Chapter 12 The Lal Guru worship
The Lal Guru god of the Bhangis
At Chelana people of low castes (shudra castes, untouchables) worship all the Gods worshipped by the higher caste Hindus. In addition they worship certain other gods, most of them almost unknown by high caste Hindus. These additional gods, who also are Hindu gods, although inferior to the other gods, have often a special and intimate relationship with one or the other Shudra caste, who worship them as their saviours. Thus the sweepers caste of Chelana and elsewhere in Rajasthan worship Lal Guru as their special god. Lal Guru is a male god. In western Rajasthan he is exclusively worshipped by the Bhangis and no other caste, according to Tan Dan. Very few persons of other castes have even heard about Lal Guru.
The Bhangis at Chelana had a raised platform inside their mohalla. In the middle of the open ground in front of their row of houses. It was built of clay, whitewashed and served as a place of worship, a than. On the white platform there were three red clay mounds. Small round heaps. Once in the 1960s Tan Dan's friend Madan Ram Bhangi explained the spiritual meaning of these three mini-mounds. They were the abodes of three divine spirits. The heap in the middle was for Lal Guru. He was a god, or rather, a divine spirit, a mystical power, Madan Ram explained to Tan Dan. The first heap was for Brahma, the second for Lal Guru, and the third for Sati Churi, Lal Guru's wife.
Hence, one of the three heaps at the shrine of the Bhangi mohalla at Chelana symbolized Brahma, one of the three gods in the Hindu tinmurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Instead of Vishnu and Shiva the two other gods worshipped at the shrine of the Chelana Bhangi mohalla were Lal Guru and his wife Churi. Such mixtures of various religious ideas were quite common among low untouchable shudra castes such as the Bhangis. Muslim and Hindu rites were freely mixed in several Bhangi religious customs.
In 1975 Tan visited a place near Surajgarh in Gandhinagar district of northern Rajasthan. There he saw a similar shrine with three heaps for three folk gods and a shrine for a local god next to it.
Madanji, the poet among the Bhangis
Madan Ram was known in the village as a hardworking labourer on the irrigation farms of the village. He also worked as a sweeper. He used to sweep inside and outside the Thikana.
Madan Ram was a good poet and an entertaining story teller, Tan Dan thought. Madan Ram used to recite his poems in public village gatherings. Villagers of all castes enjoyed his poems. He died in the late 1970s and his poems disappeared with him. Nothing had been written down, as he was illiterate himself. He used to remember them by heart and present them orally. Nobody of his family remembered his poems well enough to recite them.
Red cocks were sacrificed to Lal Guru, when somebody got sick
Lal Guru was worshipped by sacrificing a red cock to him. It had to be done on a Friday. Not on every Friday, though, but when there was a special reason, such as sickness within the family.
Sickness was probably the most common reason for religious sacrifices. Not only to Lal Guru, but to a large number of gods all over India. In the old days sickness was rampant and mortality was high due to the great poverty among the masses and there were few effective cures against difficult pathogens. Death due to sickness was never far away, which made religious thought and action all the more important in the eyes of the believers.
That the cock should be sacrificed on a Friday might be influenced by the Muslim religion, in which Friday is the most important day of the week.
Lal Guru cult outside western Rajasthan
Tan Dan has met Lal Guru worshippers of the Bhangi caste all over Rajasthan and at many places in Haryana and Delhi (Moti Bagh). Bhangis which Tan Dan met at Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer and other places all knew about Lal Guru. Or they called the god by some similar name, as they did in Pattikalyana (eastern Haryana), where this Bhangi god was called Lal Bhekia. As bhekia means outfit of clothes, Lal Bhekia means the god with the red clothes.
However, in 1977 Tan Dan was told by some old Bhangis at Pattikalyana that they had stopped sacrificing cocks to Lal Bhekia a few years earlier due to Arya Samaj influence. During some campaign Arya Samajists had persuaded the Bhangis to reform their habits and customs, which would make them more respectable in the eyes of savarn Hindus. It had happened in other areas of Haryana, too, he was told. It seems the Lal Guru worship is declining, as it is a cult of a low caste. It has become more popular to copy the religious customs of high caste Hindus.
