DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

2.4] VETALA AND HANUMAN 35
converted at the turn of the century into a temple containing several
distinct cult-images. Till 1930, they occasionally sheltered vagrants, thieves,
counterfeiters. On the other side of the valley mouth is the Catuhsrngi
temple, near which are the traces of some abortive caves. None of
these furnish any real information for us, though they would be the
first seen by an archaeologically-minded visitor. We must turn to simpler
cults. A hundred yards or so from my house, at the corner of a new
house-plot, is a cluster of stones and brick-mortar lumps daubed with
red pigment, occasionally renewed by unknown worshippers who
pay homage to this almost forgotten “ Vetala.” As late as 1939, these were
under a striking, ancient gnarled Bor (Zizyphus jujuba) tree to which
a goat or fowl was occasionally sacrified. The tree has disappeared ;
the owner of the newly constructed house took the precaution of moving
the cult objects only a few feet, with all due respect. Going near the
Vaidu settlement in the valley beyond, one finds a similar aggregate of
stone red-coated, with a crude stone lamp-housing ; the central stone —
as shapeless as all the others which are “ attendants “ — is worshipped
as Ladubai (the Dear Lady) by an aged peasant whose great-grandfather
brought the cult from eastern parts of the Deccan where it is commoner.
Between this and my house are other cult objects, of which the most
prominent is a Vetala cacodaemon on an unroofed platform near the
RamosT settlement. This baetylic (no etymological connection necessary
with Vetala) stone looks like the phallic symbol of Siva. The resemblance
is heightened by a small stone Nandl bull in front; unlike the normal
Siva cult, however, both the bull and the Vetala stone are completely
coated with red. The site held a small temple of the feudal period,
probably a funerary monument to some fallen warrior of the Peshwas.
The temple must have succeeded an original Vetala cult but was allowed
to lapse into ruin. Two small, unidenti-fiably blurred, many-armed,
relief images of the god and goddess survive to one side on a little heap of
the temple masonry, again slightly daubed with red, while a much
larger relief Hanuman (monkey-faced god) with sword and shield —
which show it to have marked a dead warrior’s monument — faces the
images, with the much more thorough coating of red that goes with all
Hanuman images which are worshipped by themselves.