Deconstructing Divine Diktat from Orthodoxy to Altruism: Mahima Cult – The Last Surviving Renegade Faith in India

Abstract

This paper explores religion, societal mores, shared practices, and emotional moorings in the postcolonial Indian community. The questions of power are also dealt with meticulously in culture, society, and the state from a comparative religious perspective. Exploration of the articulation of faith by the members of Indian society leads to critical analyses of notions of time and history and their myriad manifestations in literature. The intricate interactions and mutual imbrications between religion, social order, and power – especially in the functioning of religious institutions by the exponents of the spiritual domain – have been discussed in detail. A case study is undertaken on Mahima Dharma, medieval Orissa's last great religious revival, perhaps the most salient feature in India's religious history. Still a living religion with a very well-consolidated order, it has been grounded in its spiritual ventures by a heavy code of injunctions and bound in solidarity by its various modes of reckoning. In the 19th century, when there was the enveloping darkness all around because of the colonial rule with encircling gloom everywhere, and the social order was in disarray, a Kondh tribal poet, Bhima Bhoi, the prime interlocutor of the renegade faith, started a revolt from below to champion human rights and several socio-religious and cultural movements in Odisha and the adjoining areas. He used poetry as a tool - an alternative mode of communication - to proclaim his authority on religious affairs. While exploring the nuances of such a mode of transmission over the centuries, especially in divine matters, we will analyse how successfully Bhima Bhoi gravitated against the prevailing vitiating social order through his verses, which have timeless relevance, drawing sundry attention even today for their emotional appeal, lyrical value, and musical mode. Inevitably, Bhima's Bhajans and Jananas have remained household lores and become a medium capturing the depths of human experience, expressing the most profound emotions, and conveying our deepest thoughts and ideas on Divine Affairs. Such modes of communication essentially remained instrumental in lending a Deific Identity* to Bhima and his Guru, Mahima Swami, the founder of the Mahima Cult.