1
That being explained, I must add; I know that people sometimes get a tad emotional, upset or even abusive when discussing Singh Sabha individuals, literature or the movement in general. Regardless of your position in the Singh Sabha-Sanatan debate, there is absolutely no reason for this. I was heavily influenced by Singh Sabha thought via literature growing up, I make no attempt to hide this fact. Despite this, I do acknowledge that in highlighting certain features of Sikhi over others and dealing with the ground realities of the enormous political, social and cultural change of their times, some actions, that we may rightly question now, took place. So affinity doesn’t exclude critical evaluation. What this doesn’t mean however is that we can ignorantly ignore everything about the lehar and characterise it as ‘wrong’ in its entirety. It took me many years to shed my prejudice of what we can call sanatan or Hindu mat, and I now recognise that there are overlaps with this and aspects of Sikhi. The heavy use of Indic metaphor and allegory in the Sikh written word compels us to develop an understanding of these schools of thought for our own purpose. Similarly, some sanatanists would do well to overcome their own prejudice of the Singh Sabha lehar in order to evaluate it comprehensively.
Onto the contents! This experience was yet another eye opening one in my study of Sikh itihaas on a number of levels. Firstly we can clearly see how western sources and methodologies had come to influence Sikh literature of this period not only through the given references but also in the method of presenting various alternate hypothesis for explanations. Also easily discernable is the attempt to rationalise the mythological, even in the brief extract provided. The origins of devi are discussed and related to real life places, and possible historical events. That overt Victorian obsession with skin colour, itself strongly connected to the development of theories such as the ‘Aryan invasions’ seems to have seeped itself into the analytical thought processes of the author too. A preoccupation with the theories of conquest of the darker skinned by lighter skinned invaders can be detected in the piece. Obviously the sources of such characterisations were the new imperial ‘annexing masters’ of Panjab and one can find more about the way in which such stories were manipulated to buttress and justify white rule over colonised ‘heathen races’ in recently published works such as that by William Dalrymple.
In the final analysis, what I have come to believe is that the piece represents a collision of sorts, where Sikh thought meets head on with Eurocentric, ‘post enlightenment thinking. There is no denying that Sikhs were on the defensive at this time for obvious reasons but the work of the Sabhas were pioneering in that they attempted to explain the faith through a relatively new but powerful paradigm, one which we can say (with hindsight) has become so globally influential that it is likely that even those directly involved with its precursors would not have had an idea of just how much it would change much of the world around us.
Regarding the Sanatan versus Singh Sabha debate; I’m increasingly of the opinion that the best course forward is one where we retain the classical beauty of Sikhi, some of which can be found from perceived sanatan as well as other traditional sampardaya sources, whilst at the same time confidently facing important modernistic schools of thought and trends. The problem has always been that each of these two sides of the coin have become antagonistic towards each other to the extent that some sort of implied mutual exclusion presides. Perhaps the emphasis should now be to utilise cognitions from analysing both perspectives (historically represented by the Amritsar and Lahore sabhas), and using these to mend any fissures amongst us? A task more easily said than done given our nature.
I would like to acknowledge the folks at Panjab Digital Library for making the original publication available on their site and for the priceless sewa they perform in preserving and making Sikh/Panjabi literature available to the wider public. God bless you.
Quote
Devi poojan partaal – Bhai Vir Singh (Published in 1963)
Devi in Hindu thought.
Whenever we try to investigate the truth behind any person worshiped by Hindus we confront many difficulties. It is the same when trying to establish the truth behind the worship of devi. Any attempts at uncovering and finding [facts] result in one being beset with an equal amount of complications. If we try to develop an understanding based on investigation and exploration it appears that prior to the arrival of the Arya race in India, some of the original dark skinned inhabitants around the Vindhyachal mountains, were worshippers of ‘Kali’. Kali was thus an idol these people venerated. Generally, those people who were referred to as ‘thags’ were her devotees. This grasp of the relationship between Vindhyachal area and devi survives in Hindu thought till the present day. Bhai Santokh [?] Singh writes in [source unclear] that devi, tired of killing demons, and having lost [her war], arrives at the Vindhyachal where she installs a small figure and settles down - because of this, the place is also known as ‘Vindhyachal vaasnee’ [vaas referring to an abode or dwelling]. Such a named place exists roughly where the Vindhya mountains and Ganges meet and she (Kali) is worshipped there, next to an area called Mirzapur. They say the blood of sacrifices made in front of the idol there, never dries*.
