Wc have seen that in the Vedas, as well as in Babylonia, the cult of goddesses is subordinate to that of gods. The Vedic Hindus were in the agricultural stage, but they had only recently emerged from the pastoral. And much of the work of tilling the soil was probably done by the aboriginal races whom the Aryans found in occupation.[1] This contempt for agriculture has descended to some modern Rājputs and Brāhmans. We have, therefore, to look for the origins of Mother worship to these indigenous people which we may call Dravidian, or Mon-khmer.
It seems dangerous to press too far in theory that the worship of the Mothers depends upon the leading part played by women in agriculture in many primitive societies, and among some of the present Indian tribes and castes.[2] Nor does it seem to be connected with Mother Right. In India, as is the case elsewhere, agricultural ceremonies and the culture of the local gods are often entrusted to women because they are more emotional, believed to be in closer touch with the spirit world, endowed with a stronger fertility Mana than that possessed by men. But the appointment of women as regular priestesses seems to be uncommon, Bishop Whitehead mentioning an exceptional case in the worship of the Mother goddess Nakulammā.[3] There does not appear to be any sound evidence that the cults of the Mothers in India were, to any special extent, dependent upon the cooperation of women in agriculture, a cooperation which, as we have seen in the case of a primitive tribe like the Orāons, is carefully restricted. It may be
- ↑ B. H. Baden-Powell, The Indian Village Community, 188. The facts are collected in a convenient shape by P. T. Srinivas Iyengar, Life in Ancient India in the Age of the Mantras, 23 et seqq. The views of Baden-Powell are criticised by Macdonell-Keith, Vedic Index, i. 182, ii 173, 254, 333 et seq., who describe the importance of agriculture in Vedic times.
- ↑ F. B. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, 1st ed. 239 et seqq.; Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 272; and compare Professor Gilbert Murray, Four Stages in Greek Religion, 78.
- ↑ Op, cit. 63.
