Part 23
A widow cannot marry her deceased husband's brother or cousin. The marriage goes by the name of Udiki, and corresponds to some extent to the Gandarva form of the Hindus. The ceremony is a very simple one; there is no music and no guests are invited. The parties go to the temple in company with the Matapati or headman, and the bangle seller. The latter puts glass bangles on the bride's wrists, and the Matapati ties the tali. This last act ratifies the marriage contract, and makes it indissoluble. In some cases the ceremony takes place at night, as though the parties wished the darkness to cover them, but this practice does not seem to be universal. A widower generally takes a widow as his second bride; a bachelor will not as a rule marry a widow. In connection with a case concerning the Lingayat 'Goundans' of the Wynad, it is noted, in the Indian Law Reports, [125] that "there is an immemorial custom by which Lingait widows are remarried. Such marriage is styled, not kalianam, but odaveli or kudaveli. It is not accompanied with the same ceremonies as a kalianam marriage, but a feast is given, the bride and bridegroom sit on a mat in the presence of the guests and chew betel, their cloths are tied together, and the marriage is consummated the same night. Widows married in this form are freely admitted into society. They cease to belong to the family of their first husband, and the children of the second family inherit the property of their own father." Divorce is permitted on proof of misconduct. The husband can exercise his right to divorce his wife by proving before a panchayet the alleged misconduct. The wife can only claim to divorce her husband when he has been outcasted. Wives who have been divorced cannot remarry. The above answers are given on the authority of the Ujjini mutt. There appears to be considerable divergence of opinion in other quarters. By some it is positively asserted that divorce is not permitted under any circumstances; that the husband and wife may separate on the ground of incompatibility of temper or for misconduct; and that in these circumstances the husband is at liberty to marry again, while the wife is not. Others say that divorce is permitted, and that both parties are at liberty to remarry. In connection with the Lingayats of South Canara, it is recorded, in the Indian Law Reports, [126] that "second marriage of a wife forsaken by the first husband is allowed. Such marriage is known as serai udiki (giving a cloth); as distinguished from lagna or dhara, the first marriage."
All castes included in Lingayat community follow the Hindu law of inheritance, and succession is governed by the same.
As a rule Lingayats worship Basaveswara and Virabhadra, the former being the founder of their sect, and the latter a son of Siva. They worship also the other sons of Siva, Shanmukha and Vinayaka, and Parvati, wife of Siva. The other deities of the Hindu pantheon are not reverenced. Some later saints are sometimes regarded with reverence, but there does not appear to be any great uniformity in this matter, and the Ujjini authorities declare that no god except Siva is worshipped. This is clearly the correct view of the religion, and it is evident that the worship of minor deities was not countenanced by the founder.
It is a peculiarity amongst the Lingayats that they esteem the Jangam or priest as superior even to the deity. They pay homage to the Jangam first, and to Siva afterwards. The Jangam is regarded as an incarnation of the deity. They allow him to bathe his lingam in water with which his feet have been washed, and which for this reason is regarded as holy water. With the same water they bathe their own lingams, and drink the remainder. The motto of the creed quoted by Mr. C. P. Brown is "Guru, linga, Jangam." These three words express the Lingayat faith, but in practice the Jangam is placed first, and, as stated above, is worshipped as god upon earth. This practice of bathing the lingams in holy water is universal, and precedes each meal. The Jangam blesses the food in the name of Basava, and eats before the others can begin.
Monday in every week is the Lingayat Sunday, and is sacred to Siva. This day is observed everywhere, and no Lingayat will cultivate his field, or otherwise work his cattle on a Monday. This fact was noted by the Abbé Dubois. The following account of the various festivals recognised by Lingayats was furnished by the Dewan of the Sandur State, but, as he himself admits, very few people really observe the rules:--
The month Chaitra.--First day of the bright fortnight being Ugadi or new year's day, all take an oil bath and feast, the first dish to be eaten being a porridge made of margosa (Melia Azadirachta) flowers, sugar candy or jaggery, dried grapes, almonds, Bengal gram flour, poppy seeds, and cocoanut kernel. Those who can afford it put on new clothing. The eating of margosa flowers on Ugadi is not, however, peculiar to the Lingayat. On the full-moon day, called Davanadahunname (from davana, a scented plant), they enjoy dainty dishes in honour of Hampe Pompapathiswami's car festival.
