164 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
people of the Mahisas or Mahisakas, a circumstance to whicii 
I have previously in Part I on p. 42 drawn attention in the 
ease of the demons Bala, Malla and others. 
The word Mahisa has when combined with the Marathi 
Bd for Bdpa, father, assumed the form of Mahsobd, and the 
demon Mahsoba is to this day held in high veneration among 
the cultivators and the lower classes of the population. A 
stoneblock generally covered with red-lead colour and stand- 
ing in a circle of other stones serves as his representative. 
The structure resembles in this respect the rude stones wor- 
shipped by the Kurumbas. Of these I shall speak later on. 
The worship of the buffalo to which the Todas still adhere is 
very interesting and may perhaps indicate the origin of this 
ancient tribe. Some Grond tribes also sacrifice the buffalo. 
This subject deserves to be fully enquired into.'^ 
Like other primitive races of Turanian or Scythian 
origin, the Todas revere the great luminaries of the sky, the 
Sun and the Moon, besides the Fire. They have a very 
'5 Durga or Bhavanl killed the bufialo-sliaped Asura Mahisa, the well- 
known Mahhdsura, after whom Mysore is called. 
According to the legend in the Markand§yapiirftna Biti had lost all her 
sons, the Asuras, in the battle between the Gods and the Asuras. With the 
object to anihilate the Gods she assumed the sh;ipe of a buffalo, and under- 
went such dreadful austerities in order to propitiate Brahma, and to obtain a 
son, that the whole world was shaken in its foundations and what was worse, 
the sage Suparsva, was disturbed in his quiet hermitage. He therefore cursed 
Diti to bring forth a bufialo instead of a human-shaped son. Brahma miti- 
gated this curse by confining the bufililo form to the head and allowing the 
remainder of the body to be like that of a man. This offspring was called 
Mahisasura who defeated the gods and ill-treated them, tiU they appealed 
for help to Visnu and Siva, who jointh' produced a beautiful representation 
of BhavanI, the Mahisaswamard^in't, who slew the monster. 
The Gazetteer of Aurangabad mentions M'lhsdbd on pp. 3-47 and 35S : 
" Mahishasura, who was slain by Parvati, and in honor of whom the feaet 
of Dassura is celebrated, is probably Mahsoba, a demon much worshipped 
by the lower classes and especially by the cultivators, for the purpose of 
rendering their fields fertile. The image is like a natural Linga, consisting 
of any rounded stone of considerable size, found in the comer or to the side 
of a field. This when covered with red-lead becomes ilahsoba, to which 
prayers are addressed, and cocoanuts, fowls, and goats are offered (p. 347). . 
On the southern side of the Chauki pass, in the Lakenwara range between 
Aurangabad and Phulmari, thei'e is a shrine of Mahsoba, consisting of a 
