Last fortnight the annual ‘Pathron Ka Khel’ meaning stone-pelting ceremony was celebrated at Dhami, some 25 kms from Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. This ‘auspicious’ and customary event is held as a sort of contest between two groups of locals of Dhami. According to legend, the ritual originated in the 18th Century when humans were sacrificed to appease Goddess Bhadrakali. Later, human sacrifice was stopped and instead a ‘Tilak’ of blood was smeared on the statue of the deity after the stone pelting festival. The contestants line up and pelt stones at each other till a participant is hurt, blood oozes out. The contest ends and tilak of blood is smeared on the idol.
Pelting of stones on others is an ancient custom. In sacred Bible those who committed the crime of adultery were stoned to death by a group of people.
A group of people brought a woman accusing her of committing adultery in front of Jesus. Then they told the Lord that punishment for someone like her should be stoning to death. To this, the Lord stated that the one who was without sin was the one who should cast the first stone at her. The accusers and congregants departed realising not one of them was without sin. Jesus then told the woman to go and sin no more.
In holy Quran also there is a custom of stoning a convict of the crime of adultery to death. This capital punishment is called Rajm. In Islam stoning is also part of annual Haj Pilgrimage . The ritual of stoning here is called Rami and the place where stones are pelted is called Jamraat. The faithful believe that they throw stones on the devil.
In India, historically, stones commend great respect. Here, most of the idols of deities and statues of great persons are made up of stones. A period in history when weapons and tools were made of stones is called stone-Age. And an event marking a significant new development is called milestone. There is one legend as regards stone. On returning from his bath, sage Gauthan found his wife Ahilya in bed with Indra, a sight that had him maddened with rage. And so, Gauthan cursed Ahilya to be turned to stone. Later on, in Ramayana, Lord Rama liberated her from the curse.
There is a beautiful couplet on stone in Konkani that criticises the hypocrites in religions by eminent poet late Manoharrai Sardesai;
The God of stone is bathed by blood the man of blood is pounded by stone.
Stone is a symbol of strength. That is why during naming ceremony, Hindus place a small grinding stone in the cradle before baby is put into it. This signifies that the baby has to have a strong and healthy body. Three of the most important proverbs on stone are: 1) A rolling stone gathers no moss. 2) Don’t waste too many stones on one bird. 3) Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones on others.