The month Vaisakha.--On the full-moon day called Hagihunname (from hage, a young plant) cultivators make nursery beds, and enjoy a good repast.
The month Jyesta.--The full-moon day called Karuhunname (from kare, a festoon). Bullocks are washed, painted, and taken out in procession, when a festoon made of leaves, etc., and tied high across the main street, is broken. On the new-moon day called Mannueththina-amavasya, they make bulls with earth, worship them, and eat a good meal.
The month Ashadha.--On the full-moon day called Kadlakadavena hunname, they make a mixture of cholam or other flour with a single grain of unbroken Bengal gram inside, boil it and eat. Women strike one another with these cakes, which are either round or oblong, and are tough. Before being eaten, they are cut into pieces with a knife.
The month Sravana.--The fifth day of the bright fortnight, called Nagarapanchame. The image of a serpent, made of mud taken from a snake's hole, is worshipped with offerings of milk, soaked Bengal gram, rice, balls made of jaggery and fried gingelly (Sesamum) called chigali, balls made of rice flour and jaggery called tanittoo, cocoanuts, plantains and flowers. On each Monday of this month, all the gods are worshipped with offerings of dainty dishes, and Jangams are fed. This is the most important month in the year. Those who can afford it have the Basava or other Puranams read and explained.
The month Bhadrapada.--The fourth day of the bright fortnight. The image of Ganesha, made of earth and painted, is worshipped with an offering consisting of 21 harnakadubu, 21 chigali, 21 tanittoo, a cocoanut, flowers and incense. It is taken out in procession on the 3rd, 5th or 9th day, and deposited in a well or stream after the necessary worship. The new-moon day called Malada-amavasya (from Mahalaya, a period comprising 15 days from full- to new-moon), during which offerings are made to the manes of departed ancestors.
The month Aswija.--The first day of the bright fortnight. Male children bathe, put on holiday clothes, and go to the village school. They do so till the 10th or Dasami day. With them their master makes house-to-house visits for annual presents. They sing and play with the kolatam, a pair of painted round sticks about one foot in length with a diameter of 1 1/4 inches. On the Dasami day, books, accounts, scales and weights, measures and weapons are worshipped with jambi (Prosopis spicigera), rich food, flowers and incense. All, including Jangams, enjoy a good meal. In the evening they visit temples, and offer cocoanuts to the idols. They pay reverence to elders by giving them jambi, and falling at their feet. On the same day, girls collect earth from ant-hills, and place it in a heap in the village temple. Every evening they go to the said temple with aratis (wave offerings), singing on the way, and worship the heap. They continue this till the full-moon day called Seegahunname. On the following day, i.e., on the first day of the dark fortnight, they worship in the same temple an image of Siva and his consort Parvati seated on the sacred bull made of earth and painted. They worship with offerings of cakes and other dainties, and cocoanuts, flowers and incense, and give arati. The Matapati who has installed the idol takes these offerings, and gives each girl two idols of Kontamma, made out of the heaped earth previously worshipped by them. They take them home in their arati platters. Within the next three days, they go from house to house playing on kolu or kolatam and singing, and receive money presents. These earnings they spend on the worship of Kontamma by making sajja and gingelly cakes called konte roti, and offering them. This worship is performed on the top of the roof of a house. The girls eat up the cakes, and take Kontamma in procession to a stream or well, and gently let her into the water, singing songs all the while.
