Devi or
Mother Earth, when a fast is observed in her honour, first before
sowing the spring crops and secondly before reaping them. On each
occasion the fast lasts for nine days and the Jawaras or pots of
wheat corresponding to the Gardens of Adonis are sown. The fasts and
festivals thus belong primarily to the agricultural castes, and they
worship the earth-mother, who provides them with subsistence. But the
professional and artisan castes also take the occasion to venerate the
implements of their profession. Thus among the Kasars or brass-workers,
at the festival of Mando Amawas or the new moon of Chait (March),
every Kasar must return to the community of which he is a member
and celebrate the feast with them. And in default of this he will
be expelled from the caste until the next Amawas of Chait comes
round. They close their shops and worship the implements of their
profession on this day. The rule is thus the same as that of the Roman
Suovetaurilia. He who does not join in the sacrificial feast ceases to
be a member of the community. And the object of veneration is the same;
the Romans venerated and sacrificed the domestic animals which in the
pastoral stage had been their means of subsistence. The Kasars and
other occupational castes worship the implements of their profession
which are also their means of livelihood, or that which gives them
life. Formerly all these implements were held to be animate, and to
produce their effect by their own power and volition. The Nats or
acrobats of Bombay say that their favourite and only living gods
are those which give them their bread: the drum, the rope and the
balancing-pole. The Murha or earth-digger invokes the implements of his
trade as follows: "O, my lord the basket, my lord the pickaxe shaped
like a snake, and my lady the hod! Come and eat up those who do not
pay me for my work!" Similarly the Dhimar venerates his fishing-net,
and will not wear shoes of sewn leather, because he thinks that the
sacred thread which makes his net is debased if used for shoes. The
Chamar worships his currier's knife; the Ghasia or groom his horse and
the peg to which the horse is secured in the stable; the Rajput his
horse and sword and shield; the writer his inkpot, and so on. The Pola
festival of the Kunbis has a feature resembling the Suovetaurilia. On
this occasion all the plough-bullocks of the cultivators are mustered
and go in procession to a _toran_ or arch constructed of branches