Some of the cases here brought together serve as an illustration of
the difficulty which frequently arises in arriving at a decision as
to how far the taking of human life is justified as being carried
out in accordance with a genuine superstitious belief, and when the
act renders the perpetrator thereof liable to punishment under the
Indian Penal Code.
Five persons were charged a few years ago at the Coimbatore sessions
with the murder of a young woman. The theory put forward by the
prosecution was that two of the accused practised sorcery, and were
under the delusion that, if they could obtain the foetus from the
uterus of a woman who was carrying her first child, they would be
able to work some wonderful spells with it. With this object, they
entered into a conspiracy with the three other accused to murder
a young married woman, aged about seventeen, who was seven months
advanced in pregnancy, and brutally murdered her, cutting open
the uterus, removing the foetus contained therein, and stealing her
jewels. The five accused persons (three men and two women) were all of
different castes. Two of the men had been jointly practising sorcery
for some years. It was proved that, about two years before, they had
performed an incantation near a river with some raw beef, doing puja
(worship) near the water's edge in a state of nature. Evidence was
produced to prove that two of the accused decamped after the murder
with a suspicious bundle, a few days before an eclipse of the moon,
to Tiruchengodu where there is a celebrated temple. It was suggested
that the bundle contained the uterus, and was taken to Tiruchengodu
for the purpose of performing magical rites. When the quarters in
which two of the accused lived were searched, three palm-leaf books
were found containing mantrams regarding the pilli suniyam, a process
of incantation by means of which sorcerers are supposed to be able to
kill people. The record of the case states that "there can be little
doubt that the first and fourth accused were taken into the conspiracy
in order to decoy the deceased. The inducement offered to them was
most probably immense wealth by the working of charms by the second
and third accused with the aid of the foetus. The medical evidence
showed that the dead woman was pregnant, and that, after her throat
had been cut, the uterus was taken out."
In 1829, several Natives of Malabar were charged with having proceeded,
in company with a Paraiyan magician, to the house of a pregnant woman,
who was beaten and otherwise ill-treated, and with having taken the
foetus out of her uterus, and introduced in lieu thereof the skin of
a calf and an earthen pot. The prisoners confessed before the police,
but were acquitted mainly on the ground that the earthen pot was of a
size which rendered it impossible to credit its introduction during
life. The Paraiyas of Malabar and Cochin are celebrated for their
magical powers, and the practice of odi.
"There are," Mr Govinda Nambiar writes, [281] "certain specialists
among mantravadis (dealers in magical spells), who are known as
Odiyans. Conviction is deep-rooted that they have the power of
destroying whomever they please, and that, by means of a powerful
bewitching matter called pilla thilum (oil extracted from the
body of an infant), they are enabled to transform themselves into
any shape or form, or even to vanish into air, as their fancy may
suggest. When an Odiyan is hired to cause the death of a man, he
waits during the night at the gate of his intended victim's house,
usually in the form of a bullock. If, however, the person is inside
the house, the Odiyan assumes the shape of a cat, enters the house,
and induces him to come out. He is subsequently knocked down and
strangled. The Odiyan is also credited with the power, by means of
certain medicines, of inducing sleeping persons to open the doors,
and come out of their houses as somnambulists do. Pregnant women
are sometimes induced to come out of their houses in this way,
and they are murdered, and the foetus extracted from them. Murder
of both sexes by Odiyans was a crime of frequent occurrence before
the British occupation of the country."
In a case which was tried at the Malabar Sessions a few years
ago, several witnesses for the prosecution deposed that a certain
individual was killed by odi. One man gave the following account of
the process. Shoot the victim in the nape of the neck with a blunt
arrow, and bring him down. Proceed to beat him systematically all
over the body with two sticks (resembling a policeman's truncheon,
and called odivaddi), laying him on his back and applying the sticks
to his chest, and up and down the sides, breaking all the ribs and
other bones. Then raise the person, and kick his sides. After this,
force him to take an oath that he will never divulge the names of
his torturer. All the witnesses agreed about the blunt arrow, and
some bore testimony to the sticks.
