Bahuchar Mata
बहुचर माता
Kuldevi, family goddess
Worshipped as a form of the Mother Goddess (Shakti), shown seated on a cock; Charan tradition holds that she was born a Charan woman who gave up her life rather than be dishonoured
At a glance
- Main shrine
- Bahucharaji Temple, Becharaji, Mehsana district, Gujarat
- Worshipped in
- Gujarat
- Kept by
- Charan, Solanki Rajput, Koli, Patidar, Bhavaiya, Rabari, Bharwad, Hijra
About
Bahuchar Mata, also called Bahucharaji or Becharaji, is a goddess of North Gujarat whose chief temple stands at Becharaji in Mehsana district. The Gazetteer of 1901 names her with Amba Bhavani and Kalika as the most widely worshipped goddesses of North Gujarat, guarding the route from the north into Chuval and Viramgam. Charan families hold her as one of their own, the Solanki Rajputs of Kalri are among her hereditary worshippers, and pilgrims come from many communities, among them Kanbi (Patidar) families. Her devotees also include hijras, who are known in Gujarat as Pavaiyas.
Legend and Origin
The Gazetteer of Baroda (1883) gives two accounts. The first, taken from Forbes's Ras Mala, says that some Charan women were travelling from Sankhalpur when Kolis attacked and robbed them. One of them, Bahuchra, took a sword from a boy who was with her and cut off her breasts, and died; her sisters also took their lives. The second says that children of the cowherds of Kalri made a niche for the goddess under a tree, offered her rice and an animal from the herd; a king who was passing with his army was fed from one pot that never ran empty, and many wonders followed. The Gazetteer of 1901 says she is believed to be a deified Charan lady who preferred death to dishonour, but thinks she is more likely an old Koli goddess; this is the compiler's view, not the community's. The 1883 Gazetteer dates the small original temple to Samvat 1208 (A.D. 1152), built by Sankhal Raja, for whom the neighbouring village is named; the middle temple was built by a Maratha Fadnavis whose date is not recorded. The large temple was begun by Manajirao Gaekwad in Samvat 1835 (A.D. 1779) and the image was installed on Shravan Vad 9, Samvat 1847 (A.D. 1791). The Gazetteer also records a legend explaining her name: Muslim soldiers of Alauddin ate the temple's cocks, and the birds went on crying 'Bechar, Bechar'.
How the Deity Is Shown
The Gazetteer of 1883 describes the sanctum as holding a mystic diagram (yantra) as the true object of worship, hidden behind a metal frame (anga) on which her image is engraved, seated on a cock. Wikipedia describes her as shown with a sword, a trident, a scripture and the gesture of blessing, seated on a cock; it reads the cock as innocence, the sword as sacrifice, the trident as the balance of creation and the book as the standing of the Charans.
How Families Keep the Worship
Every full moon is a sacred day at Becharaji; people from nearby villages come then, and so do those who have vowed to visit each month, bathing in the Mansarovar pond and making offerings (Gazetteer, 1883). The Gazetteer records daily worship: the image is bathed with panchamrit, a lamp is waved with hymns, bells and gongs, food of sugar and milk is offered, and in the evening a passage telling of the goddess's deeds is read. Pilgrims offer gold and silver ornaments and cloth. The Gazetteer of 1901 says the lame, blind, childless and impotent come to sit by the Mansarovar until they feel the goddess has heard them, and then bathe; the pond is credited with healing. Bhavai players, the Targala or Bhavaiya troupes of Gujarat, hold Bahucharaji their chief goddess and should play before her in Ashvin or Kartik before beginning their winter tour (Gazetteer, 1901). Kanbi families make pilgrimages to her shrine along with Ambaji, Dakor and Dwarka, and hijras (Pavaiyas) keep her image at home, worship it daily and visit her shrines on their begging rounds (Gazetteer, 1901). Hereditary groups attached to the temple are the Kamalias, the Solanki Rajputs of Kalri and the Pavaiyas; the Gazetteer of 1883 records long disputes between the first two over a share of the offerings, settled by the Gaekwad. Wikipedia reports that the Kamalia system was abolished in 1954 (not checked). Practice differs by lineage and village; Charan and Rajput families should ask their elders which forms of her worship their own branch keeps.
The Shrine
Bahucharaji Temple
Becharaji, Mehsana district, Gujarat
On an open plain in North Gujarat, about 23 miles from Kadi and 15 miles south of Chansma in the Gazetteer of 1883; today about 80 km from Ahmedabad. A complex of three temples: two older small shrines called Adya Sthan (original places), one built round the tree from which the goddess is said to have first appeared, and the large temple built by Manajirao Gaekwad of Baroda in the 1780s.
Festivals
Chaitra Navratri and fair
Chaitra, the nine days of the bright fortnight (March-April), with a large fair on the Chaitra full moon
The Gazetteer of 1883 records nine-day Navratri ceremonies at the Chaitra and Ashvin full moons, with offerings and fire at the altar on the eighth day; Wikipedia's Becharaji article notes a major Chaitra full-moon fair.
Ashvin Navratri
Ashvin, the nine days of the bright fortnight (September-October)
The second Navratri of the year at Becharaji (Gazetteer, 1883).
Full-moon visits
Every full moon
Each purnima is a sacred day at the shrine, kept by neighbouring devotees and those with a vow to visit monthly.
Stories and Legends
The Charan woman and the Kolis
The account the Baroda Gazetteer of 1883 takes from Forbes's Ras Mala: Charan women travelling from Sankhalpur were attacked by Kolis. One of them, Bahuchra, took a sword from a boy who was with them and cut off her breasts, dying at once; her sisters also took their own lives. The three came to be worshipped in the Chuval country. This is the Charan account of how she became a goddess.
The Solanki princess
The Gazetteer of 1883 gives a second legend, of a Chavda king of Patan and a Solanki chief of Kalri who each had only a daughter. The Kalri chief presented his daughter as a son and the marriage was held. When the girl-husband fled Patan, she rested near the temple. Her dog and her mare, plunged into the pond, came out a dog and a stallion, and she herself became a man. From that time, it says, the Solanki Rajputs followed the goddess. Wikipedia notes that the story is told in a seventeenth-century Bhavai text, Becharaji Vesha.
The cocks of Becharaji
In the Gazetteer's telling, soldiers of Alauddin ate the cocks kept at the temple; the birds went on crying 'Bechar, Bechar' after being eaten. Convinced of her power, the soldiers' descendants, the Kamalias, are said to have remained as servants of the goddess. It is a local story used to explain both her name and the Kamalias, and it is not a dated event.