On the new-moon day, a religious observance called nope or nomulu in honour of Gauri (another name of Parvati) is kept up. The observance consists in offering to the goddess 21 karjikayi, 21 whole areca nuts, 21 betel nuts, 21 bits of turmeric, 21 chendu flowers, 21 tumbe huvvu, a silk string with 21 threads and 21 knots, a cocoanut kernel, a date fruit, kunkuma, a cocoanut, bukkittu and incense, in a winnowing fan specially made with 21 fastenings. The fan is passed round the goddess 21 times. A face worked in silver, a new earthen pitcher or a metal pot with a twig of the banian tree in it, well decorated, represents the goddess. The silk string is allowed to remain before her that night. Next morning, offerings of food, etc., are made to her, and the pujari (priest) ties a silk string on the left arm if a female, or the right arm if a male. That day being the Balipadyam day, men, women and children take an oil bath very early in the morning, eat something, and put on new clothing. Just before daybreak, women make two sets of cow-dung Panchapandavas, and keep one set on either side of the outer threshold, and, sprinkling on them milk, butter and ghi, worship them. At the usual breakfast time, all the members of the family enjoy a hearty meal with the newly married son-in-law, to whom they make presents of cloths and gold according to circumstances. All that day children let off crackers.
The month Kartika.--On the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight, girls bring ant-hill earth, and, depositing it in a temple, follow the procedure observed from the tenth day of the bright fortnight of Aswija up to the day on which the Kontamma was left in a stream or well. They go through the various details in three days.
The month Pushya.--The Sankranti (the day on which the sun's progress to the north of the equator begins) festival is observed. On the Bhogi day, i.e., the day previous to Sankranti, cakes made of sajja and gingelly, dishes made of pumpkin, brinjals, sweet potatoes, red radish, raw chillies and chitrana (coloured rice) are eaten. On the Sankranti day, more rich food, including holigas (cakes made of jaggery, dhal and wheat), is eaten in company with Jangams, who are dismissed with money presents and betel and nut.
The month Magha.--The full-moon day called Baratahunname. This is a feasting day on which no ceremony is performed, but the people enjoy themselves by eating good things. The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight is the Sivarathri day, i.e., the day sacred to Siva. This should be a fasting and sleepless day, the fast being broken early next morning, but very few observe these rules strictly.
The month Phalguna.--The full-moon day is the day on which the Holi festival takes place. It is not marked by any religious observance beyond eating good things. The same is the case with the new-moon day.
Brahmans are not employed as a general rule. The Jangam is the priest of the Lingayat, and is called in for all ceremonies. Brahmans are sometimes consulted in fixing auspicious days, and in some cases are even allowed to officiate at marriages. This is the rule in Sandur, and shows the tendency of modern times. The Ujjini mutt is, however, still bigoted in its rejection of all Brahman interference, though, with strange inconsistency, the elders of the community themselves claim to be Brahmans. Jangams are now studying Vedic Shastras, and may often be heard repeating Vedic hymns.
The dead are buried in a sitting posture facing towards the north, but an exception is made in the case of unmarried people, who are buried in a reclining position. Before the patient dies, the ceremony called Vibhutidharane or Vibhuti achchodu is performed. He is given a bath, and is made to drink holy water in which the Jangam's feet have been washed. He is made to give the Jangam a handkerchief with vibhuti (ashes), rudraksha, dakshina (coin) and tambula (betel leaf). This is followed by a meal, of which all the Jangams present, and the relatives and friends of the patient partake. It appears to be immaterial whether the patient is still alive or not. It is stated that, if the invalid survives this ceremony, he must take to the jungles and disappear, but in practice this is not observed. The death party resembles in some respects an Irish 'wake,' though the latter does not commence until the deceased is well on his way to the next world. After death, the corpse is placed in a sitting posture, and the Jangam, who has received the offering before death, places his left foot on the right thigh of the body. The people present worship the corpse, and the usual distribution of coins and betel to Jangams follows. The body is then carried in a vimanam or bamboo chair to the burial-ground. The grave should be a cube of nine feet dimensions, with a niche on one side, in which the corpse is to sit. The lingam is untied, and placed in the left hand; bilva leaves (Ægle Marmelos) and vibhuti are placed at the side; the body is wrapped in an orange coloured cloth; and the grave is filled in. A Jangam stands on the grave, and, after receiving the usual douceur, shouts out the name of the deceased and says that he has gone to Kailasa or heaven.