Some people have expressed the possibility that perhaps Kali was a queen of the dark skinned inhabitants of the Vindhyachal region who later came to be worshipped as a goddess. She repeatedly fought with the invading Arya clan armies and people referred to her enemies as demons (asuras). Those who support this theory state that devi [in pictorial representations] is of a dark hue whilst the heads of the enemies she has slain with own hands are of a white complexion (implying they are heads of Aryans†).
The devotees of the Kali referred to as ‘Vindhyachal Vaasnee’ (resident of Vindhyachal) were certainly members of the ‘thag’ community. Thags were an old sect, within which Muslims too were incorporated, but prior to the Muslims, this cult existed even before the [arrival of the] Aryans. Members would gain the trust of people, after which they would strangle them with a rope or handkerchief in order to rob them. They considered this [activity] to be their profession and did not recognise it as a sin. After the killing they would perform some religious rituals, involving the worship of an axe but mainly in homage to devi, to whom much of the stolen goods were ceremoniously offered. These people considered everything they were doing to be under the orders of ‘Kali’ herself**. The Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsiang, referring to his own past, has described how when having left Ayodhaya to tour Haymukh, he was captured by thags along the way and selected to be sacrificed in front of devi ***. So, in this way Kali was an ancient object of worship as well as a fear inspiring icon for the authentic inhabitants [of the region].
When we investigate [the subject] from the ‘Arya Hindu’ perspective we find that instances of the of the word ‘Kali’ do indeed occur in the Vedas but not with the meaning of associated with devi. Instead [we find that] it is the name given to one of the seven tongues of Agni [the fire goddess], for whom sacrificial fires were undertaken. Of Agni’s seven tongues, ‘Kali’ was a dark and terrifying tongue††. These deities of the Vedas were mostly presented in a form to be worshipped [sentence meaning unclear]. We have some mention of human sacrifices in the preVedic period or during the early stages of its emergence¥; but later, the sages of the Vedas replaced these with accounts of horse sacrifices. Overall, the Vedic deities were the embodiment of radiance and not terror. The actual meaning of dev is illumination and it is said that awareness of devi amongst the Hindus, started after a time in this fashion. Following worship in all of the Vedic gods, they started to believe in 3 chief deities, then after some time they started to worship the three powers of the deities¥¥. The deity called ‘Rudar’ in the Vedas is in actuality the god of ‘thunder and tornadoes’, however, eventually he came to be recognised as ‘Shiv’ in the Hindu trinity, who possessed the power of destruction and the ability to absorb the world [to purge it??]. At about the time of the emergence of the doctrine of the three principal gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv and their 3 powers, Parbati became equated with Shiv’s power and his attributes of destruction and absorption [of the world] fell within this [conceptualisation].
In the Mahabharat one can read many references to devi in the position of ‘wife to Shiv’ under different names. Thus, the main ideas of the worship of the trinity [of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv] as well as the mode (and more), all emerge during the era of the Puranasπ.
Even if there are verses in Mahabharat which describe devi as the object of sacrifices involving meat and alcohol, it is not correct to say that Shaktism or Tantric practices were taking place at this time because we find no mention of Tantric philosophy when we read the Chinese traveller’s [Hiuen Tsiang] manuscript. Amar Kosh too, (which was written some years before this time, perhaps in the 5th century, Christian era), doesn’t contain any explanation of this word [devi] under any of the schools of thought [it describes] nor is mention made in any other ancient ‘explanatory texts’.
Some have also considered the possibility that devi may have been a great Hindu warrior, who fought with Saka invaders and slaughtered the leaders of those 'demons' and that ballads and stories concerning her bravery, presented her in the form of devi. ‘The Saka wars’ happened mainly in the north of India and it is here that she is well known in her tiger riding, powerful, demon destroying form. Bhai Ditt Singh has posited the possibility that devis were the brave royal maidens of the Rajputs and the rakhsas were Maharatas, who would turn up to try and take the pretty Rajput girls away. Back then, those Rajput females who fought bravely alongside the men and obtained victory, would become famous and were worshipped. So these historically based, regal women were the root of the devi story [according to the theory]. After informing us of the way the names of the rakhsas: Sambha, Nisumbh, Dhandoo and Aadayka align with the Maharata names (Sambha ji, Nisumbh ji, Chand ji and Aadayka) and presenting evidence of this, we are told that the section of the Dasam Granth based on the Markanday Puran, the story of Chandi; describes devi as a young and beautiful women. One day whilst she was seated somewhere, Sambh, a demon’s brother passes by, and upon seeing her he feels a strong desire to secure his brother’s betrothal to her. In this way the narrative agrees with [the theory] in that it is rooted in an incident of devi, the daughter of some warrior king, who fights victoriously against a tyrant king to preserve her essence.
