DHARAMRAJ RITUAL: AS A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION INTO HINDU FOLD

Amitabha Sarkar and Samira Dasgupta DHARAMRAJ RITUAL: AS A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION INTO HINDU FOLD It is assumed that folk deities are the repositories of our great cultural heritage. There are a large number of folk deities in rural Bengal who are worshipped over generations and they are very popular till date and also play a key role in the sustenance activities of the rural people. Each of such deitics possesses a great cultural heritage with numerous folk tales, riddles, supernatural power, etc. attached to them. Thus, the folk deities as well as rituals associated with such deities emerge as one of the mechanism for maintaining social cohesion cum bondage and act like a cementing factor and harmony which often cut across individual ethnic boundaries, that is between landed elite group and marginalized cultivators or labour groups in the village. The mechanical solidarity at the village level is around the deities and through performance of particular rituals. In the Radh Bengal (consisting of Burdawan Bankura, Birbhum and parts of Midnapur and Purulia districts) cultural zone of West Bengal there are a number of folk deities of which Dharamraj has a key position especially among the antaj sampraday or marginalized caste groups, Dharma thakur or Dharmaraj is often equated with a tenet of Buddhism sect or a non-aryan ritual of tribal folk like ritual of Pahar thakur among the Malpaharia (a ST) or some sort of Siva incarnation of great Hindu pantheon. The present paper highlights Dharamraj ritual in Radh Bengal as well as its acceptance among various ethnic groups over time and at the same time discusses it in course of time perspective, the changes (ie.; the assimilation and absorption of various religious traits) and wide acceptance of Dharamraj cult in a transform into Hindu pantheon. The empirical data were collected from Barasul village of Burdwan Sadar II block of Burdwan district, Belay village of Saithia block of Birbhum district of West Bengal and Lakhimdarpur near Suri town of Birbhum district. The salient characteristic features of Radh Bengal cultural zone of west Bengal as observed are as follows: AMITABHA SARKAR AND SAMIRA DASGUPTA, Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata, E-mail: bhabbinimoy@yahoo.com

272 THE EASTERN ANTHROPOLOGIST 64:2-3 (2011) (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Laterite soil, rich with mineral resources Domain of indigenous as well as antaj or marginalized people Historical data says that the whole tract was devoid of Brahmanism in early days (i.e. till about the 12 th century) while impact of Vaishnavism and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was prevalent in this area. It is also reported that the whole territory of Radh Bengal was divided into Mallabhum, Manbhum and Dhalbhum. Mallabhum dynasty in this area clearly reflects the dominance of indigenous people Adi Malla the first king of Mallabhum of Bishnupur was basically from Bagdi/Ghatwar community but they used to trace their descent from the kshatriya because of their long independence and their past historical account which says that they were given the title Singh a kind of kshatriaisation to elevate their social status. Presence of many non-aryan rites and customs like hook swinging, ban-phora, Marang Buru, snake worship etc. This belt is the seat of Dharmaraj who is chiefly a deity of the marginalized people and is served by non-brahman priests. Though, now in some places this ritual has been taken up by Brahman priests and performed in a Brahmanical mode. Dharmaraj The ritual of Dharmaraj is chiefly performed by Dom, Dhibar, Jeley, Bauri, Bagdi, Mal, Metha, and Hari. Presently he is worshipped also by the Nabasak sect of clean castes. It is also said that the oldest priest of this ritual was from the above-mentioned caste groups. The empirical data says that the

DHARMARAJ RITUAL 273 Dom are divided into a number of sub-groups, which has a hierarchy based on purity-pollution and occupational guild concepts, namely: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Akurey Dom basket makers and makers of house structure Chachi Dom basket makers for flower collection for worship Bajuney Dom/ Kalindi Dom musical drum beaters Mara Kuruney Dom engaged in creamation grounds for burning the dead body The Dom, though occupying the lowest rung in the Hindu social ladder, have achieved a high position in the socio-political life of the region. The Dom were the martial group of the country who were engaged by the local zamindars in their military force chiefly as lathials and guarded the territory under the control of local zamindars. Among them the Akurey Dom have been elevated socially and they work as priests of Dharma Thakur as found in Barsul village (example Bidyut Pandit) and known in this area as Dharma Pandit. Now-adays in some areas like in Belay village the Dharmraj ritual is officiated by Brahman priest (named Lakhminarayan Mukherjee) but Deyasi or Sebayat belongs to Bagdi caste group. There are numerous charismas as observed to be connected with Dharmaraj such as : (a) Dharmaraj acts as a deity curing gout pain. In case of Belay village of Sainthia block of Birbhum district where on the first Sunday of the month of Ashad (June-July) an oil is given to the gout patients and it is reported that they get cured by massaging it on the affected parts. The main ritual of Dharamaraj is on the full moon day of the month of Baisakh (April- May). It was also reported that in most of the areas of this region the Dharmapuja is annually performed on the full moon day of Baisakh and, incidentally, Buddha Purnima also performed on the same day. Quite naturally some

