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[edit] Silari

This strange race of magicians, deriving their name from the Sanskrit Sila, a stone, are employed to protect crops from hailstones. They are identical with the "Garapagari" of the Central provinces, who are paid village servants; but in Eastern Bengal a member of any caste may become a Silari, being remunerated according to the success of his enchantments.1

1 Formerly the Silari was a paid village servant in Bengal, and offficiated at an annual festival, which is no longer observed. Taylor's "Topography of Dacca," p. 268.

Chandals, Jogis, and Vairagis are the ordinary Silaris, but a Muhammadan often acts as one, his co-religionists believing as implicitly in this occult science as their Hindu brethren.

At the present day this magical art is falling into disrepute, and it is no unusual thing for the peasantry to punish a Silari who fails to protect their fields. The Silaris confess that their skill is inadequate to call down a storm on a neighbour's crop, as was formerly done; but they still profess ability to drive away a cloud threatening any tract of country.

As hailstorms in Bengal occur usually in March and April, when the "Boro-dhan," or spring rice, is in the ear, the services of the magician are called for in low lands, where this crop is cultivated. When a storm is impending the Silari, summoned by the peasantry, rushes, almost naked, from his hut, with a rattan wand in his right hand. Invoking Paramesvara, the supreme god, he ascends a mound, where, spreading abroad his hands, and waving his rod to indicate the direction the storm-cloud is to take,1 he recites one or other of the following doggrel incantations, in the vernacular:�

I.

O Narasingha! Narasingha! mighty Narasingha! whom the fourteen gods fear; On hearing the name Narasinha the gods and spirits bend their heads; My Guru's name is Hira. Wherever you go, that quarter of the world is subdued, Whether it consists of hills or mountains, trees or jungle. Should this charm of mine fail, Mahadeva's hair will be uprooted, and fall off.

II.

Diamonds cut stones, Rivers retire before them, A gold knife is keen as a diamond, I have cut it this day into thirty-two,' Begone to the mountains of the north. Having paid your tribute to the south. Having scattered you, I go home. My name is Siva Sankara.

The above metrical rhapsody was obtained from Rai Chand Vairagi, a celebrated Silari, residing at Shamgaon, in Tipperah. The villagers present their magician with rice, or other food, when his charms have been efficacious, as money is an inauspicious gift.

1 Compare Exodus ix, 33.

[edit] Notes