A detailed account of the odi cult, from which the following
information was obtained, is given by Mr Anantha Krishna Iyer. [282]
The disciple is taught how to procure pilla thilum (foetus oil)
from the six or seven months foetus of a young woman in her first
pregnancy. He (the Paraiyan magician) sets out at midnight from his hut
to the house of the woman he has selected, round which he walks several
times, shaking a cocoanut containing gurasi (a compound of water,
lime, and turmeric), and muttering some mantrams to invoke the aid of
his deity. He also draws a yantram (cabalistic figure) on the earth,
taking special care to observe the omens as he starts. Should they be
unfavourable, he puts it off for a more favourable opportunity. By
the potency of his cult, the woman is made to come out. Even if the
door of the room in which she might sleep be under lock and key,
she would knock her head against it until she found her way out. She
thus comes out, and yields herself to the influence of the magician,
who leads her to a retired spot either in the compound (grounds),
or elsewhere in the neighbourhood, strips her naked, and tells her
to lie flat. She does so, and a chora kindi (gourd, Lagenaria) is
placed close to the uterus. The foetus comes out in a moment. A few
leaves of some plant are applied, and the uterus contracts. Sometimes
the womb is filled with rubbish, and the woman instantly dies. Care
is taken that the foetus does not touch the ground, lest the purpose
be defeated, and the efficacy of the medicine completely lost. It is
cut into pieces, dried, and afterwards exposed to the smoke above a
fireplace. It is then placed in a vessel provided with a hole or two,
below which there is another vessel. The two together are placed in a
larger vessel filled with water, and heated over a bright fire. The
heat must be so intense as to affect the foetus, from which a kind
of liquid drops, and collects in the second vessel in an hour and a
half. The magician then takes a human skull, and reduces it to a fine
powder. This is mixed with a portion of the liquid. A mark is made on
the forehead with this mixture, and the oil is rubbed on certain parts
of the body, and he drinks some cow-dung water. He then thinks that he
can assume the figure of any animal he likes, and successfully achieves
the object in view, which is generally to murder or maim a person. A
magic oil, called angola thilum, is extracted from the angola tree
(Alangium Lamarckii), which bears a very large number of fruits. One
of these is believed to be capable of descending and returning to its
position on dark nights. Its possession can be secured by demons,
or by an expert watching at the foot of the tree. When it has been
secured, the extraction of the oil involves the same operations as
those for extracting the pilla thilum, and they must be carried out
within seven hours. The odi cult is said to have been practised by
the Paraiyas some twenty years ago to a very large extent in the
rural parts of the northern division of the Cochin State, and in the
taluks of Palghat and Valuvanad, and even now it has not quite died
out. Cases of extracting the foetus, and of putting persons to death
by odi, are not now heard of owing to the fear of government officials,
landlords, and others.
Of the odi cult as practised by the Panan magicians of the Cochin
State, the following account is given by Mr Anantha Krishna Iyer. [283]
"A Panan, who is an adept in the black art, dresses in an unwashed
cloth, and performs puja to his deity, after which he goes in
search of a kotuveli plant (Plumbago zeylanica). When he has found
it, he goes round it three times every day, and continues to do
so for ninety days, prostrating himself every day before it, and
on the last night, which must be a new moon night, at midnight,
he performs puja to the plant, burning camphor and frankincense,
and, after going round it three times, prostrates himself before
it. He then thrusts three small candles on it, and advances twenty
paces in front of it. With his mouth closed, he plucks the root,
and buries it in the ashes on the cremation ground, after which he
pours the water of seven green cocoanuts on it. He then goes round
it twenty-one times, uttering all the while certain mantrams. This
being over, he plunges himself in water, and stands erect until it
extends to his mouth. He takes a mouthful of water which he empties
on the spot, and takes the plant with the root which he believes to
possess peculiar virtues. When it is taken to the closed door of a
house, it has the power to entice a pregnant woman, and cause her
to come out, when the foetus is removed. It is all secretly done
at midnight. The head, hands, and legs are cut off, and the trunk
is taken to a dark-coloured rock, on which it is cut into nine
pieces, which are burned until they are blackened. At this stage
one piece boils, and it is placed in a new earthen pot, to which
is added the water of nine green cocoanuts. The pot is removed
to the burial ground, where the Panan performs a puja in honour
of his favourite deity. He fixes two poles deep in the earth,
at a distance of thirty feet from each other. The two poles are
connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be
heated and boiled. Seven fireplaces are made beneath the wire, over
the middle of which is the pot. The branches of bamboo, katalati
(Achyranthes aspera), conga (Bauhinia variegata), cocoanut palm,
jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavetta indica),
are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon
boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a
fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the
forehead enables the possessor to realise anything which is thought
of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days,
and live on a diet of chama kanji (gruel). The deity whose aid
is necessary is also propitiated by offerings."
