was that of an elephant. Another story says that Ganesa's head was that of the elephant of Indra, and that one of his tusks was broken off by the axe of Parasurâma. Ganesa is the god of learning, the patron of undertakings and the remover of obstacles. Hence he is worshipped at marriages, and his quaint figure stands over the house door and the entrance of the greater temples. But there can be little doubt that he, too, is an importation from the indigenous mythology. His elephant head and the rat as his vehicle suggest that his worship arose from the primitive animal cultus.

THE WORShip of the Great Mothers.

From these generally benevolent village godlings we pass on to a very obscure form of local worship, that of the Great Mothers. It prevails both in Aryan and Semetic lands,' and there can be very little doubt that it is founded on some of the very earliest beliefs of the human race. No great religion is without its deified woman, the Virgin, Mâyâ, Râdhâ, Fâtimah, and it has been suggested that the cultus has come down from a time before the present organization of the family came into existence, and when descent through the mother was the only recognized form.3

We have already met instances of this mother-worship in the case of Gangâ Mâî, "Mother Ganges," and Dhartî Mâtâ, "the Earth Mother." We shall meet it again in Sîtalâ Mâtâ, "the small-pox Mother."

In the old mythology Aditî, or infinite space, was regarded as the Eternal Mother, and Prâkritî was the Eternal Mother, capable of evolving all created things out of herself, but never so creating unless united with the eternal spirit principle embodied in the Eternal Male, Parusha. There appears to have been a tendency on the part of the IndoGermanic race to look upon their deities as belonging to

1 For the Celtic Mothers see Rhys, "Lectures," 100, 899; for Arabia, Robertson-Smith, “Kinship," 179.

2 Lubbock, "Origin of Civilization," 146; Starke, "Primitive Family," 17 sqq.; Letourneau, "Sociology," 384.

both sexes at once, and hence the dualistic idea in Brâhmanism of Ardhanari, or the androgynous Siva.1

We shall meet later on with the ghost of the unpurified mother, the Churel, which is based on a different but cognate association of ideas. Akin to this, again, is the worship of the Satî, or model wife, to which we shall refer again, and that of the Châran women of Gujarât, who were obliged to immolate themselves to prevent outrage from the Kolis and other freebooters.

This worship, probably derived from one of the so-called non-Aryan races, was subsequently developed into that of the female energies of the greater gods, a Brâhmânî of Brahma, Indrânî of Indra, and so on; and thus the simple worship of the mother has developed and degenerated into the abominations of the Tantras. These mothers are usually regarded as eight in number, the Ashta Mâtrî, but the enumeration of them varies. Sometimes there are only seven-Brâhmî or Brahmânî, Maheshvarî, Kaumârî, Vaishnavî, Vârâhî, Indrânî or Aindrânî, or Mahendri and Châmundâ. Sometimes the number is nine-Brahmânî, Vaishnavî, Raudrî, Vârâhî, Narasinhikâ, Kaumârî, Mahendrî, Châmundâ, Chandikâ. Sometimes sixteenGaurî, Padmâ, Sachî, Medhâ, Savitrî, Vijayâ, Jayâ, Devasenâ, Svadhâ, Svâhâ, Sântî, Pushtî, Dhritî, Tushti, Atmadevatâ, Kuladevatâ. They are closely connected with the worship of Siva and are attendants on his son Skanda, or Kârttikeya, and rise in the later mythology to a much greater number.

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MOTHER-WORSHIP IN GUJARAT.

But it is in Gujarât that this form of worship prevails most widely at the present day. Sir Monier-Williams enumerates about one hundred and forty distinct Mothers,

1 Benfey, "Panchatantra,” i. 41-52; quoted by Tawney, "Katha Sarit Sâgara," ii. 638.

2 Monier-Williams, "Sanskrit Dictionary, s.v. Mâtrî"; for the Nepâl enumeration, Oldfield, Sketches," i. 151; for Bombay, "Gazetteer," xvii. 715. In the " Katha Sarit Sâgara" (i. 552), Nârâyanî is their leader. There is a very remarkable story of the gambler who swindled the Divine Mothers (ibid., ii. 574 sqq.).

besides numerous varieties of the more popular forms. They are probably all local deities of the Churel type, who have been adopted into Brâhmanism. Some are represented by rudely carved images, others by simple shrines, and others are remarkable for preferring empty shrines, and the absence of all visible representations. Each has special functions. Thus one called Khodiâr, or "mischief," is said to cause trouble unless propitiated; another called Antâî causes and prevents whooping cough; another named Berâî prevents cholera; another called Marakî causes cholera; Hadakâî controls mad dogs and prevents hydrophobia; Asapurâ, represented by two idols, satisfies the hopes of wives by giving children. Not a few are worshipped either as causing or preventing demoniacal possession as a form of disease. The offering of a goat's blood to some of these Mothers is regarded as very effectual. A story is told of a Hindu doctor who cured a whole village of an outbreak of violent influenza, attributed to the malignant influence of an angry Mother goddess, by simply assembling the inhabitants, muttering some cabalistic texts, and solemnly letting loose a pair of scapegoats in a neighbouring wood as an offering to the offended deity. One of these Mothers is connected with the curious custom of the Couvade, which will be discussed later on. Another famous Gujarât Mother is Ambâ Bhavânî. On the eighth night of the Naurâtra the Râna of Danta attends the worship, fans the goddess with a horsehair fly-flapper, celebrates the fire sacrifice, and fills with sweetmeats a huge cauldron, which, on the fall of the garland from the neck of the goddess, the Bhîls empty. Among the offerings to her are animal sacrifice and spirituous liquor. The image is a block of stone roughly hewn into the semblance of a human figure.2

MOTHER-WORSHIP IN UPPER INDIA.

In the Hills what is known as the Mâtrî Pûjâ is very popular. The celebrant takes a plank and cleans it with 1 Campbell, "Notes," 311; "Athenæum," 6th December, 1879; "Folk-lore Record," iii. Part i. 117 sqq.

2 "Bombay Gazetteer," v. 432 sq.

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