274 THE EASTERN ANTHROPOLOGIST 64:2-3 (2011) linkages may be there with Dharma cult and Buddha. The offerings made in this Dharmapuja have some resemblance with Buddhist ritual of the Bajrayan sect where along with other things like bel, tulsi, gangajal and lotus, pachai (local country made liquor) is also offered. (b) There is another village, Lakhimpur near Suri town of Birbhum district, where Dharamaraj is appeased as cure deity for broken hands and limbs as well as bone fractures. The custodian of Dharamraj than of the village is of Sadgop caste and the priest of the than from the adjacent Chora village belongs to the Hari caste. In this territory of Radh and western part of Bengal along with Siva and Manasa the nonaryan cult, the Dharmapuja is very much prevalent among the antaj also as a non- Aryan cult. The culture of the region is largely characterized by the life and culture of the local autochthons like the Santal, Malpaharia, Bauri, Bagdi, Lohar, Mal, Dom, Muchi, Hadi, and Kora, etc. In fact they are representative of marginalized group or folk subalterns of the region and in most of the folk cults the tradition of these communities are reflected during this cult festival at regional level. During the longterm process of Aryanization 1, Hinduization and Brahmanization 2. In this belt just after the arrival of advanced communities, everything relating to the way of life of the region was challenged abruptly (Sarkar 1986). Genesis of Dharmaraj Dharmaraj has no definite form. He is represented only by a piece of round oblong, conical or even irregular piece of a small stone. Often it is found in the shape of a tortoise and often identified as Kormasraj or Kurma avatar - one of the avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu. Generally Dharmaraj finds his Shrine of Dharma Thakur

DHARMARAJ RITUAL 275 Dharma Thakur in Temple seat at the foot of a tree or in the midst of an open field. But as per the ability of devotees brick built shrines are also erected. Some scholars are of the opinion that it is a Buddhist deity while others relate it with Siva; a few are of the opinion that Dharmraj is a form of Surya, Baruna and Yama of the Hindu pantheon Sastry (1897; 1894) tried to analyze the various performances relating to the worship of the deity Dharmraj and according to him Dharmaraj was nothing but a Buddhist deity. According to Majumdar (1994), Radh Bengal was a very strong centre of Buddhism where Dharmaraj is very important. Buddha was not in favour of sacrifice but in Dharmapuja ritual animal sacrifice is a necessary part. Therefore the ritual of Dharma originally is not a Buddhist ritual but he referred to Satkari Mukherjee who wrote that to convert Hindus to Buddhist religion, the Buddhists had adopted some local Hindu deities. Dharmaraj was one of them. In many places the ritual of Dharmaraj is performed on Buddha Purnima but it is not compulsory. The great linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (1973) opines that the word Dharma is sanskirtized from a missing Austro-Asiatic word which means tortoise (Sarkar 1986). From this he opines that the Dharma cult is directly related to the cult of tortoise-kurma avatar of lord Vishnu. More so,

276 THE EASTERN ANTHROPOLOGIST 64:2-3 (2011) Dharma who is identified as the supreme deity, creator, and ordainer of the universe superior even to Brahma, Vishnu and Siva and at times identified with them has nothing of the abstraction of the Buddhist Dharma about him. He considers these to be Austric in origin. Brahman priest officiating Darmaraj Ritual Plant used for treatment of bone fracture under the blessing of Dharma Thakur While Roy (1932) opines that Dharmaraj was nothing but Sun God. Chattopadhayay (1942) advocated that Dharmraj was the later development of Varuna the Vedic god who used to be worshipped with human sacrifice. Nihar Ranjan Roy (1949) observes that the Dharmathakur was originally a primitive tribal god and his present form is due to inter mixture of countless heterogenous elements. Bhattacharjee (1975) in his study shows that Dharmraj is purely a pre-aryan deity, and has no connection with Buddhism or Hinduism; at the same time he has remarked that Dharmraj is neither Vedic nor pseudo Puranic Sun God of higher Hindu pantheon but the tradition of Dharma is based on a primitive Sun cult and due to subsequent influence of Buddhism and Hinduism it has incorporated into itself certain elements of both (Sarkar 1986). Mal Paharia is one of the tribes of Dumka district of Santhal Parganas of Jharkhand, which is very close to the Radh area of West Bengal. To them Pahar Thakur is one of the very important deities. He is represented by a

