1 Cults in the Simla Sills .
2 418
3 To complete the political analogy, the godlings often have their vmzirs
4 or chief ministers and other officials. Perhaps the best illustration of
5 this #w(mVpolitical organization of the hill cults is afforded by the
6 following account of the 22 Tilds of Junga. At its head stands’
7 Jmiga's new cult. Junga, it should be observed, is not the family
8 god of the Riji of Keonthal, That function is fulfilled by the Devi
9 TSra.1
10 The Cult op JungA.2
11 Legend . — The Raj & of Kotlehr had two sons, who dwelt in
12 Nddaun. On the accession of the ’elder to the throne, they quarrelled,
13 and the younger was expelled the State. With a few companions he
14 set out for the hills and soon reached Jafeho, near Simla. Thence they
15 sought a suitable site for a residence, and found a level place at Thagwa
16 in the Koti State. Next morning the M1&11, or f prince set out in
17 a palanquin, but when they reached Sanjauli, his companions found he
18 had disappeared, and conjecturing that he had become a deota, returned
19 to Thagwa, where they sought him in vain. They then took service
20 with the people of that part. One night a man went out to watch his
21 crop, and resting beneath a Icemu tree, heard a terrible voice from it say,
22 1 lest I fall down 1 9 Panic-stricken he fled home, but another man
23 volunteered to investigate the business and next night placed a piece of
24 silk on the platform under the tree and took up his position in a corner.
25 When he heard the voice, he rejoined ‘ come down whereupon the
26 tree split in half and out of it a beautiful image fell on to the silk
27 cloth. This the man took to his home and placed it in the upper
28 stofey, but it always came down to the lower one, so he sbnt for
29 the astrologers, who told him the image was that of a deota who
30 required a temple to live in. Then the people began to worship the
31 image and appointed a chela through whom the god said he would
32 select a place for his temple. So he was taken round the country,
33 and when the news reached the companions of the N&daun prince
34 they joined the party. The god ordered temples to be built at Nain,
35 Boj&vi, Thond, and Koti in succession, and indeed in every village
36 he visited, until he reached Nidaun, where the Raja, his brother,
37 refused to allow any temple to be built, as he already had a family
38 god of his own named Jipur. Junga, the new god, said he would
39 settle matters with Jipur, and while the discussion was going on,
40 he destroyed Jipur's temple and all its images by lightning, where¬
41 upon the Rija made Junga his own deity and, placed him in a house in
42 his darldr.
43 Jipur is not now worshipped in Keonthal, all his own temples being
44 used as temples of Junga who is worshipped in them. Nothing is
45 known of Jipur, except that he came in with the ruling family of
46 Keonthal. He appears to have been only a jathdra or ancestor,
47 Junga haw another temple at Pajarli near Junga, to which he is taken
48 1 An account of this goddess will be found on p. 367 supra.
49 (The family likeness of the legends connected with these hill deities of the
50 eitreme JTorth °f India to those connected with the f devils" of the Tuluvas on the
51 Vvost Coast, very far to the South, is worthy of comparison by the student. See Devil
52 Worship of che Tuluvas, Ind . Ant., XXIII—XXVI, 1894-1897.)