1917.] North Indian Agricultural Ceremonies. 35 



with pots of holy water and some greenery in a village of the 

 Mirzapur district, U.P. 



^ In the Rohilkhand Division, however, quite different 

 variants of the foregoing ceremony are performed. In the 

 northern portions of this Division, a man, taking a winnowing- 

 basket in his right hand and with nothing in his left one, goe 

 from the south towards the west and thence towards the nortli 

 till he reaches the merit or threshing-pole. He then retraces 

 his steps by the same way to the south, and thence walks 

 towards the east and then to the north till he arrives at the 

 merh again. From this goal he goes back by the same route, 

 that is to say, from the north to the west' and thence to the 

 south. Having again reached the southerly point, he place 

 the winnowing-fan on the ground and makes a low bow to the 

 accompaniment of some religious invocation. [This way of 

 circumambulating the heap of harvested crops is exactly similar 

 to the mode of making the circuit round the heap of winnowed 

 grains as is prevalent in the district of Bareilly ']. In the 

 outhern parts of the same Division, the celebrants of the cere- 



mony usually press their hands in six different parts of the 

 heap of the harvested crops, commencing from the bottom 

 thereof and ending at the top of the same. Each time that the 

 heap is touched with the hand, the name of one of the Chakra- 

 varti Rajas, namely Mandhata, Ben, Dalip, and so forth, is 

 mentioned. 2 



In the Lower and Central Doab as also in Sagor, the Chdnk 

 is usually performed by simply drawing a circle with cow-dung 

 (a spirit-scarer) or ashes round the ras and tliapi, simultane- 



ously. The line is commenced from the east, on to the south, and 

 thence to the west and north and from there to the east again. 

 While the circular line is being drawn, the man making it takes 

 care to hold his breath. Sometimes, the circular line is again 

 continued from the easterly point up to the southernmost one, 

 thus a second complete circle not being formed. The reason 

 for leaving the part from the east to the south is that the 

 perquisites for the deities and the Brahmans are taken there- 

 from and laid aside. 5 



In many other localities, the ceremony of circumambulat- 

 ing the thapa or the heap of grains formed for the village 

 servants, varies to some extent from the foregoing one. The 

 celebrant commences his circuit from the south, thence to the 

 west, and then on to the north from whence he retraces his 

 -teps by the same way to the south again. He takes care not 

 to place his footstep anywhere on the eastern side of the 



1 Bareilly Settlement Report. By S. M. Moens. Allahabad 

 p. 78. 



of 1845), p, 132. 



3 Op. cit.,p. 132. 



Terms 



