Secrets of goddesses and trees

Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

Jamboo Savari" is the great elephant procession of Mysore kings during the post-monsoon festival of Dussehra. Many people think Jamboo or Jambi comes from the word "jumbo" which means "extra large" and was the name of a large African elephant imported to Victorian England.

However, in Mysore, the word comes from "jammi" which is the name of the khejri (acacia) tree, a thorny tree, where Pandavas stored their weapons until it was time to go to war. During Dussehra is the "seema-ulanghan" (boundary-shattering) ceremony, the breaking of boundaries, when this tree is worshipped and its leaves plucked by kings. This is clearly a North India practice that came to South India following the southern migration of Brahmins on invitation of local kings such as Mayurasharma of Kadamba dynasty around 400 AD.

There are other influences (pre-Aryan tribal, Jain, Hindu, Islamic) that can be seen in Chamundeshwari temple of Mysore kings. For example, the Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysore used to receive a Salam Aarti, which is believed to have been instituted by Tipu Sultan. Now it has been renamed as the Namaskara Aarti, as part of the growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment across the country. It's tit-for-tat politics. In Pakistan, sari is seen as a Hindu outfit, so is frowned upon. In India, Urdu is seen as a Muslim language so needs to be changed.

Centuries earlier, in the 8th century AD, Karnataka's Rashtrakuta dynasty patronised Jainism, and Amoghavarsha was renowned among the Arabs as a great king. During this time, vast amounts of wealth entered the Deccan region - gold flowed in alongside horses. This wealth was used to build magnificent temples, including the Jain Basadis. Among the many deities patronised by the Jains were local goddesses known as Yakshinis, who served as guardians of the main Jain deity, the Mulnayak Tirthankara. One of these Yakshinis was Jwalamalini, meaning "the one who has flames around her neck." She was the guardian deity of Tirthankar Chandra Prabha.

Jwalamalini was depicted holding multiple weapons and seated on a buffalo, making her strikingly similar to the Hindu goddess Chamunda, also known as Mahishasura Mardini, the slayer of the buffalo demon. In fact, the city of Mysore derives its name from Mahishasura, although some claim it originates from Masoba, the buffalo god of the region, long before any formal religion of Jains or Brahmins existed. Jwalamalini's consort is also depicted as a buffalo and named as Shyama, the dark one.

According to many Jains, the Chamundeshwari Temple was once dedicated to this Jain goddess before it was taken over by Hindus. Although it is now a Shakta shrine linked to a Shakti Peetha, no blood sacrifices are offered to the goddess herself. Instead, blood sacrifices are made at the base of the temple to a local deity, a practice maintained by the local community. Some believe that the temple's Brahmin priests continue to follow old Jain traditions, while others argue that the local communities, who once sacrificed buffaloes to their deities, are now being sidelined.

No one can say for sure what came first and who influenced whom. The Chamundeshwari Temple exemplifies the complexities of a sacred site in India full of many influences - subaltern (Mhasoba), Aryan (jammi), Jain (Jwalamalini-Shyama), Hindu (Chamunda-Mahisha), and Islamic (Salam-arti). Some survive, some are suppressed, and some resurface in a new form.

Devdutt Pattanaik writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt.pattanaik@mid-day.com