Omens and Superstitions of Southern India
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Ethnographic Notes in Southern India.
With 40 plates. Second Impression. Demy 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net.
This volume represents the results of many years of research into South Indian manners and customs, surviving, moribund, or deceased. Among the subjects dealt with are:—Some marriage customs; death ceremonies; omens, evil eye, charms, animal superstitions, sorcery, etc.; votive offerings; deformity and mutilation; torture in by-gone days, and a few stray survivals; corporal punishment in vernacular schools; slavery; making fire by friction; fire-walking; hook-swinging; infanticide; meriah sacrifice; dress; names of natives; the couvade; earth-eating; boomerang; steelyards, clepsydras, knuckle-dusters, cock-fighting, tallies, dry-cupping.
Castes and Tribes of Southern India.
By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. With many Illustrations. In Seven Volumes. Royal 8vo, cloth. 23s. net.
This work is of great value to ethnologists, and to those who are interested in Indian life, religions, and customs. It contains a mass of information as to the life, legendary lore, and traditional practices of all the southern Indian castes and tribes, arranged in the form of a dictionary, and is elaborately illustrated by reproductions of photographs. Published at the Government Press, Madras. Agent: T. FISHER UNWIN, London
Malayan exorcist with fowl in his mouth.
(See p. 246.)
Frontispiece.
Edgar Thurston, C.I.E.
Sometime superintendent of the Madras Government Museum and of the Ethnographic Survey of the Madras Presidency
London: Adelphi Terrace
Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20
1912
(All rights reserved.)
Preface
This book deals mainly with some aspects of what may be termed the psychical life of the inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, and the Native States of Travancore and Cochin. In my “Ethnographic Notes in Southern India” (1906), I stated that the confused chapter devoted to omens, animal superstitions, evil eye, charms, sorcery, etc., was a mere outline sketch of a group of subjects, which, if worked up, would furnish material for a volume. This chapter has now been remodelled, and supplemented by notes collected since its publication, and information which lies buried in the seven bulky volumes of my encyclopædic “Castes and Tribes of Southern India” (1909). The area dealt with (roughly, 182,000 square miles, with a population of 47,800,000) is so vast that I have had perforce to supplement the personal knowledge acquired in the course of wandering expeditions in various parts of Southern India, and in other ways, by recourse to the considerable mass of information, which is hidden away in official reports, gazetteers, journals of societies, books, etc.
To the many friends and correspondents, European and Indian, who have helped me in the accumulation of facts, and those whose writings I have made liberal use of, I would once more express collectively, and with all sincerity, my great sense of indebtedness. My thanks are due to Mr L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer for supplying me with the illustrations of Malabar yantrams.
Contents
- Page
- I. Omens 13
- II. Animal Superstitions 73
- III. The Evil Eye 109
- IV. Snake Worship 121
- V. Vows, Votive and other Offerings 137
- VI. Charms 180
- VII. Human Sacrifice 199
- VIII. Magic and Human Life 224
- IX. Magic and Magicians 237
- X.
List of Illustrations
- Malayan Exorcist with Fowl in Mouth (see p. 246) Frontispiece
- Page
- Sacred Vultures, Tirukazhukunram 86
- Evil Eye Figures, Malabar 112
- Evil Eye Figures Set Up in Fields 114
- Impressions of Hand on Wall of House 119
- Praying for Offspring before Lingam, Snake-Stones, and Figure of Ganēsa 124
- Pulluvan with Pot-Drum 129
- Vettuvans Wearing Leafy Garments 152
- Silver Votive Offerings 160
- Clay and Metal Offerings, South Canara 162
- Subramaniya Yantram 185