In 1908, the following case, relating to the birth of a monster, was
tried before the Sessions Judge of South Canara. A young Gauda girl
became pregnant by her brother-in-law. After three days' labour, the
child was born. The accused, who was the mother of the girl, was the
midwife. Finding the delivery very difficult, she sent for a person to
come and help her. The child was, as they thought, still-born. On its
head was a red protuberance like a ball; round each of its forearms
were two or three red bands; the eyes and ears were fixed very high
in the head; and the eyes, nose, and mouth were abnormally large. The
mother was carried out of the outhouse, lest the devil child should
do her harm, or kill her. The accused summoned a Muhammadan, who was
in the yard. He came in, and she showed him the child, and asked him
to call the neighbours, to decide what to do. The child, she said,
was a devil child, and must be cut and killed, lest it should devour
the mother. While they were looking at the child, it began to move
and roll its eyes about, and turn on the ground. It is a belief of
the villagers that such a devil child, when brought in contact with
the air, rapidly grows, and causes great trouble, usually killing
the mother, and sometimes killing all the inmates of the house. The
accused told the Muhammadan to cover the child with a vessel, which
he did. Then there was a sound from inside the vessel, either of
the child moving, or making a sound with its mouth. The accused then
put her hand under the vessel, dragged the child half-way out, and,
while the Muhammadan pressed the edge of the vessel on the abdomen
of the child, took a knife, and cut the body in half. When the body
was cut in two, there was no blood, but a mossy-green or black liquid
oozed out. The accused got two areca leaves, and put one piece of the
child on one, and one on the other, and told the Muhammadan to get a
spade, and bury them. So they went to the jungle close to the house,
and the Muhammadan dug two holes, one on one hillock, and one on
another. In these holes, the two pieces of the child were buried. The
object of this was to prevent the two pieces joining together again,
in which case the united devil child would have come out of the grave,
and gone to kill the mother.
Years ago, it was not unusual for people to come long distances
for the purpose of engaging Paniyans of the Wynad (in Malabar) to
help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery
or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise
of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong
element of savagery. On both these occasions, the thatched homesteads
were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large
bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides
of the building marked for destruction, torches were at a given signal
applied, and those of the inmates who attempted to escape were knocked
on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace. In 1904,
some Paniyans were employed by a Mappilla (Muhammadan) to murder his
mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad
his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter,
and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would
kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went
with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Mappilla and the
woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man
and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck the
victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth,
carried some distance, and killed.
In 1834, the inhabitants of several villages in Malabar attacked a
village of Paraiyans on the alleged ground that deaths of people and
cattle, and the protracted labour of a woman in childbed, had been
caused by the practice of sorcery by the Paraiyans. They were beaten
inhumanely with their hands tied behind their backs, so that several
died. The villagers were driven, bound, into a river, immersed under
water so as nearly to produce suffocation, and their own children
were forced to rub sand into their wounds. Their settlement was then
razed to the ground, and they were driven into banishment.
The Kadirs of the Anaimalais are believers in witchcraft, and attribute
diseases to the working thereof. They are expert exorcists, and
trade in mantravadam or magic. It is recorded by Mr Logan [284] that
"the family of famous trackers, whose services in the jungles were
retained for H.R.H. the Prince of Wales's (afterwards King Edward
VII.) projected sporting tour in the Anamalai mountains, dropped
off most mysteriously one by one, stricken down by an unseen hand,
and all of them expressing beforehand their conviction that they were
under a certain individual's spell, and were doomed to certain death
at an early date. They were probably poisoned, but how it was managed
remains a mystery, although the family was under the protection of
a European gentleman, who would at once have brought to light any
ostensible foul play."
The Badagas of the Nilgiris live in dread of the jungle Kurumbas, who
constantly come under reference in their folk-stories. The Kurumba is
the necromancer of the hills, and believed to be possessed of the power
of outraging women, removing their livers, and so causing their death,
while the wound heals by magic, so that no trace of the operation
is left. The Badaga's dread of the Kurumba is said to be so great,
that a simple threat of vengeance has proved fatal. The Badaga or
Toda requires the services of the Kurumba, when he fancies that any
member of his family is possessed by a devil. The Kurumba does his
best to remove the malady by means of mantrams (magical formulae). If
he fails, and if any suspicion is aroused in the mind of the Badaga
or Toda that he is allowing the devil to play his pranks instead of
loosing his hold on the supposed victim, woe betide him. Writing in
1832, Harkness states [285] that "a very few years before, a Burgher
(Badaga) had been hanged by the sentence of the provincial court for
the murder of a Kurumba. The act of the former was not without what
was considered great provocation. Disease had attacked the inhabitants
of the hamlet, a murrain their cattle. The former had carried off
a great part of the family of the murderer, and he himself had but
narrowly escaped its effects. No one in the neighbourhood doubted
that the Kurumba in question had, by his necromancy, caused all this
misfortune, and, after several fruitless attempts, a party of them
succeeded in surrounding him in open day, and effecting their purpose."
