Bhumiya — The Guarding Deity

Bhumiya or Bhumia (literally “one who belongs to the land” or “one who is the deity of the land”) is widely worshipped in Uttarakhand as Jimdaar, Bhumiya, or Kshetrapal. The invocation of the deity appears in the chanting of the mantra as: ‘ग्रामदेवताभ्यो नमः’ (“Hail the village deity”). Edwin Thomas Atkinson, in his book, The Himalayan Gazetteer Vol. 2 (1884) describes Bhumiya as "tuterlary god of fields and boundaries" (825) and as "a beneficent deity" (825), whose temple is located in every village and is "often no more than a few feet square, sacred to him" (825). Bhumiya is known as the master of the land, the protector of the village, and the guardian of livestock and farming.

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A Bhumiya temple at Jethigaon village of Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Video Courtesy: Vijay Jethi

 

Legend has it that once a हुड़क्या or hudkya reached the house of a जिमदार or jimdar (farmer or landowner) seeking alms. The landlord was not at his home then. The house only had his old blind mother. The woman mistakenly gave the beggar a सुप or supa filled with black pepper. Later, the hudkya also went to seek alms from the king. Dissatisfied with the alms received from the king’s palace, he taunted the king for being stingy. The king decided to launch an attack on the jamidar to satitate his annoyance caused by the hudkiya’s words. He set off to his house with all his army in order to launch an attack. The frightened jamidar closed the door of his house. With all the family members inside, including his domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, he commits लखौर or lakhor by choosing to die in flames. The jamidar later began to be worshipped as Bhumiya.

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The anger of Bhumiya finds its manifestation in the agrarian life of the rural. The low yield of the crop and the diseases in the livestock are all attributed to the deity, whose anger is propitiated with a sacrifice of a goat. The temple of Bhumiya is usually found at the precincts of the village under a tree and is referred to as थान or thaan. The symbolic stones are placed at his temple to acknowledge his presence. In some places, before sowing seeds in the fields, the farmers also scatter some grains in the temple of the deity. The first produce is also sometimes offered to the deity as a mark of paying obeisance to him.

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Works Cited:

Atkinson, Edwin Thomas. The Himalayan Gazetteer Vol. 2. Natraj Publishers, 2014.

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Glossary:

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हुड़क्या or hudkya: One who plays the hudka, a traditional percussion musical instrument (For details, visit Visual Glossary)

सुप or sup: A traditional handicraft item that is also used as a winnowing fan to clean grains in the villages of Uttarakhand. (For details, visit Visual Glossary)

लखौर or lakhor: It refers to the act of immolation committed by a person.