Vol. X, No. 5.] The Worship of Mud-Turtles. 137 



[N.S.] 



and Bihar, because most of them are used as food and some 

 are more highly esteemed than others. 1 The largest and 

 most powerful species is Chitra indica. It is apparently the 

 species that is regarded as the " vehicle " of the goddess of the 

 Jumna,' 2 just as the crocodile is the "vehicle" of Mother 

 Ganges. 



Such evidence as i9 at present available would, therefore, 

 seem to suggest that the "tortoise" of Indian iconography is 

 not one of the land-tortoises (Testudinidae) but a mud-turtle 

 belonging to the family Trionychidae, and that the rever- 

 ence for the animal originated in Northern India. All 

 representatives of the family probably share or shared in 

 the respect due to the form assumed in an incarnation, but it 

 is possible that the actual species at one time reverenced 

 was Chitra indica, which may very well have been the totem 

 or the ancestral god of some particular clan or tribe. The 

 strength of these mud- turtles is very great and Chitra indica, 

 although it has not the powerful jaws of the species of Trionyx, 

 is said even to attack boats with blows. 3 Its carapace alone 

 may attain a length of at least six feet. It is, therefore, an 

 animal that would naturally attract both the attention and 

 the respect of a primitive people. [N Annandale.] 



ADDENDUM. 

 Note by Mr. H. E. Stapleton on the Chittagong Turtles. 



The correct name of the saint (not 'place' I think) known 

 to you as "Sultan Bagu Bastan" is "Sultan Bayazid of 

 Bastam." ' Bastam ' (or ( Bistam ') is a town in Persia, and 

 the saint is said to have visited Chittagong for devotional 

 exercises The mausoleum, which is some 5 miles out of Chitta- 



* See Chaudhuri, Rec. Ind. Mm. , vol VII, p. 212. Various species 



of tortoises are allowable as clean food for Hindus* There are Hindu- 



who are absolutely vegetarian, but the majority of them do not object 

 to fish or meat. As regards tortoise- meat, that of some sped is con- 

 sidered clean and that of some unclean. The meat of that species of 

 tortoise which is called Dundi is allowable even for Brahmans. It has a 

 hard shell above and a hard cartilage below. It has a ridge on its back. 

 It is the species called Dhoor in Mr. B. L. Chaudhuri's note, i.e. Kachuga 

 dhongoka (Gray). The eggs are considered a delicacy. These are found 

 inside the tortoise in the form of a garland several yards long. There is 

 another species called Sundi, a small land- tortoise, which is also eaten 

 by the higher classes. Keto (that is, "wooden") is another species the 

 meat of which is allowable. But the big tortoises, all called Barkole. are 

 never used as food except by the lower classes. These are very big, 

 sometimes containing maunds of meat. In one of Asokas inscriptions he 

 prohibited the use of Dudis meat, that is, the meat of Dudr or Dhoor. 

 Haraprasad Shastri. 



* Large individuals of this species may often be observed in the water 

 from the train as it passes over the railway bridge at Allahabad, a short 

 distance below the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges. 



8 Chaudhuri, loc. cit. 