Memorial ceremonies are contrary to Lingayat tenets, but in this, as in other matters, the influence of the Brahmans appears, and amongst some sections an annual ceremony is performed. The performance of Sradh, or the memorial ceremonial common to other Hindus, is unknown. The Abbé Dubois tells us that a Lingayat is no sooner buried than he is forgotten. He says, "The point in the creed of the Saivaites which appears to me to be most remarkable is their entire rejection of that fundamental principle of the Hindu religion 'marujanma' or metempsychosis. From this it would follow that they do not believe in ghosts. But there is a generally accepted idea that evil spirits sometimes take possession of females. This may be a rude way of expressing the fact that the gentle sex is uncertain, coy and hard to please."
Though Sradh is unknown, once in a year on the new-moon day of the month Bhadrapada or in Aswija, they offer clothes and food to ancestors in general, childless ancestors, and men who have died a violent death.
The special object of worship is a bull, the animal sacred to Siva. A bull is supposed to be used by Siva for riding. It is also painted on Siva's flag.
Tattooing is confined to females. Children are tattooed in their fifth year. A round mark, the size of a pea, is pricked between the eyebrows, on the right cheek, and on the chin. Other marks are made on the forehead. These marks are also made on the forearms and hands. The pigment is of a green colour, but the recipe is not known. The skin is pricked with babul (Acacia arabica) thorns.
Females wear a sadi about 8 yards long and 1¼ yards broad. It is invariably a coloured one, with silk or cotton borders at the edges and across at both the ends. One of the cross borders is much broader than the other, and is showy. The sadi is of different patterns. It is tied below the waist with folds in front, the end with the cross border passing round the trunk from left to right, and covering the head. They wear also a kuppasa, which covers half the body from the neck, and is fastened in the front by a knot.
In some families infants are branded with a hot needle on the stomach, under the idea that disease is thereby warded off. Children who suffer from fits are branded with a twig of margosa or with a glass bangle.
As Lingayats were originally recruited from all castes, the community must have included persons of nearly every trade. At the present day the majority may be grouped under priests, traders and agriculturists.
It is the idea of some Lingayats that Jangams are forbidden to trade, and strictly speaking this objection is valid. But it is even admitted at Ujjini that there is no such objection in practice. Many wealthy traders may be found amongst the above class, and in the town of Kampli there is a Lingayat guru who is held in great esteem, and yet is the owner of two shops, the business of which he personally conducts. It is even whispered that the head of the Ujjini Mutt is not averse to increasing his income by a little discreet usury. The majority of Lingayats in Bellary are tenant-farmers, or self-cultivating pattadars. It is said to be uncommon to find a Lingayat daily labourer in the Bombay Presidency--they are mostly landholders and cultivators or petty traders. They are prohibited from doing such work as is required of a butcher, a toddy drawer or seller, sweeper or scavenger. Anything connected with the use of leather is an object of special abhorrence to a Lingayat. Even the use of a leather bucket for irrigation purposes is by some of the stricter members considered degrading. It is even supposed to be wrong to touch one's shoe or sandals in the presence of others, and beating with a shoe is a special insult. This last objection is probably common to all castes.
There are few artisans, but a special sub-section called the Hirekurnis are weavers. Oil-sellers are styled Ganigas and Sajjanaganigas. Flower-sellers are called Jiru; those engaged in making dairy produce, Gaulis ; those who do tailoring, Chippigas. Members of the above trades under the above names are not exclusively Lingayats.
