Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 156

THE LINO AY ATS OR SIVAITES
116
offence which lias given rise to the ceremony, they give
a great feast with the money derived from the fine, and
every one departs as soon as it is over.
I once saw the pavadam celebrated with much solemnity
The offence which provoked
in a village near my house.
it arose from an inhabitant of the village having uninten-
tionally felled a tree called kaka-mara \ which bears yellow
Mowers, and to which the followers of Vishnu offer sacrifices
and worship.
The sect of Siva
is
just as
numerous as that
of Vishnu.
predominates altogether in several provinces. In the
western parts of the Peninsula, along the whole length of
the long chain of mountains which separates what are
known in Europe as Malabar and Coromandel, the followers
of Siva form at least half of the population for a distance
extending for more than 100 miles from north to south.
Like the Brahmins they abstain from all animal food
and from everything that has had even a germ of life,
such as eggs, &c, some vegetable products being included
under this head. Instead of burning their dead, as do
most Hindus, they bury them. They do not recognize
the laws relating to defilement which are generally accepted
It
by other castes, such, for instance, as those occasioned by
a woman's periodical ailments, and by the death and funeral
They have also other rules and regulations
of relations.
from those generally in force. Their indiffer-
such prescriptive customs relating to defilement
and cleanliness has given rise to a Hindu proverb which
meaning that
says
There is no river for a Lingayat
the members of this sect do not recognize, at all events
which
differ
ence to
all
'
'
:
;
on many occasions, the virtues and merits of ablutions.
The point in the creed of the Sivaites which appears to
me to be most remarkable is their entire rejection of that-
fundamental principle of the Hindu religion, marujanma
In consequence of their peculiar views
they have no titis, or anniversary festivals,
or metempsychosis.
on
this point
commemorate the dead and to afford them the benefit
of the prayers, sacrifices, and intercessions of the living,
of which festivals I shall speak more fully later on.
Lingayat is no sooner buried than he is forgotten.
to
A
1
Cassia
fistula.
— Ed.