A passage to origin: Between myth and history

There are several kinds of legends of the origin of Tharu, and a few are very popular among the Tharu and have been scripted by scholars in their works. Here are some of the legends are in brief.

                'Guru Baba Ke Jalamauti' is one of the famous legends which is concerned with Dangora Tharu and Tharu cosmology. However, I have also heard the same type of fiction in my childhood but in a little alterated form in the occasion of 'Jitiya Pabain'. Jitiya Pabain  festival is one of the major and compulsory festival of Kochila Tharu. In this occasion, this story is recited by Mithila Brahmin.

                According of 'Gurubaba ke Jalmauti', Dr. Jajaure (1982: 61) writes, before the creaton of this world the earth was burning hot. There was only fire and smoke everwhere but not a singlie 'strand' of life. After sometime, water took the place of fire and there was water everwhere. The almighty god flew all over in the form of a bird to see whether there was any trace of land to start the creation of the world. As no wuch land existed anywhere on the water, he sowed a lotus seed and when the lefves ofa lotus plant came out above the water, the almighty god gave birth go Gurubaba (The first Tharu god on earth) in the form of a kwara squash (bemicasa hispida) that is to say, whthout limbs or sense organs. The almighty god took pity on the creature he has made and gave limbs and all necessary organs one after another to Gurubaba. Gurubaba after he had because like a complete man, ordered an earthworm, maned dudhia, is bring some ammarmati (divine earth) from the patal (The world underneath) to start the worldly creation. The dudhia, after having been thoroughly search by the watchmen guarding the ammarmati in patal, was somehow able to smuggtle our a little bit of the earth by hiding it in his mouth. This ammarmati was scattered on the water, in the same way as s bit of curd is put into mild to curdle it. After that the water turned into earth and Gurubaba then brought all earthly things into existence. Later on, when Gurubaba felt lonely, he created the goddess Maiya, who became his wife. All men and women of this earth today are the descendants of Gurubaba and Maiya.

Gaurisanker Dwivedi (1955:21) quotes that the Encyclopedia  Britannica has also mentioned the Tharus. Encyclopedia explains a legend that Raja Vena got a son maned Riksheswar or Raksha. The Raja expelled his son Raksha and his company to a remote Jungle and forbade them to come back to his kingdom. According to the royal order they were compelled to exile in the North Jungle and on the way, they looted to people and captured many women. The children he got from these women are the forefather? The present Tharu. The Raksha and his company saved the Tharu in Jungle. Therefore, the Tharu believe that in the battlefield, in the Jungle and on a journey the Riksheswar saves them. Risley also describes ahe religion of Tharu as s compounded of amimism and nature worship and of some elements borrowed from popular Hinduism. He mentions Riksheswar as being the principal deity worshiped by them. (Iyer and Ratnam, 1961:2^nd:184).

                Kurt Meyer (1995:95) quotes that Buchnan has refuted in his book 'Eastern India' that the Tharus claim by thanks that they are descendants of Pajputs2 who were evicted from Thar desert or Rajputana Rajsthan by Moslem invaders. Further Meyer writes that Buchnan states that no Moslem historian has made the slightest allusion to the Tharus in connectin whti these events. The fiction of having migrated from Rajputana into the Terai, therefore, most have been invented by some of the clans to raise themselves in their own, and their neighbors estimation. I should emphasize here that I agree whti the first account by Buchanan. Perhaps, not all the groups of the Tharus are direct descendants of the Rajputs who fled from Rajputanana during the attack of Allaudin Khilji, as there are records of the existence of Tharu before the 12^th century. A Moslem historian Alberuni (1030 AD) in his book Tahkik-i-Hind' mentioned that the tharu people lived in Tilwat (Tirhut or Mithila). Before him a lana guru, Padmasambhava (755AD) recorded that he had visited the tharu people in his travel account (Ramponche 1986:52)  even then, the tern Rana3 can not be totally ignored. I think there must be some reality behind their claim. Similarly , W. Crooke (1986) has written what the Tharus trace their origin to their forefather who fled from the great battle described in the epic Mahabharat. They derive their name from Thirthurana, meaning the quake4.

                According to Dr. Bajrakishor Brama5 the Tharus are the residue of the attacking white Hunas who were a band of nomad savages who lived in the neighborhood of China. The Hunas attacked India in the period of Skanda Gupta's regime but they were beaten back from Balkh (Afghanistan). Later on, two kings of Hunas; Toramana and Mihirkula ruled over in western India. Punjab and Kasmir India between 480 to 567 Ad. Raj Tarangini (The chronology of Kasmir) refers to Mihirkula as a powerful king who ruled over Gandhar and Kasmir and conquered Southern India and Ceylon. Hiuen Tsang also noted the defeat of Mihirkula bu the Gupta emperor. He was described as a man of violent desposition and a big enemy of Buddhism. He was a big adversary of Moukhary vamsh. However, the Tarus actually belonged to North Eastern Terai and were supporters of Buddhism6 and I think a lineage, the Mukhariya sub group of Kochila Tharu is from the Moukhary Kula⁷. Therefore, the origin of Tharu can not bhe connected to the white Hunas.

Remaining in Next Post