Identifier: kachris00endl (find matches)
Title: The Kacháris
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Endle, Sidney, 1840?-1907 Gurdon, Philip Richard Thornhagh, 1863-
Subjects: Kacháris
Publisher: London, Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ng Raja, and atthis women especially pay their devotions and make offerings,particularly at the monthly periods (menses). All offerings,however, made to Song Raja are finally brought outside thehouse, and laid at the foot of Bathau; and the writer has oftenseen such offerings in the form of heads of goats, pigs, fowls, &c,as well as plantains, tdmul-nuts, pdn-\ea,ves, gazi (i.e., a mixtureof rice and pulse), &c, humbly laid down for Bathausacceptance. In this way it is held that disease, famine, andmisfortunes of all kinds may be kept at bay, through theinfluence of this powerful guardian of the family interest andwell-being. It may be added that it is apparently only among thenorthern section of the Kachari race that the siju tree isregarded with special reverence. The Garos are said to knowthis tree and to use certain parts of it for medical purposese.g., the preparation of poultices, &c.; but to them it is neveran object of worship. The Dimasa of the North Cachar Hills,
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SlJU Tree (Euphorbia splendens). From a Photograph by Mrs. H. A. Colqichoun. iv RELIGION 37 on the other hand, seem to have no special regard for the sijuor any other tree. 2. Mainao (Ceres). Only second to Bathau is his good consort, Mainao, though,unlike her husband, she has no special emblem visible to thehuman eye. Her special function is that of Guardian of therice-fields ;1 and among a purely agricultural community likethat of the Kacharis, she of course is held in very high regard.She is, in short, to the Kachari peasant very much what Cereswas to the old heathen Roman cultivator. Eggs are the offer-ing that finds most favour in her eyes, and these are presentedto her in unstinted quantity. She is apparently especiallyworshipped at the period of harvesting the dsu and sdli crops ;hence the twofold designation given above (Nos. 3 and 4, house-hold gods), Asu Mainao, and Sali Mainao. Of the other domestic deities above mentioned, it is notnecessary to say much. Nos. 5 and 6 (Song

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