Giani Gyan Singh believes that there is a possibility that prior to 665 AD (Christian dating) an Iranian queen ‘Sameerma’ occupied northern India and was involved in constant battles with the lowland kings, Sumbh and Nisumbh. It is thought that the Padam Puran was created by calling this very ‘Sameerma’ devi and representing her battles. By depicting her as a queen of the mountainous regions, she may have come to be worshipped there.
From the above we come to learn that ‘Kali’ was an icon worshipped by the older inhabitants of India and that someone from amongst the Aryans, through some jugglery [later], initiated the school of thought of devi linking it to a previous one centred on the various powers (shakti) of their deities.
*Dawson[?] - Classical dictionary of Hindu mythology.
†Woodriffe[?] - Shakti and Shakta
**Encyclopedia Britannica 8th edition
***Hind da puritan itihaas. Tract number 442. Pg. 13.
†† Dawson
¥ See Rig Ved Ashtak...........xxxx
¥¥ Encyclopedia Britannica
π Dawson (I stopped including footnotes at this point to save time! D.)
Devi in Hindu thought.
Whenever we try to investigate the truth behind any person worshiped by Hindus we confront many difficulties. It is the same when trying to establish the truth behind the worship of devi. Any attempts at uncovering and finding [facts] result in one being beset with an equal amount of complications. If we try to develop an understanding based on investigation and exploration it appears that prior to the arrival of the Arya race in India, some of the original dark skinned inhabitants around the Vindhyachal mountains, were worshippers of ‘Kali’. Kali was thus an idol these people venerated. Generally, those people who were referred to as ‘thags’ were her devotees. This grasp of the relationship between Vindhyachal area and devi survives in Hindu thought till the present day. Bhai Santokh [?] Singh writes in [source unclear] that devi, tired of killing demons, and having lost [her war], arrives at the Vindhyachal where she installs a small figure and settles down - because of this, the place is also known as ‘Vindhyachal vaasnee’ [vaas referring to an abode or dwelling]. Such a named place exists roughly where the Vindhya mountains and Ganges meet and she (Kali) is worshipped there, next to an area called Mirzapur. They say the blood of sacrifices made in front of the idol there, never dries*.
Some people have expressed the possibility that perhaps Kali was a queen of the dark skinned inhabitants of the Vindhyachal region who later came to be worshipped as a goddess. She repeatedly fought with the invading Arya clan armies and people referred to her enemies as demons (asuras). Those who support this theory state that devi [in pictorial representations] is of a dark hue whilst the heads of the enemies she has slain with own hands are of a white complexion (implying they are heads of Aryans†).
The devotees of the Kali referred to as ‘Vindhyachal Vaasnee’ (resident of Vindhyachal) were certainly members of the ‘thag’ community. Thags were an old sect, within which Muslims too were incorporated, but prior to the Muslims, this cult existed even before the [arrival of the] Aryans. Members would gain the trust of people, after which they would strangle them with a rope or handkerchief in order to rob them. They considered this [activity] to be their profession and did not recognise it as a sin. After the killing they would perform some religious rituals, involving the worship of an axe but mainly in homage to devi, to whom much of the stolen goods were ceremoniously offered. These people considered everything they were doing to be under the orders of ‘Kali’ herself**. The Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsiang, referring to his own past, has described how when having left Ayodhaya to tour Haymukh, he was captured by thags along the way and selected to be sacrificed in front of devi ***. So, in this way Kali was an ancient object of worship as well as a fear inspiring icon for the authentic inhabitants [of the region].
