Tatanagar
Table of Contents
Today, Baba visited a village called Bhulagram in the Mankham district of Varahabhum.
Baba said that the area of Varahathum included the Ayodhya Hill and Sonahatu in the north.
Fatalitomar in the west, Manbajar in the north-east. Kigar and Handwan in the southwest and Chandil in the south.
the hundred years ago, people started giving up Jainism to embrace Gulya Varshavaism. The Vaeshnava poet Jaideva was alive then and Ballat Ben was the ruler of the region.
Da’ksayant Het was the established deity of the Pallab Rajya and Daks- Avant meant Burga’devi.
In those days, this region was a forest.
- The first inhabitants were from the Singhmunda tribe.
Bujar was a sub group of the Singhmunda tribe who spoke Ham The and group of inhabitants who lived in this region anged to the Bauri tribe and spoke Ra’rhi Bamla’. Ringhimandat cutablished their kingdom over Vara’hbhum and
The the capital at Varabajar, a block of Purulia district.
A Varaha and Kesh Varaha were the leaders of the Singh mundar who accomplished this victory. Varahabhum had a natural boundary on the northern side was the Kumari River; in the can side was the Kasali river, where the Kumari and Ram on the south was the Chandil river upto
The British entered Bengal after the battle of Plassey.
- Then they took over the Diwani of Bengal, and captured Chota Nagpur The Mundes revolted and their Rajya was not under domination.
To the north of the Damodar river was Shikhar hum tanah with the capital at Jharia and to the south of Hamder was Manbhum with the capital at Manbajar.
harum Ma’ahum and Varahbhum were collectively kan Jungle Mahal Varahabhum accepted the domi- athen of the Huh and later the British occupied the entire Yung Maha Manbajar, the capital of Manbhum, had a wally of water, the British called a meeting of the kings of Vaighbhum, Bankura, Kashipur, Jaipur, Jhalda, and Silli od acted them in construct the Purulia dam. It was named the Bake Fam and is presently known as the Nivarana
Dam, and is very near Purulia. At present there is no Manbhum district, the capital has been shifted to Purulia.
Around 40 years ago, Baba had visited the Bhulagram when it was in Manbhum district.
He has also composed a a song about the region, (Na’cher ta’le egiye cale, manbhum mati). Baba further observed:
About 850-900 years ago, the followers of Digamvara Jain were found in Manbhum. But under the influence of Mala prabhu they slowly embraced Gauriya Vaeshnavism.
Nude statues of gods can still be found on the banks of the rivers in ods can still be found on the this area.
Forty years ago people holding the title Garhakiirti were common in this region. Old temples constructed with a special type of bricks which were thin but large, can still be found.
A nude Kali idol, popularly known as Shmashana Kali Kali of the cremation ground-is still standing in Bhulagram Baba said that it is a Jain diety. Other deities are Kalika and Ambika. Ducks were sacrificed at the Kali temple rather than asses or goats since the Vahana or vehicle of Jain devi was duck.
Local people said that the ruins of a temple can be found in an adjacent village called Pavanpur A small river, called the Sona River flows near Pavanpur.
It meets the Kumari river which in turn meets the Kansali river near Mukutmanipur, Utkal and Rarhi Brahmans did not worship at Jain shrines. When Mahatos and Garains gave up their Jain faith and em braced Vaeshnavism they did not take the services of the Brah mans. According to a prevalent supersitition, if a Rarhii of Utkal Brahman solemnises a marriage, the bride will not live long.
Mahotos, Bauriis and Saraks can be found in village near Bhulagram, although there are a few Bauris and Sarak living there. The idols found around Bhulagram are of Jain deities, apsara (the dancing statue) is also found here. The hooded snake god is a Jain deity. The priest named it Manasa Devi and encou raged people to worship it. Later breasts were added to the deity to make it look like the goddess Manasa. Naked idols are
Ball Jain deities, while statues which have lotus petals facing downwards denote Jain and Bhuddist Tantra. Pavanpura was a shrine of the Jains. Pavanpura and Pavan pur means the land that purifies. The Ganga river is also called The Pavanii Ganga, or the Ganga that purifies. The idol of Varaha sisted here was originally the idol of Vajra Varahi, a deity of Jain Tantra.
Later Shankha or a conch shell, a wheel, a club and a lotus were put in the four hands of the idol to denote the Gnd Varaha. Temples with sixty four deities are situated at fabbalpur and one of these temples has Vajravarahi, as the deity. these different idols and statues belong only to this area.
About 2,000 years ago the people living around Rarh were cultured and educated.
Three generations ago Rarhi Brah- mans came to this region from Huda police station, near Chandan Keyari. Eighteen hundred years ago, there was only one Brahman family here enjoying tax-free land, but they died heirless.
The king of Barabajar had established catuspathi, an educational institution for teaching Sanskrit here.
The script found in this region is demi-Sri Harsh script; before that Shri Harsh script was in vogue, and before that the prevalent script was Brahmi.
Brahmi script is about 2000 years old. Dhyana mantra, a mantra relating to meditation, was most probably carved on stone in this script.
64 kilometers west of Bhulagram lies the old Jhar khand and 320 kilometers north is Magadh.
Rarh extends up to Paras Nath.
The land in this region is over 300 million years old when the Himalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the entire northern There was part of India including Punjab were beneath the sea.
Coromondel but Rarh was above the sea. The soil here is laterite and good for growing grapes, pears, sweet citrus (minoso Indica), Guavas and papayas.
The language spoken here is Rarhi Bengali with varying dia- lects on the northern side. People say ‘Ami nai pairbo’ while on the southern side they say ‘Ami lairbo’ but both expressions mean ‘I cannot do’.
Tantra is older than Mahabir, and Jainism had to adjust with
Tantra. Since Jainism could not exist without Tantra, Jain Tantra emerged.