Ploughing is never commenced in Pushya, as it is considered an inauspicious month, but what was begun in the previous Margasira could be continued through it. Those who did not begin in Margasira do so in Magha, the month succeeding Pushya. Tuesdays and Fridays are auspicious days for the commencement of this operation. They are also the appropriate days for sowing. There is no restriction as to month, that being entirely dependent on the season. Before ploughing commences, the team of bullocks is worshipped. The horns of the animals are washed with water, and covered with sacred ashes. A cocoanut is broken on the yoke. Before sowing, puja (worship) is offered to the drill-plough. The hollow bamboos, through which the seed drops, is daubed with chunam (lime), and the other parts with red earth. Bunches of leaves of the sacred pipal, and bits of turmeric are stuck in three or four places. To the drill, a string, containing marking-nut, sweet flag, and pieces of palmyra leaf, is tied. Kunkuma is applied, and to the whole apparatus food specially prepared is offered. This takes place at home. The drill-plough is then carried to the field, where, after the bullocks have been attached, a cocoanut is broken on the cross beam. Reaping commences with the sprinkling of milk and ghi on the crop. At the threshing floor, a ceremony called Saraga is gone through. A conical-shaped image made of cow-dung is set at the foot of the grain heap. On its top are placed the tail hair of bullocks, a single cholam ear-head, a flower of the avari (bean) creeper, and tummi flower (Leucas aspera). Before it are spread the mess of cholam and other food brought from home, and a cocoanut is broken. Some of the mess is dissolved in buttermilk, and thrown round the threshing floor. The man who throws it lays the pot which contained it before the image, and salutes the heap with joined hands. The residue of the cholam mess and other food is eaten by a Jangam, the cultivator, the guests, servants and coolies. The grain in the heap is next winnowed and made into a heap. It is measured just before sunset, neither sooner nor later, after breaking the cocoanut which was secreted in the original heap. The measurers sit with their faces towards the north. While the measurement is proceeding, no one in the threshing floor may speak; nor is any one allowed to enter it at the time. The belief is that, if either of these happens, the grain in the heap will diminish. This mysterious disappearance is called wulusu.
Rain in Rohini Karte (one of the twenty-seven asterisms in which rain falls) is good for sowing, and that in Mrugasira and Ardra appropriate. These three asterisms are suited for sowing cholam. Showers in Punarvasu, Pushya, and Aslesha are suitable for sowing korra, saju and savi. Rain in Pubba and Wuttara is favourable to cotton, korra and horse gram, and that in Hasta and Chitta to wheat, cholam, Bengal gram and kusumulu (oil-seed). Flashes of lightning occurring at the exit of Ardra, augur good showers. The saying is that, if it flashes in Ardra, six showers will fall. In Magha, weeding, either by the hand or by bullocks, should not be done. Wind should not blow in Wuttara. If it does, the grain in the ear-heads will be hollow. There should be no lightning flashes in Swati. If there are, a pest called benkihula will appear, and grain will not be formed in each socket. Rain in Visakha destroys worms, and is good for pulses. Rain in Anuradha spoils them. A scare-crow in the shape of a human being is set up in fields where there are crops, to scare birds and animals. It is made much in the same way as elsewhere, with crossed sticks and a painted chatty (pot). The sticks are covered with rags of cotton or a kambli (blanket). A cocoanut is broken before digging for a well commences.
The Lingayats are strict vegetarians, and abstain from all forms of liquor. The staple foods in Bellary are cholam, cumbu, ragi and korra. Lingayats will not eat, drink or smoke with any one of another religion. This is the strict rule, but, as already stated, Kapu Lingayats will sometimes eat with a non-Lingayat relative or friend. (See also Jangam.)
Liyari.--See Kevuto.
Lohana.--Immigrant traders from the Bombay Presidency. "They state that they take their name from the port of Loha in Sindh, but Burton says that they came from Lohanpur near Multan, and that they were driven south by the Muhammadans. They reverence the Daria Pir, or the Indus spirit." [127]