An ancient community that carries battle axe as identity

Enacting popular dialogues between Brigurama and Raghurama, a Janughantia enthralls crowd in Rural Odisha by his one act play, says Dr Maheswar Bahubalendra Singh

 

As the sound of jingling bells and loud battle cries reverberate the village street; kids run out of their house as it signsls the arrival of a Janughanta. Bells tied on the right thigh, carrying a battle axe on his right hand and a colorfully painted bowl carrying in his left hand, the person, adorning sandalwood paste on the forehead, arms and chest, wearing a set of beads on his neck, shouting challenges for a duel while swirling and swinging the axe threateningly offers a fascinating scene. Neither does he stop at any door nor moves from door to door begging for alms. He keeps on traversing the village street only three times. Whatever is offered to him by any household during this walk, he accepts, and moves on. It is a strictly followed practice. Janughantias do not beg. Period.

Janughanta is a distinct sub-sect within the Vaishnavite denomination who carry surname of ‘Dasa’ as is practiced by Vaishnavas. They identify themselves as the followers of sage Parasurama, who, according to their accepted belief,is Rama Jamadanya, being the offspring of sage Jamadagni of Brigu clan of which we find mention in Vedic literature. People following this sect are popularly known as Janughantia.

 “Kanthe tulsi, mukhe Rama, Janughanta Parasuram.” This oft-repeated lines “wearing tulsi beads on my neck and repeating the name of Rama, I am a Janughanta Parasuram” is the self-introduction one customarily offers as a Janughanta. 

Janughanta is derived from two words: Janu means thigh and ghanta means bell. Those who wear bells on the thigh. They are spread over Ganjam, Nayagarh, Badamba, Khandapada, Athagarh and other Garjat regions of Odisha.

“We atone the blunder committed by Sage Parasuram when he confronted and challenged Rama while the later was returning from Mithila to Ayodhya with his entourage after marrying Sita,” says Banamali Das, a practicing Janughanta who also double as a servitor of a local deity, Kumarasuni in Kirapalli.

Enacting one-act plays narrating the dialogues between Rama and Parasurama, Janughantias roam villages across Odisha. The dialogues, dancing and singing, the jingling sound of a bell on the thigh together create a fascinating spectacle for rural audience.

The story line starts with Parasurama blocking the path of Rama on his ome trip from Mithila to Ayodhya with his father, Dasaratha, his brothers and their newly wed wives and an entourage of royal courtiers. Parasurama, armed with axe, bow and arrows stops them from travelling ahead. He is agitated, angry and upset about Rama’s act of breaking Siva's mighty Pinaka bow. He challenges him to a battle with the intention of killing him and wiping out his clan. It is to be noted that Parasuram had waged war against Kshatriya clans in the past and had killed many Kshatriyas. Rama keeps his calm and seeks permission to continue his journey to Ayodhya. The dialogue goes on as Parasuram kept on challenging, threatening, and Rama trying to make peace with the fuming sage. Looking at Rama’s serene, peaceful demeanor, the sage calms down a bit, looks at Rama with hesitation feeling ashamed for his, rage. However, he asks Rama to pass a test. He offers his own bow originally made for Vishnu, and asks Rama to string it and shoot an arrow. With casual easy Rama strings the bow and notches an arrow. By this time Parasurama realized that he was dealing with an extraordinary human being. The brave sage recognizes Rama as an embodiment of enlightened Being, begs for his forgiveness. However, it is said that Parasuram had to sacrifice merits accrued from his austerities and penances in order to retain his power of locomotion at mind’s speed.

Janughanta adherents continue to atone the outrage committed by sage Parasuram to this day. Narrating this story they roam around and seek alms as prescribed by their tradition. They were initially forbidden to not receive alms from more than three households. However, with changing time, they are now traversing a village three times.

