passed through the horse, bisecting it in the twinkling of an eye, the sundered sections of the hapless animal lying on either bank. I gave a start of surprise, but prudently did not enquire what happened to the rider! These deities would even arrest the steam engines running on the lines, and would let them go when propitiated (which, I should think, oftener happened than not). 3. Sultan Khan. This deity was particularly worshipped by the Muhammadan Thikadārs. He is a jagtā (lit. waking) mighty godling. If angry or set on by his bhagat (worshipper), he would even enter the bodies of men, causing them to spit or vomit blood. When humoured by the sacrifice of cocks and hens he would repay the pains by the return of a full and heavy net. He would otherwise gratify the wishes of his votaries. up 4. Gango. The malāhā wanted to make a present of a hilsa fish to me, and incidently referred to the golding Gango as the deity presiding over the catch of hilsa fish in particular. I have a suspicion that she is the river Ganges in the local setting, for hilea fish is generally to be found in the Ganges, sailing the river, it is said, from the sea, and rarely in other rivers. But to her have been grafted many powers unknown to her prototype. She would, for instance, transfer the fœtus from the womb of a pregnant woman to another woman, and the former to her great grief would find herself robbed of her precious treasure. On persistent enquiry as to the manner of its happening I was informed that the bhagat or the votary of the goddess was vouchsafed the knowledge to what woman the foetus would be transferred and the villagers would find out the transferee. The goddess descends on the bhagat and causes him, thus inspired, to utter oracles: In June, 1924, one evening my attention was drawn to certain articles kept on my verandah, viz. āruā rice, dhup dhuna, vermilion and batasa which were brought there by the maidservant. I was informed that these things she would take to her house just then against a particular function. A certain woman of a village near by in the sixth month of her pregnancy found one day to her great consternation and mortification that she felt light and was robbed of her burden. It is said that she even perceived this robbery for she felt for an hour that some air was passing out of her ear. She fell ill immediately thereafter. She and her relations ascribed this spiriting away of her child to the malicious witchcraft of some magician. Some relation of the maidservant who was a spirit doctor would counteract the evil, find out the malefactor, and cure her of the illness. I went to the place where this ceremony was to be performed at 8 p.m. A space under a pipal tree was scrupulously cleaned, and on it I found the articles mentioned above together with the addition of a bottle of wine and some ganja. I was told that wicked magicians drive a nail into the womb (Kânṭa mārdeṇā) and thus empty it of the foetus. This is done by the symbolic magic of a nail being driven through a bael or a mango tree in the name of the girl aimed at. By countermagic the nail (a real nail, two or three inches in length) which had already, through magic, been driven into the womb of the woman is said to be extracted during the operation from her arm or her leg. I waited for half an hour; but as the spirit doctor had not come, the ceremony was to begin later and they said they would send for me when it began. They did send for me at midnight, but I confess to shame that I was too lazy to stir out. The girl was of course cured of the illness. I think this might have been a case of false or fatuous womb. Reference to the belief in the transference of the fœtus from the womb of one woman to that of another occurs in a Jaina book called the Kalpasutra. Now Mahāvīra was born in the womb of Brahmaņi Devananda. The gods suddenly remembered that he ought not to have been born in the womb of a Brāhmaṇī; it was a mistake and the convention was violated. For "it never has happened, nor does it happen, nor will it happen, that Arahats, Cakravartins, Baladevas, or Vasudevas, in the past, present or future, should be born in low families, mean families, degraded families, poor families, indigent families, beggars' families or brahminical families [17]". The mistake was rectified and the fœtus of Mahavira was transferred from the womb of Brāhmaṇī Devananda to that of Trisala, the wife of Ksatria Siddharta.2 5. Dina Bhadri. My guide had on the previous day appealed to Gosain Bābā to give some shoot, and I shot a fine wild goose (nōkṭā) and some other wild waterfowls. But on that luckless day all appeal to mother Candmāri