it is no more essential than its religious aspect with which it is vitally interlinked. In fact, the two aspects would appear to be twins born of the same primitive world-view. MISCELLANEOUS CONTRIBUTIÓNS. I.-Note on the Cult of the Pillar-godling Laur Baba. By Kalipada Mitra, M.A., B.L. Mr. S. C. Mitra in his account of this godling (vide ante Volume X, pages 142, et seq.) says that the name of the village itself, viz. Lauriya Araraj (20 miles south-west of Motihari) is derived from the Laur, or the "Phallus", the appellation given by the villagers to the famous stone-pillar of Asoka. Another pillar of Asoka in another village (14 miles north-west of Bettiah), similarly worshipped as the phallus, Laur, is, I believe, equally responsible for naming it Lauriya Nandangarh. Two noticeable features are that-- (i) the pillars are worshipped as the phallus; and (ii) the pillars are styled Bhim Singh Baba or Bhim Bali Bābā, or the staff (lathi) of Bhim (e.g. the Aśoka pillar at Pipariya, 32 miles north of Bettiah). More unwittingly than wittingly the unsophisticated villager recking little of history naturally attributed the existence of the huge pillars to the mythic hero, Bhim, for who else than he, the slayer of Rakṣasa Vaka, the hurler of mighty trees and stones, could have used them as his staff, or have been petrified? Dr. Crooke says: "He (Bhimsen) is generally adored under the form of an unshapely stone covered with vermillion or of two pieces of wood standing from 3 to 4 feet out of the ground which are possibly connected with the phallic idea towards which deities of this class do often diverge." Fice versa a stone pillar could easily be taken for Bhim Singh or his staff. 1 1 An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Alld. ed. of 1894), page 54. Italics are mine. |