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[[Category:India|V]]
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From '''The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India '''
 
By R. V. Russell
 
Of The Indian Civil Service
 
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
 
Assisted By  
Rai Bahadur Hira Lal,  
Extra Assistant Commissioner
 
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
 
''' NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh. '''

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these  footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.


= Vam-Margi, Bam-Marg- Vama-Chari Sect=

 
A sect who follow the worship of the female principle in nature and
indulge in sensuality at their rites according to the precepts of the Tantras. The name signifies ' the followers of the
crooked or left-handed path.' Their principal sacred text is the Rudra-Yamal-Damru Tantra, which is said to have been promulgated by Rudra or Siva through his Damru or drum at the end of his dance in Kailas, his heaven in the Hima- layas. 

The Tantras, according to Professor Monier-Williams,
inculcate an exclusive worship of Siva's wife as the source of every kind of supernatural faculty and mystic craft. The principle of female energy is known as Sakti, and is personi- fied in the female counterparts of all the Gods of the Hindu triad, but is practically concentrated in Devi or Kali. The five requisites for Tantra worship are said to be the five Makaras or words beginning with M : Madya, wine ; Mansa,
[[File:   sikh3.png| |frame|500px]]   
 
1 This article is based on Professor Iccted by Munshi Kanhya Lai of the Wilson's Hindu Sects, M. Chevrillon's Gazetteer Office. RoDiantic India, and some notes col-
 
flesh ; Matsya, fish ; Muclra, parched grain and mystic gesticulation ; and Maithuna, sexual indulgence. Among the Vam-Margis both men and women are said to assemble
at a secret" meeting- place, arid their rite consists in the adoration of a naked woman who stands in the centre of the room with a drawn sword in her hand. The worshippers then eat fish, meat and grain, and drink liquor, and there- after indulge in promiscuous debauchery. The followers
of the sect are mainly Brahmans, though other castes may be admitted. 

The Vam-Margis usually keep their membership of the sect a secret, but their special mark is
said to be a semicircular line or lines of red powder or
vermilion on the forehead, with a red streak half-way up the
centre, and a circular spot of red at the root of the nose. 

They use a rosary of rudraksha or of coral beads, but of no
greater length than can be concealed in the hand, or they
keep it in a small purse or bag of red cloth. During
worship they wear a piece of red silk round the loins and
decorate themselves with garlands of crimson flowers. In
their houses they worship a figure of the double triangle drawn on the ground or on a metal plate and make offerings
of liquor to it. 

They practise various magical charms by which they think they can kill their enemies. Thus fire is brought from
the pyre on which a corpse has been burnt, and on this the
operator pours water, and with the charcoal so obtained he makes a figure of his enemy in a lonely place under a pipal tree or on the bank of a river. He then takes an iron bar, twelve finger-joints long, and after repeating his charms pierces the figure with it. When all the limbs have been pierced the man whose efifigy has been so treated will die. Other methods will procure the death of an enemy in a certain number of months or cause him to lose a limb. Sometimes they make a rosary of io8 fruits of the dhatura^ and pierce the figure of the enemy through the neck after repeating charms, and it is supposed that this will kill him
at once.
1 Dhatura alba, a plant sacred to Siva, whose seed is a powerful narcotic, and is used to poison travellers.