{"id":1373,"date":"2021-11-14T10:42:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T10:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2021-11-14T10:42:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T10:42:59","slug":"good-friday-scapegoat-badagas-of-nilgiris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/14\/good-friday-scapegoat-badagas-of-nilgiris\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Friday, Scapegoat & Badagas of Nilgiris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Hope the Good Friday prayers assuage the\u00a0 Corona demon and mitigate its impact in the coming days.\u00a0 Beliefs, practices, religions and faith are different things though there may be many commonalities among them as ultimately all have the same goal. The practice of\u00a0 Scapegoat \u2013 transferring the sins of the dead to a goat-\u00a0 and Litany for the dead \u2013 forgiveness for the dead- are known to exist in some \u00a0religions and practices. However, the way the Badagas of\u00a0 Blue Mountains believe and practice them\u00a0 appear to be rather unique.\u00a0 They are practical, down to earth and form a list of penal codes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of the funeral men gather around the corpse and recite the litany for the dead and,  at the end,  transfer the sins to a (now imaginary) calf. It is called Calf Blessing. The sins are said to be over 300 and cover personal morality, behavior, family values and etiquette and community as well as environmental responsibilities. Here are some of them:<\/em> )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he did evil towards his father or grandfather \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he wronged the past generations \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he did evil towards his father in law and mother in law- a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he brought enmity between brothers \u2013a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he broke a bond of friendship \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he used a cow to plough the land \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he coveted a buffalo yielding abundant milk  \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he coveted the good crops of others \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he refused food to  the hungry \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he refused fire to the frozen \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he showed the wrong way to a stranger in the forest- a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he tore his dress angrily when caught on thorns \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he got on the cot while his father in law slept on the ground \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he spat disrespectfully before someone \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he created obstacles towards charitable deeds \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has felled trees in the forests \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has pulled a young plant and left it in the sun \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has pruned a young plant before it was ready \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he ripped things out of a forests \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has killed a lizard \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has killed a frog- a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has killed a gecko \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has killed a iguana \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he has killed a snake \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he wasted dried firewood \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he removed the field fences and let the animals out \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he broke down a dam that had been built up \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he let the water of the overflowing pond run out \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If after catching a fledging bird, he gave it to a cat \u2013 sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a barren cow was milked \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he threw out dirty water towards the rising sun \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he poured urine on a burning fire \u2013 a sin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he showed his posterior to the sun- a sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nilgiri Documentation Centre<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

image : https:\/\/www.deccanherald.com\/national\/south\/tamil-nadus-badagas-now-in-un-database-of-worlds-indigenous-people-902729.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Hope the Good Friday prayers assuage the\u00a0 Corona demon and mitigate its impact in the coming days.\u00a0 Beliefs, practices, religions and faith are different things though there may be many commonalities among them as ultimately all have the same goal. The practice of\u00a0 Scapegoat \u2013 transferring the sins of theRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilgiridiscoverycentre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}