HAIL MAHUA MATA

In the months of March and April, Jhampan observed a religious gathering that happened in our neighbourhood, and did a bit of research and documentation of his own. Here is his account of this phenomenon, one of the many that the scientific, rational mind does not accept, but is embraced with full fervour and conviction by village folk.

On the evening of March 29, 2020 Saroj was preparing to cook, when she started feeling cold. Her head was buzzing and her hands and legs seemed to take a life of their own. She staggered from one hold to another. Soon she was on the floor writhing and flailing her arms and legs. Then she blacked out.

By the time Saroj was conscious, a small crowd had gathered near her house on the tarred road between Baherakhar and Basinkhar villages. The Covid 19 lockdown had been declared on March 22 and people were careful not to gather in large numbers. But this was something special and not to be missed. Everyone was talking in hushed tones. This was a miracle, a celestial sign, a message and indeed an auspicious day for the village. There was absolutely no doubt that she had been possessed by Mahua Mata, the goddess spirit of the Mahua tree (Madhuca longifolia) and this would bring luck to the village, drive away evil spirits and heal believers of all ills.

Soon the local gunias (tribal priests) arrived and identified the right Mahua tree for the necessary ritual. It was about 50 feet from the boundary of the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Baherakhar close to Saroj’s house. The tree had to be a “pure” one which had never been lopped or cut. Lamps were lit under it and Saroj, who now personified Mahua Mata, would spend eight nights and nine days guarding the lamps for 24 hours to ensure these never went out. As it was the beginning of spring and windy, a blue plastic tent with a dirty yellow top was erected around the tree trunk and the lamps. Saroj would spend her time in the eerie glow of the oil lamps eating and sleeping there. A few of her family would take turns to stay with her, cooking her food and taking care of her needs. And people would come to heal themselves.

But wait, Mahua Mata? Whoever’s heard of her? Where did she come from and why a nine day puja needed? Had Mahua Mata come before? Was it a coincidence that this happened around Ram Navami which fell on 2^nd April. There were no clear answers. No one I spoke with could recall or had even heard of her.

People had heard of Ratmai mata, who guards the darkness; Maharalin Mata, who protects a village from human-flesh eating ghouls; Khermai Mata, who shields people from evil spirits; Kulsahin Mata, invoked to bless the sowing and Budi Mai, who is the patron mother of the harvest. But, no one had heard of Mahua Mata.

Basant Meravi, Sarpanch of the Bhimlat panchayat and a resident of Baherakhar, who regularly visited this makeshift temple said: “I have never heard of Mahua Mata, but that does not mean she doesn’t exist. I don’t know why she came at this time and I don’t know if she will ever come again in our lifetime. But there must be some reason she came this year and if people feel it is for their good, it must be.” Has she come to save us from this Covid 19 pandemic? “Maybe, she has, who knows. Even our priests don’t fully understand the mysterious ways of the spirits.”

But there were other theories as well. Ranmat Singh Dhurve, a village elder, felt that nature (prakriti) is like a primordial mother spirit that shields the earth from evil. “Nature knows when bad times are coming. There are good forces or spirits within it who know when it is time to intervene and take action to protect people.”

“In times of prosperity and happiness, people forget their ancestors and the good spirits who protect them. The spirits then enter human forms to remind them of who they are. They come only through people whose hearts are clean and who have the faith. They talk through them. Such must have been the way that Mahua Mata declared herself, for how would they know it was her and not some other spirit? It is her way of telling us that she was always there to protect us, she should not be forgotten.”

However, it was Hukum Singh Kushare (HSK), a senior electrical engineer with Indian Telephone Industries (ITI Ltd) and head of the Gondwana Mahasabha, an apex association of the Gond tribes in Madhya Pradesh, who shed light on this phenomenon. Posted in Raipur, he had come down to visit his ancestral home in Baherakhar village, and got locked down here.

Mahua Mata, he said, first appeared in March 2019 near the hill town of Pachmarhi, in the Nayagaon village deep inside the dense jungles of the Satpuda Biosphere Reserve. The village is near Bankheri in the Pipariya tehsil of district Hoshangabad. “But it was not known as Mahua Mata then,” he said.

