of India. In Betul and other
districts the procedure is that on the Dasahra day, or a day before,
the Mang and Kotwar, two of the lowest village menials, take a buffalo
bull and bring it to the village proprietor, who makes a cut on its
nose and draws blood. Then it is taken all round the village and
to the shrines of the gods, and in the evening it is killed and the
Mang and Kotwar eat the flesh. It is now believed that if the blood
of a buffalo does not fall at Dasahra some epidemic will attack the
village, but as there are no longer any wild buffaloes except in the
denser forests of one or two Districts, the original meaning of the
rite might naturally have been forgotten. [10]

10. The Dasahra festival

The Dasahra festival probably marks the autumnal equinox and also the
time when the sowing of wheat and other spring crops begins. Many
Hindus still postpone sowing the wheat until after Dasahra, even
though it might be convenient to begin before, especially as the
festival goes by the lunar month and its date varies in different
years by more than a fortnight. The name signifies the tenth day,
and prior to the festival a fast of nine days is observed, when the
pots of wheat corresponding to the gardens of Adonis are sown and
quickly sprout up. This is an imitation of the sowing and growth of
the real crop and is meant to ensure its success. During these nine
days it is said that the goddess Devi was engaged in mortal combat
with the buffalo demon Mahisasur or Bhainsasur, and on the tenth day
or the Dasahra she slew him. The fast is explained as being observed
in order to help her to victory, but it is really perhaps a fast in
connection with the growing of the crops. A similar nine daysfast
for the crops was observed by the Greeks. [11]

11. The goddess Devi

Devi signifies '_the_ goddess' _par excellence_. She is often the
tutelary goddess of the village and of the family, and is held to have
been originally Mother Earth, which may be supposed to be correct. In
tracts where the people of northern and southern India meet she is
identified with Anna Purna, the corn-goddess of the Telugu country;
and in her form of Gauri or 'the Yellow One' she is perhaps herself
the yellow corn. As Gauri she is worshipped at weddings in conjunction
with Ganesh or Ganpati, the god of Good Fortune; and it is probably
in honour of the harvest colour that Hindus of the upper castes
wear yellow at their weddings and consi