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. 689-690
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25208949
Accessed: 03-10-2015 11:45 UTC

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689

CORRESPONDENCE.

1.

The

or

Kalasa,

"Water-Pot,
Burial

in

connection

with

Ritks.

to
ovan, about tho timo of his risky visit
one
his
in
of
the
Turkoman
tombs
Merve, describes,
letters,
on the south-east
: " The
about Tchikislar,
of the Caspian
soldier's
tomb consists
feet in
of a pole of some twenty
Sir,?O'Don

length planted vertically

a circle of small stones,

in the sand, its base surrounded

are accumulated
which
within

by
a

to the
tributes
jars and earthen tea-pots,
on
short
of
the
This
bears
deceased."
memory
quotation
in relation to the
what has formerly appeared in the Journal
selection

vaso

or

of water

and

water-pot,

rites.

burial

Central

is

Asia

near

for a possible connection

of customs between
enough
It may also bo of interest
to know that
the two regions.
use of the water-pot,
as a
this primitive
sepulchral
symbol,
to tho old world.
In a work called The
is not confined
there i$ an
of the New World,
Myths
by Dan. G. Brinton,
a
a
account of
vision related by Coacooche,
Semin?le
chief
"
the happjr hunting
he says he visited
tain, in which
She offered
grounds and saw my sister, long since gone.
me a cup of pure water, which
she said came from the
to India

spring
should
mystical

of the Great
return and
respect

for

of it, I
Spirit, and if I should drink
live with men
for ever.
Some
such
the

element,

rather

than

as

a mere

outfit for his spirit home, probably induced the earlier tribes
to pluce the conch-shell,
of the samo territory
which
the
on his grave, and
deceased had used for a cup, conspicuously
to inter a vase filled with water
and Peruvians
the Mexicans
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
or Huecomitl,
America.
As Akbal
the great or original
it
and Maya
vase, in Aztec
legends,
in
the
drama
of
135-6.
cr?ation/'
ploys important parts
pp.
I offer these references, which may be worth
to
adding
the collection
of data on this
subject.
William
The Stvrttiiry

2. The

of the Royal

Kalasa,

Asiatic

Simpson.

Society.

or Water-Pot,

in Indian
Collectors

Architecture.

Camp, Panwell,

Kolaba

Districts,

April

21st,

1889.

looking over the plates in Fergus

to see what could bo made out
Architecture,
on temple
of them about the Amalaka
ornament
spires.
There is a pretty good sequence in respect of pillars.
In the early caves an inverted bell-shaped
is a
" water-pot
"
common
and
capital
(Fergusson's
Persepolitan
capital),
one of very similar shape is still used in the cave
to
region
"
"
for
cap the Kambs
(Stambha) erected near many villages
"
one might call them.
festival purposes-*?" Maypoles
on a round bot
to
has
Where
be
superimposed
anything
tomed inverted pot, the annular pad is as necessary between
.I have

son's

been

Indian

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

at Beds?, Karl?,
etc., you find this capital
Accordingly
the abacus by such a pad, and the whole
with
connected
and secured by a square frame of
construction
strengthened
very

modern

design.

as we get to the later caves, and is

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

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