DHARMARAJ RITUAL 277 piece of stone of uneven shape- sometimes round, oblong or of conical shape. There is a trident kept beside him. He is thought as the creator of earth. His wife is Basumati Ma/ Dharti Ma. He is worshipped during the month of Magh (January- February). In his ritual, animal sacrifice is a very important part. Incidentally, it is noticed that they also worship their Pahar Thakur as Lord Siva in their own way especially when they live close to the Hindus. His wife is equated with Lord Siva s wife Parvati and worshipped by them. In the adjacent Radh Bengal they worship Dharmaraj where the ritual performances are very much similar to the ritual performances of Lord Siva. Similar to Lord Siva, Dharmaraj is also a cure deity and in his worship there is presence of many non-aryan rites and customs like hook swinging, ban-phora,etc. Thus it may be said that Pahar Thakur of MalPaharia in course of time through transformation due to contact with several cultural groups became Dharmaraj. Discussion From the aforesaid discussion it is evident that the Dharmraj ritual consists of various magical beliefs which are found among different primitive communities: hook swinging activities or Chadak performances are nothing but the imitation of the swinging of the sun at the summer Solstice which indicates a magical belief in moving the Sun in a regular fashion as the Sun is believed to be a positive force of life on the earth. (Sarkar 1986). To appease the deity through bodily tortures and bloodshed also reflects the believes of the pre-aryan cultural stage. Centering round the deity Dharmraj, it is observed that the antaj groups consist of different castes in the lower rung of Hindu caste hierarchy and they have acquired essential positions in different stages of the festival. Thus, it can be said that the Dharamraj ritual probably originated in pre-aryan cultural period among the non-aryan groups whose value system was loaded with various kinds of magical activities, beliefs in spirits of both malevolent and benevolent types and loaded with supernatural beliefs. The original inhabitants of the Radh Bengal cultural zone are tribal groups and antaj sampraday as mentioned earlier and they are obviously a stock of non-aryan group whose one of the very important deity is Dharmaraj and Dharmaraj ritual is a process of continuity from animism through the stage of Buddhism to present day Hindu fold where till date it is worshipped in a non-anthropomorphic form, that is, in stone form with tortoise shape but placed in a temple. And centering round this ritual all the members of the village/area are deeply involved and participate which clearly suggests its wider acceptance. In this way a little tradition has become popular and it has been accepted within the great tradition where it is often equated with Siva, which is also a non-aryan god and worshipped in stone a linga form.

278 THE EASTERN ANTHROPOLOGIST 64:2-3 (2011) NOTES 1. (The influence of Aryan cultural traditions in the non-aryan mode of life. A considerable section of people in this region of Bengal living in hills and forests managed to remain outside the pale of Aryanization. 2. Brahminazation is a process by which the Brahmanical thoughts and ideas are slowly incorporated into the indigenous customs and ritualistic performances). REFERENCES Bhattacharya, Asutosh 1975 Bangla Mangal Kavyer Itihas (in Bengali, 6 th Edition). Calcutta: A Mukherjee & Co. Chatterjee, Suniti Kumar 1973 Jaydeva. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. Chattopadhyay, K. P. 1942 Dharma worship, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 7. Dasgupta, S. B. 1969 Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay. Kamilya, Mihir Choudhury 2000 Anchalik Devta Loksanskriti (in Bengali). Burdwan: Burdwan University. Ray, Niharranjan 1949 Bangalir Itihas Adiparba (in Bengali). Calcutta. Roy, S. C. 1932 The study of folklore and traditions in India, Jr of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Volume 18. Sarkar, R. M. 1986 Regional Cults and Rural Traditions: An Interacting Pattern of Divinity and Humanity in Rural Bengal. New Delhi: Inter-India Publications. Sastri, Harprasad, M. M. 1894 The Dharmapuja prevalent in Western Bengal in Buddhism, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, December. 1897 Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal.