Worship of Bhîmsen.
Another of these beneficent guardians or wardens is Bhîmsen, “he who has a terrible army.” He has now in popular belief very little in common with the burly hero of the Mahâbhârata, who was notorious for his gigantic strength, great animal courage, prodigious appetite and irascible temper; jovial and jocular when in good humour, but abusive, truculent and brutal when his passions were roused.[14] He is now little more than one of the wardens of the house or village.
In parts of the Central Provinces he has become degraded into a mere fetish, and is represented by a piece of iron fixed in a stone or in a tree.[15] Under the name of Bhîmsen or Bhîmpen, his worship extends from Berâr to the extreme east of Bastar, and not merely among the Hinduized aborigines, who have begun to honour Khandoba, Hanumân, Ganpati and their brethren, but among the rudest and most savage tribes. He is generally adored under the form of an unshapely stone covered with vermilion, or of two pieces of wood standing from three to four feet out of the ground, which are possibly connected with the phallic idea, towards which so many of these deities often diverge. Bhiwâsu, the regular Gond deity, is identical with him. Mr. Hislop[16] mentions a large idol of him eight feet high, with a dagger in one hand and a javelin in the other. He has an aboriginal priest, known as Bhûmak, or “he of the soil,” and the people repair to worship on Tuesdays and Saturdays, offering he-goats, hogs, hens, cocks and cocoa-nuts. The headman of the village and the cultivators subscribe for an annual feast, which takes place at the commencement of the rains, when the priest takes a cow from the headman by force and offers it to the godling in the presence of his congregation. The Mâriya Gonds worship him in the form of two pieces of wood previous to the sowing of the crops. The Naikudê Gonds adore him in the form of a huge stone daubed with vermilion. Before it a little rice is cooked. They then besmear the stone with vermilion and burn resin as incense in its honour, after which the victims—sheep, hogs and fowls—with the usual oblation of spirits, are offered. The god is now supposed to inspire the priest, who rolls his head, leaps frantically round and round, and finally falls down in a trance, when he announces whether Bhîmsen has accepted the service or not. At night all join in drinking, dancing and beating drums. Next morning the congregation disperses. Those who are unable to attend this tribal gathering perform similar rites at home under the shade of the Mahua tree (Bassia latifolia).[17]
Pillar-worship of Bhîmsen.
The local worship of Bhîmsen beyond the Drâvidian tract is specially in the form of pillars, which are called Bhîmlâth or Bhîmgada, “Bhîm’s clubs.” Many of these are really the edict pillars which were erected by the pious Buddhist King Asoka, but they have been appropriated by Bhîmsen. Such are the pillars in the Bâlaghât District of the Central Provinces and at Kahâon in Gorakhpur. At Devadhâra, in the Lower Himâlaya, are two boulders, the uppermost of which is called Ransila, or “the stone of war.” On this rests a smaller boulder, said to be the same as that used by Bhîmsen to produce the fissures in the rocks; in proof of which the print of his five fingers is still pointed out, as they show the hand-mark of the Giant Bolster in Cornwall.[18]
Bhîmsen is one of the special gods of the Bhuiyas of Keunjhar, and they consider themselves to be descended from him, as he is the brother of Hanumân, the founder of their race. According to the Hindu ritual he has his special feast on the Bhaimy Ekâdashî, or eleventh of the bright fortnight in the month of Mâgh. The Bengal legend tells that Bhîmsen, the brother of Yudhisthira, when he was sent to the snowy mountains and lay benumbed with cold, was restored by the Saint Gorakhnâth, and made king of one hundred and ten thousand hills, stretching from the source of the Ganges to Bhutân. Among other miracles Bhîmsen and Gorakhnâth introduced the sacrifice of buffaloes in place of human beings, and in order to effect this Bhîmsen thrust some of the flesh down the throat of the holy man. So though they have both lost caste in consequence, they are both deified. The saint is still the tutelary deity of the reigning family of Nepâl, and all over that kingdom and Mithila Bhîmsen is a very common object of worship. That mysterious personage Gorakhnâth flits through religious legend and folk-lore from post-Vedic to mediæval times; and little has yet been done to discover the element of historical truth which underlies an immense mass of the wildest fiction.[19]