When we investigate [the subject] from the ‘Arya Hindu’ perspective we find that instances of the of the word ‘Kali’ do indeed occur in the Vedas but not with the meaning of associated with devi. Instead [we find that] it is the name given to one of the seven tongues of Agni [the fire goddess], for whom sacrificial fires were undertaken. Of Agni’s seven tongues, ‘Kali’ was a dark and terrifying tongue††. These deities of the Vedas were mostly presented in a form to be worshipped [sentence meaning unclear]. We have some mention of human sacrifices in the preVedic period or during the early stages of its emergence¥; but later, the sages of the Vedas replaced these with accounts of horse sacrifices. Overall, the Vedic deities were the embodiment of radiance and not terror. The actual meaning of dev is illumination and it is said that awareness of devi amongst the Hindus, started after a time in this fashion. Following worship in all of the Vedic gods, they started to believe in 3 chief deities, then after some time they started to worship the three powers of the deities¥¥. The deity called ‘Rudar’ in the Vedas is in actuality the god of ‘thunder and tornadoes’, however, eventually he came to be recognised as ‘Shiv’ in the Hindu trinity, who possessed the power of destruction and the ability to absorb the world [to purge it??]. At about the time of the emergence of the doctrine of the three principal gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv and their 3 powers, Parbati became equated with Shiv’s power and his attributes of destruction and absorption [of the world] fell within this [conceptualisation].
In the Mahabharat one can read many references to devi in the position of ‘wife to Shiv’ under different names. Thus, the main ideas of the worship of the trinity [of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv] as well as the mode (and more), all emerge during the era of the Puranasπ.
Even if there are verses in Mahabharat which describe devi as the object of sacrifices involving meat and alcohol, it is not correct to say that Shaktism or Tantric practices were taking place at this time because we find no mention of Tantric philosophy when we read the Chinese traveller’s [Hiuen Tsiang] manuscript. Amar Kosh too, (which was written some years before this time, perhaps in the 5th century, Christian era), doesn’t contain any explanation of this word [devi] under any of the schools of thought [it describes] nor is mention made in any other ancient ‘explanatory texts’.
Some have also considered the possibility that devi may have been a great Hindu warrior, who fought with Saka invaders and slaughtered the leaders of those 'demons' and that ballads and stories concerning her bravery, presented her in the form of devi. ‘The Saka wars’ happened mainly in the north of India and it is here that she is well known in her tiger riding, powerful, demon destroying form. Bhai Ditt Singh has posited the possibility that devis were the brave royal maidens of the Rajputs and the rakhsas were Maharatas, who would turn up to try and take the pretty Rajput girls away. Back then, those Rajput females who fought bravely alongside the men and obtained victory, would become famous and were worshipped. So these historically based, regal women were the root of the devi story [according to the theory]. After informing us of the way the names of the rakhsas: Sambha, Nisumbh, Dhandoo and Aadayka align with the Maharata names (Sambha ji, Nisumbh ji, Chand ji and Aadayka) and presenting evidence of this, we are told that the section of the Dasam Granth based on the Markanday Puran, the story of Chandi; describes devi as a young and beautiful women. One day whilst she was seated somewhere, Sambh, a demon’s brother passes by, and upon seeing her he feels a strong desire to secure his brother’s betrothal to her. In this way the narrative agrees with [the theory] in that it is rooted in an incident of devi, the daughter of some warrior king, who fights victoriously against a tyrant king to preserve her essence.
Giani Gyan Singh believes that there is a possibility that prior to 665 AD (Christian dating) an Iranian queen ‘Sameerma’ occupied northern India and was involved in constant battles with the lowland kings, Sumbh and Nisumbh. It is thought that the Padam Puran was created by calling this very ‘Sameerma’ devi and representing her battles. By depicting her as a queen of the mountainous regions, she may have come to be worshipped there.
From the above we come to learn that ‘Kali’ was an icon worshipped by the older inhabitants of India and that someone from amongst the Aryans, through some jugglery [later], initiated the school of thought of devi linking it to a previous one centred on the various powers (shakti) of their deities.
*Dawson[?] - Classical dictionary of Hindu mythology.
†Woodriffe[?] - Shakti and Shakta
**Encyclopedia Britannica 8th edition
***Hind da puritan itihaas. Tract number 442. Pg. 13.
†† Dawson
¥ See Rig Ved Ashtak...........xxxx
¥¥ Encyclopedia Britannica
π Dawson (I stopped including footnotes at this point to save time! D.)
Edited by dalsingh101, 01 April 2011 - 01:52 PM.
![[in pictorial representations]](http://www.indhistory.com/img/hindu-gods-kali.jpg){kind=link}