Nagnechiya Mata
नागणेचिया माता
Kuldevi, family goddess
Worshipped as Chakreshwari, and shown as an eighteen-armed Mahishasuramardini
At a glance
- Main shrine
- Nagnechiya Mata Temple, Nagana, Pachpadra area, Balotra district (earlier Barmer district), Rajasthan
- Worshipped in
- Rajasthan
- Kept by
- Rajput (Rathore)
About
Nagnechiya Mata is the family goddess of the Rathore Rajputs of Marwar. Her main temple is at Nagana, in the Pachpadra area of western Rajasthan, and tradition says Rao Dhuhad, a grandson of Rao Siha, brought her image there about 1300. She is worshipped as Chakreshwari and shown with eighteen arms as Mahishasuramardini; her symbol is a falcon or eagle, which is on the flags of Marwar, Bikaner and Kishangarh. Accounts differ on where the image came from, Kannauj or the Karnatak, and families of other Rathore branches may keep other goddesses.
Legend and Origin
Three accounts are on record. The Rajputana Gazetteer tradition, as quoted by Crooke in his edition of Tod, has the family goddess of the Rathores change her name through the ages and, in the present age, become Naganechi. It says Duhar, grandson of Siha, travelled to the Karnatak, where the Rathores had ruled before Marwar, to bring the image to his own country, and that the cart carrying it stopped at Nagana and would go no further. Crooke notes that the same tale is told at Mathura of the image of Kesava Deva. The Khyat chronicles (Moondiyad ri Khyat and Udaybhan Champawat ri Khyat), as summarised by the modern encyclopedia article and a devotional site, say Rao Dhoohad brought the image of Chakreshwari from Kannauj, the clan's ancestral home in the Kannauj tradition, and set it up at Nagana between 1295 and 1305. Devotional sites add a longer story set at Kannauj (see below) and give the date of the temple as Magh Vadi 10, Vikram Samvat 1362 (about 1305 CE). Rao Dhoohad is recorded as ruling from Pali and Khed between 1291 and 1309 (Reu, Marwar ka Itihas, part 1, p. 48, as cited in the encyclopedia article), so the dates fit one lifetime. The name Naganechi is explained as 'of Nagana', and devotional accounts add that the image stopped half out of the ground. In Crooke's note her older titles were Rajeshwari or Ratheshwari, and Tod's list of Rathore tutelary goddesses names Pankhani, the winged one.
How the Deity Is Shown
Eighteen-armed, in the form of Mahishasuramardini, the slayer of the buffalo demon. Her emblem is a falcon or eagle, linked in the tradition with the bird form in which she is said to have travelled with Dhuhad and the goddess Rashtrasena, and shown on the flags of the princely states of Marwar (Jodhpur), Bikaner and Kishangarh. The silver image in the Bikaner temple is said to show the same eighteen-armed form.
How Families Keep the Worship
She is the family goddess of the Rathore Rajputs, as the Rathore kul page on this site records, with the main visit to the Nagana temple. Devotional sites say Rathore rulers built her shrines in the forts of Jodhpur and Bikaner. Offerings described on devotional sites include lapsi (a sweet of cracked wheat) as prasad, and a thread of seven knots tied on the wrist and taken as her protection; one site says the thread is dyed with kumkum. The neem tree is held sacred in Rathore settlements, and the legend places the goddess under a neem at Nagana. Worship differs by branch: the Jodhpur house also keeps Chamunda at Mehrangarh as its isht devi (see Chamunda Mata), and accounts of Karni Mata's cult name her as patron deity of the Bikaner and Jodhpur houses, so a family should confirm its own kuldevi with its elders and priests. Comments on devotional pages say Rajpurohit, Bhandari and a few other families also keep her, but no source for this was found, so this page does not list them.
Shrines
Nagnechiya Mata Temple, Nagana
Nagana, Pachpadra area, Balotra district (earlier Barmer district), Rajasthan
The main shrine. Devotional sites give about 96 km from Jodhpur or about 40 km from Balotra; the district is given as Jodhpur, Barmer or Balotra in different sources, since Balotra district is recent.
Nagnechiya Mata shrine, Mehrangarh
Jodhpur, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan
A shrine in the Jodhpur fort.
Nagnechiya Mata Temple, Bikaner
Bikaner, Bikaner district, Rajasthan
A devotional site places it about 2 km south-east of the city, with a silver image of the eighteen-armed goddess said to have been brought by Rao Bika.
Festivals
Fairs at Nagana
Magh Shukla Saptami and Bhadrapad Shukla Saptami
As given by one devotional site (Mission Kuldevi); no other source for the dates was found.
Navratri
Ashvin and Chaitra, first nine days of the bright fortnight
The same site says the Bikaner temple draws crowds at Navratri and Dussehra.
Stories and Legends
Dhuhad and the half-risen image
A devotional account, not verified as history, says Dhuhad as a boy was taunted by his maternal uncle because the family had no kuldevi. He did penance in a forest, and the goddess appeared as Chakreshwari and told him to bring her image from Kannauj when he was older. He went there with his priest, and the sage Lumba Rishi showed him the image. She said she would travel with him as a bird, Pankhini, and told him not to stop on the way. He rested under a neem tree near Nagana, where the bird-goddess also stopped. She told him to ride his horse around the place before noon, and the ground he covered would be her oran. As the image began to rise from the earth, a herdsman called to his cows, and it stopped at the waist. He built the temple there.
The names of the Rathore goddess
In the Marwar tradition recorded in the Rajputana Gazetteer and quoted by Crooke, the family goddess of the Rathores changed her name through the ages: Mansa Devi, Rashtrasena, Pankhani ('the winged one'), and in the present age Naganechi. The story of the last change is the carrying of the image from the Karnatak by Duhar, grandson of Siha, and the cart that would go no further than Nagana.
Families who keep Nagnechiya Mata
Kuls, lineages and surnames that sources tie to this deity. Branches within each may keep another.