Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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And the terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times.

 

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First he was a buffalo demon, and she defeated him with her sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up the goddess's lion and began to pull it towards him. The goddess cut off his trunk with her sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain by Durga. For nine days and nights they battled.

 

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Then Mahishasura began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. The patient goddess became enraged, and proclaimed to Mahishasura in a resounding tone, "Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight".

 

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When Mahishasura had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then roared with laughter before cutting Mahishasura's head down with her sword...

 

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History is invariably written by the victors. Whereas in Hindu orthodoxy the myth is characterized as a battle between good (goddess) and evil (demon), light and darkness, the story comes from a time about three thousand years ago when Aryan invaders from the steppes of Asia conquered the sub-continent. This was a battle for supremacy of The Word (Durga calls the demon illiterate, rather than evil).

 

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In the process, they forced local tribal peoples to assimilate their own nascent Hindu religion.

 

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The animistic tribal beliefs survived only in a distorted form. So a local buffalo god was literally demonized, and 'slain' by the champion of the new reality.

 

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Along with other Fine Arts students at Baroda University I used to perform a tribal dance called Garba, which takes place during Navratri - the same nine nights of the October harvest moon during which Durga fought Mahishasura.

 

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This was originally danced by the tribal people of Saurashtra, and had been all but lost until a Fine Arts lecturer from the tribe decided to resurrect it in 1975. It is now performed around the world.

 

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Precisely the same time that Durga Puja is celebrated across the rest of India...

 

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Over 100 million people in India belong to tribal groups considered to be the original inhabitants of India.

 

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Collectively known as adivasis, in theory legally protected by the Indian Government, there ways of life are under dire threat from a multiplicity of environmental and developmental events across the entire sub-continent, from power plants in the south, to dams in the Himlayas.

 

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I was once on a train in Central India that was literally held up by a tribe of musket wielding adivasis who blocked the tracks then demanded a free ride on the roof of the carriages. They got off as they had gotten on, in the middle of nowhere - or at least, no destination on any map.

 

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Fortunately the tribal peoples of the Himalayas are far more peaceful!

 

 

 

 

 

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Among them are the Lepcha, who represent approximately 20% of the population of Sikkim, but were the entire indigenous population until quite recently.

 

 

 

 

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Their homeland is the tribal reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim, but no-one knows where the Lepcha originated.

 

 

 

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They themselves believe they are indigenous to the southern flanks of Kangchenjunga and have always been there. Certainly they have been native to the area for thousands of years. Though they now generally wear western clothing and their small homes may have satellite dishes, they have otherwise preserved their cultural identity and are determined to protect it.

 

 

 

 

 

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Lepcha culture is rich with stories and traditions – such as the all-night singing festival in which young Lepcha men and women woo their potential mate through songs – and rivers play a central role in many of these stories and in their beliefs.

 

 

 

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The Lepcha believe that in death, the departed soul travels up the Teesta and Rangyong rivers to the base of Kangchenjunga, their sacred final resting place.

 

 

 

 

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Sadly these sacred place and the lives of the Lepchas are threatened by large hydropower projects.