DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

40 OTHER CULT SPOTS [2.5
This parallels the “ brother ” Vetalas of the first valley. Moreover, on the
hilltop, about the Bhairava shrine, the density of surface finds of quartzite
artifacts is again markedly above that elsewhere on the hill. In all
probability, the tools were made there or brought for exchange,
presumably for ultimate use by sacrificers. There is the additional
possibility that these spots were the sites of primitive settlements which
later moved into the valleys as agriculture developed. In any case, we
have a whole series of such cults in Maharastra, better known, with
much larger temples (which inhibit archaeology !) on similar hill plateaus.
Hie nearest to Poona city is the Parvati temple, now dedicated to fashionable
brahmin gods ; but many others are known which retain more primitive
deities slightly brahminized, to whom an annual blood sacrifice is made
either directly, or through a representative subordinate deity. Much
more field work is needed before such problems can be settled. The two
spots in question have little soil over the rock, hence digging will lead to
nothing more. No remains of housing seem to exist, for the hilltop has
no springs or convenient sources of water. No pottery is to be found
except some of recent manufacture, mostly from bootleggers 7 stills, for
which the humps provide an ideal lookout, sometimes kept by some holy
unshaven fakir dressed in dirty saffron robes who gains cash from the
illicit partnership, not to speak of the merit for serving the forest god.
This part of the country seems to have jumped straight from the
stone into the iron age at a fairly late date, without any marked
chalcolithic intermediary, for no copper tools are found ; the iron could be
roasted out of encrustations not too far away, as explained earlier. There
are no handy copper deposits, while major trade routes passing through
Poona seem comparatively recent, probably after the coastal strip was
developed.
2.5. In another direction, this investigation of gods and cults
which led us to archaeological discovery shows contact with the written
records, so many of which remain theological in India. The lower deities
are indistinguishable from each other except by information obtained
from the worshippers. Vetala (Skt Vetala, Hindi Betal), Mhasoba