Lal Guru might have the same origin as the Muslim saint Zahir Pir and Guga Pir
Lal Guru is also referred to in the literature. Sherring's "Hindu Tribes and Castes as represented at Benares", quoted by "Campbell Oman, 1908, p.67, tell that
"The Lalbagis once a year erect a long pole covered with flags, coloured cloth, and other things, including cocoa-nuts, in honour of Pir Zahir, or Lal Guru, as he is likewise called. -- In this they are like the low Muhammadans, who worship a similarly decorated pole erected to Gazi-Mian, a pir or saint."
According to Briggs, 1920, p.148, Gazi Mian, who died at Bahraich in 1034, in early life, is sometimes reckoned as one of the Panch Pir, the five Muslim saints worshipped by the Chamars. Chamars and related groups set up five pegs in their homes, and these pegs represent the five saints. (These five Muslim saints came from Mecka to meet Baba Ramdev in western Rajasthan, according to legend told by Durga Dan Ratnu. They got very impressed by Ramdevs ability to carry out miracles.)
The tomb of Zahir Pir is at Bagar, in the district of Bikaner, western Rajasthan. Zahir Pir is well known from the Himalayas to the Narbada, according to Campbel Oman. The Lal Guru cult at Chelana, although quite vague, at least as described by Madhobhai, could be a reflection of the more definite cult of Zahir Pir, alias Zahra Pir and Guga Pir. It is popular in many parts of north India, and was described by English authors who lived in north India around 1900 A.D..
Authors such as Campbell Oman (1908), Briggs (1920), and other authors referred to by them such as Sherring, Crook, and Cunningham.
Here follows a few quotations about the cult and legend of the remarkable Pir:
"The saint Guga Pir, or Zahra Pir, was born a Hindu; but he afterwards turned a Mussulman, in order that he might enter the interior of the earth and bring the snake kingdom under his control. -- The legend of Zahra Pir, or Guga Pir, is one of the most famous in Northern India. He is worshipped to prevent snake-bite and in cases where persons have been bitten by poisonous snakes or by scorpions. -- There is a special festival, known as the Chhari (chhariya) mela, held during the rainy season in honour of Guga Pir. It is very popular amongst the low-caste people in the north-west. This fair is named after chhari, or flagstaff, which is carried in his name. Among the things necessary for the worship of Guga is the "flag", which consists of a bamboo twenty or thirty feet in length, surmounted by a circle of peacock feathers, and decorated with fans and flags and cocoanuts done up in cloth. -- But Guga is worshipped in the hope of securing other boons besides immunity from snake-bite. He is a powerful saint and so is worshipped in behalf of sickly children, and for help in a variety of diseases, and for the removal of the curse of barrenness." (Briggs, 1920, p.152)
Also the famous saint Gorakh Nath occurs in the legend about Zahir Pir, in the version retold by Campbel Oman, 1908, p.150. Gorakn Nath was a famous saint, ascetic and worker of miracles. The Chamars recognized him as a saint in some areas. (Briggs, 1920, p.149)
Guga is still worshipped as a folk god in western Rajasthan, where he is called Gogha. He is worshipped as a protector against poisonous snakes along with Teja, another folk god worshipped especially in the month of Bhadon (August-September) when snakes are most visible, as they come up from the ground, when the cavities in the ground get flooded during the monsoon rains. Another likely reason is that the growing crops and other greenery at that time provide ample food for rodents and other small animals hunted by the snakes. There are many folk stories in Marvari about the interaction between man, snakes and snake gods residing in the underground.
The Bhangis at Chelana did not associate their Lal Guru with any snake cult, though. Madanji worshipped Lal Guru as a divine spirit, a mystical power, rather than as a folk god appeasing snakes, Tan Dan thought.
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