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The Kalasa, or Water-Pot, in Connection with Burial Rites Author(s): William Simpson Source: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Vol.

21, No. 3 (Jul., 1889), pp. 689-690Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25208949Accessed: 03-10-2015 11:45 UTC

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689

CORRESPONDENCE.

1. The Kalasa, or "Water-Pot, in connection with

Burial Ritks.

Sir,?O'Don ovan, about tho timo of his risky visit to

Merve, describes, in one of his letters, the Turkoman tombs

about Tchikislar, on the south-east of the Caspian : " The

soldier's tomb consists of a pole of some twenty feet in

length planted vertically in the sand, its base surrounded by a circle of small stones, within which are accumulated a

selection of water jars and earthen tea-pots, tributes to the

memory of the deceased." This short quotation bears on

what has formerly appeared in the Journal in relation to the vaso or

water-pot, and burial rites. Central Asia is near

enough to India for a possible connection of customs between

the two regions. It may also bo of interest to know that

this primitive use of the water-pot, as a sepulchral symbol, is not confined to tho old world. In a work called The

Myths of the New World, by Dan. G. Brinton, there i$ an

account of a vision related by Coacooche, a Semin?le chief

tain, in which he says he visited "

the happjr hunting

grounds and saw my sister, long since gone. She offered

me a cup of pure water, which she said came from the

spring of the Great Spirit, and if I should drink of it, I

should return and live with men for ever. Some such

mystical respect for the element, rather than as a mere

outfit for his spirit home, probably induced the earlier tribes of the samo territory to pluce the conch-shell, which the

deceased had used for a cup, conspicuously on his grave, and

the Mexicans and Peruvians to inter a vase filled with water

with the corpse, or to sprinkle it with liquid, baptizing it, as

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690 CORRESPONDENCE.

it were, into its new associations. It was an emblem of hope that should cheer the dwellings of the dead, a symbol of the

resurrection which is in store for those who go down to

the grave. The vase or the gourd as a symbol of water, the source and preserver of life, is a conspicuous figure in

the myths of Ancient America. As Akbal or Huecomitl, the great or original vase, in Aztec and Maya legends, it

ploys important parts in the drama of cr?ation/' pp. 135-6. I offer these references, which may be worth adding to

the collection of data on this subject.

William Simpson.

The Stvrttiiry of the Royal Asiatic Society.

2. The Kalasa, or Water-Pot, in Indian Architecture.

Collectors Camp, Panwell, Kolaba Districts,

April 21st, 1889.

.I have been looking over the plates in Fergus son's Indian Architecture, to see what could bo made out

of them about the Amalaka ornament on temple spires. There is a pretty good sequence in respect of pillars. In the early caves an inverted bell-shaped water-pot is a

common capital (Fergusson's "

Persepolitan "

capital), and one of very similar shape is still used in the cave region to

cap the " Kambs

" (Stambha) erected near many villages for

festival purposes-*?" Maypoles "

one might call them.

Where anything has to be superimposed on a round bot

tomed inverted pot, the annular pad is as necessary between

them as it is under the pot when right side up.

Accordingly at Beds?, Karl?, etc., you find this capital connected with the abacus by such a pad, and the whole

construction strengthened and secured by a square frame of

very modern design.

This capital dies out as we get to the later caves, and is

replaced by a pot right side up. Under this there is always a circular member, which appears to me t? be the same pad

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