“We had heard of a woman who was possessed by a shakti (the power or the spirit) in this village, although we had not seen the incident. Such was her power that people came flocking from far and wide to meet her and cure themselves. So much so that it became a law and order problem in that small village inside the jungle. As Gonds, we wanted to see what was happening, but just did not get around to going there on time.”

Finally a delegation of Gond leaders, Anand Meravi, Chairman of the Gond Sabha Jagatik Madhi (an apex body of all Gond tribes in India), Pandurang Khandate, Shyamlal Sariyam, Adhmachi (all Gond intellectuals) and HSK made the journey to Nayagaon.

“We reached there in November, seven months after that episode was long over and the crowds were still trickling in. There was police and forest department presence and lots of jeeps which had ferried people. These days you see a lot of loud speakers and hear devotional music around Mahua Mata, but there was none of that. A quiet crowd was gathered around a Mahua tree under which the woman who had been possessed sat. There were a few persons assisting her who would direct people to think of their worries with their arms around the mahua trunk and concentrate. Everyone took turns to do this and went back with the hope that their troubles would soon be over,” HSK said.

The team learned that the woman was possessed by the spirit of Shambhu-Mula, one of the earliest formless Gond male-female deities. “This is how the woman had described herself while possessed and that is how people knew,” HSK said. “From here the shakti radiated to other parts of the state, and I think since everything to do with this shakti revolved around a Mahua tree, various names started popping up like Mahua Dai, Mahua Mai or Iruk Mada Pain (literally the ‘mahua tree spirit’ in Gondi language) and finally Mahua Mata, which I think occurred in Seoni and Balaghat districts.”

From Seoni, the phenomenon travelled to Dindori, interiors of Mandla, moved to Garhi and then cutting across Kanha Tiger Reserve via Mukki to Samnapur, Bhimlat and Baherakhar. In each instance the sequence was similar. A woman was possessed by the spirit and she then spent nine days under an anointed Mahua tree drawing hundreds of people from the neighbourhood. In fact, in Baherakhar the local police from Malajkhand had to warn them not to collect in large numbers and maintain social distancing.

To beat this diktat the devotees came after dark. They would take three rounds of the tree and bend down with arms stretched forward, eyes shut in concentration, their shadows flickering like spirits in the yellow lamp light.

As one of the participants in the ritual described it: “Suddenly, I felt like someone was pulling my arms forward towards the tree trunk. It was a gentle, but a firm tug that pulled my outstretched hands and made me slide forward in short jumps like a rabbit. Soon I was at the trunk and the force was pulling me up, compelling me to wrap my arms around the tree. I felt very happy and energised like I could run miles and miles and go on forever. I don’t know what happened after that. Someone was splashing cold water on my face, when I came to. People said that I was going round and round the tree shouting and screaming, till I collapsed frothing. I saw the same thing happening with others.”

Many people would come and just sit around the tree and watch. As days passed the crowd grew. People now started bringing small offerings for Mahua Mata: a bit of rice, dal, vegetables, cooking oil, salt and spices. These were aggregated, wood fires were lit and impromptu kitchens sprang up with volunteers cooking for everyone. An electric line was hooked up from the nearby pole and the place was lit up for the devotees who came at night. Someone brought an amplifier and played devotional music.

On the evening of the ninth day over a 100 people arrived with men, women and children formally dressed in yellowish sarees and dhotis for the final rituals. The gunias worshipped Saroj and held her hands for long. Then one by one everyone from her family and elders of the village did the same. The lamps were finally extinguished and the evening ended with dinner. “We could not give Mahua Mata a grand send off for the lockdown. Otherwise we would have had a night of music and dancing. She will now go somewhere else to give solace and cheer.”

Our neighbour Dulam Singh Dhurve had the last word. “No living person may have heard of her today, but Mahua Mata was always there. History tells us that the Gond queen, Rani Durgawati, (who was born a Chandel, but married the Rajgond king, Dalpat Singh) was sworn in to rule the Gond kingdom in 1550 when the king died. But what it does not tell us is that the royal priests took her to an old Mahua tree near the palace at midnight and she took her vows under it. Her celestial witness was Mahua Mata.”