Representation of Marginalised Voices in the Poetry of Bhima Bhoi

By KalingaTV Bureau Last updated Sep 22, 2022 0

Written By: Jayadev Kar

Since the beginning of civilization in this mundane world, man has strived hard to find a logical way to reach God. To find the ultimate truth he has turned from pillar to post. The different religious orders are just manifestations of the same thirst for the ultimate truth. From time to time some religions have emerged because of severe neglect meted out to some low caste people.

Whenever the outcast or marginal people of any religion feels ostracised they choose a different path to find their personal God. The Sanksrit proverb “Atmartham Pritivim Tyajet” holds true here which literally means a person can relinquish the entire world for his personal peace. As such men have tried hard to find a way to reach God. The Rigveda clearly says “Ekam Sat Viprah Bahudha Badanti” which means truth is one but the wise speak of it in different ways. In the western part of Odisha, some people tried very hard to reach the ultimate truth by taking tenets from all the prevalent religions of the then time and that is Mahima Dharma. The propounder of which was Mahima Gosain which was made popular in India by the tribal poet Bhima Bhoi.

Historical records are mummed so far as the birth of Bhima Bhoi the legendary tribal poet of Odisha is concerned. The birth of Bhima Bhoi is still shrouded in mystery even in the 21st century. However, it is believed that he was born in the year 1855 in Kankadapara village which now comes under the Rairakhol subdivision of Sambalpur district. There is also controversy as to whether he was born blind or became blind later on. Tradition has it that once Mahima Swami and one of his disciples Siddha Govinda by name visited the home of Bhima Bhoi having been ordained by the almighty when Bhima Bhoi was still a child. And they gave him the poetic vision to see the world with the inner eye. And from that day onwards Bhima Bhoi has never looked back. However Dr. Mayadhar Manasingh in his “History of Odia Literature” says that Bhima Bhoi lost his eyes during his childhood because of the virulent attack of smallpox. Another well-known critic Sri Chittaranjan Das also shares the same view. It is a pity that Bhima Bhoi has not left behind any portrait of his own. Bhima Bhoi was also bequeathed with the task of spearheading the Mahima Dharma as established by his Guru Mahima Gosain. Even though he was blind he could imagine the physical landscape with his inner eyes. They look mostly like the result of deeply meditative and intuitive awareness. In his writing, he has made many intimate references to the activities of human life, childhood, the waywardness of youth, the mirage of love and sex, and so on. It was he who propounded the Mahima Dharma. It is said that some Brahmins also became his followers by renouncing their caste supremacy.

Bhima Bhoi was like a blue mountain in the literary firmament of Odisha. His works have been translated into many languages including English. One of his poems became so popular that it got inscribed on the wall of UNO Hall. The line runs “ Witnessing the plethora of plights on earth how one could bear with; let the world get redeemed at my cost”. He was famous for his “Stutichintamani” and “Bhajanamala” and this paper will deal with these two along with the historical aspects of the Mahima Dharma. Stuti Chintamani is one of the best works by Bhima Bhoi. It consists of one hundred cantos and each canto is further divided into twenty stanzas. Thus the Stutichintamani is the amalgamation of 4000 lines which consists of 2000 stanzas.

Bhima Bhoi was deeply disturbed by the degeneration of social values. Hence it is reflected in his poetry. The Stuti Chintamani carries some confessional verses and is full of autobiographical elements. This lengthy poetry ends with a panegyric to the Alekha culture. It also exhorts the suffering humanity to seek liberation from the one and only god Alekha and receive his grace known as Mahima. However, before Bhima Bhoi, yet another Odia poet had written something about the Sunya Niranjana which means the supreme god is invisible. In Stuti Chintamani Bhima Bhoi depicts his monomania about cosmology which can be described as follows according to Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra.

“From the nameless unwritten Brahman which was the embodiment of silence, the void was born. From the existence of this great void, space and sky were created. From the sky came colors. Later from the Anama(the nameless) the Sun, the Moon, the trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva and all the moving and static objects were created.”

In Stuti Chintamani Brahma, Bishnu and Maheswar have been given subaltern positions who occupy a lower position in the Alekha cosmology. Since the Mahima culture was based on compassion one can see Bhima Bhoi’s wailing for those who are sinners. According to Stuti Chintamani, men should shun dual standards and follow the new religious doctrine. If they follow the Alekh Niranjan Mahima Religion then only they can get liberation or else they will be doomed eternally by the Yoginis. Thus Bhima Bhoi predicts an apocalyptical end for the people who are busy with sins. Looking at this we can compare the Stuti Chintamani as the Bible of Mahima Religion. According to Bhima Bhoi, a die-hard sinner can also attain deliverance through penance and devotion to the almighty. He has to shun adultery, envy, and greed completely. The person seeking deliverance must treat happiness and sorrow in an equal eye and treat a woman as a mother.

To give a clear picture of his poetic sensibility the summary of one of his Boli(Doha) may be summarised as follows:

Who can catch hold of him who has no feet either hand? He is such a supreme God that normal people can not see him. Neither he has belly nor chest this I proclaim in the name of the lord. The common mortals can not fathom his existence. In the entire earth ether and air, no peace giver is there like our God who is formless. He forebears shame, devotion, loss, and profit alike. He never takes food for his survival. He is neither born of woman nor born by operation having been produced by copulation. As he is formless he moves from glory to glory and dust can not touch him. He is asleep yet awake he is in motion yet static. He goes wherever his devotees seek him and depart from evils forthwith. Such is our wonderful God who is formless. He has no eyes yet he sees, he has no ears yet he listens to our prayer. He has no face yet he fathoms, he has no nose yet he smells. He can mingle with the breeze and water alike, he is invisible yet omnipresent. All glory to him. Our mouth and tongue can not describe him for bliss flow from him from everlasting to everlasting. The three worlds are governed as per his sweet will yet he is formless. He is the keeper of his words who establishes virtue in this world. He moves in the void and is the root cause of all that good that happens. Says Bhima a tribal poet.

Bhima Bhoi was conscious of the cosmic transformation that happens once in a thousand years. The concept of Yuga was integral to him. He was believing that from Satyajuga to Kalijuga society gradually degenerated from best to worst. It is evident in the 24th and 25th cantos of Stuti Chintamani. Like the revelation chapter of the Bible, the Stuti Chintamani speaks about the apocalyptical end in the concluding stanzas. Bhima Bhoi feels that the end of Kali Yuga is very near and it is described in the last canto of Stuti Chintamani. He gives a clarion call to repent for the sins and utter Alekha Niranjan to get ablution from the sins. Apart from Stuti Chintamani, he has echoed the same tone in yet another text i.e. Brahma Nirupama Geeta. Nirvana Sadhana is an important piece of work on Mahima Dharma composed by Bhima Bhoi. The essence of Satya Mahima Dharma has been emphasized as the path of nibrutti or detachment or disengagement and not prabrutti or attachment in that work.

Cautisa Madhu Cakra is yet another major work of Bhima Bhoi. Chautisa is a celebrated poetic form in Odiya literature. In this form, he has experimented with Odia literature to the highest degree. His Adi-Anta-Gita is almost a treatise where the secrets of the body have been sought to be explained in metaphysical terms. Bhima Bhoi has written several Bhajans too. These can be sung either individually or group or to the accompaniment of a musical instrument. They are based upon the description of spiritual experience in a simple and undecorative style.

Having discussed his writings let us now proceed with his proselyting work for he was a preacher of Mahima Dharma. As Bhima Bhoi was not satisfied with the situation and declaration of the council of Mahima sannyasis at Joranda, Bhima Bhoi made up his mind to establish monastic institutes in his own ideology. He upheld the tradition of Mahima Dharma in his own way. As he was not satisfied with the discussion and procedure he clothed Mahima Dharma in his own viewpoints. After returning from Joranda Gadi and after roaming hither and thither in Gulunda, Binka, Rugudipali, Bhursapali he finally made up his mind to settle down in Khaliapali near Lachhipur of Sonepur district and from that day onwards Khaliapali became the epicenter of his religious and cultural activities. The Khaliapali Ashram came into being in the year 1877 and rapidly developed as a center of excellence for the propagation of Mahima Dharma. The followers of Bhima Bhoi are popularly known as Kumbhipaia because they don in their waist a rope made out of the bark of the Kumbhi tree. All of them worship a formless God to whom they call Alekha and they go on saying Alekha Niranjan. They clad saffron robes and keep knotted hair on their head. They keep a dangling bag and a palm leaf umbrella over their head, they prostrate before sunrise and sunset and smear their forehead with dust, they eat from an earthen pot and sleep beneath the open sky beside a burning log or Dhuni. These people never touch prasad or Tulsi leaf. That is why at one point of time there was a conflict between the followers of Mahima Dharma and followers of Lord Jagannath. All the works of Bhima Bhoi should be looked at in the light of Mahima Dharma. According to Eschman the Mahima Dharma has followed the Buddhist concept of emptiness and takes the Hindu concept of Param Brahma. The code words which frequently found mentioned in Mahima Dharma are Alekha( indescribable), Nirguna(without attributes), Nirakara(formless), Anadi (eternal), Niranjana(pure like water), Mahima(grace ), etc.

Further, the followers of Mahima Dharma never take wives, share no love, do not do business, store no wealth for them, and never domesticate any animals or birds. Apart from that they never receive alms from Astrologers, Prostitutes, Barbers, Kshatriyas, Brahmins, and Chandals. They never wear sacred threads too and eat before the sunset. Throughout their life, they practice truth and non-violence. Like Shankara, the Mahimaites believe in Monism, but they have no place for Maya in their scheme of things. Though this religion is the amalgamation of Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Hinduism, it has its own identity. Its supremacy is beyond challenge by any man or religion.

To conclude a generalization can be drawn that Bhima Bhoi was a great poet of Odia literature whose philosophy stroke the very foundation of orthodox Hinduism and liberated the marginalized section of Hindu society to a greater extent. The means was his poetry. In this sense, we can compare Bhima Bhoi to Matthew Arnold who once had declared good poetry can correct society like any other work. Some people of western Odisha still believe that he was “Ajoni Sambhuta” which means not born from women rather by some divine incident.

Reference

Bannerjee, Ishita, Johannes Beltz.eds. Popular Religions and Ascetic Practices: New Studies on Mahima Dharma. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers.2008.Print.

Baumer, Bettina, Johannes Belts.eds. Verses from the Void:Mystic Poetry of an Oriya Saint. New Delhi : Manohar Publishers.2010.Print

Mahapatra, Sitakant.Bhima Bhoi.New Delhi :Sahitya Akademi.1983.Print

Nepak, Bhagirathi.Historical Aspect of the Mahima Dharma.Bhubaneswar: Bhagirathi Prakashan.2004.Print