130 The House in India from ihc Point of View
dream of taking over the building and completing it.^ This explains the state of dilapidation into which houses, even if they belong to wealthy people, are allowed to fall. This is not due to the indifference of the owners, but because they believe that the original builder has exhausted the good luck, and that any one who repairs or adds to an existing temple or other building of the kind gains no merit from his expenditure. At the same time, in more pro- gressive parts of the country, like the Panjab, it is said to be lucky to be always adding to and repairing a house ; but in Bahawalpur this is qualified by the rule that the extension should be to the front and not to the rear.^
In many places, for the same reason, it is held unlucky to build a new village on a deserted site. In such a case it is a good plan to call the brethren together — thus indicating that the matter concerns the group and not the individual, and that the ill luck will not fall upon any single person, — and to plant a pole to the north of the site, the Himalaya being the abode of the gods. Rice, betelnut, sugar, and a piece of red cloth are buried at the base of the pole. If the pole takes root, it is a good omen, and the tree which springs from it becomes the holy tree of the community.'^ In Gujarat, in some places, the site itself is worshipped, and a wooden peg besmeared with red is driven into the ground and worshipped with an offering of red lac — which looks as if it symbolised a sacrifice, perhaps human — sandalwood ointment and rice ; the peg is called that of Shesh Nag, the world serpent, on which the earth is believed to rest.*
In South India, as might have been expected in a Brahman-ridden land, the regulations are more precise. The site should abound in milky trees and flowers ; its shape should be quadrangular ; it should be smooth and
ij. E. Padfield, The Hindu at Home, 5.
^'Census Report, 1901, i. 28.
"North Indian Notes and Que)-ies, iv. 35.
■*R. E. Enthoven, Folk- Lore Notes, vol. i. Gujarat, 68.
