|
Dharmathakur (also called Dharma Thakur, Dharmaraj or simply Dharma) ((ベンガル語:ধর্মঠাকুর)) is a Hindu god worshipped by villagers in the traditional Rarh region in the present day Indian state of West Bengal as one of their special village gods (''gram devata''). He is represented by a shapeless stone daubed with vermillion and is normally placed under a tree or placed in the open, but sometimes enshrined in a temple. The worship takes place in the months of Baisakh, Jaistha and Asarh on the day of full moon and sometimes on the last day of Bhadro.〔O’Malley, L.S.S., ICS, ''Birbhum'', ''Bengal District Gazetteers'', p. 36, 1996 reprint, first published 1910, Government of West Bengal〕 Dharmathakur is worshipped mainly by castes Bauri, Bagdi, Hari, Dom etc.〔Mitra, Ajit Kumar, ''Birbhumer Loukik Debdebi'', (in Bengali), ''Paschim Banga'', Birbhum Special Issue, pp. 321–334, Government of West Bengal〕 ==Origins== Dharmathakur has been linked with many gods such as Sun-god Surya, Varuna, Vishnu, Yama, Shiva and even with Buddhism. Fundamentally, it all started with the magical beliefs related to harvesting in the primitive days and thereafter layers of Aryan Hindu and Buddhist beliefs transformed it in many ways at different places and has now become too complex to trace its roots properly.〔Mitra, Dr. Amalendu, ''Rarher Sanskriti O Dharmathakur'', (in Bengali), first published 1972, 2001 edition, pp. 109–117, Subarnarekha, 73 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata〕 Suniti Kumar Chatterji says, “Dharma who is however described as the supreme deity, creator and ordainer of the Universe, superior even to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and at times identified with them, and he has nothing of the abstractions of Buddhist Dharma about him.” He has further opined that the songs and dances linked with Gajan of Dharma is clearly non-Aryan in origin. It could be Dravidian or Tibeto-Chinese.〔 Sukumar Sen says that Dharmathakur has come down with the so-called lower category of common people. They formed a majority at one point of time and had no right to Brahminical learning. Brahmins who started migrating to Bengal in large numbers during the Gupta period were mostly not the original inhabitants of Bengal and as such had no links with Dharmathakur. He was not a personal-god but a community-god worshipped by many at a time. He was worshipped by large groups of non-Brahmins such as Haris, Doms and Chandalas.〔 It is notable that very important patrons of his worship were Brahmins and that they wrote most of the scriptures dedicated to his worship. These include works ''Dharma Purana'' of Mayura Bhatt,〔P. 19 ''The history of medieval Vaishnavism in Orissa'' By Prabhat Mukherjee〕 the ''Dharma Mangala'' of Mayura Bhatta, Manik Ganguly, Ghanarama, Sahadeva Chakravarty,〔P. v ''History of Bengali language and literature: A series of lectures delivered as Reader to the Calcutta University'' by Dineshchandra Sen, University of Calcutta〕 and Ruparama.〔P. 30 ''Vaiṣṇavism in Bengal, 1486-1900'' by Ramakanta Chakravarti〕 Perhaps the Ghanarama festival,〔P. 87 ''Spolia zeylanica: Volume 36'' by National Museums of Sri Lanka, Colombo Museum, Colombo, Ceylon〕 in which modern-day adherents worship Dharmathakur is named after the Brahmin Ghanarama Chakravarti. Frank Korom, a Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Boston University, wrote his PhD dissertation on Dharmaraj. He found that Dharmaraj is perceived and worshipped differently from district to district.〔Frank Joseph Korom, "``To be happy'': Narrative, ritual play and leisure in an annual Bengali religious festival" (January 1, 1992). Dissertations available from ProQuest. Paper AAI9235162. http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9235162〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dharmathakur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|