In this paper I shall analyse the rituals for Sanni Yaka ('the demon of Sanni').l Sanni Yaka is also known as Kola Sanniya and is a pantheistic deity who incorporates eighteen other demons known as Dahaata Sanni (eighteen Sanni) or simply as Sanni Yakku (Sanni demons; Yakku is plural of Yaka). The rituals performed for the Sanni Yakku appear in a large-scale ceremony known as the Sanni Ydkuma, 'the demon ceremony of the Sanni'. In my analysis I shall emphasize the dramatic aspects of the rituals, where the demons appear on stage in masked representations. In these rituals a great deal of comic dialogue and obscenities prevail. Their significance has been missed by Wirz who describes one of these rituals, the dolaha pelapaliya (spectacle for the twelve gods) in the following terms: 'This scene is called simply 'pelapaliya', which may best be translated as 'dance suite', or 'musical show.' . . . In reality, it is only interposed for diversion and has no deeper meaning' (1954: 59). A highly sophisticated anthropologist presumably refers to similar comic humour when he says that 'after more hocus-pocus, Riri Yaka is eventually told that by the orders of the Buddha (Budu anin) and the power of the gods (deviyange bale) he must accept the dola (offering) and remove his curse from the patient' (Ames, 1964: 42). Almost identical words are spoken to Kola Sanniya in the Sanni Ydkuma ritual, but we shall interpret and unravel the symbolic meaning of these humorous ritual dramas and consider their evolution and social functions.
目次
Introduction 174 The Ritual of the Sanni Demons: The Initial Rites 177 The Dramatic Representation: The Sanni Demons 181 Text I: The Birth of Kōla Sanniya 181 Text II: Birth of the Sanni Demons (Sanni upata) 183 Text III: The Conquest of the Kōla Sanniya by Gautama Buddha 186 Interpretations 197 The Eighteen Collective Representations 197 The Functions of Obscenity 204 Exclusion and Inclusion 207 Historical Note 210 References 216
