Rituals we sometimes perform, are more to get the out of the way: not a Hindu calendar day passes without some form of appeasement to the Gods, spirits or ancestors. Coming of age of your teen daughter, drum it loud round town, wedding, three days of fire and smoke and decibels of mantra, pregnant, well announce it with a bang…examinations – take an oath to repay the Almighty if He helps out…passed, run to the temple courtyard and smash a few votive coconuts. Light camphor, burn incense, perform “drishti’ to ward off the evil eye….you name it, we have it. Moving into a new hose, well how about a fiery, smoky homa?

It goes on – this ritual, feeding crows, patting cows with veneration, supplicating before temple pachyderms and granite Nandi bulls, perambulating the sanctum. You think of it, we Hindus have it. Oops! That banyan tree there, smear a few handfuls of vermillion at its base, and presto, we have a roadside shrine going – and watch the hundis fill.

Wow, a slithering serpent – mind it fellows, it’s a cobra – never maim or kill one – nagadosha will ruin you and yours. Ohmeegawd!!?? What’s that giant centipede with a vicious sting doing here, weaving its way along your kitchen wall….Hush…..urgent, quick, me some turmeric powder, sprinkle, sprinkle on the astounded creeper…and Kubera through Lakshmi will shower you with riches.

I often try and reason out the hows and whys and origins of some routine ritual chores: Why do diners, supping out of a banana leaf in a marriage party or festival venue, cup a fist of water and decant it round and round the dinner leaf before starting to dine? It is so common, I’ve seen it performed with nary a hoot at star hotel’s around china cutlery. It made sense when someone told me that the origins, though silly sounding now, were based on logic and ground realities of back then….sprinkle water in a circle round your banana leaf as you squat on the floor to eat, you prevent ants and insects from crawling onto your plate!!

And the smoky home – oh that? That’s to fumigate out insects, scorpions, caterpillars and such stuff from your yet unoccupied, about to be moved in new home. May not mean much today, but hundreds and hundreds of years ago, all houses were mud floored and roofed with slates or hay….much scope for unwanted pests to make themselves nice and cozy.

Wear a copper talisman to ward of evil, eat from a plate or sip from utensils made of silver, Sautee your sambar with dash of spices and condiments deep fried in oil, in an iron ladle and dash it into the pot….serve rasam in a lead vessel. Wear anklets and toe rings of silver, wear gold to counter mumps…..all this is quite confusing, yet many homes still practice these habituated chores everyday. Yet, we all know that trace elements, copper, silver, gold, lead…all in minute quantities are essential for cell metabolism and healthy growth. Smear turmeric paste for glowing skin – yes, now we known as curcumin, the elemental constituent of the bulb is a today’s hot elixir of life – and has been used for ages as a skin ointment, even now, especially in ayurveda and veterinary medicine…..

A skin laceration – just burn a skein of cobweb and smear the residual ash on the cut; it heals, and heals remarkably well. So I was told by a native Gujarati. I wrote about this odd treatment, only to receive a email from a lumberjack association in Canada that all of them use the same method!!! In recent days, web matter has been shown to possess a new antibiotic, arachnicilin.

And carbon in nano-particulate form is claimed to be therapeutic these days. And what exactly is vibhuti, the holy ash. Months and years of burning and pounding of select items….the concoction almost reduced to the smallest morph of carbon, nano sized fullerene form: exactly the same composition and vehicle advocated by modern biotechnological laboratories for drug delivery. And what is the make up of the holy ash we smear on our foreheads or imbibe a pinch of? All five products of the cow – urine, dung, butter, ghee and curds, combined and incinerated…….to produce the panacea for all evils and ills.

Today, I have a healthier respect for many of our more common rituals. I am always on the lookout for meaning and answers to many more I cannot fathom. If any reader here has some idea, I would love to hear of them. Suffice to add, nothing ancient or practiced for eons, must have some rationale or reason. There is much more to native lore and wisdom than we care to know or give credit to…