Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Seite 682

WORSHIP OF FISHES
642
it plentifully and offer .sacrifices to it
Hindus have been known to keep deadly snakes for
years in their houses, feeding and petting them.
Even if
a whole family were in danger of losing their lives, no one
member of it would be bold enough to lay sacrilegious hands
on such an honoured inmate.
Temples have also been erected in their special honour.
There is a particularly famous one in Eastern Mysore, at
a place called Subramaniah, which is also the name of the
great snake so often mentioned in Hindu fables l
Every
year in the month of December a solemn feast is held in this
temple. Innumerable devotees flock to the sacred spot
from all parts, to worship and offer sacrifices to the snakes.
An enormous number of the reptiles have taken up their
abode inside the building, where they are fed and looked
The special protection
after by the officiating Brahmins.
thus afforded has allowed them to increase to such an extent
that they may be met with at every turn all over the
the spot, they feed
daily.
.
neighbourhood.
to bring
them
audacity to
Many of their worshippers take the trouble
And woe to him who should have the
one of these gruesome deities. He would
food.
kill
get himself into terrible trouble
The denizens
Hindu worship.
2
.
water also come in for their share of
It is quite a common thing to see Brahmins
throwing rice or other food to the fishes in rivers and tanks.
Where the Brahmins exercise undisputed authority, fishing
is strictly prohibited, as, for instance, near the large agra-
of
Brahmin villages and in those parts of the rivers
where they are in the habit of bathing I have often seen
huge shoals of large fish swimming about near the surface,
waiting for their food. At the slightest sound they will rush
in hundreds towards the bank, and they are so tame that they
3
will actually feed out of a man's hand
What I have said so far gives but a feeble notion of the
superstitious feelings with which Hindus regard animals.
Ought these feelings, as some writers think, to be attributed
haras, or
;
.
1
It is on this snake that
It is also called Ananta and Mahasesha.
Vishnu reclines while sleeping on the sea. Dubois.
2
There are many temples of this description still existing, to which
pilgrimages are made.
Ed.
3
Fish-worship
Vishnu.
Ed.
is
connected with the
fish
Avatar or Mafsya-avatar of