Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
We see, then, that the Osiya legend is not a single tale but a whole complex of tales. There are many versions, refracted through the sensibilities of various tellers, but thematically they all show a remarkable consistency. They center on three basic matters: the conversion of Rajputs into Jains; the taming (or Jainizing) of a meat-eating, sometimes angry, and curse-delivering goddess; and the relationship between the Osval caste and the image of Lord Mahavir. This latter relationship is a complex one: Osvals venerate the image, but are cursed to stay at a distance. And this complexity, in turn, echoes an ambivalence in the goddess's own character. She is a vegetarian lineage goddess for Jains, but she is nonetheless never quite tamed.
The physical juxtaposition of the two temples - Saciya Mata's and Lord Mahavir's - is emblematic of these issues. How is it possible, we may ask, for Rajputs to become Jains? At the level of the logic of ritual symbolism this can be transmuted into another question, namely, how is it possible to bring these two physical structures into a viable relationship? The answer seems to be, in part, that a meat-eating goddess must become vegetarian, and must also become the servant and protector of Lord Mahavir. This formulation is of particular interest because not only does it reach deeply into the heart of Osval identity, but it also provides a wider Indic context for this identity. This is because the goddess is an Indic figure, not a specifically Jain figure. Camunda, who is the original goddess whose nature is transformed, is a manifestation of the transregional Hindu goddess in her warlike form. According to the stories we have examined, she was the lineage goddess of Utpaldev. She then became a lineage goddess for Osval Jains. This suggests the need for a closer examination of the phenomenon of lineage goddesses among the Rajputs.
The lineage goddess complex is, in fact, central to Rajput cultural and social life, and we are fortunate indeed that this complex has recently been subjected to a searching ethnographic description and analysis by Lindsey Harlan (1992). What follows is based on her account.
Among the Rajputs, lineage goddesses are associated with patrilineages (kuls) or their subdivisions (which, though branches of kuls, are frequently confused with kuls). Kuls, in turn, are considered segments of the three great clans (vams) of the Rajputs, the sun, moon, and fire lines. The kuls are traced to founding ancestors who, as Harlan notes, "typically left a homeland ruled by an older male relative or conquered by a foreign invader" (ibid.: 27). The goddesses are seen as protectresses of the lineages with which they are associated, and this function is typically demonstrated when the goddess in question manifests herself at critical junctures in order to come to the aid of Rajputs who are in danger of some kind. "In most cases," Harlan writes, "she reveals herself to their leader and inspires him to surmount whatever problems he and his followers face. Often she first manifests herself in an animal form. Afterward she helps him establish a kingdom, at which point he and his relatives become the founders of a kinship branch (kul or shakh) with a discrete political identity" (ibid.: 32). Subsequently she continues to manifest herself at times of crisis to render aid. We have already encountered, in a Jain context, the theme of aid in kingdom establishment in the tale of the Bahi Bhats.
The theme of protection is fundamental to the entire ritual and mythical complex surrounding lineage goddesses among the Rajputs. The goddess possesses power, sakti, which she uses on behalf of the group over whom she exercises guardianship. In Harlan's materials the myths concerning the first manifestations and miraculous interventions of lineage goddesses involve such protective acts as saving endangered princes (and thus the lineage), reviving exhausted and wounded warriors on the battlefield, and aiding in conquests and in the establishment of kingdoms.
Kingship and the battlefield are tightly intertwined in the imagery surrounding lineage goddesses. These goddesses are, above all, protectresses on the battlefield. Rajput men are warriors; they fight for glory and to expand their kingdoms. The lineage goddess appears at crucial moments to aid them in this endeavor. She also protects the kingdom through the figure of the king. The king is her chief devotee, and by protecting him she protects the kingdom as a whole. Thus, she is not only an embodiment of the identity of the lineage, but her worship also legitimizes the king's rule.
The public buffalo sacrifice occurring on Navratri is, as Harlan shows (ibid.: 61-63), the perfect exemplification of this principle. The lineage goddess is identified with the Sanskritic goddess Durga, the slayer of the buffalo demon Mahisasur. As the sacrificer, the king is identified with the goddess. But he is also identified with the sacrificial victim, who is himself a king. "Thus," says Harlan, "the blood he offers is also his own. The demon Mahish, liberated by death from his demonic buffalo form, becomes the Goddess's foremost devotee. The king, also represented as the kuldevi 's foremost devotee, offers her his death to assure her victory over the enemies of his kingdom" (ibid.: 63). These ideas resonate deeply with the image of the king-warrior who sheds his blood in battle; his blood "nourishes the kuldevi who protects the kul and the kingdom" (ibid.).
Saciya Mata is also closely identified with Durga. Before her transformation she was Camunda, who is one of Durga's forms. The pujari of the Saciya Mata temple told me that the "form" of Saciya Mata is Mardini Durga, and Handa (1984: 16) concurs that Saciya is a manifestation of Durga Mahisamardini (that is, the goddess as "Destroyer of the Buffalo Demon"). It is of interest to note that R. C. Agrawala (n.d.: 19- 20) reports that images of Mahisamardini are actually still being worshiped in some Jain temples in western India. The pujari of the temple added to the above statement that just as the Rajputs have their Durga, the Osvals have Saciya. He is, of course, exactly right. Saciya is, in effect, a vegetarian Durga, suitable for Osvals. She is a generalized Rajput lineage goddess, sanitized in such a way that she becomes an appropriate lineage goddess for those who once were Rajput but have now become Jains.
It should be noted that the vegetarianization of a meat-eating goddess is not a purely Jain phenomenon, for there is a prominent Hindu example as well. The famed Hindu goddess Vaisno Devi was in all likelihood once a meat-eating goddess herself, who became "tamed" in accord with values deriving from the Hindu Vaisnavas.[1] Her name derives from the term Vaisnava, and the Vaisnava tradition is strongly vegetarian; indeed, the term Vaisnava can mean, simply, "vegetarian." Vaisno Devi thus appears to be another transmuted goddess, tamed in submission to the vegetarian imperative of a non-Jain ritual culture.
