Khambesvari puujaa with Buffalo sacrifice

[N. Ganesan]

>  Do you know if, in
>  India, the common fiction of the "willing victim" was current ?

Don't know. But I learnt of a curious practice: The children
who were acting as gods at Ramlila were considered too "holy"
and godly, and after the festival, they were poisoned.
Now the practice is stopped by law.

>I also note that your examples all seem involve decapitation or at
>least the shedding and daubing of blood in some way.

Yes, the old Indian practice is to cut the head off of sacrifial
animals, and then smear the blood and fatty oil/lard etc., on
the icons. When Brahmana texts talk of "severe" headache, it refers to
immolation, and "sweat" means blood. Later, blood and
animal fat is changed to vermilion and sesame oil respectively.
It appears pUjALi/pUjAri = izicin2an2 = "smearer" of sacrifical
blood/oil.

> From Indological publications, I learn that Vedic Brahmins
replaced this cutting/chopping the head of animals with
strangulation.


Regards,
N. Ganesan



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