Parasurama is honoured as Mahaguru or supreme-teacher. Acharya Sayana, the commentator describes Rama Jamadagnya as Parasurama as the son of sage Jamadagni and Renuka. Writing about him Acharya Sayana comments, “Bhargabo jamadagnirrishi. Tasya putro ramo ba jah parasurama iti prakhyatah (The son of sage Jamadagnya, famous as Parasuram belongs to Brigu clan). This Rama carried a parasu, or battle axe. A hymn in Rig Veda is attributed to Rama Jamadagnya (Rig 10.110). Among other personalities named as Parasurama, we find one from the Shaiva tradition who is the author of Parasurama Kalpa Sutra.

Parasu (battle axe) is the main instrument all Janughantias carry to identify themselves as the follower of Parasurama. Interestingly, all Janughantias identify with Achyuta gotra. In Odisha, a large number of Vaishnavas carry Achyuta gotra, attributed to a fifteenth century Odia saint, Achyutananda Dasa. He was one among the famous five saint buddies, together known as Pancha Sakha.

PANCHA SAKHA Jashobanta knows all that are esoteric in nature, and not easy to comprehend; Sishu Ananta is proficient in making Yantras or esoteric diagrams;  Balaram is an authority of spiritual doctrines; Achyutananda is omniscient and can speak about the past, present and future; And Jagannatha is devotion personified. Jasobanta, Ananta, Balarama, Achyutananda and Jagannatha: These much-revered five individuals are considered five catalysts who made Lord Jagannatha immensely popular by offering clear perspective and hitherto unknown yoga-tantra-devotion features related to Jagannatha Tattwa (doctrine). They are taken as watershed personalities after Adi Kabi Sarala Das, the great poet belonging to the 15th century AD credited with composing epic Mahabharata in Odia language. These five saints were known for their towering personality, by their austerity, esoteric knowledge and power, proficiency in writing complex ideas of Yoga-Tantra-Philosophy in simple Odia language, and by advocating a casteless society where everyone is privy to the spiritual knowledge. This made these five sakhas popular as they captured the imagination of common people and created large base of their followers, devotees and adherents. These five poet-saint-philosopher-social-religious reformers belonging to 15-16th century AD are better known as Pancha Sakha or ‘Five Buddies’ who were contemporary to each other; and together to Sri Chaitanya. Coming from ordinary backgrounds these five saints together became the   protagonist of Utkaliya Vaishnava tradition that is based on the doctrine of ‘Gyan Misra Bhakti’ or “devotion with knowledge,” being quite distinct from pure devotion or Raganuga Bhakti. They all carried the surname of Dasa or servitor of  Lord Jagannatha by renouncing their family surnames.

Banamali Das, a full time Janughanta, lives with his family at Dengapadar, close to Gobara block near Bhanjanagar. Since his child hood days, he has been performing on village streets as a Janughnatia. He is much aged now. He says, “My family tradition trained me to live the life of a Janughanta since an early age. Since then, this is the only thing I know well and have been doing to support my family. We as Janughantias do not beg. Whatever is offered we accept and try to manage our life with that much.” Asked if he had any regret living a life depending on the offerings of others, he said, “nothing to regret, I belong to an unique tradition and I lived my life following what my forefathers did.”

However, finding Janughantias who are solely living off alms are few. Many of them are land owners engaged in farming and other professions. Yet, one thing is common- all of them go out to different villages periodically to perform. Few of them are traditional healers, who offer  healing to village folks.

“After I was initiated by an elder from my community with Karna Mantra considered as Parasurama Dikhya, I became eligible to follow my traditional avocation. Although, I am primarily engaged as servitor at different temples to draw my livelihood, I roam around villages in between to perform as a Janughanta,” says Baikuntha Dasa. His grandparent migrated from Nayagarh districts’s Badakuntuni region many decades back. He is a practicing Januganta for more than 20 years.

Every year on the day of Vijaya Dashami during Dussehra festival, Janughantias ritually offer obeisance to the axe, the bell and the alm-bowl.

Over the passage of time, the Janhugantias have settled down with occupations like farming and business, and the days of roaming for alms have greatly got reduced. There is no such specific time of the year or any specific time period in which they go out into the communities to seek alms. However, every member of this sampradaya definitely goes out to perfom Janughanta act periodically, or at least once a year to uphold the tradition that has been going on since long.