nied by
retinues called Gandhabbas, Kumbhandas, Nagas, and Yakkhas respectively,
and similar to the Nats of Burma. The Gandhabbas (or Gandharvas) are
heavenly musicians and mostly benevolent, but are mentioned in the
Brahmanas as taking possession of women who then deliver oracles. The
Nagas are serpents, sometimes represented as cobras with one or more
heads and sometimes as half human: sometimes they live in palaces under
the water or in the depths of the earth and sometimes they are the
tutelary deities of trees. Serpent worship has undoubtedly been
prevalent in India in all ages: indications of it are found in the
earliest Buddhist sculptures and it still survives[247]. The Yakkhas (or
Yakshas) though hardly demons (as their name is often rendered) are
mostly ill disposed to the human race, sometimes man-eaters and often of
unedifying conduct. The Mahasamaya-sutta also mentions mountain spirits
from the Himalaya, Satagiri, and Mount Vepulla. Of the Devas or chiefs
of the Yakkhas in this catalogue only a few are known to Brahmanic
works, such as Soma, Varuna, Venhu (Vishnu), the Yamas, Pajapati, Inda
(Indra), Sanan-kumara. All these deities are enumerated together with
little regard to the positions they occupy in the sacerdotal pantheon.
The enquirer finds a similar difficulty when he tries in the twentieth
century to identify rural deities, or even the tutelaries of many great
temples, with any personages recognized by the canonical literature.

In several discourses attributed to the Buddha[248] is incorporated a
tract called the Sila-vagga, giving a list of practices of which he
disapproved, such as divination and the use of spells and drugs. Among
special observances censured, the following are of interest. (_a_) Burnt
offerings, and offerings of blood drawn from the right knee. (_b_) The
worship of the Sun, of Siri, the goddess of Luck, and of the Great One,
meaning perhaps the Earth. (_c_) Oracles obtained from a mirror, or from
a girl possessed by a spirit or from a god.

We also find allusions in Buddhist and Jain works as well as in the
inscriptions of Asoka to popular festivals or fairs called Samajjas[249]
which were held on the tops of hills and seem to have included music,
recitations, dancing and perhaps dramatic performances. These meetings
were probably like the modern _mela_, half religion and half
entertainment, and it was in such surroundings that the legends and
mythology which the great Epics s