had been in vain, I know not why. This indifferent shoot was put down to bad yātrā, and to some man with soma lacchana crossing my path (lit. going before me) in the morning. I was led through a group of huts belonging to Mushahars in the village of Raṭnābā. I saw then a rectangular altar of earth (half a cubit in height, two cubits in breadth and three in length) with flowers thercon bearing a bamboo pole with a red banneret fluttering on the top. No image was to be found. It was the mighty, ever-waking (jāgtā) and manifest (pargat) deity of jalkar worshipped exclusively by the Mushahars with profuse libations of country liquor and offering of fowls, but chiefly of pigs, ten to fifteen being sacrificed at a time. The bymns sung in praise of the deity are said to be so entrancing as to heal the souls of people as it were. The deity protected the Mushahars from harm, and had other powers besides. The Malala explained to me that Amar Sing, Sultān Khān and Dina Bhadri had been men belonging to the class of votaries who worship them and that they have been apotheosized; and to give me a handy illustration he said that the local zamindar (who accompanied me) who was so kind and charitable to his ryots would after his death become a deity and would demand puja of them, and woe to him who would give umbrage to him. Bad men after death become mischievous spirits, and people 1 Jacobi, Kalpasūtra, S. R. E. Vol. XXII, p. 255. * See Hardy's Manual of Buddhism (1860), pp. 140-142. ought to have a care. I found my guide wonderfully accurate in the explanation of the origin of the sainted deities.3 in the flesh and Thus we find two classes of deities, (1) the deified heroes, such as Amar Singh, Sultan Khan, Dinā Bhadri (names) and Gosain Bābā and Shikari Bābā (surnar es?) and (2) deities of the river or jalkar after whom they are named, all females, such as Kamlāji, Gango, and Candmari. As no anthropomorphic images are fashioned and no Brahmin priests officiate and in all cases gañja or liquor offered, all that can be said is that such worship is non-Brahminic. It more or less amounts to, in the case of the male deities at least, of hero worship, the heroes being invested with far greater power for good and evil with an acquisition, now they are in the spirit world, of far more magical powers than when they were consequently demanding greater devotion and reverence from their votaries. The worship of river or jalkar deities is animistic. The blood flowing in the veins of the votaries, the Mālāhā Kols and the Mushahars, is evidently non-Aryan; but the same blood flows in many high caste Hindus also, only perhaps in more diluted form (in Bengal at least). Worship is perhaps more or less cultural than ethnic. So to me to style such worship as merely "non-Aryan" does not make for much contribution to knowledge. Who knows how many so-called "Aryan" customs are really "non-Aryan" and how many socalled "Aryans are more "non-Aryans" than "Aryans "? 3 See Crooke, An Introduction to the Populer Religion and Folklore of Northern India (All3. ed. 1894), pp. 125ff. III.-Criticisms. "The Glories of Magadha.” Author's Complaints. charge preferred against me regarding my poor knowledge of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali, although in my explanation of some of the terms, I am, I venture to think often in very good company and if I may be pardoned for saying so, credit has been given to me for my honest attempt at the explanation of the terms in question. 2. What however, I protest against and I feel inclined naturally to do it rather strongly is, that Mr. A. B-Ś. has done me the greatest possible in justice apparently by not taking the trouble to go even cursorily through my book. He writes that "Archaeological results Reply. 1. (a) Magadhan glories are intelligible in terms of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali cultures. To plead a poor knowledge of the latter is to forfeit every right to speak about the former. (b) Company is no consideration. Every attempt at explanation is to be pronounced good or otherwise after being judged individually. Then again, to be in good company is not necessarily being good oneself. (c) An historical interpretation should try to be not only honest but competent and adequate. 2. (a) The references in the review cover practically the whole book; hence the charge of non-perusal is hardly fair. The two particular cases referred to illustrate the dangers of misquotation. The reviewer did not indulge in generalities but cited specific instances Bloch on Bodh Gaya and Jackson on Barabar Hills. He writes" Archæological results touching Magadha by |