DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0241
Mother-worship. 229
Sometimes she is personated by a man who is carried on
the shoulders of two other men and sucks up some of the
blood of the slaughtered animals.
When a woman dies unpurified within fifteen days after
childbirth she becomes a demon called Cudel (Churel). She
is then always on the watch to attack other young mothers.
On the other hand, the power of at least one well-disposed
Mother in Gujarat is exerted in a remarkable way for the
benefit of women after childbirth. Among a very low-caste
set of basket-makers (called Pomla) it is the usual practice of
a wife to go about her work immediately after delivery, as if
nothing had happened. The presiding Mata of the tribe is
supposed to transfer her weakness to her husband, who takes
to his bed and has to be supported with good nourishing food.
The goddess ShashthI (Chathi) protects infants, and is
therefore worshipped on the sixth day after delivery. She is
represented by a simple stone set up under some tree.
The eight Mothers worshipped by the Tantrikas of Bengal
are each represented with a child in her lap, and it is remark-
able that Uma, wife of Siva, when worshipped as a type of
beauty and motherly excellence, is always regarded as a
virgin1.
All the Mothers are believed to have control over magical
powers, and especially over the secret operations of nature
and all those mysterious occult agencies which are intensi-
fied by darkness and invisibility. These powers and preter-
natural faculties they can impart to their worshippers, if
properly propitiated. This is a proof of the intimate con-
nexion subsisting between Mother-worship and the doctrines
of Saktism as described in the preceding chapter.
1 So in particular churches at Munich and elsewhere the shrines of
the black Virgin are frequented by vast numbers of pilgrims, who hang
up votive offerings, often consisting of waxen arms and legs, around her
altar, in the firm belief that they owe the restoration of broken limbs
and the recovery from various diseases to her intervention.
Sometimes she is personated by a man who is carried on
the shoulders of two other men and sucks up some of the
blood of the slaughtered animals.
When a woman dies unpurified within fifteen days after
childbirth she becomes a demon called Cudel (Churel). She
is then always on the watch to attack other young mothers.
On the other hand, the power of at least one well-disposed
Mother in Gujarat is exerted in a remarkable way for the
benefit of women after childbirth. Among a very low-caste
set of basket-makers (called Pomla) it is the usual practice of
a wife to go about her work immediately after delivery, as if
nothing had happened. The presiding Mata of the tribe is
supposed to transfer her weakness to her husband, who takes
to his bed and has to be supported with good nourishing food.
The goddess ShashthI (Chathi) protects infants, and is
therefore worshipped on the sixth day after delivery. She is
represented by a simple stone set up under some tree.
The eight Mothers worshipped by the Tantrikas of Bengal
are each represented with a child in her lap, and it is remark-
able that Uma, wife of Siva, when worshipped as a type of
beauty and motherly excellence, is always regarded as a
virgin1.
All the Mothers are believed to have control over magical
powers, and especially over the secret operations of nature
and all those mysterious occult agencies which are intensi-
fied by darkness and invisibility. These powers and preter-
natural faculties they can impart to their worshippers, if
properly propitiated. This is a proof of the intimate con-
nexion subsisting between Mother-worship and the doctrines
of Saktism as described in the preceding chapter.
1 So in particular churches at Munich and elsewhere the shrines of
the black Virgin are frequented by vast numbers of pilgrims, who hang
up votive offerings, often consisting of waxen arms and legs, around her
altar, in the firm belief that they owe the restoration of broken limbs
and the recovery from various diseases to her intervention.