In 1835, no less than fifty-eight Kurumbas were murdered, and a smaller
number in 1875 and 1882. In 1891, the inmates of a single Kurumba
hut were said to have been murdered, and the hut burnt to ashes,
because one of the family had been treating a sick Badaga child,
and failed to cure it. The district judge, however, disbelieved
the evidence, and all who were charged were acquitted. Again, in
1900, a whole family of Kurumbas was murdered, of which the head,
who had a reputation as a medicine man, was believed to have brought
disease and death into a Badaga village. The sympathies of the whole
countryside were so strongly with the murderers that detection was
made very difficult, and the persons charged were acquitted. [286]
"It is," Mr Grigg writes, [287] "a curious fact that neither Kota,
Irula, or Badaga, will slay a Kurumba, until a Toda has struck
the first blow, but, as soon as his sanctity has been violated
by a blow, they hasten to complete the murderous work, which the
sacred hand of the Toda has begun."
Some years ago, a Toda was found dead in a sitting posture on the
top of a hill near a Badaga village, in which a party of Todas had
gone to collect the tribute due to them. The body was cremated, and a
report made to the police that the man had been murdered. On enquiry,
it was ascertained that the dead man was supposed to have bewitched
a little Badaga girl, who died in consequence, and the presumption
was that he had been murdered by the Badagas out of spite.
In 1906, two men were found guilty of killing a man by shooting him
with a gun in South Canara. It is recorded in the judgment that "the
accused have a brother, who has been ill for a long time. They thought
deceased, who was an astrologer and mantravadi, had bewitched him. They
had spent fifty or sixty rupees on deceased for his treatment,
but it did no good, and accused came to believe that deceased not
only would not cure their brother himself, but would not allow other
doctors to do so. Also, a certain theft having occurred some months
ago, deceased professed by his magic arts to have discovered that
accused and others were the thieves. In consequence of these things,
accused had expressed various threats against deceased. One witness,
who is a mantravadi in a small way, was consulted by one of the accused
to find some counter-treatment for deceased's bewitchment. Accused
said that deceased refused to cure their brother, and would not let
others do so, unless they gave him certain gold coins called Rama
Tanka, said to be in their possession. They desired this possession,
so would not satisfy deceased. So their brother was dying by inches
under deceased's malign influence. This witness professed to have
discovered that accused's brother was being worried by one black
devil and two malignant spirits of the dead. It is clear from the
evidence that accused, who are ignorant men of a low type, really
believed that deceased was by his magic wilfully and slowly killing
their brother. They believed that the only way to save their brother's
life was to kill the magician."
During an epidemic of smallpox in the Jeypore hill tracts, a man
lost his wife and child. A local subscription had been organised for
a sorcerer, on the understanding that he was to stay the course of
the epidemic. The bereaved man charged him with being a fraud, and,
in the course of a quarrel, split his skull open with a tangi (axe).
In 1906, a Komati woman died of cholera in a village in Ganjam. Her
son sought the assistance of certain men of the "Reddika" caste in
obtaining wood for the pyre, carrying the corpse to the burning-ground,
and cremating it. The son set fire to the pyre, and withdrew, leaving
the Reddikas on the spot. Among them was one, who is said to have
learnt sorcery from a Bairagi (religious mendicant), and to have
been generally feared and hated in the village. To him the spread
of cholera by letting loose the goddess of the cremation-ground,
called Mashani Chendi, was attributed. Arrack (liquor) was passed
round among those who were attending to the burning corpse, and they
got more or less drunk. Two of them killed the sorcerer by severe
blows on the neck with wood-choppers. His corpse was then placed
on the burning pyre of the Komati woman, and cremated. The men who
delivered the death blows were sentenced to transportation for life,
as their intoxicated state and superstitious feeling were held to
plead in mitigation of the punishment.
In 1904 a case illustrating the prevailing belief in witchcraft
occurred in the Vizagapatam hill tracts. The youngest of three brothers
died of fever, and, when the body was cremated, the fire failed to
consume the upper portion. The brothers concluded that death must have
been caused by the witchcraft of a certain Kondh. They accordingly
attacked him, and killed him. After death, the brothers cut the
body in half and dragged the upper half of it to their own village,
where they attempted to nail it up on the spot where their deceased
brother's body failed to burn. They were arrested on the spot, with
the fragment of the Kondh's corpse. They were sentenced to death. [288]
In the North Arcot district, a few years ago, a reputed magician,
while collecting the pieces of a burning corpse, to be used for the
purposes of sorcery, was seized and murdered, and his body cast on
the burning pyre. From the recovery of duplicate bones, it was proved
that two bodies were burnt, and the murder was detected. Two persons
were sentenced to transportation for life. [289]