Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/197

 "" Hook- Swinging'' in India. 171

representing the hardships they suffered in consequence of the prohibition, and praying for its repeal. I did not attempt to argue with them, as I knew it would be useless. In their estima tion the evidence afforded by the losses in their families and flocks would have been conclusive against anything which I might urge. Both in Manbhum and the l)aman-i-Koh I frequently saw the old timbers of the Churuk set up near villages, and I often observed in the small of the back of the men who preceded me to point out the road in my daily rambles the old scars left where the hooks used in the swinging festival had penetrated. ^^

At Tarakeswar in the Kooghly district hook-swinging used to take place in honour of Siva on New Year's Eve in April, the festival being known as the Chaitra Sankranti. At that time the temple is visited by people who come for penance or to lead a temporary ascetic life, in fulfilment of vows made to Siva at some crisis of their lives. At the present day the people who wish to be swung are suspended by a belt.i^

In parts of Manbhum, in the month Chaitra, on the last day of the month and of the Bengal year, is celebrated the Bhokta or Charak hook-swinging festival. This, though essentially in honour of the Hindu Mahadeva and organised by a Brahman priest, is most popular with some of the aboriginal or semi-aboriginal castes, and the devotees are almost invariably drawn from among these classes, the higher castes and orthodox Hindus being content to look on. " As a rule, the hooks are merely inserted in the fleshy part of the back, and the devotee or victim swung with his weight taken by a cloth bound round his chest, and not by the ropes attached to the hooks."-"

In the Santal Parganas hook-swinging used to be largely in vogue, but suspension is now carried out by means of ropes, not hooks. The festival is known as the Chata Parab,

" V. '2>z\\, Jungle Life in India, p. 232.

'^^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Bengal, vol. i., pp. 336 tt seq.

'^ Bengal District Gazetteers, Manbhum, pp. 96, 75.