Khambesvari puujaa with Buffalo sacrifice

[Stephen Hodge]

Jogesh Panda wrote:

> In Sambalpuri [language spoken in Western and parts of Southern
Orissa, where KhambesvarI is worshipped by the DumAls or DumbAls] the
word <puj> means 'to kill'. PUjA has certainly something to do with
sacrifice and may be smearing of the sacrificial blood.
*******
Can this also be connected with the Kondh Meriah sacrifices in Orissa
which once involved human sacrifice until the 1850s when the British
(interfering as usual) outlawed the practice and encouraged the
substitution of the buffalo which is still used.  As far as I
understand, at the time of sacrifices, the victims were tied to a
ceremonial pillar or stake.  Also while the Kondhs did the
sacrificing, it is said that it was the Dombhs who procured the
victims and traded them.
Also, human sacrifice was practised in the highland region of
Phulbani, and much of  Koraput and Kalahandi but not in the highlands
of Ganjam whose inhabitants instead sactioned female infanticide.
According to those Kondhs who worshipped the goddess Tari, it was she
who taught humans about agriculture, hunting and warfare with iron
weapons.  When the earth was being created, it was an unstable morass.
One day while Tari was peeling vegetables, she cut her finger and the
blood fell on the ground which solidified and became fertile.  Seeing
the improvement this had caused, she told the Kondh to cut up all of
her body.  The Kondhas refused but instead began to obtain and
sacrifice people from elsewhere.  It was thought that no fertility was
possible without human blood falling on the ground.  Eventually, the
Tari sect came to believe that human sacrifice was necessary for
maintaining the well-being of the whole world, not just of their
community.  Those Kondhs who worshipped the male god Bura were the
ones who practised female infanticide instead as they had a less
flattering version of Tari's role in things -- women being a source of
misfortune and hence surplus females ought to be eliminated.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge