MÚSICO DE LA EDAD DE PLATA
5. PERFIL INTELECTUAL
5.2. Compromiso con la labor educativa de la música
It occurs to me that too little of a specific nature has been said of what many today believe to have been the ancient matrix of classical hoomanamana. The reader may have thus far been led to believe that Hawaiian sorcery had vague and poorly substantiated beginnings within the great triangle of Burma, Ceylon, and Sumatra, and that in modern times it was vastly modified by voodoo traditions brought to the islands by migrants from nearly every corner of the globe. Actually there is much evidence indicating that the basic premises of the Hawaiian orders of hoomanamana priesthood emanated from the central plains of Hindustan and the banks of the sacred Ganges, which formed the matrix of Brahminic civilization. It was from upper India that the great Brahminic philosophy of the East spread westward to Madagascar, Chal-dea, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Palestine, and eastward the length and breadth of the Pacific Ocean throughout much of what we now designate as Polynesia and Melanesia.1
In the summer of 1959 I made my last voyage to India, hoping to meet that nation's greatest spiritual leader, Acharya Venoba Bhave. I was told in Bombay that Bhave and a small band of his disciples were walking through the countryside near Cochin, engaged in his program of voluntary land redistribution. En route to Cochin a white-haired Hindu gentleman got on the train at a small station north of my destination, and was seated in my compartment. He introduced himself as Swami N. Chandra.
By the time the train arrived at Cochin, we were well enough acquainted that I was invited to my companion's house, where I spent many postprandial hours listening to him discourse on the ancient dis-persal of Brahminic metaphysics throughout the Pacific Island cultures.
An anthropologist, he had been, in early youth, a neophyte in the studies of Brahminic pitris (spirits) under the tutelage of Narendra Nath Dut,
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76 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present
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who, as Swami Vivekananda, lectured in the United States during the 1890s.1 His comments on ancient Hawaiian cultural links with India were substantially as follows:
"According to legends handed to us from ancient times, all three of our major Brahminic orders, Grihasta, Pourohita, and Fakir, were cults of priesthood among the Hawaiians. Through the ages these sacred and exalted orders were grossly vulgarized, but retained such original dogma as the Holy Trinity of the father, mother, and child. In India the Holy Trinity are Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; and in Hawaii and other regions of Polynesia these figures in their respective order are Kanaloa, Hina, and Lono.
"All of the Hawaiian priestly orders of Kahuna drew their powers from the universal soul force which we of India term agasa, and they designate by mana. This soul or spirit force is a union of intellectual and physical forces that has the substance of a pure, vital fluid. It is the cause of all things, and permeates all nature, and it is a catalyst that fuses and binds all visible and invisible, animate and inanimate beings to each other.
He who has a reservoir of agasa possesses a special power over those who have little of it, and they can dominate certain inanimate beings.
Spirits, or those entities we term pitris, are easily influenced by the vital fluid of agasa. Those priests who possess large accumulations of agasa may conjure pitris and place them in abject servitude.
"Few Hawaiian priests were masters of the highest Brahminic order, the Fakirs. But in times long before the arrival of Europeans among them, some Hawaiians were able to perform supernatural feats of the Fakir order. Certain adepts possessed a force that could levitate heavy objects without their having any physical connection with them, but only in close proximity to other human beings. There were also adepts who could manipulate dense objects without touching them while placed at a con-siderable distance from other persons. And there were an even more select order of Fakirs who could stand at a distance from a solid, inani-mate object and cause it to emit sounds which the members of a large audience could hear and also feel as vibrations by touching them as they moved through the air. Our Hindu Fakirs have not lost these powers.
"Somewhere among the centuries between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago, there were proto-Hawaiians familiar with the Agrouchada-Parikchai, which is our Hindu source book of magic. This book contained the chants by which the necromancer sppke to evil spirits, written in esoteric terms in order to hide their true meaning from the uninitiated. In their wanderings all the Polynesians lost their knowledge of the written language. The magical incantations were handed down by rote, gradually modifying in the process. How much the many orders of Hawaiian sorcerers retained
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The Kahuna 77 of the original Brahminic practices of sorcery may be deduced, to some extent, by traveling among our villages, where priests of necromancy abound in vast numbers."One may see in these times in every region of India, but especially here in the South, a vast multitude of diviners, sorcerers, and necroman-cers. These many kinds of soothsayers thrive because of a universal belief that nothing happens from ordinary causes, and that all things are made to happen through their occult practices.
"The sorcerer's power is almost unlimited, either to cause misfortune, or to counteract it by destroying the power of another magician to inflict it on a victim. It is within the power of an adept in the sorcerer's arts to cause an incurable sickness or sudden death, to hurl a demon into the body of anyone he chooses, or to exorcise that demon if need be.
"Some sorcerers specialize in administering secret potions which re-juvenate the debilitated and senile, rekindle erotic passion, cause the victims of unrequited love to gain the object of their passions, or bring fecundity to barren women.
"A most devilish sorcerer is the incubus who enters women in the form of an animal and by their rude and untiring embraces often cause their wretched victims to die of weariness.
"Through prescribed chants of evocation, the sorcerer calls upon the spirits and the gods and sends them on missions of evil. Of the highest order are spirits from other planets, of which there are eleven degrees. Next in rank are a variety of demonic spirits from the nether regions, of which there are ten degrees. These latter spirits from the nether regions are transitional entities who seek to enter stealthily into the bodies of the living and thus gain a degree of purity by which they are enabled to move into a superior transformation, and so progress toward merging with the Great Soul.
"A sorcerer may be employed to bring a curse upon one's enemy by means of a bundle of bones taken from sixty-four animals, among which must be included bones from the cadaver of an infant, a virgin, or an outcast. With appropriate ceremonies and sacrifices the bones are given magic properties and then placed in or near the enemy's house on a night designated by the stars, and his death will most certainly follow.
"Another way the sorcerer may bring a curse down upon one's enemy is to make small effigies of said enemy with matter taken from sixty-four foul and odious sources. In this concretion is mixed hair and nail clippings from the accursed. As soon as appropriate mentrams are spoken over the effigies in the victim's name, and they are sanctified by sacrifices, the wicked planetary spirits possess the victim and subject him to terrible abuse.
78 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present
"Again, there are sixty-four poisonous plants whose roots are used by sorcerers to inflict as many kinds of dreadful afflictions upon those who are the target of their malice.
"All orders of the Pourohita magicians live in dread of being turned upon and punished by their gods and spirit entities in retaliation for being arbitrarily ordered to do their evil work. Truculent and vindictive gods and spirits wait for the magician to make the slightest error in an evoca-tion so they may turn the misfortunes which he directed toward others, back upon himself. And he lives always with the fear that a colleague who possesses superior agasa may throw his own curses back upon himself or his client."
There were many other startling analogies of the Brahminic practices of Pourohita with the Hawaiian orders of hoomanamana that were cited by my learned Swami friend, but space does not permit them to be in-cluded herein. It is to be hoped the reader will find these few comparisons enlightening.
As a finale to this chapter, the following excerpt from an old manu-script of the Hon. Rollin M. Daggett (dated in 1893) is quoted. This scholarly diplomat, once United States Minister to Hawaii, presents some noteworthy opinions on the origin and migrations of the Polynesian people, because they were largely gleaned from Abraham Fornander, the finest scholar to write in nineteenth-century Hawaii, and King David Kalakaua, whom he assisted in writing The Legends and Myths of Hawaii, a very respectable piece of erudition from the able pen of a royal figure who traced his own lineage to the Old Testament era:
"Kalakaua and his sister Liliuokalani's grandfather . . . was a chief of what was known as the I family and traced their blood through Keawe to the royal line.
"Assuming Liliuokalani to be of the blood of the first of the Hawaiian Kings, and that there has been no actual change in dynasty during the intervening centuries, although different branches of the same royal line may have exercised sovereign functions from time to time, the extinguish-ment of her rule without a successor would bring to a close one of the very oldest dynasties on earth. She can trace her lineage back with his-toric details to the eleventh century, and beyond that by genealogical mention to the Mesopotamian basin in the time of Abraham.
"The origin of the Polynesian race, which is entirely distinct from the Malayan, is wrapped in,mystery. The best authorities unite in giving it an Aryan beginning, somewhere in Arabia or Asia Minor. There, as shown by its well-preserved legends relating to the creation, the deluge and other events mentioned in Jewish history, it was brought in contact with early Cushite and Chaldean civilization, where it doubtless absorbed the strange sacred traditions perpetuated in its legends. Subsequently
The Kahuna 79 drifting into India, the tribes now known as Polynesian amalgamated to some extent with the Dravidian races, and, following the channels of commerce, at length found a home in the Asiatic archipelago. The exact time of their settlement on the large coast islands of Southern Asia cannot be definitely determined, but their legends lead to the belief that, duiing the first and second centuries, inspired by Malay and Hindoo invasion, the Polynesians were gradually pushed out by families and communities to the smaller and more remote islands of the Pacific.
"Their first general rendezvous was in the Fiji group, where they left their impress on the native Papuans. Expelled or voluntarily leaving the Fiji islands after a sojourn there of several generations, they scattered over the Pacific, occupying by stages the several groups of islands where they are now found. Moving by the way of the Samoan and Society Islands, they reached the Hawaiian group about the middle of the sixth century. This is the theory of Judge Fornander, the learned author of A History of the Polynesian Race.
"Nanaula, a distinguished chief, was the first to arrive, probably from Tahiti. The Polynesians were experienced and daring navigators at that time and the chief and his followers came in large double canoes, bringing their gods, prophets, astrologers and priests, as well as dogs, swine and fowls, and seeds and germs of useful plants. It is supposed they found the group without human inhabitants. Soon other chiefs of less importance arrived with their families and retainers from Tahiti and Samoa, and then further immigration abruptly ceased.
"For four hundred years or more the first occupants of the Hawaiian islands lived sequestered from the rest of the world. They multiplied and spread over the several islands of the group, maintaining their ancient religion, obeying their chiefs and living in peace. It was the Saturnian age of the Hawaiians, and little beyond the names of the governing chiefs has been preserved in the way of tradition.
"Early in the eleventh century the descendants of Nanaula and his-subject chiefs were aroused from their dreams among the palms by the arrival of a party of adventurers from the Society group. Their leader was Nanamaoa. He was a warlike chief, and succeeded'in establishing his people on Maui, Hawaii, and Oahu. Their language, traditions, tabus, and worship differed but little from that of the original occupants, but their aggressions led to wars, which continued for two or three generations.
Then the great Pili came from Samoa, under the guidance of the sacred high priest Paao, and found no difficulty in establishing himself as sov-ereign of the large island of Hawaii and founding the dynasty through which the Kamehamehas drew their strain and to which the Kalakauas trace their lineage.
"Near the close of the twelfth century all intercourse between the
80 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present Hawaiian islands and the southern groups suddenly ceased, after more than one hundred and fifty years of voyaging to and fro. This was one of the most romantic periods in Hawaiian history and is rich in legends of love and war and royal and priestly splendor. Guided by the stars, the voyages to and from Samoa were made in barges and fleets of large double canoes, carrying as royal retainers priests, prophets, astrologers, and musicians. The supernatural is a prominent factor in the legends of that epoch, and the divinities of air, earth, and ocean are frequently introduced. The assistance of water gods is frequently alluded to, and in returning from Samoa a prince of Hawaii brought back with him Laamaomao, the Polynesian Aeolus, who kept the winds imprisoned in a calabash, and whose grave is now pointed out on the island of Moloka'i."
This statue of Kamehameha the Great has stood in front of the old Government House at Honolulu since 1883.
It is composed of bronze and depicts the conqueror, clad in his regal robe and helmet of feathers.
Since his death in 1819 there remains but six artists' sketches of him, so this idealized concept, posed by Colonel John Baker, is possibly as good a likeness as any.
(From W. S. Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol. 2, 1899.)
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Liholiho, Kamehameha II.
He and his Queen Consort, Kamamalu, died of the mea-sles in London in 1824, a few days apart, and their remains were carried to Hawaii on the British frigate Blonde and in- |P terred in massive European-style caskets, which were among the earliest used in Polynesia. (From A. P. Tay-lor's Under Hawaiian Skies,
1922.)
Kamehameha V, the most stately of all Hawaiian mon-archs, who said, "I am the State." He reigned from 1863 until his death in 1872 at the age of forty-three. (From A.
P. Taylor's Under Hawaiian Skies, 1922.)
King William Lunalilo, Hawaii's sixth monarch, reigned from January 8, 1873, until his untimely death on February 3, 1874, at the age of thirty-nine. When his remains were being re-interred in the grounds of Kawaiahao Church, the heavens accorded him a royal salute of twenty-one peals of thunder. (From A.
P- Taylor's Under Hawaiian Skies, 1922.)
King David Kalakaua, Hawaii's seventh and last monarch (by virtue of popular vote). Of royal lineage, he was at once innovative and enlightened and a powerful kahuna who has been accused of praying to death certain high court personages. His reign commenced on February 13,
1874, and culminated at his death in San Francisco's Palace Hotel, on January 20, 1891, at the age of fifty-four.
(From W. S. Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol.2, 1899.)
Princess Victoria Kaiulani, heiress-apparent at the time of her tragic death March 6, 1899, which occurred at Ainahau where she had long resided with her father, Governor Archibald Cleghorn, an Edinburgh Scot.
Born October 16, 1875, she was possessed of rare beauty and charm. Kaiulani's people mourned her passing, and gave her an impressive state funeral after her remains were viewed in Iolani Palace and Kawaiahao Church. (Photo from W. S.
Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol. 2, 1899.)
-Queen Liliuokalani, photographed on her throne after being deposed from it in the revolution of January, 1893. A sister of Kalakaua she reigned a few days short of two years. Upon her death on November 11, 1917, at the age of seventy-nine, she was accorded a state funeral of unparalleled pomp and ceremony. (From W. S. Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol. 2, 1899.)
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View of Ainahau, the Waikiki home of Governor Archibald gh and his royal daughter Princess Kaiulani. Her ladies-in-waiting are shown in central foreground. (From W. S. Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol. 2, 1899.)
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Sacred cliffs of Keoua, the father of Kamehameha the Great (Pali Kapu o Keoua). It overlooks Kealakekua Bay on whose shore Captain James Cook met his death. It is
pierced with the cave tombs of ancient kings and chiefs. Some have been rifled by vandals, but many of them remain inaccessible and thus are undisturbed. (From A. P.
Taylor's Under Hawaiian Skies, 1922.)
Kawaiahao Church, long regarded as the
"Westminster Abbey of Hawaii." Completed in
1842 under the direction of Boston missionary Hiram Bingham, it soon became the preferred church of Hawaiian royalty. Through its portals a host of kings, queens, princes, princesses, chiefs, and chiefesses were borne to their tombs amid magnificent pageantry solemnized by flaming torches and swaying kahili, or royal standards tufted with feathers. (From A. P.
Taylor's Under Hawaiian Skies, 1922.)
Interior view of cave tomb of Hawaiian royal persons.
The coffins were fashioned from sections of an old outrigger canoe in times before the white man's type of coffin was adopted by the Hawaiians about 180 years ago. (From W. S. Bryan's Our Islands and Their People, vol. 2, 1899.)
Iolani, the Royal Palace built by King Kalakaua, as it appeared a few years after its completion in 1880. In the spring of 1978 a six-million-dollar face-lifting of the splendid edifice was completed. (Photo by J. J. Williams. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives.)
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A fine type of alii wahine, or woman of royal lineage, as indicated by her insignia of whalebone strung on woven human hair {lei niho palaoa), and kahili scepter;
A fine type of alii wahine, or woman of royal lineage, as indicated by her insignia of whalebone strung on woven human hair {lei niho palaoa), and kahili scepter;